Cosplay Shoot – The Witcher / The Last of Us

Cosplayer: @taloncosplay

After working with Tyler (Talon Cosplay) at different conventions for Novastream’s cosplay music videos, we decided to produce content specifically for his cosplays.

I find that the hardest part of filming is locating a place that is safe and ok to film at, more so if the general public is nearby. My first location was fairly public, but during business hours I theorised it would be a lot quieter than any other time. Unfortunately, that space had become very popular for picnics and strolls during Covid.

It wasn’t until I discussed the idea with a neighbour that they shared an even quieter location that their sister used for a high school project. I scouted the location not long later and found it perfect. So, to save time on the actual shoot, I took care of the B-roll then, and decided on a pocket in the trees, near a lake, for when I filmed with Tyler.

The day of the shoot started with Tyler’s ‘Joel’ cosplay from The Last of Us. It was a tag-on project, with nothing planned beyond shooting some quick location shots. During our discussion of this cosplay, we decided to create something game-like, but also set before the player gets to see Joel in the first video game. I used my GoPro for this shoot and liked how the slight fisheye added to the video game feel.

Tyler had been more adventurous than I was on the original scouting, and he found a pocket in the trees with wooden chairs. You can see in the video that we had to cross a low, dam wall to get there.

We had aimed for a continuous shot, but there wasn’t a gradual connection between the wall and the bank. So, when I looked over the footage, I noticed the camera wobbled too much for my liking when I stepped across the large stones. But I really liked how it progressed, and paired with the music I think we produced something simple but powerful.

The second project we filmed that day involved a lot more planning. This was Geralt from The Witcher. Tyler’s cosplay is a mix of the game version and Henry Cavill’s, which gave us some creative freedom from lore. Personally, I am only familiar with the Netflix series and developed the storyboards accordingly.

Whenever I approach a project like this, I try and see if I can insert a touch of humour and whether or not doing that would be appropriate. We initially tried to bring in a Jaskier cosplayer for the final surprise, but weren’t able to. However, I used a lot of ADR in these two projects and used the soundscape to tell the story I couldn’t show.

Luckily, my brother has down a lot of acting and was willing to step in as Jaskier.

Another element to The Witcher project were the effects. I have a mutual friend named Robert that I met during my Anakin Vs Mara Jade shoot. His job on that project was above and beyond what I was after, and so it was a simple decision to call him in again for this video.

As with all my projects, I’ve used stock music from Soundstripe. Every sound library is limited by what they offer, but I’ve witnessed this company grow from music to videos and SFX. I highly recommend them.

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