A Vision Is Created



In early 2006 the Codemasters Online Gaming marketing team started the brainstorming sessions. It would soon be time for adverts to be made, print articles to be written, packaging to be designed and a whole host of other marketing support for our biggest title of 2007 – The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™.



We wanted to come up with a vision that would carry across all of our channels and that would work well across all our different territories and cultures. Much fun was had in the process and we eventually settled on a final "single thought" –



"Pack your bags and move to Middle-earth".



Delighted with this, we fine-tuned our brainstorming and came up with tons of ideas that could be built in keeping with this strap line. With a nice big batch of ideas, we got to planning and preparing the production of all of the marketing. I'd like to tell you about the execution of one of those executions – the television advert!





On a cold December morning, we bundled into the company people carrier and headed off up north to the bustling city of Sheffield. Dawn had only just broken and as the sun lit up the sky we saw the set of where the magic would be created. The set was actually Grade 2 listed which for those of you who don't know, is a protected building. Some may have though otherwise however whatever your opinion it was the perfect location for our advert and the similarities of the building to the concept art drawn for the advert was uncanny!





Concept art of scene





The LOTRO TV Advert Actual Location



First things first, our hunger had to be satisfied. Marie's café up the road had some of the finest bacon butties to be had and we stocked up on those with lashings of hot tea and coffee to get us fuelled up and ready for the long day ahead.



Back on set, the background artistes had started to arrive and get changed into their costumes. The local residents were somewhat shocked to see various mean looking warriors brandishing axes and swords walking through the neighbourhood.



The lights and cameras were all set up and we headed up onto the top floor ready to film the first scene.





Lights, camera, action!



This scene was the one where our lead chap, played by Chris, leaves his house only to be confronted by an army of Warriors, Dwarves, Orcs and the like, all waiting for him to go to Middle-earth with him.





Chris, our lead actor



This scene took the longest to get right as there were many things to take into consideration. As you can see from the picture below, the camera has to show the area off to the right of the balcony. The advertising agency will fill that area with an army, all cheering and cajoling our actor to join them. Due to the duration of this clip (very short) and the amount of information that had to be shown to the viewer, the timings of the camera movement and actors had to be measured by the split-second.





The camera's view on the monitor



There were many, many takes and the poor actors were starting to get cold up there in the chilly wind. However, it was well worth it in the end as after the take was in the bag it was almost lunch time!





VT Rolling!



Before that though there was one more task to be done and that was to capture the stills photos. These photos would then make up the print advertising materials that match the television and online advertising and it was important to have them all looking the same in the same conditions.





Chris in a stills shoot session



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Part Two>>>