This is getting ridiculous: Videographer directs three short films in Arc Raiders using real players as actors
Just two weeks ago, I talked about how cool it was that Arc Raiders players had been trading guns for binoculars to effectively create lore-abiding news reports and nature documentary-style footage. There were some very eye-catching photos, too.
Players bravely adopting such creativity mere weeks into Arc Raiders’ life—a game where terrifying robots and other players are out for your life and loot, remember—was an amazing thing to watch.
Watch On
As the creator explains, they’re a videographer by trade, and you can really tell when you see them in action in Arc Raiders. They’ve already taken things to the next level of in-game photography, such as placing ziplines for aerial tracking shots, filming actions from multiple angles, and using equipment like smoke bombs for special effects.
There are some really nice shots across the three short films, and it goes to show just how cinematic Arc Raiders’ animations and overall gameplay are, especially when the Arc machines are added into the mix and start playing along as if they were paid actors.
What surprises and pleases me the most, however, is how willing everyone seems to be. Most of the video is behind the scenes, and each ‘main character’ signs up for the role, almost no questions asked. Like, “yeah, I’ll be an actor in your movie”, despite how outlandish a request that is when you think about it. It’s the perfect example of just how uniquely and oddly kind everyone is in Arc Raiders, as the extraction genre is almost entirely known for its cutthroat nature.
Even the other players that interrupt the filming process don’t lash out at the actor and the effectively unarmed director. In fact, they tend to play along, as you’ll see in the creation of the first short film, Final Call, where another player rocks up to watch from the sidelines despite wanting to extract.
I’d be very interested in the box set outtakes special feature to find out how many failed attempts there were in recruiting actors, though. Surely not everyone our ‘director of gametography’ met was willing to take part, let alone restrain themselves from blasting them.
