Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #868: Magic Showcase 2021 Video

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

I went to Los Angeles to shoot the video announcing the products of 2022. This podcast tells the story of my trip.

I'm not pulling my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Coronavirus edition. Okay, so today is a story about me leaving my house. So there was something we did called the MTG Showcase Video, where we showed off magic in 2022. Hopefully a lot of you have seen it. magic in 2022. Hopefully a lot of you have seen it. But today's podcast is the story behind the scenes of the making of the video, at least from my perspective, because I was involved in the making of the video. And so I want to sort of just tell the story. So I actually got on a plane, all masked up and everything, and went to Los Angeles. So I'm going to talk about, so let me go back to the beginning and talk about sort of how I even learned Los Angeles. So I'm going to talk about... So let me go back to the beginning

and talk about sort of how I even learned about it. So there is a woman named Liz who is in charge of marketing. And it has been her dream to do a video that talks about all the future, the whole next year. And Liz has been working for many years to try to make this come true.

And we keep getting closer and closer. And I think this year was sort of the dream of what Liz had imagined, where it was like, here's everything we're doing in 2022. And so I had heard that we were doing this. And so I knew that we were going to be announcing Unfinity, which is near and dear to my heart, and so I wanted to be involved.

I had done, we had made a video when we first showed off Throne of Eldraine, if you guys remember the cookie-making video, which I also went down to Los Angeles, and I think I also made a podcast about that trip anyway I had had a lot of fun with that and that was the first time where we sort of talked about what the major sets that were coming up the next year and so

I sort of sent a note off to Liz and I said hey Liz I would love to be involved with this and in particular the thing I'm most excited is being involved with talking about Unfinity. So for those, real quickly, I'm just a little behind on Unfinity, is Unstable came out. It did very well. I think it got to four printings or four reprintings.

And anyway, I was told, for the first time ever, an unset came out, and what I was told is, we should make another unset. I'd never had that happen before. Well, not true. Unglued, they said we should make another unset, and Unglued 2 got put on hiatus a year later. But anyway, so I was tasked with doing this, and so what happened was, tasked with doing this. And so what happened was I went to Aaron Forsyth, my boss, and I said, I would like to do something that has not been done before. I would like to lead the unset, Infinity, from the very beginning, from exploratory design, all the way through set design to the very end. And normally I don't do set design. I don't not as much in my

skill set. You know, I play design and balance are not something I'm particularly good at. But this isn't on set. You know, there's the play design aspect of it is not as high, and there's some. And so what Aaron said to me, he goes, okay, you can do this, but all I ask is that

make sure you listen to your play designer. And so I had said to me, he goes, okay, you can do this, but all I ask is that make sure you listen to your play designer. And so I had two very good play designers. It swapped about halfway through the making of the set. But anyway, I had been, I and also Chris Mooney, by the way, both of us had been on the set from the very beginning all the way to the very end. And so I was super invested in this product. I worked a lot of time on it. And for anybody that knows me and knows my love of Unsets, I just, you know, this is my baby, so I really,

really wanted to announce it. I was fine announcing other things as well. I said to Liz that I, whatever you wanted me to do, I really wanted to announce Infinity, but whatever else we could do, that would be great. And I put that out in the ether and sent her a note.

Now Liz is very busy, and so it was like, I don't know her a note. Now, Liz is very busy. And so it was like, I don't know, a couple weeks later, Liz was like, okay, could you go to Los Angeles in whatever, the second week in August? And I was like, sure. And then I wrote back and I go, so what exactly would I be doing in the video? What would I be talking about? And she wrote back, she goes, infinity. And I go, yes. So I be doing in the video? What would I be talking about? And she wrote back, she goes, Infinity? And I go, yes.

So, I was very excited. Now, one of the things I should sort of explain is having done a bunch of these videos. So, when we make a video, we work with like professional, a production company. And the reason is Los Angeles is the production company we're working reason it's Los Angeles is the production company we're working with is in Los Angeles

and it's easier to take the talent, as they call us, the people who are in it, which is just a few people, fly them down than it is to take all the technical stuff and bring it up to Seattle. It's just easier to shoot down in Los Angeles. For example, when I did the cookie video

for Throne of Eldrin, that was also down in Los Angeles. So, for example, when I did the cookie video for Throne of Eldrin, that was also down in Los Angeles. So I've been to LA for numerous of these videos. So anyway, I said I was all excited and I would be happy to go. Now, what happened was we live in the time of COVID. And so one of the first things that came up was that there was a whole bunch of like, the entire video was being shot under COVID guidelines.

So one of the things that meant is before I went down to Los Angeles, I needed to have a COVID test. Now I've been vaccinated, to Los Angeles, I needed to have a COVID test. Now, I've been vaccinated, but in order to walk onto the floor of

the production company to shoot the video, within a 70-hour window of walking in, I had to have a negative COVID test. And so, what happened was a short story, it's kind of funny. So, they gave us a website, and that website, we were supposed to find places.

And so I went through the website and I found a place and then I was all set up. Like, so I was, I had to go down there on, I went down on Monday night. I shot on Tuesday. So that meant that I had to have my tests, like I couldn't do it any other than Saturday. Tuesday. So that meant that I had to have my test, like I couldn't do it any other than Saturday. And so the place that I was supposed to take the test contacted me. I set up an appointment for Saturday afternoon and they contacted me, I think Saturday morning. And it was, it was like a comedy of errors. Like the place that I had gone didn't do testing except if you had symptoms well obviously I didn't have

symptoms I was testing precautionary so I could do the video and I was trying to explain to this woman on the phone that like no I don't think I'm sick in fact I think I'm not sick I need this for work I need to prove this and just for the kind of clinic it was or something

like they just they couldn't do it because like that clinic I need to prove this. And just for the kind of clinic it was or something, like they just, they couldn't do it. Because I like, that clinic only gave you a test if you had shown symptoms of having COVID, which obviously I didn't. And so I like, okay, well, I have to get the test sometime during the weekend because I was leaving on Monday. And so I start trying to find somewhere else to get it.

But at this point, enough time has gone by that nothing, everything is filled up. So luckily, I have a number of a person. One of the things we do when we film is there's a company we work with that like handles all the COVID preparations. And so I had a person to call. And so I said, help me, please. I don't know, like, I, the place that I was told to sign up now won't give me a COVID test. And I have this narrow window that I have to take the COVID test. And so this person I worked with digitally spent, I don't know, a couple hours trying to find a place to send me. And in the end, somebody came to my house.

So a couple hours later, there was a knock on my door. Somebody, like, I put my mask on. They had their mask on. I had my mask off because they had to my house. So there, there was a couple hours later, there was a knock on my door. Somebody like, uh, I put my mask or I had, they had their mask on. I had my mask off cause they had to test me. Uh, and they, you know, they put a, a little Q-tip on both noses and for 10 seconds each or something. And anyway, I got tested negative. Um, and so I was allowed to then travel to Los Angeles. Um, okay. So, so, the next thing is I get a letter from Barry, one of the people who's organizing this.

Actually, it was from Barry or from Liz. And so they said to me, how do you feel about wearing an astronaut suit? So to explain this, let me go back a little bit on a little of the history of Unfinity and me

not Infinity, sorry, Unsets and me so many years ago back in 1998 we were going to go to the very first Unsets had been made, Unglued and I was going to premiere it at Gen Con and so we were in a room

brainstorming about what we could do to make this sort of a fun event. Because obviously the unsets are all about, you know, casual play and just doing fun, goofy things and laughing and stuff. And so we were doing a brainstorming session. We were just writing things up on the board.

And I was going to head judge the event. And so I said, okay, what if I head judge the event dressed as a chicken? Because there was a chicken theme in Unglued. And, like, everybody just stopped brainstorming, just said, oh, that's it. Okay, we're doing that. And, like, it was just me sort of, like, here's a possible idea to, okay, this is what's happening with, like, about 30 seconds. But anyway, I was game.

I said, okay, this is what's happening with like about 30 seconds. But anyway, I was game. I said, okay. And so before I went there, we actually got the chicken suit here in Seattle. And I wore the chicken suit. I think I wore it for all days of Gen Con. The chicken suit, by the way, was dusty. And I got a lot of dust in my lungs and I ended up getting sick.

But for my art. But anyway, I dressed as a chicken and it went over very well and Unglued had a great pre-release event at Gen Con. Okay, so flash forward for Unhinge, which was 2006, I believe. Or 2004, six years later. 2004.

So Unhinge had a donkey theme, so I was going to go do the pre-release at SoCal Gen Con. Gen Con had a Southern California version of it at that time. And so I said, okay, I'll dress up like a donkey. So I did. Then for Unstable, the pre-release was basically the pre-pre-release that Loading Ready Run does,

and I had never done a Loading Ready Run pre-pre-release before, but of course I was going to do Unstable. So I show up, and I think it was Graham said to me, oh, just as a side note, are you okay wearing a squirrel costume? And I go, sure, and then he pulls out side note, are you okay wearing a squirrel costume? And I go, sure. And then he pulls out a squirrel costume.

So I wore a squirrel costume for Unstable. So anyway, clearly there's been an establishment that Mark has to dress up in something silly whenever there's a set. So Unfinity has, so for those that don't know, real quickly, Unfinity is a retro science fiction space carnival slash amusement park slash circus world. It's a top-down. Really what I wanted to do, like every time I make

an unset, I want to take some way we make normal magic sets and do an unversion of it. So for example, Unstable had been me doing a faction set. That's a popular thing that Magic does. So I said, oh, I really want to do a top-down set. So I wanted to find a theme that was something that sort of the rest of Magic wasn't going to do. And the idea of going into a different genre was kind of cool. Going into sort of sci-fi was fun. And then I think we first said, could we do a circus? And said, oh, that's not big enough. Well, could we do a circus slash carnival? Not quite big enough. How about a circus slash carnival slash amusement park? Okay, big enough.

And so we, anyway, I can't get too much into the set because it's not out yet. But we did a top-down set. Imagine things that would be in a circus or amusement park or a carnival. Most of them are there. But anyway, so it had a theme. It had a space theme because the carnival literally is like, it's called the Astratorium. It's, what is it?

Myra the Magnificent's Intergalactic Astratorium of Fun. And it moves, it literally is like a giant ship that moves from place to place. So like the whole Astrotarium will move from one solar system to a different solar system, one planet to a different planet. But anyway, it had a space theme. So I get an email from

Barry or Liz, or maybe Barry and Liz, saying about, oh, are you okay wearing a spacesuit? Well, I mean, I dress like a chicken and a donkey and a squirrel, so, of course, I was game to wear a spacesuit. So I said, okay, fine. I'll wear a chicken and a donkey and a squirrel. So of course I was game to be, uh, to wear a spacesuit. So I said, okay, fine. I'll wear a spacesuit. No problem. Okay. So let's not. So I, I, I did all the rigmarole. I got tested. Uh, it's time for me to go down to Los Angeles.

So the way the shoot worked was the shoot was sort of an all day thing. Um, and so they asked that you fly down the night before and leave the day after and then there's lots of flexibility when you get used and we don't get used and so i flew in monday night um and then i i got to the hotel i met up with everybody so they the the shoot was a two-day shoot so a bunch of people shot on monday and then a bunch of people shot on Monday and then a bunch of people shot on Tuesday. Aaron Forsyth, my boss, and Jess were the two main sort of people speaking. And then there were three hosts, which were Jimmy and Becca and Joe. And I think Joe was just shooting the first day and Becca was just shooting the second day.

And Jimmy was doing the most. He was both days. So, uh, I think, I think Jimmy and Aaron and Jess were the three that shot both days. I was on the second day. Um, so when I got in, uh, we went out to dinner. Um, if you want a little a little sample of a very Mark Rosewater moment in time. So we go to dinner and everyone's having fun and so we're going around the table ordering drinks and everybody's ordering these very elaborate

alcoholic drinks and they get to me and I ordered a glass of ice so that my water could be cold. So that's a very Mark Rosewater moment. Anyway, so the night before we went out and we chatted and we went to a restaurant and all the employees that were there and we had a real fun dinner and talked about all sorts of things. I haven't had a lot of chance.

Like, most of the last year and a half, I've been on Teams we use, not Zoom, but Microsoft Teams is what we use to talk. And so like most of the people I'm seeing, I'm seeing over a video screen. So it's just really nice to see people actually like in person and talk to them. And then after dinner,

like a couple of us walked back and anyway, it was really fun. And it was just nice to like actually, it was my really first time on a plane in forever, interacting with people. I mean, there was a lot of precautions, talking and everything, obviously, but it was still nice to sort of just get out there. So anyway, the night before, we go out and have a nice dinner. Okay, so then it turns out that I am one of the first things shooting on Tuesday when I get my call sheet. So one of the things,

for those that have never done a video shoot, what happens is they send you what's called a call sheet, which says what times you need to be there and when they expect you to be shooting. And then, like, sometimes, there's what we call sides, which is your script.

So, like, you have to, so my script, by the way, basically said it wrote out I think what my section was with Jimmy and Becca and it wrote out the questions that Jimmy asked and the questions that Becca asked and then whenever it would get to me

it would just say Mark talks basically what they discovered having shot with me a lot is I know my material really well I'm good at sort of saying what I need to say and it's just easier just like I'll say the right thing and usually they'll do a couple

takes but they don't tend to give me scripts as much as they give me outlines like here are the points you have to hit. Here are the things that are important that you say. And then usually what I do if I do a couple takes I'll do a couple different versions of it so like they give a little flexibility what they want to use. So, like, I'll try.

I'll hit the same bullet points in both versions. But I'll just do it a little bit differently to give them a little bit of flexibility. So, anyway. Okay. So, I have an early morning call. They actually sent a car to pick me up in the morning. There was one car that just went back and forth all day between the hotel and the shooting studio.

So I get there, and then I'm given my own... I get my own dressing room that rotates during the day. Oh, I mean, also, I get there, and there's, like, my temperature gets checked, and there's infinite... A lot of precautions for those... If anything, I do want to stress, a lot of precautions. If anything, I do want to stress a lot of precautions were taken to make sure that this was an optimal video.

So anyway, I get to my dressing room and so they actually have five different astronaut costumes for me, I believe. Four or five. I had, there was four. There was an orange, an orange sort of astronaut jumpsuit. There was a blue one. There was a silver one that was like metallic.

And there was a white one. And so I tried each of them on. And the other thing was, the plan had always been that I was going to wear my flannel over the astronaut suit. I'm known for wearing flannels. Some people don't know that. And so they thought it would be a fun touch. They actually got a flannel.

They got a larger flannel because the worry at first was it might not fit. But I brought down a bunch of my flannels. And so I tried on each of the four suits. And then with each suit, I tried on their flannel and the three flannels I bought. And we took pictures of all of that. One of the things they often do is, you'll pose and stuff, they'll take pictures because

Liz and the other producers and stuff had to figure out what they liked best, and so I took a bunch of pictures. So they ended up, Liz ended up picking the white space suit with the red flannel, I believe. One of my flannels. I brought a red flannel and I believe. One of my flannels. I brought a red flannel and a purple flannel

and a blue flannel. All colorful stuff. And then the last piece for my costume was a helmet. I had to have a space helmet. An astronaut helmet. So for that they'd actually gone to a prop house to get me... So it's actually

like a glass helmet and it can click open so you can open up the glass. But anyway, when I'm given the helmet, the person who's the wardrobe person says to me, okay, just a warning. When we were given this helmet, we

were told, don't let your person wear it too long, otherwise the carbon monoxide will build up and they could faint. They can collapse. So I go, okay, good to know. So when you say too much, what is too much? And she's like, well, they didn't say just too much.

So I'm like, okay, is too much like 10 minutes? Is it a minute? So I was very cautious all day. I did have to Is it a minute? Like, you know, so I was very cautious all day. I did have to wear it a bunch of times, but I made sure never to wear it too long so that I didn't collapse or anything. So safety, safety was taken. So anyway, I go and I get dressed.

Oh, then once I get dressed, there's hair and makeup. But once again, we had all these precautions and everything. But I go and I get my makeup done. I get my skin done. They have to put all the foundation on you. And then make sure my hair looks good.

And then, obviously, we picked out the wardrobe. So anyway, I get all ready. My hair is done. My makeup is done. And I get on set. And so it's me and Jimmy and Becca. my makeup's done. Um,

and I get on set. And so it's me and Jimmy and Becca. Um, even though if you watch the video, uh, the two of them leave, uh, Jess and Aaron to come talk to me, but because I'm never in the shot with Jess and Aaron,

Jess and Aaron weren't there. Even though like in the sort of the system that's going on, I was near them, but I was never in the shot together. So we weren't, that was shot separately. Um, so what happened was, um, we what happened was we did two takes.

The funny thing is I think they budgeted an hour and a half or two hours. They budgeted a lot of time with me, and I did it very quickly. So we got done at the end of the day. I and I think Mark Hagen both went much, much faster than they expected. So our day ended quickly. I mean, it was a long day, but it ended shorter than it would have normally. So anyway, I went and I did my scene. And I, we shot it, I think two times. And then we did what we call pickups where they asked me specifically, could you say this line again? Or could you,

you didn't really clearly say this thing or, you know, I think I had not at one point clearly mentioned when it was coming out, so they had to pick up on me saying when it was coming out. But anyway, I shot all that, and it was fun, and Jimmy and Becca were great, and it was fun goofing around with them. I don't know if it'll be outtakes or not.

We definitely were very silly in some of our takes, so maybe it'll be outtakes at some point. Then, I had to go back, and I had to, you know, take off my stuff. And then I put my... Oh, while we were performing, when we weren't on camera, we went from having masks to having these, like, visors

that cover your whole face that are clear. Because once you have your makeup on, you don't want to mess up your makeup. So when we're on camera, we take the visors off. But as soon as the camera stops rolling, we put the masks back on. So once again, super safe. And then, when I was done,

I sat and watched other people do their takes. Aaron and Jess had done some on the first day, but they'd done some on the second day. And there was a lot to get through. I was talking about one thing that I'd been working on for years, which I knew backward and forward.

Aaron and Jess were talking about many, many, many things, the majority of which they weren't directly involved in. And so they had a lot more scripts to memorize and stuff, and there was a lot going through remembering this, remembering that. And then what happened was all the producers sort of sit behind the cameras.

You know, they're back in the area where there's a bunch of screens. And they watch and they talk to themselves and take notes. And then they'll talk with the director and say, oh, can we try this take again? Or can you ask them to do such and such? And then the director will, you know, if they need something different, we'll do that. And then I was able to sort of sit back and watch that. And it's a lot of fun. It's, um, so a little behind the scenes thing.

I think the set we had used had originally been for Strixhaven. Um, but because of COVID, it got canceled. And so we didn't end up doing the Strixhaven video. And then they were going to use it for some other video. And that got nixed as well. So this was the third time we tried to use it. And going to use it for some other video, and that got nixed as well. So this was the third time we tried to use it, and ultimately did use it. You will notice in the background, by the way,

all the mana symbols are there, but it is not in straight Wooburg order. It was in order. Each color symbol was next to the color that it's next to. I think the way it went was... It was red, green, white, blue, black is how it was. Real quickly, just a little behind-the-scenes thing. I think in the very beginning when we used to do it,

we actually used to do it in Woburg. But they always would put the black mana symbol center. And the black mana symbol is the kind of mana symbol that, like, in context is fine. It's a fun mana symbol center. And the black mana symbol is the kind of mana symbol that, like, in context is fine. It's a fun mana symbol. But when it's the one you see because it's center, it usually skews things a little bit. So we tend to like putting the white mana symbol

in the center. So if you'll notice when we do sets, we often will do red, green, white, blue, black. Once again, it is in Mooborg order. I mean, it's not starting with white, but I mean, it is, each letter, each color is next to the two colors that it's, you know, in the circle with. Anyway, I was trying to think of other behind-the-scenes

stuff. So we shot a bunch of, like I said, two days worth of stuff, and then what happens is we shot it, I shot it on August, I think, 10th, and the video was August 24th, so it's two weeks later. So two weeks from the day that I was there, it went up for you all to see, which is a very tight turnaround for those that don't know post-production. So what post-production

means is once we shoot the raw video, it has to go to an editor that's going to edit it all together. And, you know, we do lots and lots of different scenes and lots and lots of different takes, and so there's a lot of work that goes condensing all that down. So I think when it all was said and done, it was close to an hour. There were a lot of moving segments, a lot of moving parts, and, I mean, hats off to Liz and Barry and all the people that worked on getting this together.

It is a very complex thing, doing a video of this size in nature. I mean, I just, literally, I came on, did my one little part, my one little section that I knew cold because I've been working on it forever. But it was fun. And just seeing all the things come together and watching all the components of it to me is always exciting. And watching all the components of it to me is always exciting. I'll be happy when we're out of COVID times, when doing the video doesn't require as much hoop jumping as it did. But it was fun.

And like I said, I had not been to my house. That was the first time I'd been on a plane since COVID began back in March of 2020. So, you know, over a year, a few months later, finally I had to be able to go somewhere. Anyway, so I watched for the rest of the day. They shot a lot of different scenes. And behind the scenes, it's fun just to chat with everybody. And like I said, in fact, one of the real interesting things, I can't give the details here, but

Jess and I were backstage or, like, in the green room, waiting and we're just sort of chatting, and we ended up talking about an upcoming set, and we came up with an idea that I think might actually change how a set works. Like, a pretty big idea that Jess and I had

that, like, I think is going to change how some upcoming... So, like, us just sort of in the background talking, because Jess, by the way, they don't know, oversees sort of all the production

and the creative team and, you know, in Studio X, she's been part of sort of the technical, creative side of things. Anyway, so, you know,

while we were commencing behind the scenes, actual work got done, so that was cool. I promise when we get to the point where that thing happens, if that thing is still true, I will tell you about it. But it is for a set you don't know exists in the future. So that's not too much I can say about it yet. It was also fun.

I always have a blast with Jimmy. Jimmy and I have done numerous things, some of which I've done podcasts on. I did a Game Nights with him. I went down and did a Make-A-Wish thing with Jimmy and Josh. Jimmy and Josh

have come. I've done a bunch of videos with him. Jimmy was the host of the event we did for Kaladesh. And him. Like, Jimmy was the host of the event we did at for Kaladesh. And I don't know. Jimmy and I have done infinite things together.

But it's always fun. It's fun to see Jimmy. And so that was a blast. I met Becca for the first time. I had not met Becca before. We knew of each other obviously, but we hadn't met. And then Joe didn't shoot my day, but I did meet Joe at dinner the night before, even though Joe wasn't shooting the my day, but I did meet Joe at dinner the night before, even though Joe wasn't shooting the second day.

So I did meet all the hosts. I mean, Jimmy and I already knew. I'm trying to think of any other final things. I can see my desk here, so as we're wrapping up. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you, like, it was Liz's dream to sort of announce the future a whole year at a time, and it finally came to fruition. So I'm really interested to see what people think of that.

In general, people seem to be positive about it. A lot of times on my blog, I'm getting like individual feedback about individual things. But I really thought the video was a lot of fun. And I really enjoyed my part. I thought it came out really well. And it is... It was... Oh, the other interesting thing behind the scenes is

I did spend some time talking about what art to show. We ended up picking... The piece of art we did was the art that I think is being used on the box, I think. But it had a lot of Easter eggs in it. And so we thought it would be a fun thing to show you so you guys can look and see, Ooh, is this part of the set? Is that part of the set? What's going on? What is this? What is that?

But anyway, I hope you guys I'm super excited. I mean, I can't talk much about Infinity just yet. Once I can, there will be podcasts aplenty. Like I said, I worked on it from the very, very first moment we worked on it to the very, very end.

And there's not a lot of sets that I've worked on from very beginning to very end, and none of which I was in charge of the whole time. So, um, this is... I've had more influence on this set than any set ever in Magic History, so, um, very exciting, and I do want to talk about it, but we can't yet. Anyway, that's it for this video.

The video was a blast. I hope you guys... If you haven't seen it yet, it's on YouTube. It is called the MTG Showcase 2021, I believe is its official name. But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about it. I hope this was

a little more, a little less magic-y and a little more talking about other stuff, but I've been told by people it's fun to have podcasts where I go in slightly different directions.

So anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed hearing all about it. But I can see my desk. So we all know what that means. It means this is the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.