That's right, the video you're going to see after the break, which expertly blends Guitar Hero and bike riding, is the best thing you're going to see all day and (unless your firstborn child is due by Friday) probably all week. Seriously, go watch it. You'll have to hire a gang of neighborhood kids to pinch you before you'll be convinced you're not dreaming.
But is it really made by some kid and his friends with wayyyy too much spare time and not a well-funded ad agency? Well, no. But let's all just pretend so we can keep enjoying ourselves. Agreed? Agreed.
[Update: Stephen Totilo got Activision to spill the whole thing, and it's rife with some pretty hilarious back-pedaling. ... Get it? Back-pedaling?]
Looks to me like they had the thing on the handle bars flashing to the correct notes, then they edited the film to put the dots in later on and just really really polished it.
It's *too* perfect for them to be drawn on the ground.
the flashing lights on the handle bars are easy to add in post. but its actually a lot easier and less time-consuming to actually put those dots on the ground than it is to actually match move the ground and rotoscope the handle bars for the entire video. 3min 36secs = 5184 frames of match moving and rotoscoping... no thanks!
I'm mad I didn't catch that it was ad-funded! When the kid in kiss make-up jumped out with the new Kiss guitar I was like, "That seems too new for people who spent time making this video!" I'm so mad I didn't notice.
The coolness was that people thought a kid in Indiana and his friends did it - and by extension, if we had the free time, we could do it, too.
But it was an ad agency with a five- or six-digit budget, CG artists, filming clearance, licensing, film editors, lawyers. Professionals. Finding that out just makes you realize that you _couldn't_ do it if you tried.
If people paid to be creative for a living had to fake parts it, then it's not actually possible to do it as a truly homemade, sincere video. It's not nearly as impressive when it's the idea of a ActiBlizzard Marketing VP and not a bored kid.
I was all up for this being my favourite video ever when they started out, and i thought some kids had layed out stickers then rode along at the right speed, but then after a minute or so when it became obvious they were digital, i knew it was not in a million years home made.
Shame.
Oh well.
inb4 200 billion hits on youtube. viral video of the year. Congratulations activision, you win this round. Go hug your giant piles of money
*goes back to playing the unfairly unpopular rock band 2*
You know its funny. You'd think given the amount of man hours and money that activision poured into GHWT, that they'd be able to at least make a game as good as the one they were copying, nevermind maybe improve upon it a little bit.
GHWT comes out 7th nov and isn't even as good as the year old game its copying, nevermind its recently released sequel, and yet outsells both of them in 3 days.
There is no justice in the world for the amazing developers at harmonix.
I've always wanted to do something like this on a road and drive over it with a car while someone in the passenger tries to play on a guitar controller.
I dont understand why people take such issue with viral advertisements. They are more interesting than 30 second tv spots and for the most part leave you wondering how it was done. Pretty cool vid. Heck, many of you have no qualms reading posts based solely on info released by the marketing or PR divisions of game developers. At least the viral stuff involves some creativity which in gaming is something we all crave.
So I take it you feel creativeness only counts when it is demonstrated by amateurs. It seems your only real concern is that you believe you were mislead. Either way, viral marketing and viral games are all about forcing you divine the answer or the source. I tend to feel they necessitate a certain level of user or viewer input, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It engages the audience and that is the purpose of both viral marketing and grass roots efforts. The only real concern is whether it is enjoyable or not. Also, before you bemoan all marketing efforts realize that without them you would likely see less money in gaming and as a result inferior products. Like it or not marketing helps sell products and raise interest levels. And before you ask, no, I am not in marketing.
They should just make it a normal advert, put the product at the end. (Apart from the start it could be Rock Band) Instead of "viral marketing," how about genuine advertising, just that it'll be free for you to distribute. Everything about this ad is great, but the whole presentation is condescending to it's market because of the context.
who cares if it's a viral Ad? It's still awesome none the less. I got skeptical about it when I saw the notes on grass thinking how they could get chalk drawn stuff on the grass.
A viral video made by an advertising and then an attempt to pawn it off as user created. Guitar Hero trys to monkeyshine unsuspecting public into buying inferior product :-(
