If you've been patiently waiting for a more grown up screen adaptation of a legendary video game then your wait could be over. Joey Ansah and co-director Owen Trevor at Streetlight Films, working closely with Prime Focus, have created a short film titled Street Fighter: Legacy which pays homage to the game, but from a more serious view point. The film debuted online at Collider.com on 6 May and the two teaser trailers on YouTube were viewed over 800 thousand times in the week building up to it, receiving hugely positive feedback from fans around the world.Actor and stuntman Joey Ansah, famous for playing 'Desh', the assassin in The Bourne Ultimatum, decided the time was right for a different type of film version of Street Fighter. Streetlight repped Australian director Owen Trevor came on board to co-direct the film with his experience and strong visual flair carried forward from shooting on three series of the acclaimed Top Gear. Co-writing with Christian Howard, Joey also choreographed all the fight sequences. It was posted at Prime Focus.
The film brings the much-loved game to life in what Joey describes as “a love letter to the fans and the brilliance of the game.” The team behind it have made every effort to ensure all the details are as faithful to the original as possible, including the costumes, choreography, narrative, music and the cherished special moves.
Prime Focus was tasked with bringing these legendary special moves such as the 'Hadouken' and 'Dragon Punch' into a real life environment during post. The producer at Streetlight Films, Jacqueline Quella said: “We chose Prime Focus as we were impressed by their work for other clients and because they shared our excitement and vision of our project. They really went that extra mile and their whole team was really enthusiastic! My two directors Joey Ansah and Owen Trevor found Prime Focus creative, responsive and extraordinarily helpful. We’re delighted with the work they’ve delivered.”
Creator and co-director Joey Ansah said: “The Prime Focus team responded very well to detailed notes, nuances and specific modifications to certain effects making them as awesome as possible and also making sure the look was as faithful to the source material as possible. I can't wait to get stuck into another passion project with them in the future.” Co-director Owen Trevor added: “It was rewarding to work with a team of animators, compositors, graders and VFX artists that had genuine passion for the project and whose creativity resulted in such stunning work. Everyone at Prime Focus gave their all to create something amazing in a limited timeframe and tight budget.”
Senior animator Andi Farhall worked in XSI and After Effects to turn the essential 2D effects from the game into 3D elements. Andi described the process as: “Tricky. A bit like trying to paint with a pencil!” He added: “Dealing with the speed ramping was problematic as the Hadouken had to be in realtime against backplates of varied speeds. To achieve this we established a best case 'frames per second' base for each effect shot by trial and error between 3D and 2D, and then the final 3D renders were produced at a quarter of the chosen frame rate and four times over length which allowed 2D to fine tune the speed on a per shot basis. I also constructed a specific tool to allow me to change the frame rate of the simulated part of the scene independent of the general refresh rate of the scene.”
VFX work was completed in Flame by Rob Ellis. “The main things for us to focus on were the Hadouken fire balls and the fists of fire,” said Rob. “Phil Hurrell, the creative director on the project had gone on the shoot, where as well as shooting the fire elements, he had done some nice interactive lighting for the ‘Hadoukens’. The fun part was to create lighting on the character that looked like it was coming off the ball and the flickers of electricity are actually interacting with his skin so he’s being lit by the ball as well as creating the ball itself. When we got the first Hadouken to work there was a real adrenalin rush as it looked so good.”
On-line, VFX and title work was completed in Smoke by Sunil Rao who said: “The major challenge was transferring the feel of a computer game to live action which has proved so difficult in the past. What they have created is in line with a gamer's perspective and it was really enjoyable to work on as I shared their passion.”
The film was graded by Vic Parker and post produced by executive producer, Pierre Fletcher-Gray.
Credits
Project: Street Fighter: Legacy
Production company: Streetlight Films
Directors: Joey Ansah, Owen Trevor
Writers: Joey Ansah, Christian Howard
DoP: Chris Sabogal
Executive producers: Adrian Harrison, Anthony Waye, Paul Street
Producer: Jacqueline Quella,
Co-producers: Kwok Yau, Phil Tidy
Post production: Prime Focus
VFX supervisor: Phil Hurrell
Telecine: Vic Parker
Flame: Rob Ellis
Smoke: Sunil Rao, Ian Baker
3D: Andi Farhall, Andy McNamara
VFX post executive producer: Pierre Fletcher-Gray