Damien Valentine 00:00
Hello and welcome to another episode right now for something completely machinima. Ricky, he watched project Hail Mary and decided he is going to go off into space, so we'll see him when he comes back. And that's kind of a thing that we're going to be talking about. But first, David Valentine, I've joined. You know what? I'm gonna start this from the

Speaker 1 00:29
beginning, and now it's time. I said, now. I said, it's time, and now for something completely machine.

Speaker 1 00:58
And now for something completely machine.

Speaker 1 01:09
And now for something completely machine,

Damien Valentine 01:27
hello and welcome to another episode. Now for something complete, the Machinima. I'm Damien Valentine, and I'm joined by Phil rice. Hi there. Tracy Harwood, hello. Ricky went to see project Hail Mary, and then he decides he really wants to go up into space. So he's absent from us this week, which is kind of a strange coincidence, because we're going to be talking about the egg, which is my film pick. And just like Project Hail Mary, it's based on a story written by Andy Weir. And even more of a coincidence, Ricky is voice acting in that one as well. So there we go. So yeah, the egg. It's a I did choose it very specifically because of project Hail Mary and Andy Weir having a big moment at the moment the film leading the box office. It's a very good film. If you haven't seen it, go out and see it, because it's just such an excellent film. I'm not going to say anything about it, because it's best to watch it knowing as little as possible in advance. But the egg, it's a short story, believe it was written in 2009 or something like that, by Andy Weir. It's even before he wrote The Martian that was his first novel. So it's one of his early pieces, and it was adapted several times by several different people in and this one is by anime Technica, who was a still is a member of the machinery community. And I remember seeing this back in the day. I think it's on TMO radio. They did a premier event, and we could all go and watch it and chat, and I were really enjoying it then, and being quite surprised by the plot and the way it unfolded. It's a really well made film. So of course, when I went to see project Hail Mary, I thought didn't Ricky star in a film is adapted by an edgy WIS story. So I went back and found it and I watched it again. You know what? This is gonna be my pick, partly because of that, but it's also a really good film, and I wanted to share it with both of you. So that's it. That's all I've got to say about it for now. So what do you think

Phil Rice 03:38
I told Ricky earlier, when he was on, he knew we were going to be reviewing this. This is the only, I think, that I know of, the only machinima film that Ricky contributed to that I've not seen. I've never seen this. I don't know how I missed it. I thought I had seen everything made by anime Technica, too. So, yeah, very interesting. Out of the ordinary sort of film and topic for machinima, the voice actors are, Ricky is he's playing God and and Jorge Campos, or George Campos, who was another. He's actually somebody that I followed back in the day because he did a lot of comedy shorts and was had a very, very funny sense of humor. He's still he's still around. I don't think he's producing now, but I still see him from time to time, and hope he's well. And then the music is composed by Jesse Pringle, who I don't know personally, but I know that name, so I assume that he was also a member of that the movie's online community, and there was a lot of really cool collaborations that that happened back then as a result of that.

Damien Valentine 04:56
I forget the name of his website that he produced a lot of. Pieces of music that were free to use for, I think it's like the cinema sound.com or something like that.

Phil Rice 05:04
Oh, was that him, really? I remember that site, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, anyway, yeah, what an interesting film. There's not many that that dive into philosophy slash theology, in such a direct way, I won't give away, but there's it. There's a reveal in this that caught me a little bit by surprise that I wasn't expecting that. Yeah, it was. It was a little surprising. So let's, let's not, let's not spoil that for anybody. Yeah, I liked it. I think that the and, you know, how much of this is the adaptation that was made for the screenplay for this, and how much of it's from the original story, I don't know, but it's a little bit on the nose, you know, I guess when you've got a short time to convey an idea, you got to be pretty direct and straightforward with the words, but it didn't really have much in the way of nuance. It was very, very direct. This is how things are, is how it was laid out. And you know that that wasn't my favorite thing about it, but what really caught my attention was the some of the decisions on the production. What was this made with Damian? Do you know is this the character? Is it animated with movie storm, or I clone? I clone was anima's main thing, wasn't it? I believe.

Damien Valentine 06:31
So, yeah, yeah. Tracy thought her digging.

Tracy Harwood 06:34
I clone, 3.4 I thought I saw something like that. Wow.

Phil Rice 06:38
Yeah. So there's, there's a, there's a really interesting lighting effect that's done in, I guess, kind of the opening scene the character is, is, we can give this part of it away, that the first character we're introduced with has, has passed away, and is, you know, in the the afterlife, some, some other place, right? So he's walking towards this door, and this, this area that he's walking through has all these kind of nebulous lights and almost looks like clouds above and below him. And it's just a really interesting look that I'm not I'm not exactly sure how that was done, but it was very effective, knowing anime Technica, it was probably all somehow done in iClone. And if this movie was made, this movie was released in 2011 so what version of iClone would he've even been on back then? Was that four?

Tracy Harwood 07:33
I thought he said 3.43?

Phil Rice 07:35
Okay, yeah. So Wow. I have seen a number of things from that era of iClone, and not many of them were most of the ones that were impressive were his films. But it was rare that you'd see something that's like, how did they do that? You know? And I still, 15 years later, look at it. And not sure exactly how he did that, but it's very, very effective. Yeah, so then the dialog ensues. The Introduction to Ricky's character is hilarious. I think that he's sitting there watching watching television and and is kind of nonchalant about the fact that he's the deity Ricky just played it so great. When we, when we told Ricky about this, this film, he kind of, as he tends to do, he kind of downplayed it, you know, his performance, I was just, I just, I just recorded my lines, you know, basically. But it's, he's just good. He's just so good. And it's, you can tell, it's Ricky's voice, but it's, it's not a precise character that I've ever heard him do before. I don't mean that in terms of tone of voice. I mean in terms of the attitude that he was conveying, the emotion he was conveying. It was there's, if it makes sense, the sound of his voice is the sound of someone who has a twinkle in their eye, like everything's just kind of, he's just kind of on the verge of laughing, like just almost just, he's amused, right? So, and he just, he just played it. So great. And then Jorge Did, did great on the main character as well. I think it's perfect casting, honestly, like knowing all the voice actors I know in machinima, there's no better casting for these specific roles than these two people, because Jorge has this sense of kind of awe and wonder and at times fear. And he just, he just delivers that performance. So great. And then Ricky, you know, it's appropriate that he would play God. So I loved this film. It's just, it's such a unique piece from from that. Any time period in machinima, to take on that that topic, and to manage to do something. And I guess credit for this goes to to Andy Weir, who wrote the story. But it's a, I don't know that I've heard this particular take on. You know, essentially, that what this story and film is intending to do is describe what, what the afterlife is, what comes after we die. And I haven't, haven't heard this on it. It's almost, it's almost humorous, like, and I don't know how much of that is because of the way Ricky delivers the performance when he's describing it, he's just tickled to death about it, like he's just, he's just amused. And Jorge is just doesn't know what's going on, right? And Ricky seems, God seems amused by that greatly. So yeah, just very, very effectively done, and very simple. When you really think about it, like, there's not a great variety of scenes or sets or anything like that. It's, it's, it's just kind of simple and straightforward. And yet, there's moments where, oh, wow, we're seeing, you know, we get flashes of other places and other things and just really well done. So yeah, I'm glad you, glad you brought my attention to this, this lost gem from from Ricky's voice acting history.

Damien Valentine 11:29
Glad you enjoyed it.

Tracy Harwood 11:31
2011 Listen, I've got a question for you, because we literally did just talk to him about this before, not on it, not on on camera, unfortunately, but he just said that he did a run through of his lines a couple of times. He did two takes. Yeah, two takes. But that wasn't in conversation with George. Was it?

Phil Rice 11:53
Probably not, well, probably not, not the way it was done back then. Yeah, quite

Tracy Harwood 11:59
so the conversation

Phil Rice 12:01
not the way it's done. Now, by the

Tracy Harwood 12:02
way, well, true, true enough. But I mean the, it's the the sense of them interacting with each other that comes through so strongly with this. And then for you, for the for me, to suddenly sit there and hang on a minute, they didn't do it like that.

Phil Rice 12:18
Fascinating. Probably, I would guess neither of them heard the other's performance when they were doing their lines. I don't think that Ricky recorded his and then Jorge got to hear his. I think they're both just really good actors, amazing.

Damien Valentine 12:32
That's what I would say, too. I've worked with both, see, worked with Ricky a lot more, but Jorge, he's done some voice work for me, and he just naturally knows exactly. He has an intuition.

Phil Rice 12:44
He really does. Yeah, he's very good.

Tracy Harwood 12:49
Well, okay, so, yeah, fascinating. I think what's fascinating there's, there's some, I've got, obviously, lots of things to say about it. But what is kind of fascinating is this clear, you know, they did this rendition of this clearly quite soon after the story was the short story was originally published, and it was published online in 2009 so my guess is they turned it around quite quickly and, you know, then published this short on Vimeo, by the way, because I cannot find this on YouTube anyway, which I think is quite interesting, published it sort of a year or so later, when most of the interpretations of it have been much more, you know, much later, because it's obviously continued to attract attention. I think primarily because, as you quite rightly said, this is a guy who's now made it having published The Martian. What, a couple years 2011 I think he published The Martian, and then the other things that he's quite well known for some time later. So at the time, I think anima picked this up, it wouldn't, he wouldn't be particularly well known. I suspect could be wrong there, but that would be my timing on it. So hang on to that, because I think I'll come back to that. The core premise, then is, and I'm going to reveal because you're going to watch it, and then you're going to say, let's talk, talk about it some more

Damien Valentine 14:29
for our listeners and viewers, come back.

Tracy Harwood 14:33
Great to see you back here, right? Let's crack on with it. So the core, the core premise of it, is, you know, what happens when you die and you meet God and you learn that every human who has ever existed is in fact you just you living different lives across time, iterations, yeah, all building towards some kind of cosmic mature. Purity. So it's kind of reincarnation, but it's narcissistic too. And I think that's the sort of humor that Ricky would really love. Actually. I think he would really enjoy that kind of take on what is what is it all about? What's life all about? Well, who cares? Because you're going to do it every time you get reincarnated? I think you would enjoy the very notion of that, which I think is what comes through in his voice acting. Yeah, so, you know, it's basically just these do two sort of dudes really just talking in this void space. And it's just so cleverly, cleverly done. I think it's really cleverly positioned in whatever that kind of latent space is that they they're in, because it's not a it's not a heaven, it's not a hell, it's just kind of nowhere. It's on a kind of a roadway, just, you're just not sure where it's, where it's going. It's, you're just not familiar with it. So there they are. And it's, it's essentially some kind of philosophical Trojan horse that you're witnessing. And it kind of, as it, as it unfolds, it sneaks in almost this huge idea, you know, it's a kind of a, it's a massive kind of philosophical positioning, really. And it's just so subtle in the way that it's it's introduced to you in the case of this kind of casual conversation. And I think you know, what Adam has done is really clever. He's leaning into the sort of minimalistic kind of approach to tell this or unfold this story. He's not over cinematising it. If that's a if that's a word I can kind of use, and I think it's that restraint in the way that he's conveying what what's going on here is, is what actually does the kind of heavy lifting. So these these visuals and this amazing voice acting, and these guys riffing off each other, though they never actually spoke to one another and got the sense of how they might respond to this, I think it's, it's it's truly outstanding voice acting. And I'm not a bit surprised that Ricky's so modest about it, actually, because he often is, he's the perfect person to have played God in this, or the god like character. And George, I want to say, and you, you call him your, your Jorge. Okay, so I've always,

Phil Rice 17:39
I think I, the more I think about it. I think he does go by George. Yeah, I

Tracy Harwood 17:43
thought he but whatever, it doesn't matter. I mean, they're both beautifully, beautiful voices for for this, and the quality and the timing of the comments and the pacing of it, it's just brilliant. You know, George is confused. He's the, he's a he's the kind of human he doesn't really know what's going on. He's sort of slightly out of sorts. He's been caught out by the circumstances. And Ricky's voice is just so chilled and smug. And you know, he's perfect for this sort of cosmic entity. And it's the, it's the dynamic interplay between them that just, I love so much. Actually, he doesn't, kind of go for Morgan Freeman, sort of God. He's just, yeah, hey, you died anyway. Here's the structure of existence, and I'm going to tell you how it is and it's, it's that tone is just so beautifully understated, and it, it's important that it's done like that. I think because it, it actually stops the weight of this philosophical positioning, just over being overbearing on what's actually going on, I think so it's the way he plays it that is able to convey what this story is all about. And then you've got the the animations as well, which I think I will comment on, which is, you know, they've got this kind of dream like quality to them, which I think was something that you could achieve quite well back in that sort of period of time. It's probably a little bit harder to do now. So I think that's, I think it's a work of its time, and that it draws on whatever those tools were really, really well. I'm not sure you'd make the same you'd make it in the same way if you were to try and do it today. And in fact, when you look at what others have tried to do, they haven't made it in the same way at all. And it's the lesser for it, in actual fact. So the esthetic, I think, is is interesting, because the whole story is happening outside time and space, and it's it's. Visuals that avoid literalism, really. And in some ways, it's doing a little bit what the matrix did in its presentation of, you know, here's where we are now. Here's where you are when you go into the matrix, but here's where we learn about stuff in that kind of liminal space between these two things. Thought that was really clever. Whether that was what it was drawing on or not, I don't really know, but you're not watching events. Either way, you're watching ideas being explained by these characters. I think the score is beautiful. I mean, it's subtle, it's ambient, it's it's perfectly emotionally suggestive enough to sort of nudge you towards what the wonder of the story is, which, you know, I think it's fascinating how that kind of adds to the depth of it, really. And clearly, it's the message that's essential focus. And it's kind of along the lines of, you know, every act of kindness or cruelty is something that ultimately you will do to yourself. And that's such a deep message, so deep. And of course, you know, it's been interpreted in many ways over the years. You've kind of got the golden rule, or a neat way to make life feel fair, but, but I think in this short there's more aggression in in the possible interpretations of existence, because the film just it kind of side steps some of the more uncomfortable implications of what that core message really is, and that if you are anyone, you are both victim and perpetrator of every atrocity. I mean, how profound is

Phil Rice 21:58
that notion of responsibility?

Tracy Harwood 22:02
Because it's going to get you at some point.

Phil Rice 22:04
Yeah, cosmic responsibility has it. What is it? Very, very interesting.

Tracy Harwood 22:09
What is it? They say, they say, they say, your, your deeds, God, God does not pay in money. Okay, that's the that's kind of the message that comes through it. So whichever way you look at it, it's deeply unsettling, and it really just depends on what your mood is at the time when you kind of watch that and it's it just conveys a real, beautiful empathy. And, you know, I guess some would think it's kind of philosophically shaky, but it is definitely a deep message. I don't think this is really a film as such. I think it's just an Well, basically, it's a thought experiment wearing the costume of a film. And I'd actually like, probably like you both. I'd completely forgotten this had been made, I suppose, yeah, I mean, I suppose I, you know, it made me go and have a look at what, Andy, what, what Weir's work is actually inspired by, given that, you know, The Martian, the you know, Artemis is another one of his published works in 2017 that he's quite well known for him, Project Hail Mary, which was published only in 2021 I mean, massive box office hit. Haven't seen it, but I know you guys have it. Turns out his works deeply inspired by Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov. And he is particularly well known for his scientific accuracy, which kind of, then makes me think, actually maybe the you know, because you don't get a sense of any of that inspiration so much in in the way that this is conveyed. But then again, I think what you have got is animals interpretation. It's my understanding that this was an adaptation, not so much a word for word reading, but in terms of the staging for the stories itself. Now why I say that is because I then went and had a look to see if there were other treatments of how this had been presented. And sure enough, the one that has generated the most attention was released in 2019 by somebody called Kurzgesagt, something like that. I butchered that. I know I did something like that. I will put a link to it. I've watched it. By comparison, it's terrible. It really is awful. And yet, that's been viewed something like 35 million times. You've got to see it in order to compare animus treatment of this story and then realize just how good this really is. Um. Um, so, yeah, I don't think this has got anywhere near the attention that it needed to compared to some of the other approaches that others have taken to it, not least that particular one, because it's really nothing in it. I mean, it's just, you could this does it just doesn't even hold a candle to what's what's going on with with this particular short God, freaky plays God so well, doesn't he? He's got this kind of calm, kind of conversational tone, almost casual, rather than this sort of grand approach to it. I you know, it's not really preachy as such. He's, he's got this kind of restraint to it. I think he does it really well. Yeah. I mean, what else can I say? I thought it was a great pick. And I have to say, when I first picked it up, given that we are actually recording on Easter Sunday, I actually, I thought your inspiration here before I got into this was chocolate Easter eggs,

Damien Valentine 26:12
you know, I didn't actually think about that when I chose it, but you're right, yeah. Well, Sunday, yeah, this is our Easter episode, even though it'll go out

Tracy Harwood 26:21
long after, Oh, it'll go long out, for sure. But yes, I know. But yeah, that's why I thought you'd actually picked it. Nothing to do with fact that Hail Mary was the inspiration for it. Anyway, it's a great pick. I really enjoyed having a look at it and thinking about Ricky's performance of it. I was very impressed with it.

Damien Valentine 26:39
Yeah, I'm glad you both enjoyed it. I was thinking about a bit more as you were talking, and I haven't actually read this particular short story, so maybe I should to see how close this film is to the original source. My understanding is Angie Weir wrote the story in about 40 minutes, the inspiration struck. He just sat down, wrote it out, and that was it, and then he posted it online. Because he was just his early works. He was just posting them online. I vaguely remember that he seen this like when I don't know if he came to the premiere on TMO radio or anything, but I do think you remember that anime Technica had some kind of contact with him about this film. I do not know that's really good, yeah, but this is, of course, before Andy Weir was famous for anything other than writing short stories. So interesting to know what he thought about it.

Tracy Harwood 27:41
Now, well, it's kind of interesting you say that, because when I was reading the backstory to the the other version of it that I mentioned, the one that's got all the views according to the description there, he also went to see that one as well. So maybe he's tapped into everybody that releases a version of it, and he's just curious to see what they do with it. I'd be interested in how he compares the two. Would really be interested in that. So if he's we'll tag him and see if he's kind enough to pick up and reflect on our thoughts

Damien Valentine 28:15
about it. Yeah, imagine we're if you're listening to this or watching this, yeah, we'd really like to know what you think of this film and

Phil Rice 28:24
reflection, yeah. Well, we should. We should probably sprinkle into the title of the episode, you know, completely machinima episode, such and such, Andy Weir's the egg by Andy Weir, featuring Andy Weir,

Damien Valentine 28:41
yeah, with some thoughts on Project Hail Mary,

Phil Rice 28:45
and if he gets one of those Google Alert emails when he's mentioned, he'll pick up on it from that

Damien Valentine 28:50
probably, yeah, but yeah, obviously, you're talking about Ricky and Hawaii's characters, and the humor between them. That's kind of something that's a hallmark of Andy wears writing as well as the Martian. I haven't read Artemis, I need to, but both the Martian and project Hail Mary have a lot of humor in them. They're very science heavy. This is not a scientific story in any Well, it's

Tracy Harwood 29:14
philosophical, though, isn't it philosophical?

Damien Valentine 29:17
But the Martian and project Hail Mary are very focused on science, but he makes it very accessible. Yeah, you don't have to be an astrophysicist to understand the points that this these books are explaining

Phil Rice 29:32
well, and I think also the the themes that are in common between those two, between the Martian and Hale and project Hail Mary also is the focus is on problem solving, yeah, and friendship, and there's not a trace of that in this. This is not a problem being solved. It's an egg being opened, you know,

Damien Valentine 29:53
so to speak. So it's kind of got the same kind of humor in writing stuff. It's a very different story and concept. Yeah. So it's interesting to see some of his early work and compare it to what he's been doing more recently.

Tracy Harwood 30:06
Yeah. Great.

Damien Valentine 30:07
Pick. Yeah. All right, that kind of wraps things up for this week. Let us know what you think of this film. Let us know what you think of project. Hail Mary, if you're Andy Weir, please contact us as well. We'd be interested to hear from you to talk at complete the machinery.com you can check out our blog at complete the machinery.com and that's it from myself, from Phil and Tracy. We'll see you next week.

Phil Rice 30:31
We'll sprinkle the SEO in here. Andy Weir, Andy Weir, Andy Weir, Andy Weir, Andy Weir. You.