Immersing Fans in Iconic WrestleMania Matches for WWE 2K24
Each year, wrestling fans and gamers around the globe feel the excitement build as the annual edition of WWE’s 2K video game draws closer to its release date. And this was no different for ‘WWE 2K24’.
This year, the publisher 2K Games partnered with LA-based production company SOFTSPOT™ to invite returning fans and newcomers alike to ‘Step Into the Story’ with an immersive, POV-style launch trailer. Directed by Tomás Whitmore, the film combines live action footage of some of WWE’s biggest stars and body doubles of some well-known legends, with transformative VFX from Framestore that puts the viewer right in the action.
Whether it’s being clotheslined by Hulk Hogan, thrown over the barricade by Stone Cold Steve Austin or chokeslammed by The Undertaker, the trailer gives you a first-person taste of being in the squared circle, before adding some comedic moments with the likes of Cody Rhodes, Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Post Malone.
Speaking to LBB’s Ben Conway, the director discusses how the team used archival photography and video to reconstruct wrestling icons’ faces, working with Shane ‘The Hurricane’ Helms to ensure the wrestling was authentic, and the challenges of recreating environments from 40 years of WWE history.
LBB> How did this project come about? Did the product evolve much from the pitch and treatment to the final product?
Tomás> We’ve been producing a lot of work for 2K over the last year, so when they came to us with this brief we knew we couldn’t rest on our laurels or relationship. This job was ours to lose and I know for a fact that we were up against some really heavy hitters. I only say that because it meant a lot to us at SOFTSPOT, as a relatively new company to pull this level of a job off. We busted our asses to win the job. When we got the call that the job had been awarded our way it was really exciting, but also terrifying.
Luckily, we had put a lot of effort into bringing the right partners onto our team before the job was awarded. Cinematography and VFX were always going to be the big pieces that would make or break it, so we made sure to identify the right people for those roles. Having Starr Whitesides as our DOP, who famously shot the epic POV music video for The Weeknd, as well as Framestore as our VFX partner made our pitch air tight.
In regards to how different the brief looked from my treatment, it was really about details. The 2K creative team wrote an epic story, so I felt it was my job to go in and unearth details from the matches. What were the key moves and moments that exemplified a particular era or wrestler? Certain ideas were easy to get to, for example I knew right away that I wanted the viewer to get a sweaty leg drop from Hulk Hogan to face. Others took a little more digging. While researching Stone Cold’s WrestleMania 13 match I really fell in love with the moment when the fight spilled out into the crowd. So I began to conceptualise what that would look like from a creative and production standpoint to recreate that crowd moment.
In the end the final product was really true to what we pitched. It just came down to bringing as many nuanced details to every era as possible and doing the best possible job across each department.
LBB> This film blends live action footage with some serious VFX work - can you just take us through what the production pipeline looked like to bring back Attitude Era Steve Austin, or WrestleMania III Hulk Hogan?
Tomás> It all started with casting body doubles who could actually wrestle. It was really important that they were built the same as Stone Cold, Hulk, and The Undertaker. The next step was to make sure our special effects, makeup, hair and wardrobe were on point. That was probably my favourite part of the process, watching our team bring these larger than life figures to the screen.
The Hulk transformation was especially spectacular. It started with the bald cap, followed by a hair piece, and lastly a beautiful golden skin tone. When all the elements came together it was incredible to see our guys on set in the ring. They’re all professional wrestlers in their own right, so it was a dream come true for them to relive these moments.
It then became really important to make sure that the moves they did in the ring felt authentic to the wrestler they were portraying. For that, we had Shane ‘The Hurricane’ Helms on set with us to keep it authentic. I’m grateful to the collaboration with Shane, because he really showed us how creative wrestling is. It’s a beautiful dance that combines a lot of the same elements that film consists of. You have character, you have drama, narrative, costumes, and stunts. It’s an amazing art form.
Then came the VFX portion of the job, which required pulling a bunch of archival photography and video to reconstruct our hero's faces. Once we built an era-specific model of each wrestler, we then replaced our body double’s face with it. Good old fashioned VFX brought that to life.
LBB> This approach combined some new VFX and AI tools - how have people responded to its usage? Would you use this tech again?
Tomás> I don’t think our industry or the viewers really understand what AI actually is. It’s such a buzzy term that’s become quite loaded. I think the general public assumes it’s somehow lazy. As I mentioned above, our VFX approach used archival footage to create younger versions of Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Undertaker.
The key point in all of this is that it wasn’t something flashy we did just to grab attention, it was all in service of the story. It literally is the concept. The idea of going back to the beginning of WrestleMania meant we had to recreate these worlds from top to bottom, both through practical sets, casting, and props, as well as through our VFX worlds.
LBB> The arena environments really put you in the heart of the action - how were they created? And how important was the sound design in this aspect?
Tomás> Lots of archival [imagery]. Photos, videos, 3D models - all of it was used to map and create 3D renders of each arena. Shout out to Jiri at Framestore for that magic.
Sound design was key to making the film immersive. The echo of an announcer over a loudspeaker. The oohs and ahhhh of a crowd reacting. The ramp down as our film transitions into slow motion. All of those little details put you in the centre of the environment. One of my favourite parts of the sound design process was isolating all the punches and hits. There’s a bloodier, even more bone crunching version that we really wanted to push for, but it unfortunately got canned because of ratings. Maybe I’ll make a director’s cut with just that track turned on.
LBB> How was the live action portion of production? What was it like capturing wrestlers like Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley in action - as well as getting some comedic performances out of Triple H and Post Malone?
Tomás> The live action portion was incredible to film. We were on a stage all four days, so it felt like we could come in and focus on experimenting with our set ups for the day. The biggest challenge was changing the wardrobe on our 200 or so extras each day so that they matched the era we were filming.
We had so many extras because we wanted to fill the first few rows out so that VFX could focus more on extending the crowd and building the arenas. Having that many people on set with us while filming with the wrestlers was a blast. We all basically got a free show for four days.
At certain points it really started to feel like we were in an arena environment. Two moments in particular, the Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bianca moments, really got the crowd going. The reactions from the background talent are truly authentic, they and all of us behind the camera were truly in awe at the show the wrestlers were putting on.
It’s really amazing what wrestlers do. Whenever someone asks me what it’s like working with them I try to explain that they’re highly trained athletes that can do their own stunts and on top of all that act their asses off. It’s really rare to work with that kind of talent.
The comedy aspects of the spot with Triple H and Post Malone were really sincere. Post is an absolute gem of a human… such a treat to work with. Plus he’s an actual gamer, so he knows first-hand how frustrating it is to keep losing in a video game. When it came to capturing the elated look on his face that transitions us out of the POV, that was all about tapping into that feeling of inertia, joy and absolute dizziness you feel after riding a wild roller coaster.
LBB> What was the key to blending all of these elements seamlessly together?
Tomás> It came down to the details. The first step was creating a foundation with our practical sets and our lighting setups. The fact that we had such an incredible base to build off of made all the difference. Starr Whitesides our DOP and John Richoux our production designer really carry the torch there. They create the space for us to play in. It was a POV film, so we needed to look in every direction. They did a great job of creating the space for us to move freely, which gave us a lot of flexibility. That’s always important on a job for me, but especially with a POV film.
The flexibility allowed us to change blocking, or to experiment with alternate moves. I quickly realised in our tests that not everything looked good in POV. It required certain movements and action that immersed the viewer. In order to do that it was important that you always understood where you were in the action.
The next big tip of the hat goes to our VFX partners at Framestore. Our VFX supervisor / wizard Jiri Kilevnik is the most casual, calm and reassuring dude you could ever have around. There isn’t a thing he can’t do. His confidence in his abilities brought so much confidence to me and my approach. I basically knew he was going to have our film’s back, so to speak.
LBB> What was the hardest challenge you faced on this project? How did you overcome it?
Tomás> As anyone who watches the spot can probably guess, post production was a beast. With a project like this, there’s a lot of stakeholders involved, so we wanted to make sure that our throwback era wrestlers and the arenas didn’t get pushed in unwanted directions. We knew we had to push to keep the integrity of the world intact.
The solution was to stay really close to every single part of the delivery. The only way to ensure quality is to stay connected to the process every step of the way, otherwise things can unravel quickly. I love being involved in post, so to be this close to VFX was a great learning experience that taught me a lot about building confidence through small wins day by day.
LBB> Which part of the spot are you most proud of? And what has the general reaction been like?
Tomás> I’m really proud of how we seamlessly combined so many different shooting formats to create an extremely immersive spot. There are so many different camera rigs we designed to make different moves and choreography hit the hardest it possibly could. From helmet cams with lipstick cameras to full blown chest rigs, all the way to even putting super slow-mo cameras into foam cases so that they could be thrown around, we really got creative with how each scene was captured.
I also love how real the world feels. The level of detail in the styling, production design and arena builds is so freaking incredible. The make up teams killed it in recreating some of this iconic looks. It was an epic undertaking and it took so many incredible artists coming together to make it happen.
Lastly, I’m really proud of myself (awww). But seriously, I’ve always dreamt of working on something of this scale, and it was really special to see this project through. I’ve spent so many years experimenting with edits, sound design, camera movement, choreography, performance, and to see it all come together in such a spectacular way felt great.
It’s also been great to see people responding so positively to the spot. A few friends screenshotted some of the YouTube comments, which were wildly positive. One in particular mentioned they needed to give the director a raise which was hilarious. If we’ve gotten the general public to get behind the spot then we did something right.
