Shooting a Movie for Esports.com

Yesterday we shot a promotional video for the ICO of an esports platform. In esports, teams play computer games against each other in front of an audience. Esports.com will be a new community-driven content platform which provides statistics, videos, how-to-guides etc. You can also bet on the results of esports matches and buy merchandise of popular teams.

They plan to fund their platform by issueing digital tokens, a process that is - not very accurately - called "Initial Coin Offering". This is supposed to sound like an "Initial Public Offering", which means that a company issues their stock for the first time on a stock exchange. But every lawyer will tell you that it is not a good idea to refer to this highly regulated process.

Anyway, everybody seems to do an ICO these days, and Esports.com is not an exception. So they asked us to do a movie to promote it. Initially they wanted us to realise it in just two weeks, which would have been impossible. Now we have a bit more time, but not enough for an animated film, which we usually do.

At first we suggested to create a Machinima film, which is a live action movie shot in real time inside a game engine. But because of legal problems we decided not to go for it. Game companies usually tolerate or even encourage fans to create films with their games, but for a commercial film this would be considered a violation of intellectual property rights.

So we suggested to shoot a live action movie with a gamer as the hero. We work with many ultra-close ups to generate some excitement and suspense. The idea is to connect the excitement a gamer feels before an important match to the one that Esports.com and its investors feel before their upcoming ICO.

It would have been obvious to take a young man as the protagonist, as more than 90% of gamers are male. But we decided to work with a lady instead. Firstly it is always good to do the unexpected, and secondly a majority of our target group will enjoy watching a beautiful woman.

The client insisted that we work with a lady who really is a gamer. They even helped us to find one. Anna from Berlin loves gaming, skateboarding, kite-surfing, football and hip-hop. She is a web designer, a bouncer in a hip-hop club and a start-up entrepreneur. She describes herself as a "nerd", but she is probably the most beautiful nerd on this planet.

Our make-up artist Annett didn't have a hard time to make her look even more beautiful. The two ladies immediately started to compare her tattoos and exchange tips for the best tattoo artists in Berlin. 

I usually also work with a camera lady, but due to the effects of a huge storm in Berlin the night before she could not make it, as she lives in the countryside and many trains still did not work.

So I had to find a replacement for the same day, which luckily and through the help of my friend Lara from Kalifilm worked out. Peter Bromme stepped in as emergency camera man - and he did a great job.

We could use the Adspree studio in Kreuzberg, which is well equipped with lights, gaming gear and even a green screen. As you might see from the pictures, we had a really good time shooting the film, despite the difficult circumstances. Today we will start to edit it and I hope to have a final result in the next days.