Feeling trapped in a dead-end suburban existence, like life has no meaning? Maybe an action-adventure, hack-and-slash, third-person-shooter video game is just what the doctor ordered.
That's the prescription, anyway, in Capcom's crazy new TV commercial for Devil May Cry 5, the latest installment of the franchise—which has been dormant for over a decade.
The TV spot starts out like a commercial for anti-depressants—"Do you struggle to find happiness?" asks the voiceover. "Do you feel like there's something greater for you?"—before veering into a live-action/CGI mix where our glum protagonists are suddenly slicing and shooting up suburbia. Well, that's one way to get the endorphins flowing.
The woman going to town on her fancy countertop with enormous spinning blades is particularly fun to watch—a kind of an anti-HGTV. What would the Property Brothers say about that?
The ad was directed by Lord Danger's Mike Diva, whom you may know from his wonderfully dystopian Halo Top ice cream ad, or his wacky Japanese-inspired videos for the L.A. Metro, or his truly nutso Trump parody ad from the 2016 election, or maybe this satanic Furby spot.
"As a fan of the DMC series, I wanted to create something that really captures the franchise's over-the-top style," says Diva. "We were thrilled when Capcom basically said 'Go for it' and let us go nuts."
"They came to us with an amazing brief—create a trailer for DMC5 without using gameplay footage," Lord Danger founder and EP Josh Shadid says of Capcom. "We enlisted Mike Diva as both creative director and director, and built a team to execute the project entirely in-house, taking full advantage of our 360 model. With projects strained by cost, timing and scope becoming more of the norm, we've found our greatest strength is turning a challenge into an opportunity to make something greater."
"Lord Danger worked closely with our teams in both the U.S. and Japan to craft a stylish and action-packed trailer that helped capture the over-the-top essence of our game while channeling the feeling of being right in the heart of the action," adds Charlene Ingram, director of brand marketing at Capcom USA. "Josh, Mike and the whole team were fantastic, hands-on and collaborative throughout the process. We can't wait to see what people think of the piece they created."
Devil May Cry 5 is getting strong reviews both for the gameplay and the delightful cutscenes. It's available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
CREDITS
Client: CAPCOM
Project: Devil May Cry 5
Title: Something Greater
Creative Production Studio: Lord Danger
Executive Producer: Josh Shadid
Creative Director: Mike Diva
Copywriter: Ryan Hunter Phillips
Director: Mike Diva
Producer: Shyam S. Sengupta
Production Manager: Nathan Israel
Production Coordinator: Marissa Alanis
Director of Photography: Aaron Grasso
Production Designer: Tony Pizza
Stunt Coordinator: Travis Wong
Post Production: POST.LORD (Lord Danger)
Creative Director: Mike Diva
Post Producer: Shyam S. Sengupta
Post Supervisor: Rob Phillips
Offline Editor: Andrew Henry
Lead VFX Artist: Peter France
3D Artist: Calvin Serrano
3D Artist: Olav Bergzvik
3D Artist: Josh Johnson
3D Artist: Ethan Chancer
Compositor: Ethan Chancer and Josh Johnson
Roto Artist: Aaron Nelson Purcell
Music Composer: David Dahlquist and Mike Diva
Sound Mixer: Kevin Senzaki
Post Production Coordinator: Marissa Alanis
Color: Quinn Alvarez (Apache)
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