Going behind scenes of the big-budget video game

Playing Hard captures the pressures and drama of Ubisoft’s For Honor

From his office two blocks away, filmmaker Jean-Simon Chartier watched Ubisoft’s Montreal video game studio grow from a few hundred people to more than 3,000.

And he saw the explosive worldwide growth of the gaming industry.

So Chartier decided to “get inside this fortress and find a story to tell.” He came up with

Playing Hard, the story behind the creation of Ubisoft’s fighting game For Honor. The 90minute film has its world premiere Wednesday at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival.

Playing Hard offers a rare peak under the video game hood, following Ubisoft Montreal creative director Jason Vanden Berghe, producer Stephane Cardin and brand manager Luc Duchaine over four years as their production team on the game grew from fewer than 40 to more than 500.

It documents the stresses of making a so-called triple-A bigbudget title, from the bottomline demands of corporate headquarters in Paris to delivering the game on time.

There is drama inside and outside For Honor, which offers gamers the chance to fight as knights, Vikings and samurai in a world whose “hardy inhabitants eke a living as they can in spite of living in a state of near perpetual war.”

After convincing Ubisoft to let him shoot behind the scenes, Chartier was given the boot eight months into the project with the studio saying some people were uncomfortable by his presence. It took six months to get back inside.

“It was a lot of discussion and developing a trust, relationship with the main characters,” the 44-year-old Chartier said. “They were the ones that helped me with top management.”

Chartier had his own problems, shooting for two-and-ahalf years without financing.

“But I was willing to take the risk because I was expecting something to happen,” he said.

He anticipated drama, given the pressures of producing the game. Also stress, conflict and passion.

“They were all things I was looking for,” he said.

Chartier, whose gaming experience was limited to time spent playing Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong years ago, was more interested in the emo- tions stirred up in making the game than the game itself.

The stress takes its toll on all three protagonists with the film showing them criss-crossing the globe to showcase the game and try to create buzz for its release date.

Vanden Berghe is the tortured visionary who has spent years trying to take the game from inside his head to the consumer. Cardin is the quarterback and quartermaster, tasked with meeting deadlines and satisfying head office. Duchaine is the meticulous marketer, trying to sell the project while agonizing over the time spent away from his family.

Ubisoft had no say in the final product and Chartier says he has yet to hear their thoughts on the project. He says Cardin and Duchaine both thought the film was true to their story.

As for Chartier, he intends to buy a console to get some more hands-on time on gaming.

“But that’s not where I started (this project),” he said. “I started this because I see people around me that are transforming the whole entertainment industry and actually the whole world we live in. And it’s two blocks away.

“I was an opportunist, trying to get into this fortress. But I mean as a human being, as a filmmaker, I’m interested in many many topics. Gaming has become one of them.”

He eventually got some financing from Tele-Quebec for a three-part series on video gaming, combining that with his work on Playing Hard.

Playing Hard is his first feature documentary as a director.

He hopes to find more avenues to showcase the film after Hot Docs, with a digital release slated for the end of the year.