2K Games

If you’re a fan of BioShock 2, by now you have probably seen the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McLQx6R1QQo Official Unboxing Video on YouTube. For the inquiring minds that have asked me how (and why) we made this video, here’s your answer.

We work late in this office. When we’re nearing ship, we work even later. It started as a joke between Tom and a bunch of editors in Mexico City and came to fruition one night while Tom and I were sitting by his desk strategically planning Very Important Things (his trip in Mexico City) and whether we should make an unboxing video. I, personally, detest unboxing videos and expressed my opinion that they were completely overdone. (I may have used the word “lame” at one point.) I said I would never make an unboxing video unless it was to make fun of every other unboxing video ever made. Tom and I began imagining different ways that we could parody various famous unboxings that had become so popular until we hit upon the idea of a Big Daddy Limited Edition gone mad: Subject Delta smashing through our VP of Marketing’s window, destroying the office, and getting me fired. We were in stitches (isn’t everything funnier when you’ve been at the office far too long?)

The next day when we floated the idea to our VP, Matt Gorman, and SVP, Sarah Anderson, however, we got two replies: “I want to be in it” and “Can I say you’re “f***ng fired instead?”

Logistically, the shoot was a feat. I wanted the video to look as real as possible – part of the humor to me lay in the fact that everyone in the video actually worked at the office and we were actually destroying our stuff. Unfortunately, you can only destroy real stuff once, so this rampage had to be a one-take gig.

On the day of the shoot, we ended up using four different cameras. Nothing was scripted. In fact, most people in the office didn’t know anything was going on until I brought in the crew and we started setting up the space. I wanted reactions to be as natural as possible, so keeping people in the dark about what we were doing was the best way to accomplish that.

The “real” unboxing took five takes before I got the entire speech down the way I wanted it and then we reset everything for the Uber Edition Unboxing. While the room we used is actually home to the 2K Games publishing team, we cleared the desk where Tom is sitting and set up a “disposable” monitor and I volunteered my bookshelf and some random swag for decoration. (If you look closely, you can see dozens of Big Daddy figurines from the first game’s Limited Edition shattering as Subject Delta takes down the bookshelf.)  As for the glass, no, that is not real. We custom-ordered prop glass from Los Angeles and had it flown up for the shoot.

Since this was a one-take shot and getting natural reactions people in-view during the was so important, my only directions were “do exactly what you think you would do if a Big Daddy suddenly started tearing up the office.” That is pretty much exactly what ended up happening, too. It took so long to set the scene that Matt (the guy whose window gets demolished) forgot we were filming. He was completely taken by surprise when his window shattered – and was still finding shards on his desk the next day. The same thing happened with Tom: Even if you know a Big Daddy is about to smash a picture frame and take out a window, you still get wrapped up in the moment. He forgot to push his chair back when the rampage began, and nearly got taken out by the flying monitor.

Everyone was nervous when we got the first cut of the video in for initial approvals. Cracking jokes and thinking up outlandish YouTube videos late in the office is one thing – having the idea remain funny when put into production is another matter entirely. This time, though, we pulled it off.

So there you go – that’s how (and why) we made the BioShock 2 Unboxing Video. I hate unboxing videos. Tom and I have wild imaginations. Someone was crazy enough to approve the budget. And we broke a lot of stuff.