The Quarry and ProdCo Bring Blockbuster Action to Fatal Fury Spot
In the world of boxing, Chris Eubank Jr. VS. Conor Benn was arguably the most hyped match up of the year so far - and what better way to celebrate it than with the perfectly chaotic spot from Big Time Creative, ProdCo, The Quarry, and Glassworks - ‘Fatal Fury: The Fury Continues’
Directed by Mackenzie Sheppard, edited by David Gesslbauer, and featuring Eubank Jr, Benn, KSI and iShowSpeed, the promo manages to condense a blockbuster’s worth of thrills and action into a four minute film. With an absolute wealth of talent in front of and behind the camera, the spot ranks high amongst other sport based commercials.
Mackenzie and David have collaborated many times before, starting with New York Times’ ‘Understanding Gravity’, earning David a much deserved Editing Award at Ciclope in 2023. Fatal Fury continues their hot streak, with no signs of slowing down. Part of what makes Mack and David such a great team, according to Mack, is that they both are very similar in how they approach these films - “David edits the way I direct. He approaches it with sound design, story instinct, and a willingness to totally reimagine footage - not just assemble it”. Similarly, David finds that Mack’s style as a director is anchored by creativity and a willingness to experiment, “Mack is super-charged with creative solutions. New York Times was like a giant puzzle of motion design and he was the piece-maker, literally gluing together printed words and scans of objects. That’s what he does best, providing immaculate footage with lots of ideas and gags sprinkled in, for me to wrap, dismantle and spice up.”
In terms of the work itself, after ProdCo and Mackenzie won the pitch, they were straight into planning. For something this VFX heavy, a natural expectation would be that the effects get pinned down first in order to get a head start, however Mack “always likes to start really free when there’s a lot of animation involved, because the deeper you go, the more constrained it gets”. This approach led to Mack and his team in Tokyo shooting the whole movie on a phone in a dance studio, without any storyboards to guide them. This allowed Mack to get a rough idea of pacing, as well anything that they may have initially missed. From there, they created a rough, multi-media animatic that combined storyboards, sketches, old Fatal Fury references and, of course, Mack’s exaggerated facial expressions. Through creating such a detailed reference, Mack and ProdCo were able to quickly earn trust from everyone involved, “we only had a month to turn it all around, and we couldn’t afford a month of back-and-forth”.
Cue Mack’s phone - an integral part of the pre-production journey. Having a camera within arm’s reach is vital for Mack to be able to test angles and set-ups. It provides an opportunity for the director to refine his approach to shooting and cut down on his shot list, he mentioned, “When you’re moving fast - 40 setups in a day - that kind of discipline is survival”. This approach extended to the stunt work, which was also filmed and rehearsed as part of the pre-viz.
Having such a detailed idea of the film’s pacing gave everyone involved in the film a healthy springboard to start off of, and gave the considerable task ahead a clear structure to work with. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the most positive aspects of the post production was the different time zones - flitting between Mack in Tokyo, David in Berlin, and Glassworks in London. “Honestly, we needed the time zones. I would work on animatics during my Japan day, send updates at night, and the London team could react while I slept.” By the time David got his hands on the rushes, the VFX team were already working on the shots “There were a lot of pieces flying around, but we had great producers in each city keeping the wheels on. It’s tiring, but if we were all in the same city, I don’t think we could’ve moved as fast.”
Regarding the edit itself, David worked in tandem with his team at The Quarry in London to bring the edit to life. David is used to the remote workflow, and said, “It was the GREATEST fun to insert the dailies and animation updates little by little over our pre-viz. VFX updates during offline editing is like Christmas coming early for me,” As an editor, seeing shots evolve from pencil outlines to 3D greyscale mockups, and being involved in the timing and blocking of the sequences is as immersive as it can get! David also notes that “every trick in the editor’s book had to be utilised” on this project, from action to comedy to VFX to sound design. Due to David’s familiarity with After Effects, he’s able to “quickly outline some comps, keys, maskings, trackings etc. which helps me to get the timings right, and to communicate the vision,” - when the offline edit is able to relay these elements clearly and effectively, it keeps the client assured that the project is in the safest of hands.
Glassworks started work on the VFX immediately, “Glassworks and I would wake up to a bunch of Mack’s notes on the frameIO link from the night before, and from there we’d be off to the races. The timing was sweat-inducing to say the least, so we had to lock shots by the day while I was still working out the cut”. Due to a rapidly approaching deadline, David had no time to second-guess his choices in the edit, leading to a film that wears its raw fun-factor on its sleeve.
David grew up gaming and watching anime, so this was a dream project to work on, “I felt right at home with this project. Although the long nights smashing buttons on the console have been replaced by late nights keyframing and speedramping in Premiere, the essence remains and hopefully the passion shines through in the final film.” Similar to the feeling of bashing out a game or two at the Arcade, Mackenzie added that, “This project was just pure fun. We got to be hammy and over-the-top, like an old SNK commercial - leaning into cheesy trailer cutdowns, crazy pacing, big gags.”
And to shout out the rest of the team that bought it together, Mackenzie mentioned, “Octavio, our DP, made it all look cinematic while keeping VFX needs in mind. And a huge thanks to Glassworks, Dulce, Prodco, and my creative crew Kai and Ahato - couldn’t have done it without them,” with David adding, “This spot was certainly our most ambitious so far in terms of combining styles, score, storybeats and the cast. Gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised about the acting performance of KSI, as he was trying to get hold of the situation, but making things worse in the process. Maybe we’ll release the “KSI just panicking over buttons” cut one day.”
With such an energetic and playful film, viewers can see how much fun it must have been to work on, but it was also undoubtedly full of a serious roster of talent who worked tirelessly to bring it to life. As Mack said, “You have to take the craft seriously - pacing, flow, design - but the spirit of the project had to stay loose and fun. That’s what made it feel true to the Fatal Fury world, but also fresh”.
