Cinematic Trailer

The Hunter: Call of The Wild’s Yukon Valley Reserve

Avalanche Studios, 2019

In the spring of 2019, I was given a brief by our marketing team to create a script for the Alaskan reserve that we were working on for The Hunter: Call of The Wild. In this document, I will showcase the notes I took away from my initial brief meeting, which informed the script, the script itself, and a short list of considerations for the director of the VO recording session.

The final product can be viewed here.

My Notes Following The Brief Meeting

Things we want to show off

ANIMALS

  • Gray Wolves: Pack behaviour running after prey, howling at the moon, perhaps confrontation from first person

  • Grizzly Bear: Primarily idle movement, maybe a more dramatic pose if possible

  • Caribou: Grazing and moving

  • Moose: Moving through nature (need regions they move in)

  • Red Fox, Snowshoe Hares and Harlequin Ducks: Most likely in movement, fleeing or calmly crossing terrain, filling up some of the environmental shots

ENVIRONMENTS

  • Crimson Plains

  • Burned Down Forest

  • Spruce Forest

  • Area with freshly fallen snow

  • Area where aurora borealis can be shown off well 

  • Different kind of trees or ways of showcasing “even the trees are struggling” or other shots that could showcase this

  • Some kind of man-made object - Train tracks? Dredge instead of mine Suggestions?

    • Dredge, bridge

  • Overhead shot of park, high up shots for intro and outro, as well as flying over interesting details of the park.

    • Usual issues with certain height but nothing new

Audio & Music

  • VO Recording based on above 

  • Music 

  • Wolf howls

  • Potential other animal noises depending on Rob - Grizzly bear noises, caribou noises

  • Environmental sounds - Rob should be able to get most of this

My Additional Notes

  • Gray wolves moving in pack but not attacking can be filmed earlier, but attacking will be late.

  • They will move their heads back to howl

  • Caribou and Moose should have TruRACS, sanity check them first (at least 3 days)

  • Fox and hare should be filmable earlier, same with grizzly

  • Ducks need populations set up (mid-period filmable)

  • Plane and train for environments should be shown (interesting details), can be triggered

    • Start first panorama with plane as an opening

    • Train as a backdrop, doesn’t need to be in focus

  • Snowfall can work with buildings, snow will not stay close to sea level (won’t accumulate)

  • New gun, use that for first person shot (bison killer, potentially with Grizzly shot)

    • Might have issues tied to it, good to sanity check it

    • 300 Bolt Action Rifle

  • Check that we have removed the mock ups in the game before shooting the environmental shots. 

  • Cool places to show: Dredge instead of mines, bridge (with train)

Trailer VO Script

[romantic/welcoming]

After all these years as a warden, I’m still impressed by the grit it takes to survive out here. Hunting in the Last Frontier always brings rewards,

[pause]

but without our influence on Alaska’s delicate natural balance, life will only get tougher here at Yukon Valley.

[LOGOS]

You will experience a moment; one that shows why we need not only a hunter, but someone who can understand this place. 

It might be at your first sighting of the caribou grazing on the crimson plains…

or during an instant of tranquillity as the valley sleeps under fresh snowfall …

perhaps it will come while you stalk a grizzly bear through the remote spruce forest…

or during contemplation of the aftermath of an inferno, sparked by nature itself…

and as night falls, you might just hear the rowdy locals sing their night song to the sky…

I’m sure you’ll get to meet them. The wolves here are fast, smart and utterly relentless. They don’t scare easy, either.

It’s my great pride to care for this wild, remarkable place, and to welcome you to Yukon Valley. 

Requests For Recording Session

  • A normally paced reading, at whatever Stuart considers a comfortable speed.

  • A slightly faster paced reading.

  • A slightly slower paced reading. (The pace changes give us options when it comes to timing the video in the trailer to the voice performance.)

  • Conjunctions such as “and”, “or”, “so”, “but” & “because”. We’d like 5 different takes for each word, all with different intonations. (Consider how they’d sound at the beginning of a sentence vs being mid-sentence).

  • A few takes of the first and last paragraph, with different intonations. (Number of takes is up to you and how much time you have.)