Damien Valentine 01:00
And now for something completely machinima, right? My name is Damien Valentine. My camera keeps blacking out, so I may disappear at some point, but I am joined by my co host, Tracy Harwood, hello and Phil rice, hello, Ricky a few weeks ago, Ricky saw project Hail Mary. He embarked on his space flight. As you know, space is massive. It takes forever to get anywhere, so he has not come back to us just yet from where he's going to explore, but we do look for hoy to his return, hopefully soon. Tracy, this is your week and your pick. So what have you found for us?

Tracy Harwood 01:43
Yeah, well, this is a good one which isn't actually machinima at all. This is automation situation two by guiam. Hang on. I must pronounce that incorrectly. Guiam H director, that's pretty close. Yeah. Is it you think good? I'm not buttering it too much, which is cool. Actually released on the 11th of September last year. Now, before I start again, I will comment on what we have picked this month, and the fact that all of the films that we've picked over the last four weeks we did independently of each other, and yet, bizarrely, they are all comments on the state of humanity, all of them, and this is another one of those That's commenting on the state of humanity in some bizarre way. So I don't know how we do that, whether we telematic, telepathically, telematically, maybe telepathically, possibly connected. I don't know if you've got any philosophy, philosophical reasons that you think that might be the case either of you. But, you know, I find that weird,

Damien Valentine 03:03
something you're all thinking about all at the same time.

Tracy Harwood 03:06
But how? Because, like, we don't tell each other that and they're also very different. I don't know how we do it. I just, I just throw that in there anyway. So I think I picked this up somehow from not YouTube. I think I picked it up originally from a Twitter feed. I think could be wrong there, but that's so it's been on my bring to the show list for some time, but this is definitely the month for it. So this is a guy. This is he's a French filmmaker and a creative technologist. He's actually a professional working in the industry. And what he's got in his channel, and the work that he shows through YouTube is basically his own kind of private experiments, basically, and he's using a bunch of AI tools trying to figure out a workflow to create some interesting content. And I think this is a really quite fascinating piece that he's presented us with here. Hence kind of why I wanted to discuss it with you now. It's, it's called the automation situation, too too little, too late. And it's really what I would describe as a kind of carefully engineered artifact, and one that kind of uses its esthetic as an argument. It's framed, really, as a 1930s educational reel. But the film, in doing that leans into these kind of degraded archival textures using, you know, old old film grain and scratches and jitter and blown out contrast and all of that kind of stuff, as well as a sort of a more old style aspect ratio to the. To the footage. But I think what it's doing is kind of almost weaponizing the visual, visual language of these kind of early instructional media that we used to see really kind of long time ago. It's kind of a format of, I don't know, it's sort of, you know, the kind of thing that you used to see was sort of historically gentle, I suppose, gentle voice of authority, quiet persuasion. Would you call it a PSA video? I'm not really sure it's kind of extends to it to a sort of that kind of thing, but it's more sort of educational piece, really is probably the only way I could describe it. But the result of it, I think, is this kind of dissonance in what you see as the viewing experience, because the reassuring tone of it absolutely clashes with the existential implications of the content. This is absolutely not nostalgia. It's a kind of form of retroactive satire, in effect, basically exposing the familiarity of the esthetic construction of it. And I think the creative process behind the film is kind of interesting too. It's kind of got that slower, flatter and more prescriptive style of filmmaking that we've seen quite a lot of AI generated films, taking basically found content from whatever sources, probably photographs and footage, and adding AI enhancements to upscale the images alongside some kind of AI assisted production to animate and have the filters. However, given the content, I think that choice of set of tools actually only really enhances what the message of this short is and what it's portraying, and that's because it's clearly a commentary about the role of AI too. Now I appreciate it. It's not directly a machinima, but the creative process, I think, definitely echoes or mimics machinima, not so much in the surface visuals, but in the underlying logic that's been used to create it. It treats this sort of existing media as raw material, which can be repurposed. So the photographs are being repurposed or animated or brought to life in some kind of way.

Tracy Harwood 07:29
And it's doing that rather than building everything from scratch, like classic machinima, really, where creators use the game engines pre build the assets, and all the assets have been pre built, and the and the the tool sets in the game are kind of constraining what the stories are about. I think what the the director here has done is actually used the photographs to help constrain the esthetics of the story. That's the impression that I get from it. So I think the originality for for for the work, or of the work, sits in the process of selecting and framing and recombining the fabricating, basically what what this work is, because then what you've got is the kind of emphasis on the on the limitations of it, that I think is kind of the interesting part of it. So it's an educational real 1930s kind of feel to it, but I think it really quite cleverly blurs the boundary between the tools and what the author is trying to do. I love the cadence to it. It's, it's kind of got this calm, sort of paternal and faintly patronizing feel to the way that it's speaking to what's going on. But it's really clever in how that, how it sort of presents you with a sort of, you know it kind of alters the way that you look at what's going on, because it's so calm, you don't you kind of more accepting of what you're seeing unfold in the in the story? Yeah, well, that mirrors the thematic core of it, which I think is quite interesting, because it is about AI and one of the things that that's tapping into is this sort of, you know, the agency when you're when you're using AI tools, your agency as a creator, the agency of the assets, is all diminished, and in effect, when you're using those tools, your human role then becomes secondary to the systems that that kind of operate almost independently of you. And that's what he's doing here. He's portraying that kind of sense of what's going on, and the craft of it is recreating a. Historical style, but using that style to sort of simulate and mimic the loss of control, it feeds into the broader work that he's done. So had a look at some of that as well. It's a sequel. This one is sequel to it. The original film suggests the world is on the brink of some kind of transformation, and this one is actually after the transformation has has happened. So it's the clever use of language. I think this is really quite fascinating. There's a lot of speculation that's being used in it as well, like phrases like the Department of alignment and the great transition, all kind of signal disruption rebranded as policy, perhaps. And you know, the the emotional responses that you might have to it are kind of really carefully managed through the messaging. And it kind of reminded me a little bit of a sort of a 19, if there is such a thing, 1930s interpretation of Kubrick's Clockwork Orange at some of the levels in the in the way that it was speaking to what what it was about. There's an interesting soundtrack to it. It's a sort of stylized version of 16 tons. I don't know if you remember that I grew up with the jean Pitney version of that, which I loved. Never really understood it, of course, but it kind of invokes that historical weight of industrial labor while kind of reframing the role of humans in a post work world. And it's about entrapment then, and sort of

Tracy Harwood 11:39
kind of got strange, a strangeness to how it's portraying the order of things and how acceptable that actually can be. I think one of the most striking themes in it is the insistent that you are still loved by these machines. And it captures beautifully that central unease that what you're seeing conveys, conveys to us through that, through the the narrative arc of it really, I mean, it's trying to convey, you know, simply this, I suppose, the simplicity of acknowledging there's a loss of purpose of what Humans do, positioning our value as something that's somewhat sentimental rather than functional. So you know, for example, showing us visiting old factories and and enacting being workers on production lines and things. It's fascinating. The other thing that I will pick up on, although I don't know if this is deliberate, is the choice of release date, September the 11th, which I think does add another layer of meaning to this. And I say that because, you know, there's obvious, there's obvious kind of associations with crisis and historical rupture that that date has for us. But this film doesn't really directly reference catastrophe. Instead, it echoes, I think, a language that follows events like that. It's measured, it's institutional. It's kind of stabilizing. It's trying to explain, it's trying to reframe after something has happened. But I think somehow, by aligning with that date, it's, it's kind of, you know, it's, it's adding to something about an aftermath where systems have kind of taken over. Like I said, I said, I don't know if that was deliberate or purely coincidental, but I think given the craft of the film, I suspect it's deliberate. Now, yeah, I think, you know, in some I suppose it's a deliberately simple idea that's really kind of well, you know, well, well presented. I think the editing of it is is clever. I think the sound design of it is cleverly done. I think the animation and the way that the things stitched together using, you know, to the animation, you know, using photographs that have been brought to life in some way. And I kind of get the impression that there's other techniques that have been used as well. Yeah, very, very, very well done. I think this is a very gifted, well craft piece that that challenges you to think about what's going on in a very interesting way. It's not about conflict, for example, it's not a, you know, it's not a terminator like perspective that we're seeing here, but it's definitely the robots of one kind of story. So, yeah, that was my pick. I don't know what you think about it. I'd be fascinated to hear what you all have to say that's great.

Damien Valentine 15:09
Love it. Okay, so I guess I'll go. I said before, I really struggle to engage with AI generated videos. So I really struggle to watch this one. It's not particularly the quality of it. It's just the way I compare it to is going way back when there's lots of machinery being produced. And like every 10 videos, nine of them would be made by Halo and most of those absolute garbage to the point where we were all really sick of anything to do with Halo like, for me, personally, I couldn't play the Halo games when a new one was announced and the trailers would even be on the cinema. I think I can't even look at these characters, because all I'm seeing is awful machinima content I've been exposed to, because people are just making so much stuff, no matter how good the game is itself, no matter how good the game is, I just could not get into it, because I've been so put off with it. So I kind of have the same thing with AI generated content, is I just can't engage with it. So the only thing I can really say is that I find that there's certain irony here about making a film about automation and robots taking over with an AI tool, which is something that a lot of people are concerned about with, AI taking over everything and replacing people. So that's all I came up with to say, it's all my notes. Okay, fair enough.

Phil Rice 16:39
I have, I've never played Halo.

Damien Valentine 16:41
Is it because of the machinery or just because, you know, interest in the game. I think when

Phil Rice 16:47
when Halo came onto the scene, I was so devoted to to playing quake two, right, that I just, I just, I wasn't, I wasn't gripped by I couldn't sense the story of it. I guess there is a story in Halo, but I just that wasn't part of how they marketed it. I think all the marketing was, this is the quake killer. And there was part of me that just rebelled internally against that of just, nah, yeah. You know, no one who's played quake would say that, you know. So I've never, to this day, I've never played Halo any version of it ever. In fact, I have one machinima film I once made that used Halo and I had someone else. I had someone else record the halo footage based on my direction, because I was not willing to to buy the game and play it for that. So anyway, yeah, this is the kind of unsettling that works on me. This is the kind of satire that gets me much more so than the direct punch you in the face approach of eater, which we reviewed a few weeks ago, which was definitely a form of satire. To me, this, if that was a punch in the face, this is kind of more of a creeping dread sense of things, you know, it's, it's, it's no less unsettling. In fact, I find this more unsettling. There's nothing scarier than a villain who smiles, you know? And there's, there's really this sense in this of the several of the the moments that you pointed out, Tracy, of that they're smiling, that you know, that you're still loved, you're still needed, and it's just, it just makes you sick, like it's just, it's so effective. I think it's a brilliant choice to frame this what is clearly attempting to capture the a sentiment that is there about today, but using footage that evokes a period where, really, we were still reeling from a very similar thing with the Industrial Revolution, and our society is moving from agrarian to industrial, and these exact things were being said about what industrial is going to do. It's going to make us all useless. It's going to turn us into, you know, we're it's going to society is going to fall apart. Humanity, people are going to lose their humanity, the exact same things were being said then. So that's a brilliant connection to make there by the choice of these this footage. And yet it's not just footage from post industrial age, because there's this almost steam punk element of you've got these robots that that have an old look, but that couldn't possibly exist then kind of thing. So there's this anachronism. Them that just feeds the unsettling feeling and all these smiling people on their way to the slaughterhouse, effectively, right? It's just, oh, it's so good at what it's trying to do. And, yeah, I mean, we could talk about the craft of this all day. But just the the selection of images that he chose to animate and put in sequence here, the way that he edited things, the lines that are vocalized, it just really, it just really conveys this sense of something scary is not coming. It's here. Yes, it's already here. And nobody knows whether or not we should be stopping it or how we could stop it if we wanted to, uh, uh, I mean, no matter how you feel about AI, it's like, yeah, there's a real sense of that. Even someone who's

Phil Rice 21:14
even someone who's like, on the opposite end of the spectrum is Damien and is like, pro AI, if they're a human being at all paying attention, there has to be some angst. I don't think that. I don't think there's dramatic difference between how Damien feels and how someone who's pro AI feels. I think it's a matter of what they're choosing to say and not say. You know, there's no way to look at this innovation, this this dramatic turn of events, and not be a little bit scared of it, you know, I think that that's healthy, you know. I think it's healthy that astronauts, you know, are scared about space flight because it's freaking dangerous. It's like ridiculous, like we think everything on the earth is out to kill us. How about out there? Like every atom is just

Damien Valentine 22:10
when you've got piece of metal that big protection, this is

Phil Rice 22:15
just a near infinite space of things just designed to be hostile to to our life, you know, you should be scared about that. And I think with innovations this big and this impactful, you know, it's proper to feel scared. It's not it's not right to smile and say, I feel loved, you know. So, yeah, wonderfully, wonderfully conveyed. Um, I've seen his other work too. I think you were wondering, Tracy, how this came to you. And I think, I think I remember, T I think you posted this to our board, not this video, but this director, and then it was something else made by him and that I found, I went and found him on Twitter, and found a Twitter post, and I posted that as, like, a follow up to what you said and said, and basically just says, we should probably take a look at this. And then I think it's just been sitting there ever since now. This is, this is, this is maybe more recent than that, because this was probably a year ago. Oh, okay, okay, maybe not quite that long, but it was, I think it was before this film even existed, because when I went back and re watched the first part, I remember, I've seen this before. This one, I don't remember having seen before. And there's some other work that he's made that's not this specific style that I was impressed by as well, that it's like, this is a in the same sense that we got from watching Iago Muriel's the murderer, and if you watch his other work as well, and it's like, you Just get a sense of man. This is a filmmaker. This is a filmmaker. You know? This is someone who really knows how to convey emotion, slash message, slash something through motion pictures. And at that point, it's like, look, I don't care how he made this. Probably should. It's probably socially responsible for me to care about how I made it. But it's one of those things where, at least in the moment, this is so good that, yeah, I don't, I don't care in that moment, because it is impactful. It would it. It does something, and that's not something that most AI, what we turn, what we group together as slop. It doesn't do that. In fact, that's part of what's annoying about it, is that the only emotion it conveys is disgust at how lazy. It seems you know how who'd you steal from to make that there's, there's that sense that as an artist just keeps coming up, right? This didn't give me that maybe it's supposed to, maybe I'm a jerk, because it doesn't. But this film in particular didn't do that for me. It's one of those where the work, the outcome is so great that that's all I thought about, you know. So anyway, yeah, I love this, and I like these. I like going onto the Internet Archive and watching old, real prelling Prelinger archive videos from this era. They're fascinating. Sometimes they're just boring, as I'll get out, but it's, it's an esthetic that I've, I've long found fascinating. I watched a lot of that stuff prior to making mail restroom etiquette to kind of inspire me in the Public Service Announcement direction. And I still do that. It's kind of just a little, a little hobby, even though I'm not regularly making films like that. But there's something, there's something strange and haunting about

Phil Rice 26:18
this kind of footage. When it's even, when it's real, it's just haunting. And I don't know if it's something as simple as, Wow, everyone I'm seeing on the screen right now is dead, like this is this is from a completely different world, you know? Is it that simple and stupid, or is it something more about that esthetic? Is it reminding me of something from my childhood. I don't know. I watched a lot of three stooges and Laurel and Hardy and the little rascals and WC Fields and all the Marx Brothers all that stuff. But those were constructed narratives, right? These these films that capture real footage of real people, these haunting images of the early no sound films taken in the trenches of World War Two, where it's just a soldier standing there with kind of a ghostly look on his face and just that 1000 yard stare. You know, it's just haunting. And so this taps into that by injecting artificial life into what I think, I think most of these are probably based on actual photographs. Yeah, I think some of them, he probably did some clever compositing of the photograph before giving it to the animation. That's how you can get some of these discordant elements together there, like some of these robots just they were never in a photo from the 1930s in any form, right? So that's brilliant. That's That's interesting craft of you know, you've discovered this machine, AI, this, this, you've discovered this machine that can take something I put into it and transform it into something, and rather than just focusing on what it spits out, you're he's back here looking at, what if I alter what I put in, what if I and so that's interesting, right? That's, that's, that's, that's interesting. It doesn't take away from the fact that if it's some kind of a cosmic sin or cardinal sin, that he's using the machine that doesn't forgive him of that, but it does make it at least he's trying to find ways to inject his humanity into the process while this machine is part of his assembly line. That's fascinating stuff to me. And I think that stuff needs to happen. Somebody needs to be willing to do that, you know. So, yeah, I loved this, even though I got to say I was just way more creeped out by this than,

Tracy Harwood 28:53
yeah, it creeped me out

Phil Rice 28:54
than by the murderer, the film we watched the murderer, which was creepy, and by Ricky's pick eater, which just, I just kind of felt like I shouldn't. I should just, you know, hear no evil, see no evil, kind of motions, right? This is way creepier

Damien Valentine 29:15
to me. So what you're saying? I picked the funny video.

Phil Rice 29:19
That's right, that's right.

Tracy Harwood 29:21
Yeah, yours was was on the nose. Yours was proper humor. This is, this is true horror. For me, this really is true horror.

Damien Valentine 29:28
Yeah, that thing you just said about looking at old videos and thinking everyone's dead, it's not funny this or anything else. But about month ago, one evening, I saw this old black and white photo from city of Bath, which is near where I lived. That day I had been there, and I looked at the picture, and I had a similar thing of these people in this picture are long dead, but I walked down that street a few hours ago, and then I looked at the date of the photo, and it was eight. 18. It started with 18, not 19. So just even idea of how old that that picture was and I recognized the building. Obviously, the shops have changed, but I thought I recognize those buildings are more or less the same shape as what I saw earlier today. The roads different. Obviously got modern roads and modern stuff on it, but still very recognizable, very familiar. It's just very weird to think that those people over a century ago, when this picture was taken, I'm looking at it now, and I walked down there, and it was

Phil Rice 30:35
they all had lives, and they all had things that were major concerns for them. And yeah, and it's all gone, and we're left with just these remnants, yeah, all of that comes through this this kind of footage. And I think that the reason it hits me so much is because that is juxtaposed with this constant sense that this film is talking to us now, me, Yeah, us, and yet it's using that

Tracy Harwood 31:09
us, just it's slightly being brainwashed, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. It's, it's a, it's, well, maybe that's the point, right?

Phil Rice 31:18
I'm guiam, if that's how we're I hope we're pronouncing this right, but I'm glad you're doing what you're doing, and I'll watch more from this, because this is, this is quite the filmmaker, yeah, absolutely. Be interesting to see if he extends his work into using other methods and other mediums and stuff. But he's, he's clearly got an eye and an ear for what works. And even though it is all satire or satirically delivered, the message is crystal clear, that's really, that's not easy to do, that's not a trivial thing, that there's a balance there. And he just, he really, he really gets it right. So great pick.

Damien Valentine 32:05
Yeah, as I said in mine, obviously not a fan of AI stuff. So as a filmmaker, go check out. IClone. Do some good things with her. All right, I think that's it for this week. So for myself, Tracy and Phil, we look forward to Ricky's return from deep space, and we'll be back next week with some new new films. Take care and bye.

Phil Rice 32:32
Andy Weir, Andy Weir, Andy Weir, Andy Weir.