Phil Rice 00:06
Hey there And Welcome To And Now For Something Completely Machinima, the podcast about machinima, virtual production and other related technologies. And this episode we are looking at this is the gonna be the third instance in a row, I think where it's a machinima related to a game that we have not seen on this show very often. So, this is a Minecraft related animation and Tracy why don't you tell us about it? Yeah, stop. I'm not gonna make the dumb move again. My name is Phil. And with me is Ricky Tracy, and Damien. This is Phil, and we are professionals.

Ricky Grove 00:48
We are professional.

Damien Valentine 00:49
Oh. Well, I look forward to seeing why missed for this.

Tracy Harwood 00:57
Awesome. Okay. Yeah. So this week Wither Storm War by Squared Media, which was released on the 6th of May. I'm just going to top this by giving you a little bit of background because you may know these guys. Squared Media which is formerly known as Black plasma studios. They are an online team of Minecraft creators. Originally, they produced Halo machinima under the name I think of Arbiter 617. And they created the Rise of the Spartans machinima. And were originally launched in thinking about 2008. Now eventually, these guys switched solely to animating Minecraft and the studio made this series that they're quite well known for called Songs of War, which actually super ironically, was cancelled in June 2020, after only one season. Seemingly, because a couple of the guys who have left. They use Blender to animate the films and I think that's quite important because we'll we'll probably comment on the quality of this work. But it's Blender that they've used to animate it, even though it's Minecraft based. And they also make bloopers for all their animations. Now, it's Squared Media they have over 10 million subscribers, and are actually one of the most subscribed my Minecraft animation channels on YouTube. But its brand has been seriously damaged recently by one of its former directors, who apparently is now the subject of a federal investigation, following a community expose aid all of which led to a change of directorship and a change of name. And and this film being the result of that complete change after they kicked this guy out. So in spite of these difficulties, that channel I think, is quite interesting, because it's still hitting really high views. And this, as I said, it's the most recent film. Now when I picked it a couple of weeks ago, it was at a view count of 1.7 million. Yeah, and as we're recording some three weeks after I first spotted it, it's at 2.1 million views. And that said, its pre expose December film was 17 million by comparison. So I think whatever has gone on the brand has been massively damaged by some of the behaviour. Anyway, it's made using Minecraft Story Mode. And before I talk about the film, there is just one quick thing that I mentioned for those not into Minecraft Story Mode. It's an episodic video game series developed by Telltale Games in collaboration with Mojang Studios. The game consists of a series of 13 episodes, which were released periodically centred around a particular character named Jesse who allies with something called the order of the stone to attempt to save their Minecraft world. But in 2019, it was a game was no longer supported following closure of Telltale Games, and the game itself was discontinued on the 25th of June 2019. So this, this exists long after the game, so to speak. There's also something else which is worth noting because if you don't know the lore of this particular game, you probably aren't gonna make a lot of sense of this story. It's about the wither storm and this is a kind of a destructive version of the wither character in the the Minecraft Story Mode. It basically works by sucking blocks and mobs to make it bigger and stronger and eventually becomes this kind of giant tentacle monster with multiple heads that can kind of fire this tractor beam and And it attacks by by shooting these blocks, and then creating these kind of massive explosions. So much of what you see in here is actually gameplay. So the film, as I said, it's called with a storm war was released on sixth of May. And it's basically described as a cinematic boss attack on a kingdom where the Prince must fight for his realm and his people. And what I was really impressed with, in this I have say is the sound design, with the start being set to music, called The Beginning of an Era by Bonnie Grace and crazy wants to know that because unfortunately, the one thing you don't get any sense of is who, who the music should be credited to because it's not on the video description or any of the YouTube channel content. Now, obviously, what we're dealing with here is just simple blocks. But it's the detail I think, in these blocks, it's pretty astonishing. Hence me mentioning Blender, you could immediately get a sense of danger and threat and fear from these kind of Lego like characters. They say, it's quite simply, they it's achieved through their movements, their eye positions, their mouth positions, it kind of had this feeling of a little bit of Game of Thrones against the odds, you know, our hero must release his army and, and overpower this kind of opposing faction who I actually think is his brother, and basically use the power of what were they the sort of magic armour and these pet dragons in order to defend the people and kill this kind of monster, which grows to this astronomical proportions in this story. So yeah, I mean, there's not a single word spoken throughout the 11 minutes of the film, it's in, you know, it's told entirely with soundscape. You know, you can clearly see that there's ray tracing, that's adding a certain level of depth to these otherwise blocky kind of visuals. But I actually chose it because of the high quality production values. Because I think it's steeped in the game lore that it kind of represents. I, you know, I think quite frankly, it's no wonder these guys are at the top of their game. And on top of that, if you actually want to see something quite funny, they have created this bloopers reel, which is actually pretty funny. And that was released just a couple of weeks ago. So it's kind of smulshy fun without kind of any obscenity. As I said, I think the only thing I would have liked to have seen is better credits, but the sound design and the music that's been used, because none of the work of others has been credited in this at all. And it's a pity because the creators have such a big following one would really expect them to take better leadership and ensuring that the community of creators is also respected. So that's my take on it. What would you guys say?

Ricky Grove 08:11
I'm glad you explained the law of the world, because when I played Minecraft, that creature did not exist. So if it's something they made up, or something that later so that makes no sense. I do like the way that Minecraft, you said, it's all blocks. And individually, the blocks mean nothing. But you can create all these kinds of fantastic things, if you've got the right imagination for it. And as you said, there's no dialogue in this film. But still, I found it really easy to follow the story without that, and it's I think we discussed that previously on other videos where there's been no dialogue. But it takes a great amount of skill to tell a story without any character, helping to explain the story of what's going on to communicate that to the audience, you're just doing visually. And I think they did it really well, especially in a game where it's blocks. So you don't necessarily have the same kind of detail as you would in some of the other films you've got this month where you got all the facial animation and you can do all kinds of complex things with the characters, when when they're just really blocky characters. It's a lot harder, but they still managed to do it really well. And I was just really impressed by the amount of work that went into this.

Ricky Grove 09:31
I liked it. I thought it was a wonderful fun film. I think it's pretty easy to see why these guys are so popular because they make the film is very well crafted. It's pretty to look at which is the I don't didn't think I'd ever be able to say that about a Minecraft machinima, but it was very attractive it was clearly you can understand everything clearly. I enjoy I did very much to watch it. But I do have some quibbles one is is their choice not to have dialogue. By and I can understand production wise, it's much easier because you don't have to produce any of that there's no acting, there's no doing it. And they told the story very well without it, which is not an easy thing to do. However, when you choose not to have dialogue, what happens is, is that the film becomes all action. You don't get, and there's no depth, because then you don't have any sense of character differentiation, you don't have a sense of who that character is. So they solve the problem, production problem, but they made their film kind of surfacey. And then if you attach that to the cliche of the plot, and I say cliche, in a positive sense, you know, most of what we watch in popular culture are cliches and reworkings of the same story. So I'm not denigrating any of that at all. And that's part of the appeal, the million people watching it, they can easily understand it. But if you add no depth to a cliche plot, it becomes all spectacle. And the spectacle in this case was great, you could really enjoy it. And it was a lot of fun. But I missed it, especially compared to our last pick last week of Cyberpunk: Don't Fall Down. That sense of feeling about the characters and everything, don't fall down was a film didn't quite have the same craft that this one does. But in a way, I enjoyed that more, because it produced the feeling in me, this was just an amusing little pastry, that was fun to watch. And it was enjoyable. But it's not something that I would go back to personally. And that's my reaction to the film. Interesting.

Phil Rice 12:03
So yeah, I'm a I am. I'm a champion for silent film in a way. I think it's, it can be a smart decision. Because our audience now is potentially now or is international. You know. So, I think that as kind of a general purpose thing, one of the advantages of not putting dialogue in a specific language is that everyone's on the same playing field. I don't know if that was their intent here. Or if it was a kind of more of a production shortcut. Like where he talked about it, honestly, it could be either way, both decisions are understandable. However, I found myself missing some dialogue here, like, Oh, really wanting it? There, maybe because there were certain scenes in this film, that traditionally, there would be talking happening, that the talking would be the action of that scene, you know, one guy comes in, there's a group of others, and he's, you know, spurring them into some action or whatever. And to do that, with just some very simple looks, and nods and stuff, it's like, you're not gonna say anything. You know, I found myself craving in that regard. So I think that that it kind of is it taught me something about when you're doing silent film, I think that when silent film works well, it's because you don't have an awkward scene where somebody normally would talk and instead, there's just somebody looking. You'd never have those scenes where someone would talk. It's it's all nonverbal. And I don't know, I don't know how to pin it down. But I basically I felt like that. Even though this, if it weren't for the fact that this story was I mean, just a trope sandwich. I mean, it just, there's not a single thing in here that's not cliche. Is the, the term that Ricky used. Yeah, it leans on that heavily like that you would recognise these certain story tropes, and I don't use it as a condescending term either. But if it weren't for that, or if they had wanted to tell a story that was more innovative that had some new or surprising element to it. I don't know that they could have pulled it off without that dialogue. So I don't know. They made great use of the animations of the characters to you know, it wasn't that there was no nonverbal there was it was it was well animated. I'm I did not realise watching this that any of the footage was from Minecraft Story Mode I mean it has the look of Minecraft Story Mode for sure but I wasn't aware that Minecraft Story Mode was actually a moddable game I always assumed that it was basically like a Choose Your Own Adventure book type of thing that you would play through it was a pretty neat product it was I was sad to see it go away the the main character was voiced by Patton Oswald they had some some pretty decent voice talent in there including some people who were kind of superstars of Minecraft YouTube at the time they hired them to do to voice some of the characters in it it was it was kind of a neat little cute story. And it was narrative driven dialogue driven a very effectively told so I guess I was maybe comparing that to this and seeing the look of Minecraft Story Mode but then everybody's got tape over their mouths it was confusing to me. So I'm kind of the scales are kind of tipping either way for me on Okay, smart. Because if it was just an English then then Minecraft fans in India might have trouble or you know, but at the same time, me as an English speaking guy, I just wanted to I wanted I think I craved some more deep interactions with these characters. And yeah, there's there's, there's clearly limits on what you can do there. Soundscape wise, I'm going to give them credit for something I've criticised a number of films we've looked at in the past, which is that there needs to be sound for that, you know, for particular motion or action or whatever, and it's just silent. Drives me crazy. This one. You can't say that about anything in this movie. Everything had a sound. However they weren't always good sound picks, or well mixed sound picks. You know, sometimes they were a little bit too heavy for what you know, footsteps in the grass or armour rustling? Yeah, you need to be able to hear it, but it shouldn't be like right in your face in the middle of the mix. That's a real that's a nitpick. I recognise that's a sound guy nitpick. I think overall, I'm glad that they put effort in to do the to try and aim toward foley a fully foley picture. That's good. But it has to be mixed properly or else it's it's it's kind of kind of clunky. So sound mix I'm again I'm back and forth. I don't know I I wanted to like this I didn't recognise the wither character either Damien and I've played a lot of Minecraft. It's been a while since I've been in there, but I played a lot. And um, maybe I didn't finish all of Minecraft Story Mode to see these this wither storm. I've seen the wither. But I think that the story of the film doesn't rely too heavily on Minecraft lore, it does reference it of course. And there's lots of little details there. The lightning striking the copper lightning rods and turning the copper all to a different colour. That's an element within normal Minecraft that someone who hadn't played it wouldn't get. But you don't have to know that to appreciate the visual aspect of that use of the story, little things like that were sprinkled throughout. So fan service stuff. And I appreciate that. So I don't know, I've got mixed feelings about this one. There's no denying the level of craft and experience going on here. This is a level of animation that I could not do. I fully recognise that like it's it's it's a plus level stuff. But as a as a film, there was some stuff that left me with some question marks yeah,

Ricky Grove 19:14
great analysis, great analysis of it. I one additional short comment I want to make is it. Part of the problem of of doing a silent film like that is you need to have characters whose faces are at least capable of some expressiveness. In Minecraft, you just don't have that. You can have blunt expressions a change in sprites may be for them to smile or grimace, but you really don't have any range of expression. So that limits your ability to be able to even if you have dialogue, you'd have to shoot it in a way that didn't emphasise close ups or coverage. So I understand why they decided not to do that. And perhaps Minecraft is a game that just doesn't lend itself to having characters with depth. I'm not sure somebody smart and creative could probably do it. But their way of emphasising action and plot all the way through it is probably the smartest thing to do. And obviously, a million plus views shows that it's effective.

Phil Rice 20:21
I think they did as good. I think you're right, Ricky. I think the limitation is the medium because I think they did the best they could with what, what they have, you know, in terms like, there was one scene in particular, where they actually somehow emulated someone narrowing their eyes, which is a really subtle micro expression on someone's face, where their eyes just kind of narrow a bit. I mean, it's, it's, it's such a subtle thing. And they did the best they could with that. And I saw that one scene and thought, Oh, that's cool. I've never seen that done. But I know that with some of these minecraft animation tools, it is possible. But I would have never thought to do that. It's pretty clever. But the fact is, when you compare that to the kinds of things that you can do, with, let's say, a face in Character Creator 4 these, these subtle little muscle movements, and things like that, that can really convey feeling a complex array of feeling. Yeah, they can't do that here. So it's a limited palette, and but I think they did an okay with what they had. But it's, yeah, for a story like this would have been enhanced by that additional level of emotional engagement. That I'm just not sure. I think you're right. We can't say I think maybe just those those characters those, like he said, Lego-esq characters, I'm not sure they can do that. So yeah, that's that's the challenge with it.

Tracy Harwood 21:51
Yeah, it's a tough, it's a tough one. I think all your comments are really, really useful. Whether they take critique, I don't know. Hopefully, at least what they'll do is add credits in future because I, I really think that's a big absolute

Phil Rice 22:09
given if they just did it all in house with Creative Commons zero Free Sound stuff that doesn't require crediting. If that's the case, then it's a one line addition to your credits to let people know that so that nobody has that question. Yeah. Same thing with the music if it's in house, so when I when I do a film, sometimes if it's in house music, I just don't bother mentioning it. Otherwise, it's you know, story Phil, directed by Phil, sound Phil, voice Phil, you know, so if they don't want to do that, well, then just you just leave it all on the one line? Oh,

Damien Valentine 22:40
yeah. By Phil.

Phil Rice 22:41
Yeah. But since this does come across as that it's a team production. It at least implies that there's probably multiple people involved. Yeah, you're right to notice that Tracy, why wasn't that person mentioned? Hopefully, it's just a, you know, just an innocent oversight. And yeah, it's something easy to fix. If their

Ricky Grove 23:00
quality of the films remains the same as this one, I see them overcoming their setbacks, because this is quite entertaining. And very enjoyable to watch.

Tracy Harwood 23:14
Yeah, and it clearly is aiming at a very particular audience. I would think.

Phil Rice 23:18
and branding I suspect. Yeah, definitely. And clearly there's yours. I mean, this is years of expertise. That that someone or someone's yeah have built up here. It's it's it's pretty impressive. Yeah, this this could not have been done if anyone wonders This could not have been done in Minecraft the actual game. Yep. physically impossible. So

Ricky Grove 23:45
I'd like to see them take on a project with more depth like Waiting for Godot, maybe

Damien Valentine 23:51
in Minecraft in Minecraft.

Phil Rice 23:53
I'm just kidding. All right, that's gonna wrap up this episode. I'm Phil and this is Ricky Tracy and Damian, we are the Completely Machinima crew join us on our next episode for our next film,

Ricky Grove 24:13
which will be a doozy.

Phil Rice 24:15
It'll be a doozy. Bye bye