Note: These concepts were written to promote a new version of the video game Company of Heroes for Method Studios, via their Atlanta-based office (Riot).
Method Design
Atlanta Company of Heroes 2
Concepts by Jeff Boortz
Tug of War
Company of Heroes 2 pits the strategic and tactical expertise of one commander against another-‐ in this case a Soviet Red Army field commander and a German Wehrmacht or Nazi field commander. Each must struggle to out-maneuver the other in their attempt to bolster their forces, gain territory, and capture their enemy’s HQ. Each commander’s actions inspire reactions by their adversary, and vice versa creating an ebb and flow, a “tug of war” that ultimately ends in one side’s victory and the other’s defeat. These spots highlight this dynamic through the use of a spit screen-‐ which presents both POV’s simultaneously.
Teaser:
| Germans Soviets | |
| The German Commander and the Soviet Field Commander are seen in split screen making up one person-‐ the military tactician. Each commander turns toward the other-‐ German on the Left/West, and the Soviet Commander on the Right/East. | |
| The German Commander in his HQ studies a map, and with his fellow officers, plots an offensive. | The Russian Commander, with his fellow officers, sketches a plan out in the dirt, amid the rubble of a bombed-out Stalingrad. |
| The German Commander reviews his highly disciplined and well outfitted troops aligned in perfect rank and file. | The Red Army commander hands out rifles to a ragtag band of soldiers, one rifle for every two. He tries to motivate them with shouts and gestures. |
| Under their Commander’s steely gaze, the Germans launch an offensive, beginning with an artillery barrage. | The shells land, exploding all around. The Red Army Commander must physically push his soldiers in the right direction. |
| Cut to: Company of Heroes 2 (logo) Assume the Burden of Command. | |
Launch:
In the launch spot we see the Germans launch an offensive that pushes the Red Army commander back to the Volga river, but through the use of radical tactics, and waves and waves of soldiers, the Red Army commander is able to push back and overrun the German invaders. The beats of this story are:
| Germans Soviets | |
| The German Commander and the Soviet Field Commander are seen in split screen making up one one person-‐ the military tactician. Each commander turns toward the other-‐ German on the Left/West, and the Soviet Commander on the Right/East. | |
| The German Commander in his HQ studies a map, and with his fellow officers, plots an offensive. | The Russian Commander, with his fellow officers, sketches a plan out in the dirt, amid the rubble of a bombed-out Stalingrad. |
| The German Commander reviews his highly disciplined and well outfitted troops aligned in perfect rank and file. | The Red Army commander hands out rifles to a ragtag band of soldiers, one rifle for every two. He tries to motivate them with shouts and gestures. |
| Under their Commander’s steely gaze, the Germans launch an offensive, beginning with an artillery barrage. | The shells land, exploding all around. The Red Army Commander must physically push his soldiers in the right direction. |
| Infantry crowds behind a rapidly moving tank, with cannon and machine gun blazing as they push quickly, and boldly down a Stalingrad street. | The first wave of soldiers is cut down by machine gun fire. The unit is pushed back to the banks of the Volga. The Commander yells for the cowering soldiers to move forward. One coward tries to retreat into the water and the Commander shoots him in the back. The others see this and move reluctantly forward. |
| The German tank blasts a building where several Red Army soldiers have taken refuge. | The Red Army commander releases the collar of a dog, wearing an explosive vest. He makes a beeline for the tank, crawls under it, and explodes. |
| The tank crew climbs out of the disabled vehicle. | The Red Army Commander looks to a
tower overlooking the street and gives a nod. A sniper picks off the tank crew, and |
| takes aim at the German commander. He fires just as a running soldier crosses, intercepting the sniper’s bullet. He reloads, but the German officer escapes harm. | |
| The German Commander is pinned down by the sniper. He orders his men forward but each that raises his head is picked off. | The Red Army Commander sees his opening and launches an offensive. Waves of infantry charge the German position. Led by the Soviet Flag, and the Commander. |
| A German machinegun cuts down many men but cannot stem the tide. The German officer falls back as the machine gun nest is destroyed. | The Red Army charges, many men are cut down. The flag falls and is picked up by another. The Commander motions groups around to flank the machine gun nest. They throw grenades, wiping it out. |
| The German officer is thrown by the grenade blast. He struggles to orient himself, as the Red Army crests the ridge. The Red Army commander fires, killing the German commander, who falls. His glassy eyes stare as the Soviet boots rush past. | The Red Army commander crests the ridge, sees the Nazi commander struggling to stand. He raises his pistol and fires. The officer falls. The Red Army Commander rushes past the officer to the next ridge. |
| A few surviving Germans fall back and escape around the corner, into another city street. The Russians pursue. | The Soviet Commander organizes his men at the corner of a Stalingrad street. He peers around the corner to see a huge German force heading their way. He orders his men into positions along the street. The next battle is about to begin. Freeze Frame. |
| Cut to: Company of Heroes 2 (logo) Assume the Burden of Command. | |
Hidden in the Snow – teaser
This concept focuses on the element of snow and the change of season, a new environment feature of the Company of Heroes 2 game, and emphasizes how it was a major advantage for the Red Army in their defeat of the Germans. We tease the audience with a look from a backwards moving camera at a frozen moment in time.
Fade up from black. We move backwards in z space on a ground full of death, dirt and debris. We can’t see where we are going because the smoky haze is so thick, but orange speckles became luminant in passing. Still pushing back in one continuous move we arrive close up at one Soviet troop’s set of feet advanced in the mud and dirt, still at ground level. He is frozen in time, completely suspended in his action as we continue to pull back in z space.
As we arrive at an opposing set of a German troop’s feet, we only see them from behind and the Soviet’s feet still seen in the distance, the seasons start to change. The color is sucked out of the frame. The mud starts to crackle over with ice. The camera starts to move off the ground as we continue to pull back and reveal the two troops facing off. The snow starts to pick up and everything is iced over.
Time starts again. The Soviet troop charges forward with rage shooting his rifle into the camera and at the German. The German continues to be frozen. He shatters into several explosive icy pieces. Cut to black.
Cut to an iced over Company of Heroes Logo.
Hidden in the Snow – launch spot
This concept focuses on the element of snow and the change of season, a new environment feature of the Company of Heroes 2 game and emphasizes how it was a major advantage for the Red Army in their defeat of the Germans.
We arrive at the apocalyptic city of Stalingrad and the camera travels around at a low ground level view passing quiet rubble mountains and rising smoke. It’s cold as night but the orange touch of the sun has painted itself on every surface. Green still prospered in some areas and the mud was wet. Time is frozen as we move around the landscape. We carousel around atmospheric particles of dwindling fires and broken- down buildings. On the ground, the German Army has viciously advanced on foot and on tanks. The camera circles around them, frozen in their tracks. The camera then travels vertically underground were we find men of the Red Army as they lay hidden in their hand dug earth bunkers under knocked out tanks. A Soviet commander is frozen at the foot of the exit of the bunker, pointing his troops to march out and attack the German offensive with an extended arm and an aggressively militant furrow in his brow
As the camera rises out from under the bunker, time still frozen, it begins to snow lightly. It almost looks like ash from the fire but it starts to pick up rapidly and cover our frozen moment. The green is sucked out of the frame and the orange highlights turned to ice blue. The mud turns to ice and we start to hear the crackling. The seasons are changing and so is the tide of the war.
The moment is covered in white. Time starts again, but only for the Russians. The Russian troops rush out of their earth bunker into the snow only to see the still frozen bodies of their Nazi enemies. Their tank stuck in a frozen pool of regret. The Russians charge into them, shooting their rifles and pistols and the Germans consequently shatter and break into hundreds of icy pieces.
The camera pulls out to a dramatic bird’s eye view of the city of Stalingrad, revealing the Company of Heroes 2 logo lying in the snow.
Eternal Glory – Teaser
We fly through the cold Soviet trenches. The soldiers watch their comrades come back from the battle wounded and exhausted. The camera arrives at a somewhat injured soldier. For his clothes and insignias we realize he is the commander. He as well watches his soldiers running for cover and observes bodies hitting the snow in the distance. He grips his gun tightly, that for a fraction of a second seems to have morphed into a condensed-iron gun. As he turns to see his battalion we hear and see German airplanes above us. He raises his gun, another morphingflash into iron. “For Mother Russia” he shouts.
We pull out to an aerial view as numerous soldiers follow their commander’s lead by climbing out of the trenches into the battlefield.
Cut to: The commander takes the lead in the attack. Shot comrades fall to his sides. As he aims at a target we witness yet another morphing flash. This time the morphdoesn’t only occur to the gun but also to the commander’s hand and uniform. He’s morphing into a steel war memorial. He signals to keep advancing. Another flash.
Take Command. Achieve Glory. Company of Heroes 2.
Eternal Glory – Launch Spot
Every soldier deserves historical recognition but only a few achieve grand distinction. War memorials illustrate the instants of pure bravery and immortalize them in time. This concept focuses around the siege of Stalingrad. The second in Command must take charge and make the decisions that will immortalize his battalion and achieve eternal glory.
POV – We hear heavy breathing. Smoke and fire around us. A bullet hits us and we fall back in slow motion. We see a blurred-out figure kneeling down, checking if we are alive. We hand him our gun with a last breath.
Cut to: The soldier takes the gun from the fallen commander. As he stands up, he shouts to the soldiers to charge. As masses of men and women run towards the hill the camera circles around creating a frozen moment in time and morphing it, for a split second, into a relief war memorial. Some hints left from the past world (not in iron or granite) but real environment.
We morph back to the hyper-real scene, where there is still some pieces left from the memorial (iron grass or granite explosions).
Cut to: A German air strike fast approaches against the summer sun. The commander, next to the rocket launcher gives the order to fire. As the operators load the rocket, we circle around them and see the engraved launcher frozen in time as a memorial alongside the brave soldiers loading the rockets. As we circle through the memorial, a bomb hits the rocket launcher killing the soldiers. We push through the iron fire to land on the snow disoriented. We see bodies falling next to us.
We morph back to reality as two hands pull us back from the line of fire for cover. As we are being dragged back a soldier lays his coat and helmet in top of a dead comrade. We circle around them to morph into a “tomb of unknown soldier” memorial.
Cut to: The commander gives the order to the tanks to advance. A young man climbs the tank and salutes down at the commander who salutes back.
The tank in the thick of battle gets blown out. As we circle around it, it shatters back to morph into the memorial of a young man on top a tank saluting.
Cut to: The commander, in the trenches tries to encourage his battalion, the wounded and the brave. As we circle the scene, we see hints of the memorial this scene will be. As they gear up the commander gives his last order in Russian “For Mother Russia” and exits the trenches. He encounters a German soldier and guns him down. As he is about to give the kill-shot we circle once again and morph into what is a war memorial for our commander.
We circle back into reality; the commander falls to his knees. We circle out to reveal the COH 2 logo engraved in the granite plate.
