Starry Night

This article contains information of dubious canonicity. While not officially established as fully non-canonical, certain aspects of the subject may not be part of the official Halo canon.

Starry Night is a short CG spot directed by Joseph Kosinski and designed by Digital Domain,^[1]released on December 4, 2006 as an ad for Halo 3 and intended to be used as a television commercial.

In 2014, Digital Domain were responsible for creating the Hunter and the Hunted trailer to announce Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 2: Anniversary.

Plot summary[edit]

Ellie in the grass.

Starry Night begins with a young John-117 and his childhood friend, Ellie Bloom,^[2] lying in grass contemplating the existence of life on other planets. John turns to look at her, but instead sees the Master Chief's helmet lying on the ground.

The trailer then suddenly transitions to the point of view of the Master Chief, with the sound of the two children screaming merging into a Wraith's plasma mortar detonating. The Chief is lying on the desert ground looking at his fallen helmet. Then, he raises his hands up—still dazed and temporarily half-deaf from being knocked out—and staggers towards his helmet while hearing Ellie's voice in his head again. As soon as the helmet is put on, the camera switches to a third person view, revolving around the Chief who's crouched on the sand, recovering from the blast that sent him off his Mongoose (shown lying on its side). The sound is completely restored now and communication from Cortana and some soldiers can be heard (refer to transcript). An assault rifle is also shown lying on the ground.

John in the grass.

The scene switches to Master Chief getting up - now fully recovered - and holstering the rifle to his back. At this point, a few plasma mortars can be seen heading high up into the sky, one of which is heading towards Master Chief. Quickly, he responds to the soldiers - informing them that he is not lost yet - and reaches for a Bubble Shield and activating it just in time as the plasma mortar reaches the vicinity, sending the Mongoose flying away. As soon as the dust clears and the Bubble Shield is down, he starts running forward - at the same time arming himself with the assault rifle while narrowly avoiding an explosion from an unknown source. The camera then switches to tailing the Chief's back, where he is shown to be preparing to take a leap from the edge of a small cliff and drop into a group consisting of at least six Wraiths, fourteen Brutes and one Brute Chieftain, who (while the others run away) anticipates the Chief by raising his gravity hammer. The final shot shows the Chief "landing on the camera" and it cuts to a black screen with the Halo 3 logo shown.

Transcript[edit]

John and Ellie are laying in the grass, looking up at the stars.

• John: "You ever wonder what's up there?"
• Ellie: "Like what?"
• John: "Maybe someone up there is wondering what it's like here."
• Ellie: "I guess. Do you think we'll ever meet them?"
• John: "I hope so. Don't you?" (He turns to look at her, but instead sees a MJOLNIR Mark VI helmet.)

A Wraith mortar detonates nearby. The lighting changes and John, now the Master Chief, wakes up. Myriad voices are heard, some in his head, others from his radio.

• Ellie: "Do you think we'll ever meet them?"

John-117 looking at his assault rifle.

Master Chief puts on his helmet, and regains his balance.

• Ellie (faintly): "Time to go."
• Cortana: "Chief, leave me!"
• Marine #1 (radio): "Is anyone out there?"
• Marine #2 (radio): "Chief!"
• Cortana (faintly): "Chief!"
• Sergeant Johnson (faintly): "Chief!"
• Marine #3 (radio): "Marines! Fall back now!"
• Sergeant Johnson (radio): "Any sign of the Chief?"
• Marine #4 (radio): "Negative, Sarge. I think we lost him."
• Master Chief: (looking up at incoming mortars, pulls out bubble shield ) "Not yet."

He throws a bubble shield onto the ground, creating a shield that protects him from another Wraith mortar. Quickly, after the dust clears, he runs forward. While running he holsters his pistol and pulls out his assault rifle. He then leaps off a cliff into a pack of Brutes, and the ad ends.

• Bungie Official: "Product not yet rated."

Production notes[edit]

The trailer was created by the studio Digital Domain and directed by Joseph Kosinski, who had to complete the trailer in under five weeks from start to finish. The first portion of the trailer, with the children in the grass, was shot in a studio using real actors and clumps of grass, before transitioning into CGI after the screaming. Assets including footage and raw models/textures for characters, weapons, and vehicles from Halo 3 were supplied by Bungie, and were then recreated by Digital Domain in high-resolution in Maya and Lightwave 3D, and textured in Photoshop and Deep Paint. Photoshop was also used to create the matte paintings used in the background. The short was then keyframe animated in Maya and lit in 3ds Max/V-Ray and Lightwave for the characters/terrain. Visual effects like plasma and explosions were created in Houdini, and Lightwave was used again for the flowing grass. The final composite was done in Nuke and Flame.^[3]

The music in the trailer was created by Bungie's in-house composer Martin O'Donnell, though all other sound work in the trailer was done by a sound design studio, Machine Head. The sound effects themselves were created by Machine Head's studio founder and sound designer Stephen Dewey, while the final audio mix was done by Jeff Payne.^[3]

The basic concept for the trailer (to contrast the children with the footage of the war) was first thought-up by McCann Worldgroup's art director Tim Stier, who was already a Halo fan, and wished to "misdirect" the audience and allow people to connect with the more human elements of Master Chief's character.^[3] According to Bungie's Frank O'Connor and Kevin Paul, at the time of the trailer's production the intent was for it to be set on Earth, with the children featured in the introduction intended to not represent any particular characters in any specific time - instead intended to be there to invite the audience to wonder about them.^[4][5] However, in 2015 the children were officially canonised as representing John-117 and his childhood friend Ellie Bloom in the first episode of the Hunt the Truth audio drama.^[2][6]

Trivia[edit]

• The Marathon logo and the "on" symbol are visible on the Master Chief's MA5C assault rifle.
• The Brute Chieftain in the ad holds a gravity hammer that is identical to the Fist of Rukt. In the early development of Halo 3, Bungie used the Fist of Rukt as a placeholder for the actual gravity hammer used in the final release; as such, it was recreated by Digital Domain the same as any other asset. Other footage of Brute Chieftains wielding Fist of Rukt placeholders can be seen in Halo 3 ViDoc: Et Tu, Brute?.

Gallery[edit]

• 

  The Master Chief's helmet.

• 

  Side view of the Master Chief's helmet.

• 

  Master Chief uses a Bubble Shield.

• 

  Master Chief jumps into a pack of Brutes

Sources[edit]