SUMMARY KEYWORDS
film, dealt, quake, people, characters, story, life, voiceovers, sequel, realising, whatnot, narrative, key, audience, chuck d, phil, longer, machinima, create, world

SPEAKERS
Ben Grussi

Ben Grussi 00:12
All right, since we give you a long break, which is a lot shorter in internet land, things are a lot longer in internet land thankfully, we're going on to the quake two series of films. These are out of order. So take it as you will, but we're going to go them one at a time

Ben Grussi 00:36
So Hardly Workin' needs no introduction, but we're gonna get into it anyway, is the sequel to apartment hunting where the ILL Clan really pulled out the stops, it actually took a lot longer than they expected to because of the ingenuity and all the assets they had to create that literally took Quake 2 from drab, dreary, grayscale, you know, drab colours to bright blues, whites, reds, and greens, and really threw out basically, it was a very fresh film that the public at large, didn't even know what was running on a game engine because it looked like a Looney Tunes kind of aesthetic. Um, so definitely, you know, no need introduction. But again, there's your introduction is basically the one of the very first films that took a very long time, but it was well worth the effort because of the attention to detail and the fact that it wiped out anything that had any Quake reference to it or anything, you can't see any guns, you can't see any sound effects, you can't see nothing. It's basically used as a animation platform. And that's it and they really hit the nail on the head. And they won several awards for it so well deserved.

Ben Grussi 01:57
Now going to the other direction of the bright blues and reds and stuff like that is the sequel to Eschaton: Darkness Twilight with Eschaton: Nightfall. Hugh's next ambitious project, which Strange Company. And this one, again, took a long time. And also had two different iterations of it, they had a director's cut, and they also had a lip sync version of it were special spec, a special edition I should say, which dealt with on a lip syncing and whatnot. But again, continuing the HP Lovecraft mythos. And going through, this was a long story, this ran for about 40 minutes. So it was definitely a beefier story, almost as much as the original, but more, you know, slower paced and whatnot, and also dealt with, again, the amazing voice actors that dealt with, you know, the fear their anger, um, you know, a side story that I always love to bring up to people is that the main villain in the story, you know, when she does her grand reveal that the audio recorder for doing the voiceovers didn't realise that she was gonna go so high. And when she yelled her name, or yelled at her lines, that he almost fell over and blew out his audio equipment, because she had hit such a high pitch that you definitely have to give credit to credit due to a person who, you know, is the grand daddy, but she resonates more when she's yelling at the top of her lungs, and you're not expecting it to hit that high of a pitch. Um, but it hits it right out of the park. But again, the story goes in the highs and lows, deals very well with the aesthetic of a dystopian world where HP Lovecraft story is breathing. And the characters are trying to explain and trying to solve the problems that were created in the first film. But again, not to dwell on this too much, but basically a very solid film in again, unfortunately, much to my regret that I'll never get any more films out of that because it just wasn't viable and Bloodspell had to come out and might happen so at least I got two solid story films out of it. And that's all I'm gonna get, but at least I got it got them anyway.

Ben Grussi 04:27
So moving on to we're going to switch things up to a talk show. Now, in Quake 1, there was a talk show, it was very brief, but it was funny it was but it wasn't really that well done in the sense of you know, but it was very simplistic so it was well done. But some people may interpret it as being not well done because it being bare bones a very simplistic, but I'm in this particular case, because of the I'm Quake 2 allowing a little bit more flexibility or allow structure. There's a group of two guys, you know, Toxy and Essobie. They did a film called, you know, Late Nite With Toxie dealt with trying to do a talk show with the community at large. Um, they had people who actually did their own voiceovers. And they try to do a narrative of, you know, like a night late night show with, you know, audience and even, you know, the band and even their own paper for the person who doesn't want to leave. Um, so. And also, the dynamics between Toxy and Essobie is kind of funny, too. They did a sequel. One of those classic cases that I'm very glad that happened sometimes. It happened with the Rangers with Ranger Gone Bad 3. But they did a sequel, Star Fury from Clan Phantasm, who did the Devil's Covenant was mentioned in the quick one section, he actually reached out to them because he wanted to learn how to do editing in Quake 2 with Key Grip too, there originally weren't going to be doing this second episode, but because he stepped up to the plate, we actually got a second episode, hurray. And even had the inventor of Key Grip to actually being interviewed for that episode. So that was an extra treat, um, but also very well done. So, again, with all the different genres you see with, with all these different individuals, you have this varying of content, which definitely, you know, you can say, well, I don't like this, you can try this, or you could try that, you know,

Ben Grussi 06:50
For example, the next film that I'm going to talk about is Rebel Versus Thug. Ken Thain who did it for Chuck D's Fine Art Militia. He always gets teased when I always mentioned, I'll have to mention the title. And if you've heard the song, it gets stuck in your brain, you know, like that song that never stops. But it's a collaboration that Ken did with with Chuck D to promote his new music side project, which was, as I said, Fine Arts Militia. And it's just basically a music video that was done with Quake 2 with some modifications, and basically told the story of two factions, you know, fighting over. And basically, the story is, you know, rebels versus thugs. And it was just to have that game kind of mentality in a space age kind of context. But again, just seeing the different genres that, you know, machinima can be used for music videos, as well as people I've seen with a film I'm going to mention in the Quake 3 section, but also, you know, I'm Still Seeing Breen with Paul Marino, when he did it in Half Life to for video mods for video mods, you know that the platform is also perfect for music videos as well.

Ben Grussi 08:10
Another film we're going to talk about is Rick Jones. Now Rick Jones is again, another genre film for the people that like to 70s. Got that jive swagger, you know, master detective, but with it, you know, jive talkin and, and sexual overtones and undertones and so forth. But it was a pretty good story. Um, the animation was done painstakingly frame by frame by CrustaR. And also had a veteran voice actor that's also from the Devils Covenant Bill Venars. He did a very good job doing several characters. There was just a very good solid film, some people didn't care for it too much because of its aesthetic, or just the pacing of it was kind of wrong. But it was kind of cool to have, at least for the vets or in particular, you know, just the notables and at least, you know, cameos from people that you can recognise the voices if you know them. And just it's again, it's, you know, do something different if you don't want your normal shoot them up then. And you have a narrative that takes you back in time if you live through the 70s years where I wasn't even born yet. So it gives me a chance to look at what life was like possibly in the Quake engine in 1970.

Ben Grussi 09:35
So moving on, we definitely definitely cannot keep out Phil Rice's Father Frags Best I mean, that is one of those iconic things. That definitely if there's one thing that Phil does, when he makes his films, they leave a mark in the... to me they anchor things together that they are milestones that really have a lot of weight to them. That, you know, it's one of the key things that I'm really big fan of him because he really does in great detail and great, you know, love for the medium and whatnot, He is able to construct something that really is good as a very good narrative and incorporate several different elements. And just, it just works. And, you know, and has a bit of a twist for me in the end, as there's this classic story that he's mentioned on the podcast before. If not, you know, it's definitely one that we both won't live down, you know, if we, if we have the chance, is that it's the one time he always reminds me, the one time that I can usually pick out people's voices without too much trouble. But I embarrassed to say, but I'm also proud to say, you know, that I'm not 100% Perfect. But when I watched the film, and listen to the voices that I for the life of me, I can do it now, because I know, but I didn't know at the time that, you know, when he was playing the person who was going to play the mother was originally going to be someone who was a woman. But she unfortunately had to bow out. So Phil, and in a stretch had to do it. But I still felt that it was a woman. And he said No, it's me. And it's like, oh, so he thought it was a kicker, that I could usually catch it. But I didn't catch it. But now since I know it him, I can pick it up. But it's just embarrassing to say why he didn't know that wasn't a woman. It's like, No, I didn't. Sorry. So, but again, you know, that was his very first film. And he had a really grand sequel in mind. But unfortunately, because of life events, that didn't happen. But I think with what he did in the future, when he came back from a sabbatical, made up for it. Because you know, who can forget, you know, Male Restroom Etiquette? You know, first of all the films that he did as experiments to show you again, he's trying different things he's really trying to sprinkle. And, you know, one of the key things that he's always trying to do is empower people to to create the stuff. That's what was important when he did tutorial videos. He did, just again, he's trying to strengthen the community kind of like I was with just documenting all this stuff. And I assume he was doing the legwork to allow people to figure out how to actually do this stuff. So definitely don't want to forget that mark that Father Frags Best is in this whole narrative is the fact is that, you know, it was Phil's first mark into what he created the machinera Quake machinima community to do, you know what you had and just, you know, have really polished stuff. I mean, there's more to it than that, but we'll leave it at that because I don't want to make this a puff piece.

Ben Grussi 13:09
So another important film series, or films that were done is Donnovan. Donnovan, for a lot of people that don't know or some that do, Donnovan did several films, he did cirrhosis life, part one and two and a Warrior's Life and some other films after that, that became art pieces and whatnot. But the key thing for Donnovan's material is that Circus Life one and two, they dealt with people in a world he didn't understand, but there was also a very strong, and I don't know if he's coming from it from a life experience or from what not, but it's very vivid. You know, you would never think that Quake would be used in this way, where it's telling the narrative of two brothers, and they're being abused by their father. And the, one of the characters, you know, finally has enough of it and not showing it. Showing it in a way where you see it in the game like you would be killing a character, but he also incorporates visual representations like little pictures that could show the outcome if it happened in a real world. It's quite vivid. It's not for the, the subject matter is definitely material. It's not anything kid friendly, because of the visuals, but it definitely deals with, you know, trying to survive in a world where you're alone and you don't know what the world is like, especially when you're taking it out of your comfort zone of where you were, to where you are, and then dealing with the consequences of the two characters as they struggle to try and get through this world. Even if it makes no sense at all, to how they deal with it, but they make through it, you know, both in a good way in a bad way, depending on your point of view. His other film that was quite longer deals with a character that is isolated with his mother. And he, from an audio perspective, it's really well done in setting up the story where the main character has to deal with the loss of his mother, his mother dies in her sleep. But Donnovan of it really sends it home by literally playing her heartbeat, slowing down, slower, slower, and then stopping. And then dealing with the character, face not even realising that's happening, we as the audience know that, he doesn't. And just seeing the reaction, and reading the text of the character responding to not realising that I remember, it's such a gut punch, that that's one of the qualities that Donnovan had is he's dealing with subject matter, that is not something you typically would be dealing with. But he does it in such a way that it really gets to you. There is some issues with his English but you know, again, sometimes the visuals, and the audible sounds make up for it. Because again, audio can kind of save you where it pushes the story forward with just trying to tell you what's going on in the story without having to deal with the vocals. He was planning to do voiceovers, but I don't think it ever came to fruition. If it did, I never was able to find it. Because he did say he was going to do it with voiceovers. But in some ways, I wonder if that would have actually hurt because again, you're alone with your thoughts, listening to the sound and the music tracks. And just processing it that way that I wonder if audio with a vocal track might actually be distracting. But, you know, well, no, because I don't, I've never heard it in which way so it could have been very good, I don't know. But again, one of those what ifs.

Ben Grussi 17:20
And the last thing we're going to talk about, um, simply because of the it's a modern interpretation of real time improvisation technique, where the ILL Clan was able to figure out a way to do real time manipulation of the character faces. So in a piece that they were invited to do at the Florida Film Festival, they did a skit where they use the characters from Hardly Workin', which is Cook Carl, Larry and Lenny Lumberjack. And they had the audience pick random things to create a narrative story, where in the end, it was about baking cookies, and how all the different characters were trying their darndest to try and make these cookies. But just all the hyperlinks and whatnot. And this was being done in real time, it was not done. Like they typically did it where they recorded it through, you know, getting the scenes, right, and then committing it to video. This was done in time reacting to people in the audience, unexpected things happening in the audience. And even in the engine itself, where as many would say, you know, I don't seem to have an animation at the moment right now. But I'll get to it. So again, you see the whole thing, and even the technology's limitations, but still doing it in real time that it's still possible to do machinima in a real time sense. And it was one of those, I'm sure examples of a glimpse of the future. Where as you see it with the Mandalorian. And some other things is that you can use this technology to do things on the fly, and change things on the fly. So you're not stuck in a render loop where, all you have to change one thing and that's a wait 20 minutes or an hour, two hours for change to be implemented. Done right then in there. Something's wrong. Just take two seconds, push the button and it changes and you're good to go. So that's it.