Changing Landscapes

Since Smash has gradually become a spectator-heavy sport, the fundamental purpose of “hype trailers” has shifted. Most older hype videos were made for the players, meaning their focus was on in-game footage. Everyone who was going to the event already knew how it felt to be there in person, and melee hadn’t really established itself as a spectator sport. Only a handful of videos utilized commentary (partially due to the fact that commentary on recorded matches was the exception, not the rule) or video of the crowd (unless it was taken from an iphone). Streams were non-existent, so there was no need to show off anything aside from the raw skill of the attending players. Thus, hype videos were originally intended to get you excited for your potential opponents, the people against whom you would test your mettle.

The Apex 2015 Hype Trailer

Now, they are to get people excited for what they will experience. Hype videos are primarily intended to draw in viewers for the streams, which in turn drives up the scope of the event. Players are drawn in through a sort of secondary effect–it’s no longer about who you will be playing against, but about who will be beside you. It’s about being part of a larger narrative, of being part of a large group of people who are cheering for or against their favorite players, and temporarily living through the so-called “gods” on the stage. Note: When I use the term “gods,” I don’t limit that term to the same five players. I consider us to have more of a pantheon of gods, a whole range of players who come into and out of various storylines, from all over the globe. Melee has many small gods.

The Spectacle

When I was making the Apex trailer, I wanted to use footage that really showed off big, emotional moments from the venue, rather than merely choosing clips that highlighted excellent play. Being able to use footage that was taken from an external camera (as opposed to the playercam from the stream) helped to pull the viewer into the experience a bit more, and to see the event from a perspective not usually afforded to those watching from home.

As a spectator, nothing beats attending an event in-person. I try to attend as many as possible, and–although I rarely enter these days–I love doing commentary. It’s fun trying to share what makes certain moments so emotionally charged. Even though I don’t get to travel nearly as much as I would like, watching from home still lets me get caught up in the passion of an event. When Abate misfired into Duck at FPV, I slammed my knee into my desk as I jumped into the air, triggering angry pounds from my newly-awakened neighbor. Videos are my attempt to share that excitement with the viewer, even when I can’t show up to the actual event.

Although I’m no expert on video editing–I was an audio guy for years, while video stuff is something new to me–I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned about editing for hype esports videos. I’ll post at least one more blog post that goes a little more in depth with some of my design process, assuming people actually find this stuff interesting, but for now I’m going to touch on what I think is the most important aspect of hype video creation: a killer audio track. Audio is an enormous part of constructing a narrative in your hype videos, because in-game footage only tells the viewer so much about the significance of an event. It’s one thing to watch PPMD defeat Mew2King. It’s quite another to hear the crowd react, to hear the commentators trying to express pure ecstasy in safe-for-work language. It tells you that the event was emotional, that there was an enormous payoff to the tension of all the previous matches.

Mixing to Music

When it comes to music, I try to use something that “feels” like it matches the scope of the event. Different editing styles are needed for different genres, but there are still some central techniques that underlie much of how I work. Part of what I like to do in my videos is alternate between cutting (changing scenes) on the beat and occasionally cutting off beat. I try to establish a sort of rhythm in the viewers mind, something like “oh hey, on the beats, there will be something happening visually.” Then, when a cut doesn’t happen, the viewer instinctively looks for something within the frame that matches the rhythm in their head, like when a player’s fingers are tapping on a fightstick, or when a particularly good move is thrown out.

There are other elements in cutting your video to music. It’s key to pay close attention to the rhythm of each instrument your song. During the “verse” parts, you might cut a little more on the melody or lead lines and keep your footage low-movement. The viewer will find satisfaction in the gentle pairing of audio and video cues. Then, when the chorus comes around, you can start cutting more aggressively on the kick drum or snare. Speeding up the rate of cuts (shortening clip length) will imply buildup towards something, but slowing them down (making clips longer) allows you to use large chunks of great out-of-game footage. It’s fun to have lots of quick cuts on giant crowds, but sometimes I really enjoy being able to see four or five seconds straight of a particularly awe-inspiring moment. Mango dropping his controller. Mew2King jumping into the air.

Find the Meaning in the Clips

Choose your climax carefully. The crowd showing respect for Mega Man’s final smash is one of my favorite moments in smash history. In a crowd of people who normally cheer for extremely complicated or difficult-to-pull-off plays, there was something of a primal moment… what happened on screen wasn’t the result of an excellent play so much as a chance occurrence, but that somehow made it even more true to the guts of smash brothers, the wacky, high-chance game in which one silly mistake can end your life in an explosion of colors and sound effects. It’s what smash was before people wanted to get “good” at it; I love the competitive scene, of course, but I do believe that the competitive scene grew mainly out of people who first picked up a controller because they wanted to beat the shit out of that smug fucker Yoshi with the Hero of Time. D1’s scream was something that came from our 8-year-old hearts, and it expressed the pure joy of seeing the incredible power coming from one of the great gods of retro gaming. I use this as the climax of the video because it gets at the heart of what Apex is really all about–the pure passion that is built into the game, that the competitive scene is not something opposed to the casual scene, but something from the same soil, something that grew out of a love for the game beyond its technicality or competitive viability.

Finally, use as many different audio sources as you can. Don’t be afraid to take commentary from one game to replace commentary in another, as I did at around 0:55 here:

Since I wasn’t a huge fan of how the original “sacred combo” commentary downplayed Westballz’s sick performance in favor of how Zeldafreak DI’d, I took commentary from a set between Westballz and PewPewU that lined up really well with the landing of the falcon punch. It helped to give that combo a little bit of extra audio excitement. For the Apex trailer, I thought it would be really cool to highlight the increased positive attention coming from Nintendo of late, which is why I had Reggie (informally) give his blessing to the players who are coming together in early 2015 for what will undoubtedly be one of the greatest tournaments of all time.