Tracy Harwood 00:35
Hello and welcome to And Now For Something Completely Machinima Podcast. I'm Tracy Harwood and I'm joined today by Phil Rice. Hello. Ricky Grove? Yes sir. And Damien Valentine.

Damien Valentine 00:52
Hello there.

Tracy Harwood 00:54
Hellooo, suave. Yes. Okay, so this week we are going to be talking about Damien's pick, which is a No Man's Sky film called Origins. But before we do that, let me just remind you that Phil has been working on a fantastic project to remaster some of the classic machinima films from a long dead website called Machiniplex. And you can find those films on his Vimeo channel, which I'll put the link in the in the show notes, but the website address is bit.ly stroke machiniplex. And Phil has also amazingly worked on restoring a film that Hugh Hancock created. I can't remember the year now Phil, when was that? When was Bloodspell originally released? I got it made about

Phil Rice 01:52
2007. I think the feature was in 2007. He was it he released it episodically between 2006 and 2007. And then called with the feature at it.

Tracy Harwood 02:05
So Phil's got, we've put an a trailer to the the Bloodspell, remastered project that Phil's been working on on the on the YouTube channel here. And you can find the full release of that film being premiered on the 18th August on Phil's YouTube channel. I think I've got that right. I'm gonna feel Yeah,

Phil Rice 02:27
yeah, that's right. That's right.

Tracy Harwood 02:29
All right. Let's move on to our film pick this week. This is Damien's pick. Damien, do you want to introduce your selection? Tell us a bit about it.

Damien Valentine 02:38
Yeah. So usually, I start with how I came across it. And this time, I went to North Wales on a week long holiday, and I was on a coach, which is a very long journey from where I live. So I took my Nintendo Switch, and I had No Man's Sky on it. And I played it there. And I played on the journey back, and it's a great way to pass the time. So then, when I got home, I started thinking, I wonder if anyone's made anything good with No Man's Sky. So as I went on to YouTube, and I found all kinds of things. And there's lots of videos out there of people, making videos to show off the different landscapes and planets and other things that they found. And they're very interesting, they're very, some very stunning shots, they're, they're not necessarily the most entertaining videos, unless you're a fan of the game. And you want to see more of what people have found, because the game is huge. And there's no possible way that you're going to see every planet because there are billions and billions of planets and systems, you'll be very lucky do you encounter something that someone else has discovered, because it's just perhaps too big than it really needs to be. So every single person playing is going to have a very unique experience of what they find. And people want, obviously want to show off that there are across Origins, which does have a bit of showing off what the creator's found, he does more with it, there's more things happening and the spaceships flying around. And he's he kind of gets this fuel of exploring these environments, not just standing there. And he kind of shows us a little bit more detail about these worlds that he's discovered and his journey through the game. And I had looked through some of his other videos, and the thing that really impressed me was he's done about five, six minute long video tutorial, showing how he makes these videos. And he made the process very simple to understand.

Ricky Grove 04:36
Who is the person you're referring to? Oh, yeah.

Damien Valentine 04:39
She's mentioned that his name is Evil. Dr.Porkchop

Ricky Grove 04:44
evil Dr. porkchop?

Phil Rice 04:46
Yes.

Damien Valentine 04:47
Ricky I had a feeling you got to enjoy his name. Thank you. So he put together a solid video that's it's kind of a equals it's a how to make cinematic videos in No Man's Sky photo mode. Because again, just have a photo mode that you can use to take screenshots. Obviously, he's figured out how to make videos with it, which is again, fantastic time. And he makes that processing really simple. Anyone playing the game can do it, which I think it's a really good guide to make because he explains it perfectly in five minutes, you don't need anything else, and even explains how to capture the footage in into a video so you can edit it in your videos and tool of choice. So I thought that was really good. So what do you guys think?

Ricky Grove 05:28
The title of it is Origins a no man's sky cinematic trailer as a trailer for an update called Origins in No Man's Sky.

Damien Valentine 05:40
I think the film itself is just called Origins and he wants to make his a trailer for the game. It's like a sci fi trailer for the game

Ricky Grove 05:47
for the game. You know, it's funny because when I first watched it, obviously it's beautiful. It's got some marvellous cinematics in it. But I was annoyed by the fact that it hadn't doesn't have any real story or drama in it. And I had developed this long, criticised criticism of it just like you know, the grumpy guy criticism. And I started to realise Well, you can't legitimately criticise it for not doing what you wanted it to do. You know what I mean? Like I want it to be this kind of film, but it's not. It's another kind of film. So I'm going to not criticise the film based on that I'm going to criticise it for what it is. And what it is is very attractive and interesting sort of travelogue, amongst the various environments, that shows the kind of scale of the character I love those little shots of the little man and the massive world that it was in it creates such an immense sense of the vast distance having played the game I enjoyed it very much and it is just like that you suddenly discover a plant planet you go down you explore it, I think it's a mark for what it tries to be which is a trailer for the game and achieves it brilliantly and you know there have been many new updates to No Man's Sky they fix a lot of things and make adjustments to it. And all of those come out in this trailer I for what it is I enjoyed it a lot and I'm really glad to hear that he's making tutorials because then you could use those tutorials to make something that I want the film to be make a drama out of it, you know what I mean? But anyway, it was not to it was a call it was a cool choice.

Ricky Grove 06:16
Do you want to go next?

Phil Rice 07:39
Yeah, this is this is the month of colour for me I'm just blown away by the vivid and varying colour palette that the environments of this game just just gorgeous. Just gorgeous the way the light plays off of everything and lens flares and all that I have a little bit of a I guess a personal beef with the game and that is that it's got all those environments but at least last I checked there's not a way Ricky you mentioned the little man that's pretty much that's it that's going to be in the shot. Period like there's no wide landscape shot without the little man for the most part your your camera freedom is not there. And selfishly as a you know machinima producer I guess you know what I want from No Man's Sky is some kind of a mixture of No Man Sky's environments, Eve Online space battles and Star Citizen's avatars. Oh, that's the ultimate sci fi movie like with but each one of those games is like missing the piece of the other. Yeah, this one I I was very very intrigued by it as a way to you know if it's not as I'm saying this I'm like feeling like a selfish idiot. Like, I just want to go in there and steal views. I want to go in there and pilfer these beautiful landscape shots and kick that fucking astronaut out of here. It's like so it's so stupid. I have no criticism of the film. It's beautiful. I just think that game developers that they don't make it easier for me to take those views and use them for something not related. Yeah, yeah. What an a hole I am.

Ricky Grove 09:41
Oh, no, no, no, it's

Phil Rice 09:42
beautiful. It's beautiful. That's what stopped me from buying the game is just just outright selfishness. Oh, well. If I can't free cam, then I'm not interested. But it's gorgeous. Like I can see how it's it's amazing the variety of have shots and planet escapes. And it's just, I mean, come on, it's gorgeous. It's worth the game is worth all the hype that it gets, which is largely that largely for just the visual wow factor. Oh, it deserves every bit of praise it gets, which is

10:19
what the game play is basically wandering around and looking at things flying to different places. I mean, you can do construction and interactions and things like that. But that's not the main source of wonder, walking around. And just looking at these wonderful things, is what it's about. Too bad. They don't make it easier for you to have a free cam. That's a that's a legitimate complaint. You're not an asshole for thinking that you're an asshole for other things.

Damien Valentine 10:46
Maybe someone's made a mod that that's fair enough.

Tracy Harwood 10:49
Well, maybe they have but you know, before I sort of, say pretty much the same things. As you guys said. What I did notice is and I have so I'm really disappointed about this. This guy hasn't made anything at least on this channel. Since this film you've picked Damien. No, yeah. And it's such a shame, because what he's said in the description of it, is that he's hit an insurmountable problem when he was creating this, and, and, and clearly, probably also another, No Man's Sky is project as well. And he says it was something to do with the controllers, although I've no idea exactly what he's talking about. But it seems like it's something to do with the recording, his recording process or whatever, maybe the the modding process that he's using? I don't know. But he's not made another thing since this was released. Oh, yeah, it's really disappointing that then what was it released 30th of November 2020. So clearly, something bad has happened, or he's creating under a different name. And we just don't know what that is. Well, the

Damien Valentine 11:54
games had so many updates, they had, I think about 20 free expansion packs, and he's a huge expansion packs that massively changed the game, add more content, maybe something was released after this video that changed, the his processed so much that you can't use that process anymore.

Ricky Grove 12:12
Yeah, yeah, that's probably Cool.

Tracy Harwood 12:14
Well, that's such a shame. Anyway, shall I sort of say what I thought. Anyway, this is another for me, it was a really kind of emotive film of the type that we've kind of commented on over the last couple of months. This one is not so much about the story, for me as the feeling of being in. That wasn't just an incredibly beautiful and colourful world. And I say world, but actually, it's, it's more like what we're seeing is a universe. Because clearly what's going on here is the central character is flying around to these different planets, just to basque in their atmosphere. Or, you know, the setting of a star, like our sun on the horizon, or just to take in the view, and the colours of you've all said that our votes are really, to me just an absolute love letter, to the atmospheres on these various planets in this expansive virtual environment. And it's really the colours in the process of seeing the character standing on the edge and just taking it all in that's kind of overwhelming and evocative. I don't know, whether it's what what it captures is the sadness to be leaving, or just the awe from being you know, in the, in the presence of the great beauty, that's the that's viewed that kind of drives the the emotional sort of sensation at it, that it evokes in me, I think that possibly very possibly, but what I think you're seeing is a huge diversity in, in planets, and presumably also their populations, which seem to be represented in the fly past as this kind of character stands there. And it, it kind of made me think that whatever, you know, if ever, we do kind of reach the point where we're able to travel to these distant planets, I'm hoping that as, as well as searching, presumably for some kind of much needed resources, I would certainly hope that the space travellers will also you know, take the time to be inspired by simply taking in the scenes and hopefully, some of them will be as serene as what you're seeing in this film. So I think there is a story here and I guess what it is, is this this the sense of this film in the film was a great kind of journey, maybe an adventure like you call it a travelogue, I call it I think it's it's, it's a travel adventure. Like it's man's destiny to see these worlds and this man in particular, to see count these kinds of new places. Although the film suggests he never really finds a place to call home because I was going down that line of thought I was thinking, God, am I sounding like a stare Star Trek? Maybe I am, I don't know. But that will

Ricky Grove 15:16
add some drama like the the ship runs out of gas. Well, there's something you know,

Tracy Harwood 15:21
yeah, but that's just an excuse to stay on that planet a little bit longer. And I just think this guy's on, you know, searching for something he seems to be just continually going to, you know, it's, it's to seek out these experiences explore, I don't know. Anyway, the other point I'll make is about the music because I think it's the music that kind of drove that kind of evocative feeling in the the music is called Rebirth Overtone by Confidential MX. And it was composed by a guy called John Samuel Hanson. And it's actually really beautiful just to listen to it, there's a, I'll put a link on it too, because you can just, you can just sort of sink into it. It's it's gorgeous. But the the group Confidential MX is actually very experienced at creating these kinds of majestic musical compositions. Because if you take a look at their website, you'll see that they've done some of these incredible, cinematic sort of sound pieces to some of the biggest movies we've ever seen in recent years. So for me, this is another great pic. Damian. Really enjoyed it. Thank you very much.

Damien Valentine 16:29
Oh, you're welcome. I'm glad you all enjoyed it. And I've experienced the sadness of leaving, again that many times in the game, because I want to plan it. And I really like the way it looks. And I enjoy exploring it. I know that I've run out of things to do on the planet, but I don't want to leave because it's just such an interesting, yeah, yeah. So I kind of really forced myself to leave, especially in the early days, but now that they've added things where you can leave a marker, so you can, when you're looking at the galactic map, you can see somewhere you've been so smart, get back, you might find it easily. This is the base building feature, they added at some point. Again, that shows up on the map. So if you build a base on the talent you really like, it makes it very easy to just teleport back there. So you don't have to travel all the way along. It's I think it's good that they've done that.

Tracy Harwood 17:18
So here's a question for you then did Star Trek have a virtual fridge map? Of all the places that they've been?

Damien Valentine 17:28
Yes. Actually, I think it's in Star Trek. Yes, Star Trek Generations, they have this on the next generation enterprise obviously got the movie budget. So they can do more than than they could do on a TV show. They built this new set, which is the stellar cartography maps, the platform that comes out of the computer cuts on it. And in the film, we've got data set at the desk, and Picard standing next to him. And they've got this huge map of the galaxy, and zoom in and look at different planets and see what's there. So obviously, someone's had to be there and scan it and explored it. Because they're trying to track down the villain of the series and work out where he's gonna go next. And so they use this map feature, to work out where he's going to be because he's following this anomaly that's travelling through their parts of the galaxy. So they've got this line showing where it's going to be. And if he blows up this site, it'll change its course. And so they kind of got back room. And the implication is every starships got that. But they probably don't have the budget on their TV shows to to, to actually show it.

Tracy Harwood 18:31
Yeah. Maybe there's a little bit of a love letter in this to Star Trek as well. Yeah,

18:36
I expect. So I've got a question to ask that our listeners and viewers. If you are a person who plays No Man's Sky, or creates machinima in it, can you contact us and let us know what's going on with the tools for that you use? Because I don't think they really, I can't, I've been able to find a lot on it. So if you know, contact us and talk at completely machinima.com and share your experiences or ideas or pointers towards links and things like that, because I remember when I played No Man's Sky when it first came out and loved it. But then there was all sorts of a debacle because it was so overhyped, that people started coming down on and then they, they did an update, and they fixed a lot of things. And they've been really working hard to bring it into modern game technology. So I'd like to see where it is today and see what the capabilities because it's such an interesting game. And as we've been saying over and over. It's absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely.

Phil Rice 19:44
And honestly, I real quick, Ricky I came up with the name narrative idea that we could do. Maybe you and I could produce it together and No Man's Sky but basically, it would be to astronauts and their tree Travelling to all these different worlds, and one of the astronauts is like a world class, you know, stellar photographer, documenting these worlds, the other astronaut. keep stepping into the frame.

Ricky Grove 20:18
Returning wants to take

Phil Rice 20:18
a picture of Shawn and ends in murder. You know, it's kind of like the it would be filmed kind of like the lighthouse. Oh, oh, remember the black and white movie, The lighthouse. But it would be this. And ultimately, they're driven to madness. And one of them. I don't know, it's a whole thing.

Ricky Grove 20:37
I volunteer.

Damien Valentine 20:38
There was a volunteer, there was a multiplayer mode in the game now. So you can play with your friends and explore. And so you would be able to do that.

Ricky Grove 20:49
Contact me, I would like to work on that, Phil.

Tracy Harwood 20:52
This isn't the game where I was saying, you know, who on earth would want to visit a universe scale game and all the planets in it is this isn't that game? Oh, my God.

Phil Rice 21:05
Oh, when we talked about the size of the world map? Yes. Yeah, that's what he was up there. Right. Hey,

21:12
I wanted to mention to you really quickly before we close, is that I had an encounter with a friend of my wife, Lisa's, who was an old high school friend who contacted her and we went out and had dinner together. And they had a couple of friends with them. And they asked me what I did. And one of the things I said this I will I do a podcast on machinima. And they said, Well, what's machinima? So I had the opportunity to actually try to explain what machinima was. And the woman got it she because I've just never heard of anything like that before. That's just fascinating idea. which I found to be pretty cool. Yeah, that's cool. What

Phil Rice 21:53
a cool moment. Yeah,

Tracy Harwood 21:55
I think that's my life every day. As a researcher, what do you do? Anyway, that's it for this episode. Thanks for joining us. I'm Tracy Harwood. Today you've been joined by Ricky Grove, Phil Rice and Damien Valentine. Oh, man,

Ricky Grove 22:14
sky. No Man's Sky. Shot a shot. I know which character I want to play.

Tracy Harwood 22:24
See you next time. Bye. Bye.