Inside Gaming with Seagate

Seagate:

Gone are the days of slinging quarters, blowing dust out of cartridges and pixilated graphics...gaming has evolved! Now we're seeing hyper-real graphics, open worlds and a universally connected network of players. 

The video game industry is likely to reach over $300 billion in revenue by 2025, with an audience base of over 2.5 billion gamers around the world.  So any company developing products that can help improve a gamer’s experience, be it faster load times or more capacity for game storage, is going to be very helpful in today’s digital age. Enter Seagate, a trusted partner of Xbox, PS4, & PC Gaming, who has been developing and perfecting a whole slew of products to enhance the overall gaming experience. And to help customers choose which of these products are right for them, how to install and use their products the way they’re meant to be, etc. Seagate decided to post an RFP for the creation & execution of its first ever YouTube series targeted just at video gamers.  Needless to say, we were thrilled to “win” this RFP. 

Since gaming had evolved quite a bit since we all had played as kids, we dug in deep on the research front to fully understand this new age gaming industry and what would bring interest and value to the viewer.

We started determining the overall branding approach for the series including the name, look, feel, scripting “voice”, etc… Once we had these answers in-hand, we spent the next two weeks Internationally casting to find our series Show Host, designing and sourcing materials to build our custom set on-location in California, and script writing (17) episodes for the first season of the show.  

As the Pre-Production phase wrapped up, our team traveled to San Jose, CA and spent (2) days constructing the set, which was a BEAST, at 10 feet tall and 15 feet wide.  We wanted to have a large set, to allow us for future versatility and the flexibility to add multiple hosts and products as the show evolved and needs changed.

Once assembled, we used (1) pre-light day to run through everything as a team and with Maka, our Show Host, who we flew in from Canada. Because we had so many episodes to shoot, in a relatively tight shoot schedule, we tried to build in efficiencies wherever we could. We spent (4) shoot days capturing all of the content for 17 episodes.  

For camera setup: the A Cam was locked off and on sticks. The B-Cam was rigged on a Fisher Dolly with a slider, which allowed us to quickly adjust camera framing and get movement for various B-Cam angles and insert shots. 

For lighting: The main set wall was covered with Astera Titian tubes. We were able to use the app and quickly control the intensity and color of the lights for the various products and brands being featured. The main key light for our host and product was a Skypanel S60 or S30 and depending on the setup, other lamps (Litepanel Astera, Joleko) were used for accenting and backlight. 

While we were filming, our Graphics & Animation team led by Andrew Dicharry, was simultaneously designing the show open and all of the custom animated graphics package for the series. 

After wrapping principal photography, we headed into Post Production. Due to the high number of deliverables, it was tricky finding the secret sauce to get everything done in an efficient manner. But we had a stellar team spread across North Carolina, Georgia, & Colorado who communicated well and played together nicely, cranking away so we could finish all episodes for the Season 1 launch. 

To check out an example video from the series and see more BTS of production, click here.