Operation Flashpoint: Red River

Flipbook CGI boutique based in Manchester City centre, have revealed their role in the production of a new live-action promotional trailer for Codemaster’s upcoming 2011 release, Operation Flashpoint: Red River.

The company were commissioned by Codemasters to produce the trailer after producing a creative pitch that focused on a predominantly live-action format with complimentary CGI animation and visual effects.

“We went against the grain on this production, as much as we love full pre-rendered CGI trailers we’re also firm believers that when a creative idea is brewed it’s sometimes necessary for CGI to play more of a supportive role to help tell the game story” said Andrew Lord, MD at Flipbook.

The Flashpoint genre of games is aimed at providing a more realistic experience of modern day warfare than other competitive first person shooters on the market. With this in mind Flipbook produced a script and storyboard aimed at a 70%-30% split in favour of live action, so as to help capture this realism.

The teaser trailer concentrates on the games 4-man US Marine unit and the subtle character differences and emotions of each soldier before they engage the enemy in combat. It was important to Codemasters to capture the professionalism, rituals, courage and anxiety of the soldiers as they prepared for another day on the job.

All the internal helicopter scenes were shot on location at the RAF museum in Cosford in the back of a de-commissioned US Super Stallion helicopter. All the external shots of the helicopters and the Tajikistan environment were created using CGI. The entire trailer was then heavily graded and visual effects were added during post-production.