Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Archive material played a pivotal role in the creation of these cinematics to instil each sequence with a deep sense of history. The treatment of this, was developed by SPOV by shooting the footage and manipulating it using manual interference, to create a completely bespoke style.

Influenced by films and documentaries of the era, we utilised a split screen methodology to marry the ultra-realistic CGI with the archive footage. This technique forces the viewer to become the editor, as the telling of multiple stories happens simultaneously.

During early explorations, SPOV began by developing an overarching look for the cinematics. This involved hand-making documents and stamps with meticulously accurate detail to their real-world counterparts, discovering the delivery mechanisms we would use to display the narrative, such as projections and Cold War technology and equipment. During this phase, the team took part in a series of live shoots at the studio, to better understand the movement and feel of each object. This later became an integral step in the process developed, to achieve the true to time and life, aesthetic.

SPOV’s primary aim was to create believable and tactile visuals that expanded the narrative of the game whilst broadening the historical context and contribute to deeper player immersion. This level of research allowed us to fully embrace the creative direction that we settled upon and push the audience to understand and appreciate the history of the Cold War world.