Part 1: Mike Wellins [You Are Here]
Part 2: Robin Ator
Part 3: Albert Hensley
Quick Context
Several commercials were produced for LoD, but only one aired in North America. It’s a 30 second spot focusing on some fast cuts from the game’s Full-Motion Videos, or FMVs. However, it suddenly shifts to the arena fight between Dart and Lloyd. At the end, Dart manages to accidentally cut off Lloyd’s head. The scene goes from serious to silly, revealing stage elements like a boom mic and the Director telling everyone to take a break. But this didn’t really tell you what the game was about, or why you should buy it. Was it a game that was more like a movie? A funny game where peoples’ heads get chopped off? We had no idea for decades.
DrewUniverse was able to learn about this commercial from the first-hand account of multiple people who worked on it. This is part 1, as recounted by Mike Wellins. Unlike most interviews, this series merely conveys the story as told by the people who worked on the commercial. A compiled account will be summarized and published on this website in 2026.
The ad agency Chiat Day (in Los Angeles, CA), were hired by Sony to find a production studio to create the TV spot. They would decide to go with Will Vinton Studios: known for claymation, TV spots, et cetera.
Part 1: The Story from Mike Wellins
It’s been a long time, and I’m not certain of some things, but others things I am, so I’ll just what I’m not sure about it.
I remember it was a rush job, and we had a very short amount of time to do it. It was helmed by the Ad Agency Chiat Day, from LA, who were notorious for having crazy jobs and crazy problems. I think we might have had like 2 or 3 weeks, which was unheard of in those days. We used to spend 12 weeks on a single M&Ms ad back then. We were also using a software package through out the shop called Lightwave, but it wasn’t the standard so the studio was switching to Maya and it wasn’t going well. Lots of hiccups and lots of people who were experts in Lightwave were struggling with Maya.
So I remember that we said that if we had to create the characters from scratch, we’d need more time, and we weren’t sure if we’d be able to import the characters from the game, but with some technical stuff we were able successfully load their models and rig them for our animation without too many issues.
It seemed like we were waiting to see if we could load the models before even agreeing to do the job, because the turn around was quick. There were two young men, “creatives” from Chiat Day who came to Portland to work with us. At this point, we didn’t know what their concept was, we were just waiting to see the models first before even accepting the job. Ultimately I think we also agreed that the footage from the game had to take up a certain amount so that we only did the shortest bit possible. And all of this was because of the short schedule. I had done another hairball spot for Chiat day before, so kept getting these, and delivering so I became the guy who got the really broken stuff.
So once the models worked, some other execs from Sony and the game company came into Portland for a conference call with Chiat Day people and our people. So the these two guys then pitch their concept to everyone, the Sony people and their superiors in LA who are on the conference call and us.
It didn’t go well. Everyone is keenly aware of our insane time constraints, and these two young guys start describing something with all these sets, and set ups, and other monsters, and our producer is turning white, as they keep pitching all this stuff we cannot do in that amount of time, or the budget. So, we’re just sitting there, seeing what is going to happen, and fortunately, the PlayStation people and the Chiat Day people did not like the concept, at all, ice cold reception. So the creatives say they’ll regroup and get back to them. Sorry, I don’t remember any of the Chiat Day people’s names.
So we hang up, and the two guys freak out, one guy is on the verge of tears, because they have nothing. They say that, “We have nothing.” We’ve been working on ours, and we’ve got nothing. So I suggest the blooper reel idea, and they love it. Their demeanor immediately changes, problem solved. And then, and it was normal for clients to do screwball stuff like this, they fixate on going to see the Portland Trail Blazer basketball team play. They had some weird deal that they could charge anything back to the company, so they had Vintons buy them really expensive courtside seats and put it on the job. And of course Vintons wants work from Chiat Day, so they say OK, and these two guys go off to the game.
So I spend the evening with Robin Ator, our storyboard Artist, and we just board the first version of the scene. And go right to an animatic, or what were purposing.
So the next morning, we get on the phone with the Chiat Day people, and the Playstation folks. I expected the creatives to pitch our ideas, but they just turned it over to us, and stopped talking. So we pitched it, everyone was happy. So we hung up, and I think that was the last time we ever saw the creatives, they spent all their time at basketball games, the Nike store, and kicking around Portland, which was fine with me, we had a lot work to do in a short amount of time and they brought nothing to the party. Truly, it’s a dream for a client to just give up and go away and let you do what yo do. Usually they just stir up stuff, and drain jokes.
I was particularly nervous because we had been cruising with Lightwave, but Maya was really difficult and you couldn’t count on anything to work with rendering and finishing. But it went ok, because we kept it simple.
A boom, a camera slate, a water bottle, and some torches and one set and their models.
I’m certain that Kevin McClean animated the guy (Dart) who cuts the head off. I know this, because I never liked the weird poses he put the guy in. He came from a Stop Motion background and would do these little moves that look great in Stop mo, but weird in CG. I had to keep pulling him back. Even in the final piece, that guy moves very strangely and does these pointless things with his hands. I’m not certain but I think the other animator was Chris Olgren, but I’m not certain. It’s possible that Patrick Van Pelt was our Technical director, but I’m not sure.
The voice that says, “Nigel, he cut my head off,” is me. And that’s a nod to Benny Hill, when he’d do those fake bloopers and talk off camera to Nigel.
Here’s how I got the gig:
What we do, is we make an animatic before animation so that the animators know how long shots are, and also so the client can get a feeling for it. So we open a mic in the editing suite and anyone walking by can do a voice, as a scratch track, that will be looped later by an actor, who might not even be hired yet.
So in this case, I did the head guy, and my friend, the editor, Albert Hensley did the director and the other voice. So we showed the animatic to everyone concerned, to get final blessing and went to work. We finished, and were all done. Keeping it contained and small worked and we finished without too much pain.
So, we’re done. and then they came back and said that someone at Chiat Day still wasn’t happy with the voice that they used to replace me and Albert, and had tried several actors,with no luck, so they sent me and Albert into a real sound studio to re-record our lines, and we still couldn’t capture that initial tone, according to the Chiat exec, so the voices in the commercial are the very first scratch track. Luckily Albert had the where with all to turn of the A/C before recording. And since it was a national spot, we both had to join the Aftra Union and we got paid. I bought an old motor boat with my money.
I’m friends with Albert, I can ask him if he remembers stuff? Somehow I saved a frame from the spot.
It might surprise you to know that we never cared about how anything performed we did as far as sales. Frankly most ads seem to miss the mark, all together, and usually no one wanted our opinion on the over arching goal. Part of the the reason for that was would make so many ‘good’ spots. in our view, that the client then would just peel away and ruin, so you focus your attention on doing the best with what you can, and getting it out the door, on time, what they do with it, and how it does, actually has little do with us, our part is hard enough.
Mark Gustafson, a WVS original and amazing director, directed perhaps the most famous commercial for Will Vinton, ever, which was the Nissan Toys that features little GI joe and Barbie’s in a stop Mo add for Nissan, and although it won every award for commercials, and Mark went and took it and showed it on Oprah, in the end it didn’t sell more cars. So, that’s their problem. Ha!
As told by Mike Wellins