Who doesn’t love a good olde Western? This week we delve into a great short by avidredeadenjoyer, released 21 Sept 2024, called The Loss. It has been made in the only engine a Western machinima can be, RDR2. We all especially liked one particular shot, which really goes to the heart of why machinima has added so much to movie-making. This week, we also talk about a second pick, a Frontier: Elite 2 short by The Mystic Mushroom accompanied by the Blue Danube: The second best space sim ever made… Enjoy!
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
The Loss – A Red Dead Redemption 2 Machinima by avidredeadenjoyer, released 21 Sept 2024
The second best space sim ever made… Frontier: Elite 2, by The Mystic Mushroom – accompanied by Strauss’s the Blue Danube
This week, we discuss the critical turn we witnessed in 2023 towards machinima among creative industries professionals. We highlight why it is high time there is a major rethink on the role of indie creatives and fan fiction in general. We also review a beautiful cinematic made in GTA5, and also reflect on some of the challenges with a particular camera technique.
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
European Film Awards, Best Short – Hardly Working, a machinima made in RDR2 by Austrian collective Total Refusal. Announcement of winner here and link to Milan Machinima Film Festival’s earlier presentation of their work here. Many congratulations to Total Refusal on this landmark achievement!
Back story notes links –
Sam Crane’s Stage award for his live production of Hamlet in GTA5
Tracy’s review of Oberhausen International Film Festival and links to our discussion –
and interview with the curators at Oberhausen –
Warhammer 40K partnering with Amazon for new shows and movies, with Amazon being given ‘exclusive rights to make content’ based on the Games Workshop brand. Announcement on the BBC news website here and the Games Workshop website here.
Lord of the Rings legal case between a fan book writer, their publisher vs Amazon and Tolkein’s estate – announcement on the BBC news website here and further details of the copyright infringement case here.
Cyberpunk Ultimate Edition Official Booklet – link here.
John MacInnes also recently released an overview of the legal issues, similarities and differences between realtime creative works and film production which you’ll find a very useful summary –
Damien’s film pick for this week –
Cinematic experience – GTA V Machinima by Syed, released 10 Nov 2023
We start this week’s episode with a discussion about Reallusion’s new facial mocap system, Accuface (which Phil and Damien have already invested in), move on to a brief contest update (being run by Pink Floyd no less), and then follow this up with our film review. If you liked the Saw series of films, then this is for you – its a particularly sadistic let’s play style machinima made in The Sims 4, called I Abducted My Entire Neighborhood in The Sims 4, by Lets Game It Out… and its also just Phil’s sense of humor too! We contrast our discussion with some older references to classic machinimas, which help us to make our point about just how talented this creator is.
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!
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
Film, by BedBananas, released 10 June 2020 –
Mods creator, Glynn JKW – link to his Github page here and his Twitter here
Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr, available as a public domain movie here –
Link to critique of Dali and discussion of the meaning of his work here
Lainy Voom’s Push on Phil’s Machiniplex Remastered collection channel (Vimeo) here –
and Tracy’s discussion of surrealist machinima in the Journal of Visual Culture (2011) here
We always love a good RDR2 machinima, and this is one by a Sam Menell, released on 9 Feb 2023. We watched this several times, and Tracy didn’t spot the UFO in the opening shot!
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes and Links
Film, released 9 Feb 2023 –
Phil’s take on a no dialogue RDR2 film, released last year –
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