Hammer Creative ‘Confronts Death’ In New Promo Campaign For ‘Darksiders II’
June 22, 2012 by Screenmag
Hammer Creative, a Videogame Creative Agency has conceived, produced, edited, and provided post production for a new, four trailer marketing campaign promoting client THQ’s new Darksiders II videogame.
Creative Director/Producer Brett Hocker and the Hammer team spearheaded the new campaign, first conceiving and story-boarding the four trailers behind Darksiders II, including three that are fully CGI, along with a highly ambitious, live action trailer book-ended by CGI content. Hammer then retained The Ebeling Group and director Abdel Abonamous to shoot the live action trailer, a highly cinematic piece (running time 2:17) which was filmed on location in Prague earlier this year.
Entitled “Last Sermon,” the live action trailer begins with the scene of an Eastern European city lying in ruin, but with an old church still proudly standing amidst the rubble. Inside the church, actor James Cosmo, star of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” appears as a Minister, delivering a “last sermon” to his congregants, all of whom stand on the brink of death. “Before the eyes of God, we have been judged…and we have been found guilty,” Cosmo declares, with smoke from his bitter cold breath pouring from his mouth. “Death awaits us all, just as Revelations proclaimed it would.”
We hear the monstrous screams of demons emanating from outside the church, as stained glass windows shatter, a chandelier falls from the ceiling and an enormous cross crashes to the ground. The Minister, reading from the Book of Revelations, screams, “The great day of his wrath has come! And who shall be able to stand!” Suddenly, an eerie quiet takes hold of the church, until a bloody sword comes shooting through the church’s front door. The Minister peers through the hole left by the sword, and sees their savior – Death – standing as the last defense before an army of demons. At the end of the piece, we see the logo for Darksiders II and the tagline: “Death Lives.”
To view the “Last Sermon” trailer, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/Darksiders. And then Click “LIKE”
“Brett Hocker wrote and produced this dramatic piece for ‘Darksiders II,’ and truly was the creative visionary behind this unique trailer,” says Scott Hayman. “Our goal with this campaign was to build up the mystique of the ‘Death’ game character. Gamers aren’t sure if ‘Death’ is a hero or a villain – whether he’s good or evil. We don’t really know what his intentions are, so we wanted to convey a bit of intrigue about this unique character. For the ‘Last Sermon’ trailer, we wanted to add a human element to the story of ‘Darksiders,’ which takes place mostly in Heaven or Hell—there’s very little game activity on Earth. The scene of a Minister in a decimated church delivering his literal ‘last sermon’ was our way of presenting what would likely happen here on Earth, before the actual apocalypse were to take place.”
"What Hammer Creative did so effectively in producing 'The Last Sermon' was to deliver something directly targeted to the Darksiders audience,” says Jim Huntley, vice president of marketing, THQ. “After viewing this trailer, fans will be acutely aware of the massive scope of the apocalypse that humankind is experiencing in the world of the game."