Brandon Laatsch is an American game developer,

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

, and

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

known for directing ''

Video Game High School ''Video Game High School'' (often abbreviated ''VGHS'') is an American action comedy web series from RocketJump Studios. It was written by Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi and directed by Matthew Arnold, Brandon Laatsch, and Freddie ...

'', founding the game company Stress Level Zero, and other online video content.

Early life

Laatsch went to high school with

Corridor Digital Corridor Digital is an American production studio based in Los Angeles, known for creating pop-culture-related viral online short-form videos since 2010, as well as producing and directing the ''Battlefield''-inspired web series ''Rush'' and the ...

founders Niko Pueringer and Sam Gorski. Laatsch studied sociology at

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC).

Career

Video work with Freddie Wong

Laatsch met

Freddie Wong Freddie Wong (born September 13, 1985) is an American Internet celebrity, filmmaker, VFX artist, podcaster, and competitive gamer. Wong has participated in at least three YouTube channels; with ''RocketJump'', his production company's main chan ...

at USC in 2004. They uploaded their first video ''Aces'' onto

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in 2006. It was a comedy-action short film about a poker game that turns to gunplay. Laatsch and Wong worked with

. Laatsch and Wong quit their jobs in 2010 to focus on YouTube full-time. Prior to this move, they did freelance

VFX Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...

and worked on

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

films. They made videos out of a shared loft in

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...

. Their videos are inspired by a variety of video games, such as ''

Mario Kart is a series of racing games developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up items. It features characters and courses from the ''Mario'' series as well as other gaming franchises such as ''T ...

'' and ''Portal'', and employ special effects.

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau (; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

recruited the pair to help with the digital

marketing campaign Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

for his film, ''

Cowboys & Aliens ''Cowboys & Aliens'' is a 2011 American science fiction Western action film directed by Jon Favreau and starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, and Noah Ringer. The film is based on the 2006 P ...

'' (2011), after having seen their videos from his 10-year old son. Through Favreau, the pair were allowed to use the

Universal Studios Lot Universal Studios Lot is a television and film studio complex located at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, California, adjacent to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. It is the site of Universal Pictures and is owned by Comcas ...

and props from ''Cowboys & Aliens'' in their short film. They made appearances on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

'' in September 2011. Laatsch and Wong launched RocketJump.com in 2012. In 2014, Laatsch started a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

to crowdfund a feature film based on ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

'' for US$600,000''.'' The project was cancelled by

Mojang Mojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game ''Minecraft'', the best-selling video game of all time. Mojang Studios was founded by the independent ...

over IP concerns.

Stress Level Zero

Laatsch and Wong parted ways in 2013, with Wong focusing on ''

'' and Laatsch pivoting into video game production. Through his game studio Stress Level Zero, Laatsch released the

VR game A virtual reality game or VR games is a video game played on virtual reality (VR) hardware. Most VR games are based on player immersion, typically through head-mounted display unit or headset with stereoscopic displays and one or more controll ...

''Hover Junkers'' in April 2016 on

HTC Vive VIVE, sometimes referred to as HTC Vive, is a virtual reality brand of HTC Corporation. It consists of hardware like its titular virtual reality headsets and accessories, virtual reality software and services, and initiatives that promote appl ...

. In 2016, Chinese game publisher FunPlus invested an undisclosed amount of

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

in Stress Level Zero. In 2017, Stress Level Zero published Duck Season VR; an experimental first-person narrative based in the summer of 1988. Where the player has a one-day rental of 'Duck Season' to play on their 'Kingbit Entertainment System'. Duck Season VR includes elements of mystery, horror, multiple unique endings, and various minigames. In 2019, Stress Level Zero published Duck Season PC. Duck Season PC is the full version of 'Duck Season VR', but with no need for a VR headset. In December 2019, Stress Level Zero published ''

Boneworks ''Boneworks'' (stylized as BONEWORKS) is a 2019 first person shooter VR game developed and published by Stress Level Zero. The game is designed to be entirely physics-based, with the player having a full virtual body that responds not just to ...

''; an experimental physics VR adventure developed with the Unity engine. In February 2020, Stress Level Zero published ''

'' on the

Oculus VR Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon W ...

Store, along with a temporarily exclusive level called "Tuscany", a level from one of the earliest versions of the Oculus software. It was then released for the Steam version of Boneworks in update 1.4, released April 9, 2020. On September 29, 2022, Stress Level Zero published ''

Bonelab ''Boneworks'' (stylized as BONEWORKS) is a 2019 first person shooter VR game developed and published by Stress Level Zero. The game is designed to be entirely physics-based, with the player having a full virtual body that responds not just t ...

'' on the

Store and Steam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laatsch, Brandon Living people American filmmakers Year of birth missing (living people)