Yesterday David Frampton (@MajicDave) of Majic Jungle Software posted a piece to the official company blog explaining the work and sheer effort which has gone into the making of the game trailer for Chopper 2.

A sequel to Chopper, Chopper 2 features a completely re-written 3D game engine, all new enemies, weapons, graphics and missions. The game will include 36 missions in 12 different beautiful and graphically unique locations, while introducing the threat homing missiles and more!

So I’ve been through 3 video cameras, a bunch of different techniques and a few terrible videos, and thought I would share a few things I have learned and techniques that were used to film and produce the Chopper 2 trailer.

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So first up, the camera is very important. Chopper 2 uses a Canon 7D digital SLR. Previously I had used consumer level video cameras, with the DuckDuckDuck 2.0 trailer as well as the Chopper 2 bluetooth video being shot with a Sony HDR-SR11. This was OK, though I just wasn’t quite happy enough with the quality I was getting. White balance always seemed to be a problem, and even when it was in focus it always seemed a bit blurry.

I bought the Canon 7D for the explicit purpose of filming the Chopper 2 trailer, and as such I was not very familiar with it, but found I got pretty good results very quickly. Focus was again an issue, which I’ll get to later, but white balance wasn’t a problem and overall setup was quick and I’m happy with the results.

Whatever camera you choose, make sure you have manual control over white balance, focus, and exposure. Without any one of these features your video quality will suffer greatly.

Lighting is the next important thing. You need to have well lit hands (none of that silhouette rubbish) and some kind of lit background as well, but without causing reflections on the screen. I have found that the best way to achieve this is to have lights on either side just a bit above the device level, and a lot of black fabric around and above to prevent any reflections from walls or the ceiling. You also have to constantly monitor for reflections of yourself or the camera, which is just one reason why you need two people to do the job. Someone has to monitor the footage as it is being recorded and constantly tell the player/user to move to the center of the shot, get their forehead out of the reflection, hide the audio out cable, and refocus as needed.

You can read more about the whole process involved in making this latest trailer over at his blog. Check out the finished Chopper 2 trailer below!

Here are some other game trailers Frampton has worked on previously, both for himself, and in the case of Burnball, in collaboration with @TimHaines.

Great job David!

[via @MajicDave]