S3 E51 Film Review: Paths of Misery by Federica Orlandini (Nov 2022)

Definitely not for kids, this week's film is an horrific overview of the 'true' Wild West, courtesy of RDR2. The tale is told through the galloping lens of Dutch van der Linde's character and Morricone's classic composition, 'The Ecstacy of Gold'... its The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but not as we know it!

Ricky Grove 00:16
Hello everybody this is Ricky Grove with Tracy Harwood and Damien Valentine for the Completely Machinima podcast for December 2022. Hello, everybody wouldn't just Yeah,

Damien Valentine 00:31
I mean November.

Ricky Grove 00:33
What's that is this November? Oh my god, I beg your pardon, I've been so involved in putting together my Halloween yard, my brain is just shot. I also apologise for the little bits of for those who are watching the video the sunlight on my face, they were using the window in front of me for spider projections and, and so the sun has to come through I'm sorry about that. Anyway, we've got a wonderful lineup of movies to share with you. Also, don't forget, we've put the news in a blog format on our website. Thank you, Tracy, for putting so much work into making that putting those together, we have, there's lots of really interesting news, I highly recommend that you check out our blog, we'll be trying to promote that more so people can keep an eye on it. I did want to make a quick note about some of the AI developments. And that's probably the big news of the year. One of the things is is Adobe, or is it NVidia I can't remember I think it's Adobe is working out a get this a text to video editor. Meaning that rather than having the standard video, you know the the layers, and you grab a piece of video and put it on the line, you use text to call up certain all kinds of shots, and then put them together using text in an order that you will you will want. Now initially it seems counterintuitive to do that. But once you start looking at it, it's actually very effective way of editing for people who don't know how to do regular video or who are uncomfortable with it. Plus, you're able to search through your videos for things like people smiling, if you write people smiling, and it'll give you all the sections of all of the videos that you have in your your library of people smiling. So when you do your edits, you can just jump right into that. And it also automatically cuts out the sections of oohs and ahhs, you know where people are, I mean, if you want to do that, you know somebody's going well. I think a lot of medically cut that out for you. I'm very intrigued with it. It's not something that I would use, but I'd like to take a look at it. And I think it would be very helpful for machinima directors who want to use AI to put together their film, it might actually change the way editing looks in a film. So I'm really excited about that. And we've got that as part of our news that Tracy is putting together on our blog site. Do you guys have anything you want to say about the news at all?

Damien Valentine 03:27
I'm interested to try out the AI you just talked about. I mean, I'm not sure I'd use it from any of my real serious productions. But to play around with and see what it can do. I think it could lead to some interesting experiments.

Ricky Grove 03:39
It could it really could. It also gives you a way of analysing your video and the content that I think is going to be time saving. Because say for example, that that piece that I talked about earlier about people smiling in a traditional way, you'd have to go through all of the video that you put together to find those. But the AI can jump right to it. And that's just smiling. I mean, you could put people gesturing people, a Tom say you've got somebody named Tom and it all all sections of Tom, and it lists all of those sections of Tom and you just choose them and put them as part of your videos. I think it's a very intriguing way of editing. And also I think customer feedback is going to help in shaping how they make that work. It might end up being a combination of text and actual video editing because full text. I'm not sure exactly how that works. I need to know more about it. But but you're right it is it is very intriguing. And I think we should look at it.

Tracy Harwood 04:44
Yeah, I think it's really fascinating area actually, we did a whole blog post special report on AI generators at the end of last month. And the first blog post for this month actually I'm out on the 31st of October is the one that includes all the AI generator updates on it. And then back end of September, I think it was we had, we were starting to have a look at things like DALLE and MidJourney and what have you. So the way that this technology has moved on so quickly, it's just really, really interesting, I think,

Ricky Grove 05:23
I'm sure is one of our writers that Renderosity magazine that I work at, it's a virtual reporter, one of our writers, MD McCallum came up with a novel idea of using Reallusion's headshot. Now that technology allows you to take a 2d picture and apply it to Character Creator in order to create, say, a portrait or historical figures or, or anything you want. Well, he decided to use AI to create a head and then used headshot to make that AI into a 3d head. And I thought that was a very creative way of using the AI portrait system. Now you're not limited to just photographs, you can use AI to construct any sort of strange and bizarre or hyper realistic head, and then turn it into a model that you can use in your film. That's something that machinima directors and creators should keep an eye on.

Damien Valentine 06:29
Its especially good for crowd scenes as well, because obviously, you want people in the backgrounds to look unique from each other. But you probably don't want to spend a lot of time coming up with unique appearances for each one. So if you can use an AI tool to create a face, you can then import that in, you're not spending hours working on each individual one, you can do it in minutes. And that's a huge thing.

Ricky Grove 06:52
Yep, that's a good point. Good point. I think you're right.

Tracy Harwood 06:56
The only other thing I'd like to sort of flag at this point is on the 14th of November, on that particular blog post, I've done some links to some really interesting projects that haven't really made our main cut for our discussion, including one demonstrating the use of web three, which is by SnoopDogg. So that'll be really interesting to take a look at, you know, a couple of other really interesting examples where animation is being mixed with real life, or where people are mixing 2d and 3d together quite effectively. And another one is looking at working with a massive cast, huge cast, which I thought was quite interesting. And then another one is a bit of RVB style comedy, so check out that particular project update as

Ricky Grove 07:47
well. Okay. Make sure we post links to that article, I mean, the blog post on our Facebook page. Just remember, we have lots of content going up at Competelymachinima.com. So head on over there and take a look. I do want to point out the elephant in the room, which is Phil Rice, not being part of our our group today. Sadly, he got in a fight with a hurricane. And he's on the bad end of it. And he has limited and in times no internet connection whatsoever down in Florida because he lives in Florida with a big hurricane. So our best to you, Phil, we miss you today a lot. And we hope you're able to join us next month. Yeah,

Damien Valentine 08:34
yeah. Maybe soon.

Ricky Grove 08:36
Yep. All right, let's move on to our movies. I'm going to start out with my choice this month. It's funny, when I go searching for movies, sometimes it takes me couple hours to find the thing that I want. I found this within about two minutes. And I said this is my choice automatically. On Vimeo there was a wonderful director Federica Orlandini, who has a really nice collection of videos but one struck me as being very, very interesting and that's called Paths of Misery. And she uses Red Dead Redemption two, to paint a portrait of the Old West that is counter to the narrative that romanticised narrative of the that we hold with movies and television shows in which the hero is always trying for the bad guys everybody behaves is just beautiful. You know, John Ford looked at everything. And instead she emphasises the horror and the the awfulness of being in the west the the terrible starvation that people endure, the random violence, the domestic fights and everything. It's less of an organised plot and more a series of depictions of this other side of the West that she wrote. The music is fascinating too, because it's, it's ironic and that it uses this Old Spaghetti Western style, rousing music. And it brings this expectation of sort of men men in gunfights and the good guy mowing the person down, you know, the silent man going on his, his way, you know, with the women looking on all of this is wiped out. Heroism is there's no heroism in this at all. And it is pretty grim for for folks who have expectations about it, but I just thought it was absolutely fantastic portrait of it, perhaps a little short and a little fragmented. But I was really impressed with it. And I enjoyed it very much. What did you guys think of it?

Tracy Harwood 10:58
Hmm, well, okay. Yeah, grim is exactly the word I would use for it as well. Wild West, everything, you know, death depraved acts of violence to just simple revenge, rejection, fear, and also survival against the odds, presumably, you know, this, this was really about sickness and horror of it all. Which I think it was it was really interestingly, portrayed through the role of a traveller.

Ricky Grove 11:33
Oh, that's right. Yes. person on the horse.

Tracy Harwood 11:36
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think this, this traveller is really interesting. It because it's this kind of, I think it's a kind of liminal tale, and some kind of transient state. We don't know who this character is, or what his relationship is to the other characters in the film. He's sort of, he's in this between space of going forwards towards something new in the way that he's portrayed. And there's this, you know, the sense of freedom that kind of comes with that versus actually running away from the destruction that's left behind in these other scenes. So you've got this kind of really interesting, just this juxtaposition of scenes. And I think it's portrayed by that galloping horse, which picks up speed through the film, with almost stills of the aftermath of something terrible, shocking, that's kind of happen. Whether or not the rider is that is the victim or the perpetrator, you kind of never know, but probably he's both. And of course, that that music, which I want to say something about... Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold is what it is. And it's perfect for this kind of spaghetti western like portrayal, which is expensive things that thing that came through to me, obviously, that's Sergio Leone is The Good, The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly. And the rider even has that kind of Tuco esque style character in the saddle a kind of madness is driven by a certain need, except he's not wearing that Mexican Mexican sombrero. And it's got an almost biblical overtone. But what's the ecstasy here? It's not the thought of finding gold near a gravestone for sure, because that's where that music is played in the film at the end, where he's looking for the gold buried near the gravestone. So maybe it's maybe the music is sort of about escape to something more golden. I don't know. I guess the sense of biblical comes from that tinny church bell in the music and the thunder of the galloping horses hooves told through the drumbeats. And actually, after I watched this film, I wanted to listen to that music on its own, because I wasn't sure how much of this film was, was the music and how much of it was the animation? So I went and listened to the music on its own. Because I just I remember growing up with that sort of music as I think we all did at a certain age. Yeah. So I'll put a link to that in the in the show notes when we get to that because I think you'll find that quite an interesting listen as well. So those are my thoughts as I was kind of watching it and then come to that end quote. Which is on the scene on the screen just for a few seconds, the quote says, 'This place ain't no such thing as civilised. It's man so in love with greed. He's forgotten himself and found only appetites'. And I think this, to me felt like the inspiration for the whole film. The quote is attributed to Dutch van der Linde who is a character from the original Red Dead game and is even more iconically associated with Red Dead Redemption two game. I think the quote is meant to reflect reflect this kind of brutish but fair behaviour of Dutch, sort of life has been rough to me it is what it is kind of thing. So you've kind of got this toughness, which made me think that the traveller is actually moving on, and not so much bothered about the things he's left behind, but more to continue as kind of lifestyle as he passes through taking whatever may come in process. So I concluded that the rider is in the moment. And it's all about the liminal. It's not, it's not about the before or after scenes at all. It's about that sort of liminal space between those things. And I think it's a really cleverly done little film. Because of that. It's nothing like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. There are no hard stairs to dodge, as written. There's no

Ricky Grove 15:42
heroism, the ugly, even though it emphasises the violence and the brutishness of it, there's still a heroic aspect to it and elevated aspect to it. This there has none of that. Yeah,

Tracy Harwood 15:54
exactly. But because of because of the, the way it kind of comes over, I think that's a really good fit between the music and what you see on screen. And it kind of gave a new sort of set of meanings to that music, which was fun to think about. So I really enjoyed it.

Ricky Grove 16:16
Yeah, yeah. Really. I was wondering what your reaction was going to be to it? Yeah. What did you think, Damien?

Damien Valentine 16:22
There was two things that stood out to me. One is, Ricky mentioned, it's kind of a little bit fragmented. I actually liked that, because you're getting snapshots of different people. And whatever difficulties they're facing in this period of history. And if it'll, if it had been a focus story, it would have put that all on just a number of a limited number of characters. But this kind of shows, it makes it feel like this affects everyone, because it's not, you know, it's not focused on one or two characters. It's saying a widest picture of everything around. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. And I really liked that. And I don't think it would have worked with a narrative story. as such. I don't just mean having a heroic element, because obviously, that's not part of this film at all. But you could have a story that no heroism in it, I don't think it would work quite the same way. It's just like, different snapshots of what life was like. And it was obviously very brutal, and very hard. And I think, as you said, Ricky, and a lot of that gets forgotten in the films and TV shows that generally come out about life in the West Wild West. So that was good. The other thing that stood out to me, which is more on the technical side, and I think Phil would prefer we latch on to this, as well as how did they make it because I remember, you and Phil have talked a lot about playing Red Dead and figure out how to make machinima with it. And of course, Phil has made his own film with Red Dead Redemption, he has talked about how difficult it was with the limited tools available, which are more mod tools rather than anything provided officially, right. And this looks really excellent. I don't just mean the visual, the graphics. Obviously, the game looks stunning, but the cinematography and all that I don't know how to use yet, because from what Phil said, this must have been a massive undertaking just to pull off those shots.

Ricky Grove 18:24
Some of the scenes were actual cutscenes. And in film, which made it a little bit easier, because they did it was already created. They just use the sections of it to blend in together to make their point.

Damien Valentine 18:38
That makes sense.

Ricky Grove 18:41
I'd like to point out that this movie is the kind of movie that only machinima can make. It's it's a it's a method and an idea that I think machinima directors and people who are interested in machinima should pay attention to because it's sort of an essay. It's sort of an idea that this director had, and then she wanted to have a way to, to construct an argument for her idea. And she used sequences, cutscenes she filmed gameplay, she used everything that's part of a game to put together this is this essay, this this, this notion, this, this interesting experimental story that she created, that I don't think would be the same if you've got Pixar involved in it. Or a professional company who creates who created 3d models and organise the story and everything. There's something that is so uncreative, about that. Well, not uncreative, but something predictable. I think, in a way, you know how it would turn out because they wouldn't emphasise such awfulness. Animation is so good Has that what they call the Walt Disney factor, which Disney's affected animation in the United States so much that people think that animation is just for kids. Or if it's for adults, it has to have this sort of well made story with heroes and morality and all of that. Machinima can allow you to have an idea. And then find it, maybe even the idea came from the game itself, and then use the game to, to create this, this essay, this, this construction of an idea in a way that is completely unique. And it's fast, generally, and fairly easy to do. And I was so impressed with that. And I would urge machinima directors who want to see get some inspiration to dig into your favourite game and find things that you want the ideas that are fed back to you, that you can create something with. Like recently, I, my partner, Lisa Morton, who is a writer, wanted to do a short little book trailer. And she asked me if I could create a background scene to use for the graphics and narration. And I was playing Elden Ring at the time. And at one point after in the story of the Elden Ring, this huge tree is burning, and they're all the cinders that are coming through everywhere you go. So I found this sort of dark forest, and cinders were going across it. And I recorded about 30 seconds of that of the camera in place. And we use that as the background. And it made me think well, that that would be an interesting things, find all sorts of backgrounds, and make them available for people who want to use them in their scenes. I mean, you could use a moving background to create as part of a scene that you wanted to do. And that led me to other ideas and other ideas. So the point that I'm trying to make is that machinima is still a very viable way of telling stories, and can often lead to creative solutions that are completely different from your traditional 2d animation.

Damien Valentine 22:17
Especially in game open world games, where they put a lot of effort into making it seem like a living world. So if he just stood there for 10 minutes, you would see characters going around, living basically living their lives or doing whatever it is they do in that particular game. And I think yeah, you're right, there's a lot of potential there just to just to explore and see what you can come up with. That's right.

Tracy Harwood 22:42
Yeah, I'm guessing Metaverse type stuff will result in potentially more of these kinds of things. But just kind of, I think we're in that in between stage at the moment, aren't we? Where and, you know, people are migrating in their droves to Unreal Engine and what have you. And those aren't persistent virtual worlds as such, they're just worlds that people have created for their own right end, and, you know, that leaves just a few kind of virtual social worlds like, Second Life and Fortnight and whatnot, where people that are in Minecraft, and what have you, where people are able to sort of go in and gather that kind of background information for you like background data, and experience it. But once we start getting into more, more different types of persistent worlds, we'll probably see more of this kind of thing come to the fore again.

Ricky Grove 23:39
Now, I wanted to mention to everybody that Federica Orlandini, the director of Paths of Misery has several other interesting films on her Vimeo site, we will provide a link to her and our blog post in our show notes. She's terrific. She's a thinking director. So all of her films have a point to make, sometimes a social point, sometimes an intellectual point, but they're all smart, and intelligent. I hope at some point we might be able to do an interview with her. So if you're listening Frederica, please contact us. We'd love to talk with you. And if you have any comments about this film or anything else, contact us at talk completely machinima.com. If you have news that you want to share with us that we've missed, you can use that avenue to contact us. And unless you guys have any further comments, we'll close out the session.

Damien Valentine 24:40
That was an excellent choice. Phil. enjoyed that. Thank you.

Ricky Grove 24:45
Yeah, it's funny you made that mistake because I think Phil would probably choose this. Yeah, it's good pick.

Damien Valentine 24:54
You got his internet so that he couldn't choose his film, didn't you? Oh, Oh

Ricky Grove 25:02
yeah, best to you all. I hope you guys had a good October and we're kicking off November with Paths of Misery by Federica orlandini Thank you for talking with this and we'll see you next week. Bye bye

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