The archive · Advertising · Technical decision · 2022
Surfaces builds Wild Rift's stylised Southeast-Asian city in camera, no time for post
The Wild Rift finals opening film had no post schedule, so Surfaces built a fantasy Southeast-Asian city on real sets and shot every effect in camera.
Riot Games · Surfaces
What it had to solve
Riot's Wild Rift esports finals needed an opening-ceremony film, and a cancelled live stadium ceremony left a brutal schedule: an effects-heavy six-minute film to shoot, finish and deliver in days, with no room for post-production. The film also had to end in a shot that resolved into the live broadcast's opening frame.
How it works
Riot's Wild Rift esports season ends in a global championship, and the 2022 finals needed an opening ceremony worthy of a six-minute, effects-heavy film. When the planned live stadium ceremony was cancelled at short notice, the film itself became the ceremony — with a delivery deadline that left no time for post-production.
Surfaces answered with a production philosophy of doing everything in camera. The team built a stylised Southeast-Asian city loosely based on Singapore on real sets and staged parkour, hair aerialists, choreographed drones, in-camera costume and lighting changes and forced-perspective tricks, keeping the takes long so the audience could see the performers were genuinely doing it.
The discipline turned the schedule into the aesthetic: no time for post meant no safety net of effects added later, so every shot had to work on the day. The final crane shot even resolved into the live broadcast's opening frame. D&AD filed the work in its awards archive under Visual Effects and Production Design.
Why it lands
- A hard deadline that ruled out post forced the team to build, light and perform every effect for real — the constraint produced the craft.
- In-camera effects give performers the lead: long unbroken takes prove the stunts are real, so the spectacle carries a conviction CG can't fake.
- The final shot had to flow into the live broadcast's opening camera move, so the film was designed as one continuous piece with the event itself.
- Practical-first production pushed the team to invent — custom apps, magnetic nails, FPV drone pilots treated as dancers — so limits produced techniques instead of compromises.
What it did
A six-minute, effects-heavy film delivered with almost no post-production, filed in D&AD's awards archive as an example of Visual Effects and Production Design — the constraint became the craft.
What you can take
When a deadline rules out post-production, make in-camera the method: decide that every effect must be built, lit and performed for real, and the constraint itself becomes the spectacle.
Since then
The film opened the Wild Rift Icons Global Championship broadcast, and the in-camera approach became the story told about it: trade coverage walked through how the six-day shoot staged drones, stunts and in-camera costume changes with almost no post. D&AD's archive keeps it as a Visual Effects and Production Design reference, an example of treating a missing post schedule as a reason to make the film on the day.
Sources
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