Phil Rice 00:44
Hello and welcome to And Now for Something Completely Machinima podcast about machinima, virtual production and related technologies. I'm your host, Phil Rice and I'm here with my co hosts Damien Valentine and Tracy Harwood. Hello. Ricky is off on a Ah, man, I forgot to think of I like coming up with like creative places of where he

Damien Valentine 01:10
said he was going to Arakis to learn how to ride a sound worm because he was inspired by

Phil Rice 01:15
he's, he's he is. Ricky is off doing Fremen training. That's correct. That is correct. So he'll be drinking the water of life. And assuming that he survives that. We'll we'll see him at the at the next episode. So today, we're going to talk about some films that are picked by Tracy and Damian, we're gonna start with Tracy. Tracy, you've got two thumbs for us once you tell us about them.

Tracy Harwood 01:41
Oh, yes. Yeah, video. Sorry, all music videos. This one first one Portal, the Sound of Ccience by Harry101UK and actually, it's not new. It was released at the end of May 29 of May 2020. It's been made using that a game actually that's 12 years old to but I still wanted to highlight it because I just think it's a really cool video. It's a parody of the Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. It's made in Source Filmmaker using portal to assets and the synthesised voice of GLaDOS which is this sinister controlling how light computer in the game GLaDOS stands for genetic life form and Disk Operating System. The lyrics were written by the Stupedium and apparently the idea came to fruition over a three year period. And I think what is brilliant with this actually is the the editing as as well as just how chilling the words are in this, basically reflecting the lore of the game itself. In fact, I think the horror of the game and the Chell character you know that that female lead character and the characters kind of endless determination and tenacity is beautifully exemplified in this in this little music video. Chell's the first test subject in the game as I understand it, and as one commentator puts it in the film illustrates the gleaming facades and high tech machines built on nightmares and death. But it's really quite hypnotising Now Harry101 real name Harry Callahan has been around a while he's been working with Portal using Source Filmmaker for many, many years. He is known for voicing the Portal to mod portal stories now. And particularly for one of the first port films I saw which was called Portal Meet the Cores, which was released in August 2012. And I vaguely remember showing that at a machinima showcase I did somewhere in the late 2000s. I'll put a link to meet the cause one as well because that was quite a fun video where he gave all the all those machines distinctive characters and it was really it was really very interesting how he'd done that. Now the Stupendium otherwise known as Gregory Holgate is actually a well known musician, who zuvor is really described as nerdcore which I think is is really quite cool. And I'm not going to talk too much about the other Portal one that I picked, but but I just picked a second portal one as a contrast really made in Minecraft. Another music video, completely different type of music and I enjoyed it, you know? Well, because so A similar reasons in some respects, but for very different types of content. This one is called Who I am, and it's by cubicle to an original Popstar song by CG five. And that was premiered actually on the sixth of May a couple of weeks before, Harry101's film and again, it focuses on Chell and GLaDOS. And it's basically a complete run through a Portal one and two. And but considering it's only made in cubes, I think what's interesting about this one is the level of detail that's gone to which is really quite astonishing. And it's, it's a little longer it's six minutes long, and then Harry101's which is which is just as long as the song basically. I guess this one's a little bit more repetitive. But it's kind of worth checking it out for no other reason really then to contrast it to Harry's supercut I think I suppose really the only other thing to say is CG five is actually a guy called Charlie Green. I like to mention real people's names as well as the pseudonyms they give themselves and so yeah, what did you think those are my picks?

Phil Rice 06:16
Yeah, the first one was really chilling. I think chilling has a great word for it. Beautiful, beautiful render, Source Filmmaker. I mean, it's just, it's never looked better, really more it's never looked more artistic. Like the use of colour and just so just just it's just it's just gorgeous little film. I don't want to give away this story at all. But yeah, it goes to a darker place than you might first expect when when you begin watching and i really i like that i like i like what they did there. It's kind of shocking to me just how dark it goes. Yeah. So not in a gory way at all. Just more in in an implied manner. And yeah, the lyrics you almost have to listen to it a second time to get how kind of creepy and dark the lyrics are. So yeah, just it's just a wonderful short I think the only thing is just personal preference, I guess but the voice the GLaDOS voice I've maybe it's just my particular headphones that I was wearing when I listened to it or something but it just it kind of started to get grating there was some some frequency that was just really cutting through and kind of and by the end of watching it it was like I'm glad this is done I don't want to hear that voice anymore. The music itself is very well constructed. The instrumentation is nice it's fairly simple but it's effective. But that voice it was just a little something that I was just piercing through and it like literally made one I kind of shut as I was listening after a while almost a migraine feeling so that that could just be my something particular about my setup or something but I liked it overall I really really respect the craft not only of the music but of the of the video just just really well thought out and beautifully portrayed. And I don't know more painterly than your typical Source Engine or Source Filmmaker output that we've seen this has a real artistic flair to it. The Who am I who I am video just to clarify that's not made in Minecraft for sure. That's it's probably blender or something like that there's there's a lot of I think just about every significant piece of Minecraft content has been has been made available in blender for for people to use if they want to and then from there you can really add the kinds of movements and animations and facial expressions and stuff that are here so it's made in them it's made in the style of Minecraft.

Tracy Harwood 09:23
That's right yeah.

Phil Rice 09:26
Nice craft here. I found I don't know why but I I found the mix of the choice to mix a portal story with a Minecraft aesthetic. Like for some reason and maybe I was just tired when I watched it but I just kind of got hung up on why why do that? Like okay, but why? I don't know Is there a? Is there a giant overlap and fan base between Minecraft and portal, I guess maybe they're both very popular games. But just I don't know, for some reason I just got hung up on that I've just the Why choose this, but it's effectively executed. And it's fun, you know, it's much lighter than the first one in terms of tone. It and yet it still conveys some of the, it's still conveyed some of that darker tinge element of Portal. It's funny, because with both these films, the further you go into them, the more sense you get of that dark story. The reason that's funny to me is because that's exactly how the Portal game is to. Having played it, the deeper you go into that world, the stranger and kind of darker and more personal it gets at the beginning. It's just a funny gameplay gimmick, you know, oh, cool, I can punch a hole here and jump through there. And you're solving puzzles and problems. And yeah, the more you go in, and I think it's maybe not even just in the course of the first game, it's over the course of multiple iteration multiple chapters of the game. Yeah, the whole personality of GLaDOS. And this dark, you know, the, I guess it's, it's the dark and authoritarian tyranny of HalfLife to creeps into this, this, this is part of that same universe in a way, you know. And so it's it's, you know, half left who's not happy story, like at all. It's, it's, it's tough stuff. So, anyway, yeah, I enjoyed it. And it's, it's amazing. Did you find both of these films in the same? Like, short period of time? Or had you been sitting on one and then found, did you find two, so completely portal films, and when

Tracy Harwood 11:56
I watched Harry had to have Harry 1011 1010, or whatever, on my list of people to sort of try and look for something that we can discuss, probably for a couple of years, because I remembered the Cores, Meet the Cores years and years ago, and I was really hoping he'd continued, so I'd got him on my list of people to just sort of checkup on. And obviously, you know, time moves on, we've seen some amazing content over the years. And each month, it's dropped down the list again. This month, I really thought now it's time to do it. And then, you know, the following day, when I when I watched that, again, just to sort of go through it. This second one popped up, on on our, on our channel, and I'm, I wasn't really looking for Portal stuff. But I think, I think as we talked about this last month, there's been some stuff going on in, you know, with Portal with what Valve has been doing, which we talked about in a couple of episodes ago. And I think that's why portal is, is sort of floating up the YouTube, you know, channel stats, because it's on the tip of quite a few people's tongues at the moment because of all the, you know, the dissatisfaction with the community about various things that are kind of going on. So I think it's, it's just there more than it has been over quite a few years, considering it's a 12 year old game, you know, it's not a new game. This is, you know, there's a lot of people that have been interested in this content for you know, an extended period of time, just like they have with GTA five in many ways. It's, I mean, how that game has survived for so long. I don't really know. But yeah, it's, it's, it's there. It's popping up. And super ironic that it was a music video as well. So great. Yeah. Great. Well, complementary, contrasting.

Phil Rice 14:03
No, you can you can pat yourself on the back for you.

Tracy Harwood 14:05
I am doing Sorry. All right.

Phil Rice 14:08
Damien, what do you what is your thing?

Damien Valentine 14:10
I enjoy both of them. And creepy knees, they get embarrassed videos, which does perfectly capture the tone of the game. But yeah, so it's like, yeah, it starts off as a fun thing. And then you're enjoying yourself playing it, figuring out the puzzles, and then you start to get this pizza that there's something very wrong here. And then you find out more about it as you play through the game. And then the second game expands on that as well. And yeah, both videos kind of kind of capture that with the sound of silence in particular. Is something unsettling about it? is so well done? Yeah. That kind of made me want to instal the games again and get them on the go because I had such a great time paying both of them. I didn't really know I was like a saver. I just was really impressed. by that one and then the second one the Minecraft I thought, well, that's an interesting choice. But you know, they recreated key moments from the games. This Minecraft style, which I thought was an interesting way to do it, and they use it well, because it's been a while since I played them. But the only one I did that bit, and I remember that bit and I remember that bit. So you know, they did it really well. So, yeah, both have excellent picks and

Tracy Harwood 15:31
yeah, yeah, to sellings telling the story. It's interesting that they both conveyed the stories are so well given, given that their music videos are one thing. But you get the same sense of what's being conveyed through them both completely different style of music. That was what I was what caught my attention. Anyway, your pick,

Phil Rice 15:54
right, Damien, tell us about yours. Um,

Damien Valentine 15:58
I haven't played this game yet. But I've seen that it's become incredibly popular. It's one of those games that it gets launched and suddenly becomes massively popular and people other people playing multiplayer. This is held I was too. And I thought, I wonder if anyone's made anything with it. Yeah, it got released in February. And then it was a loss of Helldivers 2 videos that people were made to. I was just gameplay videos. And some people are trying to build on the law of the game and tell their own expand on that. But the one I found that I really enjoyed best was this held diamonds to rap by J team, by J T music, and we've covered some of his videos of follow that baby Yoda, video. And this blows away everything else I saw. And you got to keep in mind, this game has been out for less than two months from the day we record. And to put this together so quickly, and to come up with the lyrics and animate it and capture all the footage or wherever else is done to put this together. And I thought well, this shows what happened when again, it really takes off. And it's obviously potential there for machinima. And you know, just the sheer amount of other videos as well, that there's a lot of them. But yeah, this is the one I really liked. And I thought I'm going to share it with the rest of you. So what do you think? Well, I

Tracy Harwood 17:26
really I thought, you know, I'm always blown away by these guys. Actually. I mean, they they used to be called JT Machinima before they changed the name to JT music, but their game that music videos are just outstanding. They just somehow seemed to capture the essence of the game. And, you know, and put a rap to it, which I'm guessing they don't use AI to do because I've been

Phil Rice 17:54
done. Yeah, no, no, this is not an AI written lyric for sure. But way too good.

Tracy Harwood 17:59
It is, isn't it? It's brilliant. I mean, what they've got here is to me a kind of a cross between. And this is what I mean they've, they've captured the ethos of this game. It's a cross between Captain America Halo, aliens, and Starship Troopers with a dash of slapstick taboo as this kind of it's I understand it's a four man, team based third person shooter style game, which, as you say, was released like six, seven weeks ago as we as we sort of sit here now. You know, I was kind of looking at the game as well. And it's, it's a game apparently, that it's all about having fun. It's not really about, you know, it doesn't take itself too seriously, as I understand it, it's kind of like, there's a lot of comedic content in it in the way that the characters get themselves into trouble and can kind of be assassinated, which is, as I understand it has also been described as a bit Warhammer 40k ish gone wrong. And the thing that I thought was really fascinating when I started to you know what it's like, you get into one thing and then you kind of read a bit more in a bit more. Or I read about this was it its creator, a guy called Johan pile stet parently do drew primarily the inspiration for the game from tabletop games, such as Dungeons and Dragons. And that kind of sense of you know, whatever happens on the table. In the end you're having a bit of fun playing it as well by sort of lorking around as you're as you're playing it and that's really what he's captured in, in the design of this game. Class say I think the cinematics of it looked absolutely gorgeous. It's it just looks really high. High quality. I think the the video that JT Music put together really show it at its best. There's lots of action in it. You get a sense of lots of camaraderie. You get the comedic lines in the room. out, you get lots of bugs being blown up. And these kinds of heroic moments of, of successful missions being completed. All of that, I think is, you know, rooted in what this game is supposed to be about. And, yeah, I mean, I just always, I just always really enjoy what these guys produce. If you ever want to find out what a game is about, just watch one of the JT Music videos, I think, for 10 minutes, and you get the the essence of it there. And then in this kind of crazy rap, with a few kind of repeating keynotes, of, you know, major events or, or major images. And you know, that that's all you need, I think. I mean, the other thing I'll say, you know, it was only released beginning of the month, ninth of March, and sort of a couple of weeks into the month. And, you know, by the time I sort of watched it when you put it on the board, it was already over a million views. I'm not surprised. Really. It's just, it's great. I really enjoyed it.

Damien Valentine 21:06
Thank you. You're welcome.

Phil Rice 21:11
Have a game has a tag line that they've been using with the marketing The galaxy's last line of offence. Oh, FFP and see, yeah, wonderful wordplay there. Yeah, I mean, the the Starship Troopers influence here is just enormous. Yeah. And especially in some of the ways that they've highlighted in that JT Music have highlighted in their video, the just dripping Lee bitter historical or political satire. Yeah. You know, patriotism displayed as kind of a joke and a highly cynical of, you know, employment of liberty and freedom and all that and just, yeah, that was Starship Troopers if you've never seen it, or if you maybe saw it when you were too young to understand Starship Troopers. That was not a science fiction action movie that was one of the most dripping pieces of satire ever made. And just wonderfully done. It gets very, very funny movie. But the satire is what, what's really masterful with it, this this film, and I feel like that the game which I haven't played either, I feel like the game really leans heavily into that, to that that's where they're getting a lot of this from. The lyric is just brilliant of their song. They've always that's always been a strength of theirs. But this one, there's some turns of phrase that they use. That can only remind me of Eminem, who is an absolute master wordsmith in the world of rap. I mean, that's what he's known for. And the rapper voice on this kind of sounds at times a little bit like, like Eminem, maybe not quite as fast. But there's a plus to that, because then it's easier to understand what what's being said here. But just brilliantly written, everything just goes along with this. This this satire, not satire, cynicism, it's both. But a cynicism that as as a man with a father that has a son, that's the age that this resonates with, it makes me a little uncomfortable. Because it's so on target. Like I remember what it was like to feel that way, you know, and the zeitgeist right now. I think, to some degree throughout the West, but especially in the United States right now. This is totally the spirit of the times is just real cynicism about our leaders, and about the principles that our leaders have been extolling as a result, that just everybody's corrupt, that nothing's genuine. I mean, that's really what we're, we're struggling with right now. And for people who still remember what it was like to not feel that way. We're having a hard time coming up with answers to that, because it is a mess. This place is a mess. The world the it's a really difficult time right now, in different ways, then, you know, there have been harder times, there have certainly been harder times to like, just eke out an existence. If anyone thinks that this is hard compared to what life was like 100 years ago, and going back for the rest of time, then you're an idiot. We haven't so good in that regard. But You know, new problems come, you know? And yeah, right now, I think I think the challenge of ours now is that, you know, that the institutions that are around us are, there's they're starting to show signs of wear, you know, and people are doubting them. And, you know, the people who, let's say, you know, all of our older relatives who fought in wars to preserve this, they're all going away. And so we're the generation now that's going to question it all. And how did we get here? And is this really worth it? And is this really what's right to stand up for? And what's with all these flags? And, you know, what's with all these presidents and Monarchs? And you know, it, man, it's, it's scary, where that could go. And this film totally, just have some fun with that. Frankly, you know, it's because that's, that's the seriousness of it. There's really nothing great about being in the world when it's kind of poised on the brink of who knows what you know. And you got different world leaders in different places, rattling their sabres, and bragging about their nukes and deploying fleets to this, that and the other and threatening to take over this and that, and it's like, man, we just don't know how, sometimes how close we are to the brink of something far worse than what we've got, you know. And, yeah, I just can't imagine being a young person growing up. And that's, you look around. And that's what you see in the world. You know, you don't, you don't see a whole lot to be optimistic about or to admire. And so the healthy way, the sane way to deal with that is through humour. It's through satire. I feel like that this, this, this film is about much more than just that video game. That video game, I think is built on that spirit of the times as well. But yeah, the film seems to take it further. Like really lean into it. Yeah, let's call this what it is. And be openly cynical about it. Yeah, and that's needed. Sometimes. You know, satirise are very, very important. Drivers. They're there, today's court jester of sorts, you know, they're, they're the ones telling the truth. Even if they don't have an answer to how to fix it, they're not afraid to go ahead and point out the problems. So yeah, all of that comes, comes flooding up with this, and in the fact that all that dark topic is there, and yet they made it really, really enjoyable. To ride along with it, you know, it it is, it's fun. It's just a fun video and, and crazy, and it's a weird thing to experience to be delivered a message that is, so clearly this person, this movie has a dark message. It does, because it's being really honest about a world that's kind of broken, you know, and the fact that they do that, and yet it's entertaining. It's a, it's a clever balance that they've achieved there. You know, and there's one or two possibilities here. Either they do that, and they're no they're doing it. Or they're just writing the, you know, along with the current of the way things are going and expressing it honestly, either way, I appreciate it. Whether or not this was deliberate messaging, or just for lack of a better word, a psalm, you know, a crying out a lamentation, limitations, the better word to limit is basically just a brutally accurate description of what the eff is going on, you know? So is it that or is it someone who knows what's going on? And is deliberately trying to call attention to this? I don't know. And it doesn't matter. That's what's cool. It doesn't matter at all. It's, it's effective, either way. So it's not going to change the world. But it's not designed to. It's designed to describe the world. In a way that would be really hard. It would be a really uncomfortable conversation, to say what this film says about the world in a serious conversation. It'd be really, really uncomfortable. It would be almost intolerable. But humour can can encapsulate that in a pill to swallow. So yeah, this is this brilliant, brilliant stuff. So enjoyed it very much. I have no idea what Helldivers is about other than what I've read about it. I may try out. I don't know if they have a demo for this too or not. Probably not see

Tracy Harwood 29:57
and beyond Phil about a $40 game

Phil Rice 29:59
Dollar Game for the base game. I think my son has been talking about getting into it to play with some college friends of his for maybe I'll just peer over his shoulder instead. Or I'll ask him to stream it on Discord for me so I can watch him play it if he plays it. Yeah, because it doesn't look like a game that would really occupy me for very long. I'm I'm, I'm a little past my prime on get together with my friends to blow stuff up. But I remember what it was like. Yeah,

Damien Valentine 30:32
it's not really a game. You could play by yourself either. I think you need a

Phil Rice 30:37
space. Okay. Okay. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. Great pick though. Excellent pick.

Damien Valentine 30:45
Alright. Glad you both enjoyed it.

Phil Rice 30:49
Yeah, all right. Well, oh, I just remember, I'm the host started looking at each other like, next Yeah. Hey, thanks for joining us. Let us know what you think about what we've done with the format here lately. Because what we've been doing lately is we've got two episodes, we've got on average four episodes a month. Sometimes there's that extra fifth week, and we have to figure out what to do. Maybe it's an interview or something like that. But generally speaking, four episodes a month, the first two episodes each month, are each devoted to a film. Then we've got our News episode, where we cover a whole wide array of stuff. And then typically, the fourth episode is kind of a combination where we reviewed two people's picks. It I'm asking my co hosts here first, I think this is working really good. I'm curious what the listeners think if you're if you're enjoying this, our objective was to still inject some news discussion into the podcast without without burdening every single episode with that, because the episode was starting to really get long when we were doing that. So that's why we changed it that way. Is it working for you like it is for us? Let us know. You can do so in a comment, wherever you see this podcast posted. Or you can do so via email. Talk at completely machinima.com. Yeah, so that's that. So on behalf of my hosts co hosts, Damian Valentine and Tracy Harwood and Ricky Grove in absentia. I'm Phil Rice. Have a great day and we'll talk to you next time. Bye