Two weeks ago, several unsuspecting users of Chatroulette, Omegle and Skype were invited to play a live action First Person Shooter (FPS) game to survive a zombie apocalypse, recording the entire process along the way. The moment these users logged onto these messaging sites, they were chosen at random and confronted by a video game heads-up display, complete with a character rasping out beginning instructions. As intense as it sounds, some users of these messaging services found themselves startled when confronted with zombies, while others took on the challenge head on, directing the shooter as he made his way through a dingy dark room out onto a graveyard packed with an onslaught of zombies.
The video went viral within 12 hours, hitting over 1 million views on Youtube, and nearly 7 million views as of today. Reddit, Mashable, BBC, TIME magazine, and even Playboy applauded British film company Realm Pictures for their incredibly elaborate and unique project.
One of the more interesting facts is that one of the key members of the team is a Bengali Shahriar Abdullah. Brought up in the UK, Shahriar got involved in the filming scene when he turned 18 and met David M Reynolds, before joining hands to create their own film company Realm Pictures. “His goal was to become a director and I had a huge passion for film. It wasn't long before I got caught up in the world of filmmaking and knew I wanted to make a career out of it,” he expressed.
Shahriar, David and other close friends Eve Hazelton, Jonathan Dupont,Valgas Moore, Arthur Douglass, Rob Westwood and Mark Ruddick formed the company with a vision to make narrative films that are “cinematic, gritty and dark.” Drawing inspiration from film makers such as Ridley Scott, Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the team believes in pushing the envelope by trying their hand at things that haven't been done before, or that they were told they could not do.
T-Junction caught up with Shahriar to find out the best part about working with a team like his, to the creative inspiration behind the video, and how it feels to have Realm Pictures featured in every major news outlet.
Who came up with the concept behind the real life first person shooter video?
The idea actually came up several years ago, when after messing around on Chatroulette, Dave picked up his laptop and pretended to be in a first person perspective asking people who connected to tell him what to do. We thought it would be great to take this much further and actually plan out an experience based on this. As other work and projects had taken over, this idea was put on the backburner, but this year we decided it might be a good one to pursue.
How long did it take to shoot the video?
The video itself was shot over a weekend. We had half a day of rehearsals on Saturday, and then were able to begin live takes later that afternoon, with further live takes the following day. Prior to that, it took about a month of research and development to make sure all the technical aspects were functioning correctly.
What was the most difficult part when putting it all together?
Making sure all the streaming and technology behind the video worked correctly. We had huge challenges with latency and cutting down the delay between the go-pro and back to the player. Then we had the challenge of co-ordinating all the different events and actions to be cued in time with commands that were given. It took a while, but once all the elements were in place, it all came together quite smoothly.
Tell us a little about the creative team behind the video.
As well as myself, Realm Pictures consists of David Reynolds who is the director, Eve Hazelton who is cinematographer and editor and Valgas Moore on visuals and behind the scenes. For this video we brought on board two friends who run interactive games and Escape rooms, "Red House Mysteries," who were instrumental in planning how the game played out. As well as this, one of the members Ben is trained as a sound engineer, who was in charge of overlaying sound live over the video.
What's the best part about working with a team like yours?
We don't just regard each other as colleagues, but a very closely knit team. We've lived together for a number of years, have an implicit trust in each other and one another's abilities. At the end of the day, I get to work on things I love with my closest friends, there really isn't much more I could ask for.
What was the funniest reaction to the FPS game?
We had a lot of people with absolutely no idea what was happening, start screaming and panicing as soon as the zombies appeared, which was exactly what we wanted!
Did you anticipate the rave reviews that the video has received?
Not in the slightest! We were hoping for moderate success and maybe a little bit of recognition. We did not predict it would be in every single news outlet, tech website and magazine reaching nearly 7 million views in just over three days - that was completely unfathomable! The idea that it has been featured everywhere from the BBC to playboy magazine is one we still can't get our head around!
What's next on the cards for Realm Pictures?
We have our more serious projects currently in development and want to move forward with them, but due to the success of the video, we have got some big things planned very soon. We can't divulge any information about them at this point, but watch our page to stay updated!
5 lesser known facts about the video
All the graphics and sounds were done live, not added in post production.
The entire production cost less that £900
The rocket launcher at the end actually fired. It was built by Realm Pictures years ago to do practical explosions in films, later being converted to fire a nerf vortex rocket.
During the initial testing two days before the shoot, they blew up a gopro camera.
There were 44 players in total, later being edited down to the best reactions.