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 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 but so is reminiscent of how contemporary tools such as iClone and Unreal now work.
This week we also begin with Ricky talking about ultra-wide monitors, using it to play Elden Ring (a mod required) and the #SAGAFTRA strike; and, Phil 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!
YouTube Version of this Episode
Show Notes & Links
Film, Daydream by Mystfit, released 6 January 2009
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 –
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 –
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.
Despite being encouraged to create an episode of just 15 minutes duration by one of our followers, the team have this month extended their coverage – hear Tracy, Damien and Phil discuss vtubing, Ricky’s Duke Henry the Red character in the game Evil Dead, the FTC’s proposed updates to social media guidelines, Unreal’s review of the Matrix Awakens Experience, John Gaeta’s latest exploits, metaquette, Reallusion’s iClone 8 and CC4 and a number of other exciting developments relevant to the world of real-time filmmaking and machinima. Thankfully, you can use the timestamps to jump to the bits your most interested in!
YouTube Version of This Episode
Time stamps, links and show notes
1:34 Feedback from our followers: 3DChick, Al Scotch, Spentaneous, Mike Clements, Circu Virtu, Notagamer3d
8:14 Vtubing and Face Rig app (Steam), VTuber Studio – real time puppeteering using faceware
24:17 Evil Dead and the character Duke Henry the Red played by Ricky Grove and IP generally, Ricky Grove on IMDb
Ricky vs Ricky
39:29 FTC updating ‘disclosures 101 for social media infuencers’ guide’ discussion, the relationship between brands, platforms and influencers and see also [Company] Rulez! (Phil Rice aka zsOverman & Evan Ryan aka Krad Productions). Here is PC Gamers’ comments and proposals to update the guidelines
screencap Behind the Scene of Matrix Awakens Experience
1:00:16 Pooky Amsterdam’s blog on metaverse etiquette, called Metaquette website link
1:00:39 Reallusion’s iClone 8 character animation processes including Character Creator 4 Launch by Reallusion (released 26 May 2022) and iClone 8 Demo Video by Reallusion (released 26 May 2022)
1:16:48 Jonathon Nimmons WriteSeen.com, launched June 2022, website connecting creative writers with industry professionals (upload written content, attach a video pitch, audio clips, video clips and a link to a prototype if required)
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