This week’s film review looks at a work by Ally Kustera. The work artfully conveys a sense of feminism without the politics through snippets of video game character cutscenes from Lara Croft to Ellie (The Last of Us) and others in between.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
Daniel Grove’s Kitbash for Blender of Back Rooms assets here.
Ally Kustera’s Machinima, released 7 Feb 2023 –
Still Here… a chilling dystopian tale of a world devasted by climate crisis and wealth inequality. This week’s review is of a film by Guido Ekker, featured on the Film Shortage Channel (YouTube), and is one of the few shorts we’ve seen that attempts to make a point beyond pure entertainment. We identify some of the stereotypical tropes used and discuss the creative potential of machinima and virtual production for this kind of political messaging – all with our usual critical bonhomie.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes & Links
Film, released 17 April on the Film Shortage Channel, YouTube –
and also available on The Panics website here
The Orville, TV show
In this bonus episode, Tracy talks to the curators of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Vladimir Nadein and Dmitry Frolov.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
Tracy’s blog post about the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, including links to newspaper reviews about the festival’s machinima programme, Against Gravity
CM team discuss Oberhausen –
Sam Crane’s article: ‘Making movies in video games: why the film world is finally ready to take ‘machinima’ seriously’ in The Conversation, 16 May
Chris Marker’s machinima on Second Life –
Visions du Reel Swiss Film Festival 2023 special jury prize winner, Knit’s Island by Square Eyes –
Against Gravity showcase at Norway Film Festival link
Milan Machinima Film Festival link
Phil’s project to restore Machiniplex films starts with the release of his own Male Restroom Etiquette (originally released in 2006), with a hosted premiere of the HD remastered version on 11 June. The film was listed in the Guinness Book of Record’s Gamer’s Edition in 2009 as the most viewed machinima on YouTube at the time. Link here –
Following on from Tracy’s visit to the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, which took place between 26 April and 1 May, Ricky leads a discussion with Tracy on the thoughts about film selection at the event, different distribution strategies, topics discussed at the panel, and the future of avant-garde machinima films and filmmaking for festivals generally.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
Tracy’s CM blog post on her visit to the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival
Moviestorm 3D/stereoscopic render feature guidelines
iClone 3D/stereoscopic render feature guidelines
Hypatia Pickens aka Sarah Higley CM episode, poetry in machinima!
Tracy’s paper on a manifesto for machinima, published in Journal of Visual Culture (2011) – a preprint free download on ResearchGate can be found here
You can also follow this episode with Tracy’s interview with Vladimir Nadein and Dmitry Frolov, curators of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, on our channel here –
You can also follow this episode with Tracy’s interview with Vladimir Nadein and Dmitry Frolov, curators of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, on our channel here
A well-trodden path in alien encounters, this week’s short is Genesis by Edy Recendez, filmed in Unreal Engine. From the very beginning the film is such fun, with great editing and sound design – right up to and including the ending ‘rap slash dance’ credits. Ricky, Phil and Damien also talk about the upcoming Diablo 4 release.
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes & Links
Genesis by Edy Recendez, released 19 Sept 2021 –
Edmond Hamilton, Golden Age writer
Ray Harryhausen design of creatures in the Sinbad Trilogy, released by Powerhouse
Carbot Productions, 2D machinima series made with Elden Ring –
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