Case Study
Gameboard 1 : The Last Gameboard
Video, PHOTO & VFX Production
THE ASK
One big issue
What if you combined traditional tabletop gaming with a flat screen touchscreen console that lets all people play together?
This was the innovative startup idea behind The Last Gameboard, founded in 2019 by Shail Mehta, Rob Wyatt, and Tim Schukar. After months of initial hardware prototypes, the team named their prototype GAMEBOARD-1 and decided to generate pre-sales revenue from fans by launching a Kickstarter.
There was one big problem- there was no real working version of GAMEBOARD-1, only a prototype that had to be connected to a PC.
THE APPROACH
Director Pax from MEDIUM Films and Shail Mehta began script development in the very first meeting – why don’t we recreate the feelings you had as a kid of playing with all your friends- but now we flash forward to now playing with your same adult friends now playing on GAMEBOARD-1? We all loved the idea, and we began casting kids and their adult look-alikes.
THE CHALLENGES
Because there wasn’t a real working GAMEBOARD-1 prototype, we had to be very careful to get the user’s screen interaction and gaming just right. To ‘sell’ the shots, they needed accurate reflections, a moving camera, and convincing user interaction with the gameboard. Our VFX team decided to get creative and get all the key shots in our studio – using realistic screen replacements, custom animation, and 3D modeled versions of the gameboard.
THE PRODUCTION
We shot the video in our Boulder studio over a few days, building a retro basement gaming set. The kids ate pizza and drank an incredible amount of soda, and their adult versions drank beers. We tied it all together with a key match shot of a close up of the child’s hand raising a gamepiece, and with no cut – the hand coming down of the adult player. We composited some great shots of gamers playing and after two weeks of post production, the video was ready for their Kickstarter.
THE RESULT
Kickestarter sucess and $6M seed round
The Gameboard-1 Kickstarter project was successfully funded on the first day of its campaign, with 697 backers pledging $185,470.
In the following year, the company raised approximately $6 million in venture capital, began initial production, and released Gameboard-1 to fans across the world. We are happy to be a large part of launching their company and their exciting new fun product.
