Phil Rice

S5 E155 Beyond the Dust (Nov 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes November 6, 2024 Leave a reply

This week’s ep we dedicate to a 3D animation by a French student collective made in their final year of studies, streamed through  @TheRookiesCo  channel. It is not technically machinima as its made using traditional animation tools but nonetheless we absolutely loved it – and its a recommendation by one of our channel’s regular followers @3dchick. The film is a post-apocaylptic robot tale, inspired by Zaha Hadid’s architectonic style.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes & Links

Beyond the Dust by Alexia AMELINE, Marin BENITEZ, Lucien BIGEY, Marine DUPUY, Benjamin HACK, Matteo MICHEL, Salomé QUILLIEN, Juliette VIGNOLLET at ESMA Toulouse, France with an original score by Gregory ALLISON https://www.therookies.co/entries/27421 

Film was released on 17 Sept 2024 and is a graduation short film made during their final year –

Check out Phil’s remastered collection of Peter Rasmussen’s work here, especially Stolen Life, feature-length machinima –

and if you want to find out more about the ground-breaking work Peter did, there is a chapter dedicated to his work in the Pioneers in Machinima book by Tracy and Ben Grussi.

S4 Completely Machinima Interview: Phil Rice, funny man (June 2024)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes June 15, 2024 Leave a reply

Welcome to our latest bonus episode. We had the pleasure of catching up with Phil Rice aka zsOverman to talk exclusively about his latest machinima, called Being Moses. If there’s such as thing as a parody of a Let’s Play, this film is it! Check out Phil’s comments and watch the film.



YouTube Version of This Episode

Show Notes and Links

Being Moses – a Vintage Story #machinima tale by zsOverman aka Phil Rice, released 17 May 2024

Trailer for Vintage Story –

S4 E101 Avant Garde: 9 by Claus-Dieter Schulz (Nov 2023)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes November 2, 2023 Leave a reply

In this episode, we review one of the first avant garde machinima pieces created by the community. The film is called 9, by German machinimator Claus-Dieter Schulz, has been restored by Phil and is re-presented on his Machiniplex Remastered channel. It is a notable example of modernist cinema which moves towards abstraction and it is clear to see that Claus-Dieter was inspired by the likes of Oskar Fischinger, Hans Richter and Stan Brakhage. There were very few in the early days of machinima that turned in this creative direction, where most creators were instead inspired to devise original stories inspired by popular films, TV series, commercials and products, so our discussion reflects on this point as well as the early reactions to the work we recall.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes and Links

Film link, released originally in 2009 –

Claus-Dieter’s blog here.

Original sound design with Martin Gurtner –

The only film that Oskar Fishinger ever made is on YT, called an Optical Poem, released originally in 1938. Link here –

Filmstudie by Hans Richter – a 1926 silent short which includes a musical score sampled from Darius Milhaud. Link here –

Clips of Stan Brakhage’s work, Mothlight 1963 –

S3 Special: Machiniplex Intro

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes July 28, 2023 Leave a reply

In this episode, 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. In this ep, Phil and Ricky reminisce about the origins of Machiniplex and its contributors.

To celebrate the release of the curated collection, we have each selected a film we 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.



YouTube Version of this Episode

Show Notes & Links

Blahbalicious by Wendigo and Avatar, 1997 –

BOT by Digital Yoke, 2005? –

Edge of Remorse by Riot Films, 2006 –

The Snow Witch by Britannica Dreams, 2006 –

Phil’s trailer for the Machiniplex [Remastered] Channel –

Go to the Machiniplex [Remastered] Collection on Phil’s Vimeo channel here – website https://bit.ly/machiniplex or access the playlist here –

S3 E55 Film Review: 917 by Krad Productions (Dec 2022)

Tracy Harwood Podcast Episodes December 8, 2022 Leave a reply

In this ep, Phil leads the discussion about one of the most *disturbing films we’ve ever seen, called 917 by Krad Productions, released 30 Oct (spoiler alert: Phil designed the soundscape for it). It is disturbing that there’s a true back story to the film, which is explained – and having watched the film, we couldn’t really think of another adjective that summed it up better. Yep, its disturbing… and we are definitely none the wiser about the truth of 917, that maddening frequency that sends you off into a twirling spiral of err…… All theories welcome!

*Disturbing=anxiety inducing, worrying, upsetting; mental illness such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, addictive behaviors.



Youtube Version of this Episode

Film Link

Film has been made in Reallusion’s iClone 7.

Top Shorts Film Festival hosts a monthly contest for films such as machinima and virtual production, website here.

If you are trying to help someone with mental health issues such as schizophrenia, we recommend this website for advice, Mind.org (UK based) or any other local organization that specialises in appropriate support.

Credits
Speakers: Phil Rice, Ricky Grove, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Ricky Grove
Edited in CreateStudio Pro. Music is from their licensed collection.