Phil Rice 00:40
You. Hello and welcome to And now for something completely machinima, the podcast about machinima and virtual production and related technologies. I'm one of your hosts, Phil Rice, and with me is Damian Valentine, Ricky Grove and Tracy Harwood.

Ricky Grove 00:58
Me Hello.

Phil Rice 00:59
Hey, everybody. Good to be back with you.

Ricky Grove 01:01
Glad to have you back.

Phil Rice 01:03
This week, we are covering a film that Tracy picked for us, which came in on a recommendation from someone I think we can call a friend of the show, Tracy, why don't you tell us about it? Absolutely,

Tracy Harwood 01:18
yeah, this is actually Dominzki's recommendation, and it's actually his film. It's called Mission Exodus, and it's episode three of a trilogy that he's produced. And in the show notes, I will also put the links to Episode One and two. Now we've previously reviewed one of Dominzki's films called the The Wanderer, which we covered in our June episode on that film, we commented on how much we liked the editing and also the storytelling and the and the beautifully crafted complex characters, not told through voice acting, but through a music score that was a perfect accompany, accompaniment to the scenes, and also through a depth of emotion portrayed in the behavior and the context of the main characters and and and, you know, the way that they sort of behave in the environment. So with that in mind, I was actually very much looking forward to this particular film, and I have to say, it did not disappoint me one little bit. This is actually a film that's linked to the same story world as the wanderer, and is basically another short that demonstrates some of the very high quality storytelling chops that Dominzki has. So as I said, it's part of a trilogy. I think if you watch all three, you get more of the context and it adds to the compelling nature of the story. Although I think I'm happy to say that you can also watch each of these three episodes as standalones too, which I actually think is a pretty clever thing to have achieved in itself. I will just run you through the three episodes, though, because ultimately, what is revealed is how the intergenerational reincarnations of a scientist enables her to survive a nuclear apocalyptic event on Earth, which is ultimately the outcome of Episode Three. I'm not spoiling it beyond that, but I think that will help make sense of how these things connect. Now in episode one, basically what you've got is a story of a woman living her life in an off planet spaceship. The film reveals how she's experimenting with cloning, revealing, evidently, that she's trying to survive in space beyond her natural lifespan, or the natural lifespan of her physical body, and in such a way, her whole purpose is revealed to be one of cloning and also survival through training her body and dietary regimen and using this kind of handbook that's handed down from clone to clone. And in the end, there's this kind of clear sense that the ultimate aim is to an is an attempt to return to Earth. But no real sense from watching that of exactly when that that might be, except for a contents page in a in a in in the book that reveals a bit more. Episode Two starts several clones on from the previous episodes, a completely different story, but this one has left it too late to respawn and remove herself from the sort of the cycle of life on the spaceship. So instead, what she does is she attempts to return to Earth, basically as her body is disintegrating in the ship, and then she crash lands on Earth, presumably walks out of the ship and sits down next to the skeletal remains of we know not who, then, as she's doing this, this next spawn emerges from the from the ship and takes over from her, in a very clever way, kind of acknowledging the contribution that this earlier clone has made gain no speaking, but incredibly powerful portrayal of emotion which you can clearly see are things like fear and sadness and death and desire. And I think it's also very evident that, well, I mean, the thing that sort of strikes me is that you can so clearly see these emotions on these clay like characters. And I think part of it is because of the way that the music is used. In this episode, the Exodus, what we see is basically the beginning and the completion of the of the trilogy, all in one that the film begins with this woman leaving a camp, which one assumes is the survivor of Episode Two, or maybe it's many generations on of of clone. It's not, it's not massively clear. She's clearly looking for something, and on her journey, is joined by this kind of canine companion with a little bit of a sense of a lassie come home type adventure to follow, I think, of course, things quickly turn dangerous. She has to avoid this enemy robot patrolling a forest that she's passing through, and eventually she reaches a compound which is littered with the skeletal remains of former inhabitants. Now there's no clue who these people are at this juncture, and the character is clearly kind of shocked and dismayed, but somehow seemingly compelled to explore the compound. And it's deep in the compound that the story of this woman has revealed using the device of, sort of playing back a tape in one of the labs where she finds herself, what she discovers is that she is a scientist attempting to find a formula that will enable her not just to survive this apocalyptic Holocaust type event, but also to help her companions survive, but before they can, you know, before she can develop this formula, the compounds attacked. Everyone's killed, and before she herself dies, she launches this space rocket, which is where the film ends. Now that's kind of a circuitous way way through it, but what really impressed me with this film is the quality of the storytelling. Now, when we reviewed the wanderer, we commented basically on similar sorts of things from my memory of it. But this one has much more than that, and it's it's something that we've talked about before, which is how, very often, how often do we see films that use a kind of a recursive plot to reveal a story. Now in this the recursion rests in the fact that you could actually start with any of these three episodes and possibly even play them all in different orders, and you would still find the story compelling,

Ricky Grove 07:47
great observation. I

Tracy Harwood 07:48
think that's a very, very masterful storytelling strategy. I have not seen that done in this way before. In this film. I think what is perhaps a little more overt than the Wanderer is the portrayal of a breadth of emotions. In episode three, we see an attachment to an animal, which is, which is strange, because it's very clay like all of this is very clay like it's filmed in source. So it's, you know, you know the way the animation works in that it's not easy to see emotion on these characters. But what you get a sense of here is there is a clear sense of companionship with that animal, and anybody that's got a pet will understand what that is. Then we see pleasure and friendship with that animal, and then we see things like fear and disgust and sadness as she kind of goes through that environment. And finally, I'd say, as she's sitting in that lab, we see something akin to what I would call understanding and realization, which is quite evident in the way that the character portrays just how she knows that she has to play those tapes in order to discover more about herself. And what's so impressive is that these are really hard emotions to portray with clarity, but I think Dominzki has certainly achieved it. It's all been done without uttering a peak. There is no voice acting in this. So I'd say the editing is really well done. There isn't really a scene. I thought, oh, that doesn't really work. I think what carries it through alongside the characters complexity is also the music. And there are some interesting tells in the scenery thing and things like the crow indicating death, which is something I think we also commented on in the wanderer. I think in Episode c2 there's this interesting scene where the clone coming out of the ship that's sort of taking over puts its hand on the recently demai, you know, the recent character that's Demi died in the you know, after having landed, puts her hand on the shoulder and just, it's just such a gentle kind of anecdote, but it just conveys so much just by that kind of one little movement. And then in this episode, I think what's really clever is the way the flashbacks and the snapshots are. Have been done, which I do think are very complicated as they are portrayed, and yet they still leave you with a clear sense of exactly what it is you are looking at portraying, for example, the camaraderie between the characters, even the connection of the main character to the skeletons littered around the compound, the blood on the floor, for example. And in fact, what you see there is the differential speeds at which these snapshots are are revealed, which seem to represent, I think, both the tape playing back and the memories emerging from the clone herself. And again, that's something I don't recall seeing too too much of in the machinimas we've reviewed, I think it's super impressive. There's also seemingly something else, which I think is quite clever when you watch all three of these, is that actually each of the clones has a slightly different personality, and each scene is very different, and each outcome, although evidently connected, is in fact, entirely different from the previous iteration. Got to say that, I think is, again, something really impressive. I think hats off to Dominzki for that. I'm certain this guy's got a really big future, not least as an original storyteller. I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of these made. He's already indicated that he's working on some more interconnected projects. I'm really glad you sent this over to us. Actually, I think, I think, from my point of view, he needs much more recognition, to be honest. Because if there was ever a machinima that deserved to be made into a film, in a in a film studio, this would be it for me. Never mind what the Backrooms is up to or any of the others this. This is the story for me that deserves more attention, but that's just my thoughts. What did you guys think I

Damien Valentine 11:47
was? Okay? There's quite a few things that came to mind when I was watching this. As you kind of it's always said there's no dialog in this, except for one moment where she goes, Yes, this is we've talked before about machinima, where there's no dialog. I mean, he's always been pretty impressed by it, because it it's hard to tell a story, but without, you know, having characters convey information to the audience or to each other. But usually those stories are fairly straightforward, like they're not bad. It's just, it's easy to understand and follow on. This was easy to follow on, but it's also quite a complex situation, the story very so yeah, and I'll put two episodes. Yeah, I do need to watch the other two episodes because I'm intrigued by idea that you can watch the all three episodes in any order and still get the same experience, or still know the same story, because on top of no dialog and still telling a complex story, having that on top of it as well is also very impressive. So I need to sit down and watch the other two. So yeah, I'm very blown away by this director storytelling. The other thing I looked at is his channel, and he's using Source Filmmaker for this and his other work. And we talked before, that's a very complicated piece of software. It takes a lot of time and effort to pull something off, he managed to put something out almost every month. So this is either, but he got the talent and the dedication to be able to do that, which is something I hugely admire. And there was something else that's going to say this got completely cut out my head. Now, yeah, I can have to come back to that when I think of it, probably after we finished recording the episode. Yes, but yeah, this is an excellent pick. Tracy, definitely my favorite of the month, because it's just so much craft has gone into to pull in this story, pull this film off. So yeah, I'm really intrigued to see what he does next, and I hope he has a good career, you know, telling stories, because obviously he's like, he's really good at and has a strong passion for it. So we'll be keeping a close eye on him. Ricky, you

Phil Rice 13:50
want to go next? Or you want me to Sure

Ricky Grove 13:52
I'll go ahead. I there's little I could say that Tracy already hasn't said. All I can add is that cloning technology is a strong theme in many classic science fiction works, and I believe this filmmaker has either read those works or seen films about like them, and has taken some ideas From them, because there's a certain familiarity. The ethical problem with it from a personal point of view, cloning yourself and are you responsible for your clone? Or is your clone responsible for you? Is a big issue in it, the complications of a clone in society. Now, it was very smart of this director to put the story in a world in which the clone wasn't in society, but in a interrupted society, a society that was broken and that the goal was to extend one's life, or one's ability to be able to contribute to. Uh, to the world. So I was very impressed with that. Source filmmaker, is a little less intimidating than now for me than it was when I first looked at it, but there is a very steep learning curve. However, once you get past that curve, just like any really good program, it allows you to operate quickly and to come up with iterations of ideas. So I think that's what this filmmaker has done. They've worked hard to be able to build their skills and Source Filmmake. A couple things about the film. The you mentioned the clay like look on the faces. That's because the Source Filmmaker doesn't have something called subsurface scattering, which is how light enters your skin and doesn't bounce off well, some of it bounces off of some of it actually goes inside of your skin. It's so it's subsurface, and it gives the skin a kind of realistic texture, or the quality, a three dimensional quality is missing in the original Source Filmmaker, which is why you see them as clay figures. Which makes it even more impressive that he was able to bring out emotion from those faces. Now there's some work you could do in face poser, which is a separate program inside of Source Filmmaker that you could pull up and do facial expressions. Didn't do too much of that, I don't think, but there was some. But the thing, the fascinating thing, is that it's the story and the music, to some extent, that allows the viewer to assume there are emotions, certain emotions, in the character, without necessarily having the character fully express those like a an actor in a realistic movie. Do you know what I mean? And the ability to do that is highly skilled, highly skilled. So I agree with you wholeheartedly. Tracy, the skill story telling skill is just remarkable. If I had an issue with it, it was that it maybe it's a matter of personal taste, but I find overly orchestral soundtracks for simple stories to be a distraction for me personally. Now I know that isn't the case for God, the great majority of people, because obviously they love this movie, and you love it, and you didn't have any problem, and I respect your opinion and your approach, but sometimes that over orchestration was too obvious for me, and I wanted to see a simpler approach to music sometimes in it. But again, that's personal taste. But overall, I just love this movie. I thought it was just terrific. I want to see more by this filmmaker. I want everybody to watch these three films. They're smart, they're well made, they're well crafted. They have something important to say about a topic that, although isn't in, isn't active in our current technology will be in the future. So it's perfect science fiction. It's an outstanding pick, and it was my favorite of the month as well. Yeah,

Phil Rice 18:21
this is, it's world class storytelling here, really, truly, I had the same thought that you did Tracy of I could totally see this being made as a, a good budget, conventional film, you know, feature, feature length, my, in trepidation there would be that I have every faith in Hollywood's ability to ruin it. Yes,

Ricky Grove 18:47
well, Kim, Kim Kardashian would be a good choice for the lead.

Phil Rice 18:53
Yeah, it's, it's one of those. It's one of those things where it is, what, what, what he is, what, what Dominzki has achieved here is so precious that I would like be terrified to give it over to a big production committee. It would just, I'm glad it exists where it is, yeah, if he, you know, if that happens, I'll be happy for Dominzki For one reason that will that will pay his bills for a while, right? But I won't necessarily be optimistic about what they'll turn it into. This is too good to be messed with. I think recursion stories are very interesting, and they're, you know, there are instances in Hollywood where that notion is played with to varying degrees of success. It could be argued that the relationship between the Godfather and the Godfather Part Two, that there's, you know, the Godfather Part Two, to some degree, tells the pre story and and concludes the original story. But it's, it's not really, I mean, it's just cutting back and forth between time periods, right, right? This is, this is more of true recursion, right, right next head is right there at the tail, right? Yeah. So this is something different. I think a great example of someone thinking of this, let's say Mobius strip kind of idea of a story and and having like a Dionysian revel with it, is the movie predestination, which stars Ethan Hawk, yeah, and I can't remember the, the the actress that's in it. But, I mean, it's, it's a, it's, it's quite a yarn. It's quite a but, of course, the device there is, it's time travel. And it's not just recursive. It's all interwoven. And I don't want to spoil it, if you love that kind of plot, if you love a mind bender of a plot and wow, moments and things like that, go watch it. It's it's worth it, but it's like so so convoluted and so complex and and paradoxical is more the emphasis in that movie's thread. So that's one way of messing with it, and then you've got something like, well, Tarantino, in his earlier films, Pulp Fiction, most notably, would cut around to different times and tell things in a different order than the actual sequence. And he did it very artfully, in many times, in many ways. But for him, it was all about, I want to control the flow of information to you, the viewer. And the best way to do that is to tell things out of order to to increase dramatic impact and and his stuff's been analyzed to death. I mean, some people like the outcome of that. Some people don't, and I don't think either one is wrong, but that's that's another way of doing it. But again, it's a device. It's a device that's like, you know, behind the fourth wall kind of happening, of cutting it up. Here, the recursion is all within the story and within the way that it's told. Yes, where you and just, it's really hard to do this. I don't know if it's just so hard to do this, well, it's really hard, so it's just a just brilliantly executed. And I think the biggest challenge of this, of his, of Dominzki, that he faced was in this final chapter, the fact that there are clones, so they look alike, essentially, right and and yet, without any subtitles or title cards or any dialog to clue you in, no change in the no noticeable change in the the color correction. You know, those are devices that are used when, when you're switching between time periods, you'll notice it in films that this film has kind of a golden hue gradient. This has, yeah, grading. No use of that. It didn't cheat. Did it just with the story. And maybe, I think maybe the only thing that made it evident was an outfit change to as far as, okay, so initially you see the character looking at the video monitor, but then sometimes it just cuts to those scenes of stuff happening, and I never, ever, ever felt disoriented. I never asked myself, well, gee, now is this in the past, or is this in the is this in the present, which I never asked that, and it's not because I'm super smart. That's not why. It's because he did it really well? Sure did I just last, last night or the night before, caught a movie that's still on Netflix. It's going to be, this is going to seem totally non sequitor, but I promise it's not. It's called widow Clicquot, and it's the story of the the the woman who ultimately took over the winery, or the vineyards, and founded the Clicquot brand of champagne that's still around today. That's it's very highly regarded, right? It's called widow Clicquot 2023 movie, wonderfully done, wonderful movie. And that movie interplays with stuff that's happening in the present when she's the widow and her memories right in the same space, and everything her memories of before her husband passed, no subtitles, no title cards, no color grading differences, just it just switches. And that wasn't nearly as successful at preventing disorientation, as Dominzki film was, yeah, but it's pretty well done, like it and, and one of the cues was apparel, because it's the same woman and it's not that long ago. So, like, it was really, it was really a challenge, and this is a professional filmmaker that did it, and I don't think that they succeeded with that approach of overlap in the way that Dominzki did. So this is really exceptional stuff. I realize I'm not even talking at all about the craft of the of the execution of the actual film. You guys have addressed all of that, I think. And it is. It's, I mean, it's great. There's lots to admire that. But what really struck me about this was the craft that went on before he opened up. Source Filmmaker, it's so evident there's so much work and thought and careful planning that went into the craft of this story, and that would have been true whether dominsky was going to release it as a novel or a short story, or as he did that that work would have been the same. It's, it's this stuff has to fit together in a way that makes sense. And then he ties a hand behind his back, right? I'm going to, I'm going to help you understand this quite complex story with no one speaking a word, really,

Ricky Grove 25:46
no one explaining anything, no one, no aim,

Phil Rice 25:49
no info on screen, text, no exposition, nothing. Just visually. I'm gonna tell well vision, and let's give some credit to the sound and and the music like it or not? Yeah, he used that to help shape the narrative, to help you know, in traditional movies, it's kind of annoying sometimes, when the score is so obviously telling you what to feel, it's really annoying. Once you've watched a lot of movies, it's like it feels manipulative. In this case, though, you can't begrudge him. He's got to use that tool. Yes, I agree, Ricky, that the style of music I can hear something different that would work well for this too. That's that's a little bit more minimalist, a little bit a little bit simpler, something more of like, I love what Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been doing on film soundtracks in the past decade or more, yeah, where it's where it's not orchestral, one

Ricky Grove 26:43
or two instruments coming together with, yeah, suspended,

Phil Rice 26:47
yeah, quality, yeah, that's a matter of taste, like you said, and I but I lean that way as well. But the music was used effectively very because, because one of the key tools, let's say two of the key tools, no on screen prompts and no no spoken dialog. Man, oh, man. And, yeah, you're right. Damien, you mentioned that this is a that's, it's one thing to do that with a simple story, or with a story that maybe falls into a certain cliche, and so you're just gonna get it, you know, you're kind of riding along with. I've seen this archetype of story before this. This doesn't have that really, yes, yes. It borrows from the science fiction traditions with regard to cloning and and even space travel. To some degree. It definitely does. It's nested within that, you know. But there is a, there is a originality that that comes out of this work. To show you, absolutely originality doesn't have to mean every single thing is brand new. Frankly, that's probably impossible, you know if, if Voltaire said that, then I think now it's even more so, right? So, yeah, it's just, I could go on and on, but it's just, it's just, man, oh man. It is such a pleasure, such a pleasure, yeah, to see such skill displayed. And knowing what we know about Dominzki, and he's, he's not at all arrogant about it, you know, he's, he's confident, but not, not boastful. Seems, seems a very humble person and and just loves what he's doing. And the love comes through, you know, in the making of this. So, yeah, wonderful. I'll, I will absolutely for certain. Watch all three parts of this again, at least one more time. I mean, it's, it's, it's one of those types of stories that, especially, it's one of those that like, as soon as you finished it, you like, now I want to go back and see right because, because now that I know where it ended, it changes how I'll view the beginning. And it doesn't hurt it. It actually helps it. Few movies to do that. You know, the sixth sense is the one that I think of the most, right, where, after you've seen that surprise ending of shadow men's The Sixth Sense, then you want to go see it again. Because, Okay, watch it again. Yeah, was this obvious all along, and I'm just stupid or what it's, it's, this isn't so much a mystery as that one is, but it's, it really is just about the the craft and about the way that it does fit together Hollywood.

Ricky Grove 29:30
Hollywood is inured, US, in many ways, to the combination of stories with ideas and stories just for entertainment. And I think it's they've made that a hard thing to put together because of the Hollywood idea that profit ideas don't equal profit. And I just think that is so narrow minded. And. And right? I think I think it's wrong too. I think stories with ideas, especially ideas, as you say, that make so much sense, that are so clearly told, as Tracy so well pointed out, they're even more entertaining, and they have that sense, like you said, of wanting to go back and re experience it. Wanting to go back and re experience it, that's a rare thing that you don't have enduring

Phil Rice 30:26
they have enduring value. Yes, they do. Like if you look at, if you look at when people point back to old films that you still refer to in reference today, they had that. They had something injected in them that was more than just fluff entertainment that, right, the fluff entertainment movies are just, they're just forgotten. You know, you might stumble across them on to be and go, Oh, I remember that was fun. Let's watch that again. But they don't live here, rent free, yeah? Like a story like, well,

Ricky Grove 30:57
it's like the difference of grabbing a Taco Bell and stepping into a four star diner, you know? Yes, a four star restaurant, you're being given something that's been carefully conceived, carefully executed and carefully presented to you, you know? And that's what this person does. And I urge this director to do Minsky to make more movies. And I urge all of you watching or listening to this podcast to go watch these movies and subscribe to their channel.

Tracy Harwood 31:30
Great comments. Thank you, and thank you so much to Dominzki for for bringing it to our attention. It was, it was a delight to have it on the show.

Ricky Grove 31:39
It looks like you're actually in one of the spacecraft that was used in the film Tracy, exactly. But there's a Christmas tree that is oddly there.

Tracy Harwood 31:49
It's Christmas. It's December. That's okay, yeah.

Phil Rice 31:53
Well, audience, what did you think of what we had to say here? Have you seen it? If so, I would say I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna request something a little unusual. If, if you have an interesting comment about this film, do not comment on our podcast. Go comment on Dominzki's film, because it this really does need more, more attention, more eyes on it. And that helps, that helps the algorithm for without filmmakers like this, we would quickly run out of gas to make this show, talking trying to find good, good content. So it's just just wonderful. Our hats off to you. I'm the only one wearing a hat, but it's, it's and it's still on, but for the metaphors, botched, but you get the idea, right? So just keep talking. Yeah, my I'm Phil rice. On behalf of my co hosts, Damian Valentine, Ricky Grove and Tracy Harwood, we bid you good day, and thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time bye

Damien Valentine 32:54
bye, bye

32:55
bye.