And Now For Something Completely Machinima

A performance by a camera ham, shutterbug or just a plain histrionic narcissist? This week's review discusses an older machinima that has highly contemporary themes in it: carry-on-regardless, daydreaming, whatever, so long as the virtual camera is rolling. The film is called Daydream (2009) set to the titular song by Lovin' Spoonful, created by @Mystfit and made in @Valve 's Half Life 2. Needless to say, we loved the humor but what makes this machinima interesting is that it was a scripted production created by running a path sequencer inside the game, harking back to the early days of how machinimas were made and so is reminiscent of how contemporary tools such as iClone and Unreal now work.

This week we also begin with @RickyGrove talking about ultra-wide monitors, using it to play Elden Ring (a mod required) and the #SAGAFTRA strike; and, @zsOverman gives an overview of his remastering project of the Machiniplex collection and his homage to the great Hugh Hancock, founder the #machinima movement, the upcoming showcase of Bloodspell and also his own response to some of the hoopla that Hugh created at the time of its release in 2006!

1:38 Gigabyte and ultra-wide monitors
4:16 The actor and writer strike, significance and implications
10:43 Black Mirror, Futurama and the internet - prescient episodes
15:38 The Machiniplex Collection at https://bit.ly/Machiniplex
20:32 Hugh Hancock’s Bloodspell, John Lennon and the Overcast - releases and background
24:48 This week's pick: Daydream, the Lovin’ Spoonful soundtrack and Mystfit

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Tracy Harwood
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Intro: Doctor Dreamchip & Outro: Arps Solina

This week's film review focusses on a story made with building blocks and without voice acting... and yet, what a spectacular story! The game world is Minecraft of course, and the story is based on Telltale Games' episodic release called Story Mode. Made by @SquaredMediaAnimations, we discuss the production values emcompassed within the film, why we think adding voice acting would have enhanced the film and a number of other things we nit-picked but conclude that its really no wonder Squared Media are one of the top machinima producers in Minecraft.

0:38 Background and intro to the film

10:27 It takes a great amount of skill to tell a story without any character but is it just cliches and no depth?

12:03 The advantages of not putting dialogue in a specific language is that everyone is on the same playing field.

14:10 It’s a trope sandwich.

16:32 Soundscape and sound.

19:54 The problem of doing a silent film and the need for characters with expressiveness: the limitation of the medium.

21:48 Adding credits to the credits.

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Arp Solinas

In this ep, Phil introduces the Machiniplex [Remastered] Collection, a curated selection of machinimas from the early years. Machiniplex was a site created to host classic machinimas at the point that Machinima [dot] com began to assert its energies over the community as a corporate entity. The site was a community endeavour, with both Ricky and Phil playing a pivitol role in managing the project to preserve the original content the community had contributed to the early original Machinima website... until such time as it ran its course. Phil and Ricky reminisce about the origins of Machiniplex and its contributors.

To celebrate the release of the curated collection, which you can find over on Phil's Vimeo channel (links in the show notes), the Completely Machinima crew have each selected a film they recall with particular fondness and discuss its significance. Phil has remastered each of the films using AI, not always a perfect process, so we also discuss his approach and techniques in bringing the original works up to 4K standard.

We encourage machinima fans everywhere to check out these films, not only were they brilliant in their day but in terms of storytelling, remain some of our favourite creative works against which we often draw comparisons when reviewing latest films.

0:10 Intro and background to the Machiniplex site
6:06 Blahbalicious by Wendigo and Avatar, 1997
10:01 BOT by Digital Yoke, 2005?
18:09 Edge of Remorse by Riot Films, 2006
26:56 The Snow Witch by Britannica Dreams, 2006

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Anno domini beats

A love letter to Cyberpunk 2077? In this week's episode, the CM crew discuss a cinematic music video that perfectly captures a uniquely human feeling of people watching... and reflects on the phenomenal creativity of procedurally generated character content in the Cyberpunk world. The film is called Don't Fall Down by Puttefnask and the song it accompanies is Pray by Haelos - it is perhaps a more fitting video than the original.

6:10 The first person perspective in Cyberpunk

11:01 Wowed by the variety of the NPC characters and procedurally generated art

13:00 Black Mirror is today's Twilight Zone

15:24 This movie is a feeling

18:05 A love letter to the world of the game

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Arps Solina

This week's review is of 12 minutes of the wackiest of Wacky Wests we could ever imagine! BedBananas has used a a whole host of mods, created by Weds_Garbageday, to devise this truly surrealist Red Dead American Dream machinima. Seeing is believing - and its probably one of the best machinimas of all time!

8:16 Surrealist machinima at its very best.

11:30 Buster Keaton and the Wild Wild West

14:29 The violence to the central character makes him empathetic.

19:42 How the voices and dialogue were created.

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Coast by Anno Domini Beats

Nope, its not 'just a game', its one of the most visually stunning Gothic story open worlds ever created (according to Ricky)! In this ep, we discuss GraysonFlows' tribute to the world of Elden Ring, set to Max Richter's November composition, which highlights the beauty of the game from the exhausting open sequence to the final prize, creatures, battles and voice acting.

0:12 Intro.

2:00 Hacking major games for free.

5:06 Tribute to the best game of the year.

8:11 Elden Ring Machinima.

10:42 The beauty and depth of the three sections.

13:36 The mythology of christianity and religion.

16:17 The tarnished are in between people.

18:09 One piece of advice for anyone wanting to play Elden Ring.

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina, Otis McDonald

Nope, its not 'just a game', its one of the most visually stunning Gothic story open worlds ever created (according to Ricky)! In this ep, we discuss GraysonFlows' tribute to the world of Elden Ring, set to Max Richter's November composition, which highlights the beauty of the game from the exhausting open sequence to the final prize, creatures, battles and voice acting.

0:12 Intro.

2:00 Hacking major games for free.

5:06 Tribute to the best game of the year.

8:11 Elden Ring Machinima.

10:42 The beauty and depth of the three sections.

13:36 The mythology of christianity and religion.

16:17 The tarnished are in between people.

18:09 One piece of advice for anyone wanting to play Elden Ring.

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina, Otis McDonald

This week, we discuss some of the best flight sim machinima we’ve ever seen, thanks to Damien’s picks. We couldn’t decide which was better, so we discuss two films: The Ghost and The Right Stuff by J P Ferre, made in DCS. The first is a horror story and the other a story of one of the most influential pioneers of modern space flight today: Chuck Yeager. It is an outstanding retelling of one particularly testing flight, and is a Hollywood movie in 12 minutes!

1:00 The Ghost intro.

3:02 Pilot’s involvement in the action.

4:37 The role of editing to establish continuity.

7:32 Reality vs fantasy in a high-end flight sim.

13:12 The Right Stuff intro.

15:23 A near perfect machinima.

22:45 Pioneers of spaceflight: a Hollywood movie in 12 minutes.

26:00 The sound of the plane taking off.

30:42 The soundtrack for the film.

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina

This week, we discuss some of the best flight sim machinima we’ve ever seen, thanks to Damien’s picks. We couldn’t decide which was better, so we discuss two films: The Ghost and The Right Stuff by J P Ferre, made in DCS. The first is a horror story and the other a story of one of the most influential pioneers of modern space flight today: Chuck Yeager. It is an outstanding retelling of one particularly testing flight, and is a Hollywood movie in 12 minutes!

1:00 The Ghost intro.

3:02 Pilot’s involvement in the action.

4:37 The role of editing to establish continuity.

7:32 Reality vs fantasy in a high-end flight sim.

13:12 The Right Stuff intro.

15:23 A near perfect machinima.

22:45 Pioneers of spaceflight: a Hollywood movie in 12 minutes.

26:00 The sound of the plane taking off.

30:42 The soundtrack for the film.

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Editor/Producer: Ricky Grove
Music: Arps Solina

This week, Phil has selected a short that will make all those H&S and Half Lifers smile equally... HEV Suit by @Zapper770 ... because we all need more head crabs in our lives. The film is an example of great comedy timing.

Credits -
Speakers: @RickyGrove @zsOverman @tgharwood @DarthAngelus
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Damien Valentine
Music: Arp Solina