Phil Rice 01:00
Hello and welcome to a now for something completely machinima, the podcast about machinima, virtual production and related technologies. My name is Phil rice. I'm here with my co hosts, Damien Valentine and Tracy Harwood, and I forgot to do the pause. We had it figured out, and then I blew it. If Ricky were here, that we wouldn't have this problem. Maybe Ricky is away. I don't know what he's doing, but I'm sure it's something very important. We look forward to his return, probably in our very next episode. So this week, we're talking about Damien's pick, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna toss this over to Damien with just a question that I don't think I've ever used as as the handoff. And that is Damien, what is this?

Damien Valentine 02:01
I don't know. Okay, so I'll start with how I found this. I thought, you know, when the game launched, we were we talked about June awakening, because the character creator came out, and that's very impressive. And the game launched a little while later, we thought, I remember, we all said it'd be interesting to see what people make out of the game. And I thought, oh, it's been about nine months, so there's plenty of time for people to to learn it and to start creating stuff. This is one of the first videos that came up, and it's not actually made with June awakening. It's about, no, I had no idea. So it's about the game, but it's made with Final Fantasy 14. It's another MMO. And so the idea is the girl in it is a streamer, Twitch streamer, and she wants to talk about being in a test copy of June awakening, but she's not allowed to, because at the NDA she signed. So she kind of says she's going to use this other game to kind of give a hint of what she was doing without actually saying what she was doing. So she's obviously gone out to the desert somewhere in Final Fantasy 14, and she's face of Dune like footage, and so you have found a giant sandworm creature, which doesn't look anything like the ones that are in June, but you still know exactly what the reference is. And they've kind of got this conflict going on with the Harwood and to just shoot to the law of the world. But instead of fighting each other, they have a like a social media war. So that Harcourt do this rap song now, and the two main goals on the Tracy side, they decide they respond with Instagram posts, and that's kind of the theme for it, like it doesn't really have a resolution or anything. It's just kind of nonsense. But I thought it was well made nonsense, and I had a good laugh at this, especially the Harkonnen rap song I did that kind of came out of nowhere. Don't expect it, but it's so well done. And then I still have to look out for actual June awakening machinery. But because I had such a great time watching this, it's kind of old school machinery vibe where people just make random funny stuff and put it together and see what happens. And this is what they've done here. And you know, you don't see too much of that anymore. I, you know, I liked it. It was well done. It was funny, very bizarre. And, yeah, I don't know. I thought I'd share it as my pick for this month. So I gotta use you to talk about it now.

Phil Rice 05:02
This is the first Final Fantasy machinima that we've reviewed. I believe, no, it's not. No, what was the other one we did? Can we talk about that one instead? No, yeah. I don't know there's, there's a, I don't think I would if they hadn't named the game this was made with, I wouldn't be able to name it. I would assume that this was maybe like The Sims four or something like that. You know, the some of the emotes of the characters. Do you have a feeling that seems a lot similar to The Sims four? I think what stood out to me the most was the can I use the word narrative structure, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's very different. And like this movie made me feel old. It made me feel like, is there some other way of telling stories that has come up and I just have missed it because I'm too old? I don't know, but I did feel like, okay, I'm not the audience. I'm not the intended audience for this. Like at all like it, I'm not intended to understand this, right? So,

Phil Rice 06:39
yeah, it's, it's a strange tale. The rap,

Tracy Harwood 06:45
yeah, it's bill, would you like me to

Phil Rice 06:49
Oh, please, thank you. Please interrupt me. I'm really speechless, like I'm maybe my comments. There's been times, Damian, when we've when it's come time for your turn to speak and you've just says, I you either tell us on the air or later, off the air. I wasn't really sure what I was going to say about this one. I've heard you say that before. I feel like this is your revenge for that. Oh yeah, this is a I'm going to I'm going to let them know how that feels. Because I really don't know what to say.

Tracy Harwood 07:23
I did a bit of digging here. Let me, let me give you a little bit of analysis, and then see if you What do you think of my take on it really. Okay. So Final Fantasy, the creator is somebody that describes herself as being, as you said, Damien, a social person who creates to entertain others. Apparently she started originally by making these silly shorts of her character dancing to music, but says the music kept getting copyright stuck, and therefore, in order not to become another copyright safe music in the background, talking to you personality. What she wanted to do was make her own stuff with the help of AI. So it's kind of AI tools being used as well, which is probably where you get that rap crap from. So I'm guessing this sort of, this is a typical short of you know her approach, but actually, I don't think it is. Think it's a little bit more to this particular one, because it did actually prompt me to have a look at some of the other stuff that she was doing. Because, like you Phil, I wasn't really too sure quite what this approach is all about, what this streaming stuff in this kind of vein is actually all about I think what's striking about this video is that it doesn't really behave like typical gaming content at all. It's not really a guide. It's not a Let's Play, and it's not a joke first meme. Instead, it functions more like a kind of music driven, cinematic essay, using Final Fantasy 14 as kind of raw visual material, rather than the subject itself. And at the core, the piece is really about mood and adventure, and the title's reference to Dune is is kind of telling, but not in a literal sense that she's using it tonally. I think the video kind of leans into that same feeling of vastness, Destiny and sort of slow realization with these kind of desert, DESERT images, long shots, the measured pacing give it this kind of impression of a character or a world on the edge of kind of transformation. The gameplay footage isn't trying to explain what's happening, though. It's trying to make you feel something. And what really anchors the video is the music. The track isn't background. It's basically the spine of the entire piece. Every kind of. Cut to it every visual escalation, it kind of feels synchronized to the song's emotional arc. And I think this is where Phase work separates itself from most Final Fantasy fan edits, the gameplay becomes secondary to the musical narrative. You're not watching clips set to a song, you're watching visuals that exist because of the song, and the editing style really reinforces that idea. It's, it's, it's kind of rather than fast, kind of chaotic cuts or flashy effects. The video kind of uses a bit more restraint. These shots kind of linger a little bit, just long enough to establish the atmosphere and then give way to a kind of momentum as the as the kind of music builds, and it kind of creates a cinematic rhythm that feels intentional, almost trailer like, but without selling anything, and it's expressive, therefore, rather than being promotional, and there's also an interesting contrast when you consider the broader output that she produces, which is why I wanted to just have a little look at what else she does, which I have to say, is mostly comedic or self aware, kind of short joke stuff, playful frustration, no humor. And in that sense, this one dune awakening kind of feels less like a standalone upload and more like a kind of creative statement. I think it shows how Final Fantasy 14 can be used as a canvas for personal artistic expression, not just gameplay documentation. Think the world becomes symbolic, the character becomes archetypal. The story is kind of implied, rather than being told. And ultimately, I think the video actually succeeds because it trusts its audience, which may not be us, but it's got an audience for sure. It doesn't over explain. It doesn't demand familiarity with specific law details. I think instead, it invites viewers into this kind of shared emotional space which is shaped by music and the imagery and the tone. And it's a form of fan content, yes, but it's also something closer to fan cinema and interpretation, I think, rather than a retelling. And of course, yeah, it's obviously a partial homage to June. But I think most of all the over humor is is kind of cleverly done in relation to content creation as a theme for the work. It's certainly rather pointed about online culture and the tricks of the content, craft strategies used, which I think is actually a lot of fun in this I think that's what makes it compelling. It's not about Final Fantasy as a game. It's about Final Fantasy as a feeling and a response. And I think the editing style is is neat and well done. I like the zooms and the close ups and the speed of the clips, which I think are really quite excellent in the way that it's it's stitched together. I think it's a completely different type of pick this month, Damien, which I've got to say, after Phil's and my short and the really quite heavy design. We needed this, didn't we? Definitely needed this after Aussie mandias too. I think I'm glad we finished the month up on a slightly more light hearted take. But it's a style I've not seen done before. It's, it's, it's very interesting in that, yeah,

Phil Rice 13:37
with me, it made me wonder, is, is there were a lot of other stuff like this out there. But again, because I'm not, I mean, you know, we can say what we want about the algorithm. It's pretty good at delivering up what it thinks that, you know, that you might want to watch. And so is there this whole, you know, type of style that's out there that I've never seen before? And you know, I'm I'm not being mean, I'm not being mean, I'm just being honest. It's probably not something I would go hunting for on purpose, you know? But the editing is really good, like, it's, it's very tight, the shot selection and stuff, like it's, it's not like it's the the Edit isn't incoherent at all, even if I don't, if I don't understand what it's saying, I don't think that's the fault of the production or the edit. I think, like you said, Tracy, this is a different this is a totally different style. This is a different approach to communicating, if not a narrative, then more of a vibe. Yeah. And for that, yeah, I can certainly appreciate that. How do you think Do either of you or Damien, how do you think they did the lip sync? Is that something that's native to to Final Fantasy? Because the lip sync is pretty, pretty good where they show it.

Damien Valentine 14:48
I have never played the game, so I have no idea. I've got friends who plays it, so I can ask him if there's what kind of lip syncs in it. Are you? Yeah, I'm

Phil Rice 14:57
curious about that. Yeah. Tracy, you mentioned that you thought some AI was involved in this. Are you speaking just specifically about the song, or I

Tracy Harwood 15:05
would imagine AI used to it could well be that it's been used to actually do the lips lip sync as well. Could well be, I don't know, doesn't say that I got the feeling, not if it's

Phil Rice 15:16
a little too good, as weird as weird as that is to say, but it's a little bit too good. And the because of the number of the variety of shots involved, yeah, the idea of using something like Anna, we ended up learning that Anna, who did that Second Life video with the just wow factor moment at the end, with her lip sync, that she actually used runway Act Two for that, but there's, as she detailed in her message to us, there's a lot of work and a lot of trial and error and a lot of setup for just one shot. It's a lot, and this has many, many shots where different angles and multiple characters involved. So it's just having worked with that with with the the test film that I did with it, it's hard to imagine that they could have done that with AI and that it would be quite so good. I also don't see any anything that screamed generative AI on the imagery involved here. Either, I don't know where all of the stuff came from, but I don't feel like that, that that was it, but I think the song is probably like a suno creation, or something like that. Yeah, it's got, it's got good audio fidelity, which, which suno is capable of, but it's got a little bit of that cheese factor, you know, that makes me think that probably AI was used to supply the lyric as well, or at least influence the lyric. Indeed. Anyway, yeah, as it's just, yeah, I don't know it made me feel old, but that's not the film's fault. I am old,

Damien Valentine 16:58
so, no, I just had to look through the comments to see if there was anything about AI for how it was used, if it was for the song, or if the song was real, really performed. And it doesn't say one way or the other, but there is a comment which I am going to read out, which I think is very relevant here. Okay, I don't fully understand what's happening. I'm laughing, so I don't think I care.

Phil Rice 17:22
Yeah, yeah, I laughed. But it was more I was laughing. It was my internal monolog laughing at Damien picked this because it's a little out of out of the norm for you.

Damien Valentine 17:38
Yeah, so absolutely surprised that when I looked up June awakening basinet, this came up at the top, or near the top. Yeah.

Phil Rice 17:48
Well, there's not a lot of competition. First of all, I think probably not, as we suspected. And I noticed that when she posted the video, she used some hashtags, which, this may be the only place on the internet where hashtags are still effective for something, the hashtags right at the top of her video description for dune and dune awakening. Those are the and gaming. Those are the only hashtags, and YouTube actually does use those sometimes to influence where they end up with the algorithm. So yeah, that's why did she mention? I wonder if she No, when she picked when she posted the video. She posted it when you when you choose the gaming category. When posting YouTube video it, you have the option to specify which game specifically you used for it, and she used she she labeled it as Final Fantasy, yeah. 14, yeah, yeah.

Damien Valentine 18:41
March 20. The videos posted March 22 last year. I don't think June Awakening was actually released, so June awakening only came out

Tracy Harwood 18:51
a few weeks ago, didn't it can't in

Phil Rice 18:55
the summer, it's been a few months now. Yeah, a few months.

Tracy Harwood 18:58
Is it losing track? Yeah? Well, I haven't seen anything in it yet.

Damien Valentine 19:03
That's what I went looking for. Because I

Tracy Harwood 19:06
get where you say, I get how you found it, yeah,

Damien Valentine 19:10
I will look to see if there's something else made with the actual game next, next time,

Phil Rice 19:18
specifically something with a wrap a Harkin unwrap that would be

Damien Valentine 19:25
ideal I can do. And you know, if I find this, if I find something now,

Phil Rice 19:31
you know I wouldn't, I wouldn't mind hearing a Harkin unwrap from would be JT. What's JT, music, yeah, yeah.

Damien Valentine 19:40
So, JT, if you're listening to this podcast, you've got a new mission from us to go and make a Harcourt

Phil Rice 19:47
rap, yeah, featuring the Baron. I want the Baron to have a verse as well the big Baron. Yeah, there you go. Well, hey, that was. The pick for this. To close out this, this month of sessions, thank you, Damien, for for brightening the mood for us after some some pretty dark choices by a couple others this month. So yeah, this was, this was much needed audience. What did you think of it? Drop us a comment wherever you watch or listen to this show or drop us an email talk at completely machinima.com we love getting your feedback. We share it internally and read everything that's sent to us, good or bad, so let us know what you think. So my name is Phil rice, on behalf of my co host, Tracy Harwood and Damien Valentine. Have a great day.

Tracy Harwood 20:41
Cheerio, bye, bye.