The Story Behind Coinbase's Amazing Oscar Film, 'Your Way Out'

How an instant classic was born

Life’s a game, and sometimes it feels like someone else has the controller. The core idea is a story about leaving the system, one where you don’t have autonomy, to a world where you do.

For “Your Way Out,” which broke on wide on last night’s Academy Awards, the challenge was to make it feel like you’d been dropped into a video game while, at the same time, making sure the audience could feel for our character—and to root for him as he escaped. We liked the idea of a gradual and imperceptible change. So, the work reflected how our protagonist was slowly gaining more control over his existence.

We explored many ways of doing this, but after bringing in director Oscar Hudson, it became clear the best way was to shoot the whole thing for real, in camera, so you could feel the undeniable humanity in our protagonist, even when he was a game character.

This of course became an exciting challenge and the level of detail throughout the production was taken to the next level. The detailing (fabric and lapels) of the suits was printed on to give the 2D effect. Faces were reprinted onto masks to give a low-poly effect. Set design was purposefully pixelated at the perfect size; so, when the camera was at an isometric angle, the visuals became completely game-like.

From a lighting perspective, the world had to be shadowless—which was an unusual and difficult challenge for the gaffer. And finally the extras/NPC’s and our lead character were trained to walk like characters from a game.

All these details and ingredients combined created what felt imperceptible from the visual world of a game to the naked eye. We could then slowly add more “real life” details to the set and the characters as the story evolved, so the transition was felt rather than “seen.”

Here’s a detailed BTS reel: