So my friend went to the 2.5 casting call (and told me somethings)

[nlh0012 39]

And while this is in no way shape or form official, I got a few comments out of her about the event (via skype). (Her tumblr)

 

Skypillar:Anyway the takeaway is that the promo video is basically going to be a reaction video within a reaction video

Skypillar:they filmed all of our reactions in groups of 2-3 of answering questions like "what does Kingdom Hearts mean to you?", "what has it taught you about friendship?", etc. They're gonna cut together the best of those answers, then show the video to the dev team in Japan and film THEIR reactions to OUR reactions and then put all that together into one video

Skypillar:they didn't make us sign anything so I think it's OK to talk about it

Skypillar:also Square had an official Kingdom Key made just for this event (I think there are only like 2 or 3) and it wasn't even part of the shoot, they just let us play with it and take pictures

Skypillar:so I have a couple pics of me holding it but OF COURSE I also got one of some dude stabbing me with it and extracting my heart

Skypillar:the actual filming bit only took like 5 minutes but it was SO FUN to be there and just talk to people and hang out

Skypillar:they made me repeat the fact that I flew a thousand miles to be at the event so maybe that one line will make it in, haha

Skypillar: anyway the only bad part is that my camera crapped out so I have almost no pictures

Skypillar:but they would just be of people standing around anyway since we couldn't film inside the actual shooting studio

Skypillar:only outside

Skypillar:, it was so fun and now there's like a 1% chance that Nomura himself might hear about how many feels KH has given me

Skypillar:I forget exactly what the first question was that they asked me but my answer boiled down to "KH has given me a lot of reasons to laugh BUT MOSTLY REASONS TO CRY"

Skypillar:we were in front of a green screen and they said that the background will be game footage, footage of the Disney parks, etc

Skypillar:anyway they didn't say when the final vid would be out but apparently it will be on Kotaku and IGN and all that jazz

Skypillar:I was really impressed with how many people were able to grab the Keyblade and IMMEDIATELY do perfect versions of all the characters' battle poses

 

I edited out my responses to her comments so if this seems a little disjointed that's why.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Dragoncat

[Philip Ellwell 5,487]

Sounds not worth it, in my opinion. 

[WishingStar 6]

It actually sounds awesome to me! ^^ They are lucky fellows~!

[OmegaForte 1,674]

Sounds like fun, coming from me who wouldn't want to get interviewed. I'd be satisfied just taking a picture with the official keyblade. (Even though I did before, except I have a terrible pose with it)

[Sora96 17,256]

Featured~ http://kh13.com/news/impressions-photos-from-square-enix-nas-casting-call-for-a-community-kingdom-hearts-hd-25-remix-promotional-video

[nlh0012 39]

O_o part of me hoped that would happen but I didn't think it actually would.

Just for the recordThis is my friend's tumblr (she actually has some really entertaining kingdom hearts related posts on there)

And here's a post saying that she plans on doing a proper write-up eventually

...also she gave out these to a handful of crew members

And she still has plenty of them last I checked

[Sora96 17,256]

O_o part of me hoped that would happen but I didn't think it actually would.

Just for the recordThis is my friend's tumblr (she actually has some really entertaining kingdom hearts related posts on there)

And here's a post saying that she plans on doing a proper write-up eventually

...also she gave out these to a handful of crew members

And she still has plenty of them last I checked

 

Please let me know once she has done a proper write-up, I'll add it to our article.

[nlh0012 39]

Okay she wrote a proper write-up.LinkNote: It's rather in-depth and because of that a bit on the long side. KH Video Shoot Recap

Finally sat down today and wrote a quick recap of the KH video shoot from Saturday. This is just my experience, so it doesn’t give a complete picture, but I did the best I could!OK, quick background: casting call went out on Saturday, I applied for kicks never imagining I’d get picked, got a congratulatory email Wednesday evening with a liability waiver and instructions on how to get down to the studio. After making sure I was awake and that this was actually happening, I spent Wednesday night and all of Thursday making arrangements in between work, and Friday morning hopped on a plane to Los Angeles. Hung out with a friend all day Friday, had breakfast with her on Saturday morning, and then about noon I headed up to Disney Studios in Burbank for the shoot.My confirmation email had said to be there at 2:30, but I arrived an hour early to make sure I could get checked in and whatnot. A Square rep checked people in and took everybody’s waivers, and to my surprise, he said it was all right to take pictures of everything, except for inside the actual set where we’d be shooting. They didn’t have any nondisclosure waivers or anything else like that, either, which surprised me a bit.There weren’t that many people there initially—probably only two or three dozen, milling around in the tree-lined street in front of the Hyperion Building, which was right by the entrance gate and the Buena Vista rooms we’d be shooting in. One of the staff members had an official Kingdom Key prop that we got to take pictures with, which was really cool; apparently there are only two or three of these in the world, one each for events in Japan, Europe, and North America. The guy actually laughed (in a nice way!) when I got to hold it, because he said my face lit up the second I walked up and saw it. I haven’t been to a con or similar event in eight or nine years, so I’ve never seen any kind of KH cosplay or prop before, except in pictures. I guess I looked like a kid at Christmas!There were tables and chairs underneath umbrellas outside the building we were going to shoot at, so most people gravitated to those and fell to talking in small groups, me included. Like I said above, I haven’t been to a con in a very long time, plus I don’t have any non-online friends who care about KH, so sitting and talking to flesh-and-blood people about boss fights, Keyblades, and KH3 hopes was a brand-new and very cool experience. One thing that surprised me was how many guys were there; I would have thought there’d be a 50/50 gender ratio, but it was more like two guys for every girl. I guess that makes sense, but it just so happens that for me personally, almost all my KH fandom acquaintances are women, so it still took me by surprise a bit.As we got closer to two o’clock, more and more people showed up. Two o’clock came and went, and then we heard that they’d have to delay shooting for twenty or thirty minutes, which was fine by me, since I was having so much fun talking to people. But eventually they called my group, and we lined up in number order along the side of the building, outside the side entrance to the studio room.To speed up the filming and make sure they got everyone, they took people in groups of 2-3, rather than filming every single person one by one. So when my number was called, me and the girl behind me went in together. Two guys ahead of us in line were still filming, and we lined up along the wall, waiting our turn.The set itself was a green screen mounted at the far end of the studio with a camera pointed at it. There were a couple of wooden pallets to stand on right in front, and I think they made everybody stand on them unless they were fairly tall. When the two guys ahead of us finished, me and the girl behind me got up onto the boxes together, and the crew told us to look at a pink piece of tape that had been put near the camera lens instead of directly into the camera. I couldn’t help glancing in a few times, though!We each got two questions each to answer, and I believe that’s how all the interview sessions went. All of the questions were a little different—the pair of us didn’t get the same one as the guys we’d just watched—but they all followed the same themes as the questions from the casting call survey: things like “why is Kingdom Hearts so special to you?”, “what does friendship mean to you?”, etc. I can’t remember exactly what my two questions were—I was so flustered, haha!—but I do remember being pretty emphatic that Kingdom Hearts makes me cry just as much as it makes me smile. When we both finished the guy directing asked me to repeat (on film) the fact that I’d flown a thousand miles to be at the event, so I think if there’s any chance at all of me being in the final video, it’ll be that one line, hah. Then that was the end of it and they sent us back outside.It was probably not even 3:30 at this point, and I could have left if I wanted to, but of course I wanted to stay as long as possible. I hung out with people and passed out a few Church of Vexen cards, watching a few more lines of people form, be called inside to film, and then sent back. The story I heard from standing around was that the casting call had initially sent out 100 emails on Wednesday, then on Friday sent out another round just to make sure they had enough people; I would estimate that over the course of the entire day, there were probably 300 people there for the shoot. Not all of them got filmed, though—there was a “green group” of standbys who were called in case they had extra time, but at the end of the day, they ended up not having any time left to film any of them. Still, it was a pretty good crowd, and it never felt too large, because I think a lot of people weren’t interested in the Disney Studios tour and just left after they were done filming. Given the short notice for the event, participants were overwhelmingly local to the area, so I suppose a lot of them went to hang out elsewhere.There was some kind of mix-up with my filming group regarding the tour; although we filmed early in the afternoon, we didn’t get a chance at a tour slot until six o’clock, when filming had pretty much wrapped up. We still got to do it, though, and it was totally worth the wait to me, since I’ve never played a Final Fantasy game and Disney is what drew me to KH in the first place. We saw the old animation buildings, the massive numbered studio sets, and the Disney Legends plaza, which were all really special. Disney doesn’t give public tours of its backlot, so normally it’s not possible to see any of the things we saw. I’ll definitely remember that tour for a long time.At the very end of the tour, our guide (one of the crew from the shoot), explained exactly what we’d filmed that day: they were going to cut together a video of us fans gushing over KH and send it to the development team at Square in Japan, and then film the developers watching it—like a reaction video within a reaction video. I hadn’t expected that twist to it, and think it’ll be super fun and sweet once it’s done. They didn’t say when it will be posted online, though, so I suppose I’ll just keep my eyes peeled! They said it would be distributed to Kotaku and IGN and all those sites like that, so once it comes out, there’s no way I’ll miss it.We got back from our tour at 6:30, and then the day was done! I had made dinner reservations with my friend for 7:30, so I left, but I’m sure lots other people had some kind of afterparty or went out to eat together or something like that, especially since most of them lived in the greater LA area. The whole day was incredibly fun and I feel super lucky that I got to be a part of it. Even if I don’t make the final video (which I probably won’t, since I looked so nervous on camera!), it was still a huge blast. I definitely need to make another trip to LA sometime…my friend showed me some of the sights, but there’s so much to do that one weekend isn’t nearly enough.That’s pretty much it! It was all straightforward and everybody seemed to have a lot of fun. (I know I did!) I also really like that they had the Keyblade there for us to play with—I thought it was going to be a part of the shoot, but I don’t think it ever was. It was just there for us to take pictures with and enjoy. I did get a couple of shots, but unfortunately, my camera borked out on me as the day went on, so I only have a handful of pictures from the entire day. That doesn’t matter, though…I’ll have the memories forever!!

 

Edited September 10, 2014 by Dragoncat