Starting Feb 2023 off with a meme, Tracy selects a machinima that has been released as part of a massively co-created story involving numerous creators since it kicked off in mid 2019, The Backrooms. This short is called The Backrooms - Reunion by Kane Pixels, released 8 Dec 2022. Is this really machinima, yep it certainly is - but we're all blown away with the realism of the actors' performance in this, and of course, the whole Backrooms Creepypasta phenomenon is just something else to behold too. We give you a bit of the background, just in case you've not come across it in your travels across the internet.
Machinima, real-time filmmaking, virtual production and VR. Four veteran machinimators share news, new films & filmmakers, and discuss the past, present and future of machinima.
Ricky Grove 00:11
Hello everyone, my name is Ricky Grove and you're listening to the And Now For Something Completely Machinima Podcast. I'm here with my fellow commentators, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood and Phil Rice. We're happy to be in our third season. This is February, first film February. Congratulations, everyone. We made it through two years. That's, that's really great. We're looking at Tracy's pick for first week. It's called Backrooms - Reunion by Kane Pixels. Tracy, tell us a little bit about this interesting film.
Tracy Harwood 00:47
Absolutely. Okay, so there's a backstory to this film, which I want to share with you before I sort of get to the film itself. And that backstory is that it originates from a Creepypasta thread, apparently posted in 2019. Have you heard of Creepypasta? No, yeah, no. Oh, well, Ricky, I think you're missing something here. Creepy. Now, creepy pastures are horror related urban legends that have been shared around the internet through various fora. And it's, yeah, it's a term that seemed to emanated on 4CHAN around 2007. And it's a portmanteau of the words creepy and copypasta, which stands for viral copied and pasted text. Now, this particular thread was posted anonymously, the posts included a photograph. And it said, 'if you're not careful, and you no clip out of reality, in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the back rooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum humbuzz and approximately 600 million square miles of randomly segmented, empty rooms to be trapped in. God's save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you'. So there you go. That was the anonymous post. And unsurprisingly, it has ever since become a massive collaborative writing project picked up by literally hundreds of creators, including the Backrooms game, so it's been developed into a game, which of course is in the genre of escape horror for those that like to be really creeped out and jumped scared because it has this kind of scary monster in it. That looms in the gloomy darkness. Now, in the game environment, what you've got are corridors and rooms, all of which looked like they've not seen the light of day for years. And there are very, very few features that you can kind of use to help you find your way around. And it's got this kind of mono yellow tinge to it that you see in the, in the film, this sort of nasty 1970s, wallpaper, Office, Office kind of carpeting and these sorts of suspects. Remember those nasty suspended ceilings with the polystyrene tiles. And those ceilings? Absolutely. And those old lights as old fluorescent lights, actually. So it's probably still got one in my office, which only appear to work in some of these spaces. And the soundscape is really described that is described in that post is what you've got in this game. And every single corridor looks exactly the same. But the further you kind of go into that environment, the more you are disorientated, and what's super interesting, and there's people that have been playing this game, have said that you can apparently smell the mustiness of it. Which is weird. So on top of that, you've got all these sorts of strange noises. But you don't know what they are. And you also don't really want to find out what they are. Anyway, there's now literally hundreds of backroom memes on the web, tonnes of videos. And the current thread of which this film is one has kind of dominated in the last year, particularly by this creator, whose name is Kane Parsons otherwise known as Kane Pixels. The first one he did is called Found Footage backrooms Found Footage. And guess what it's been viewed over 49 million times. With a story that reportedly goes back to 1996 which doesn't feel quite right with the age of what you're seeing, but I'll put a link to that so you can have a look at that too. And if you haven't seen it, I would suggest having a quick look at it. In this particular film, which is Reunion, what you see the intrepid team going back into those back rooms to try and find some of their previously lost colleagues, and you kind of follow them going through the space wearing these biohazard suits. Because I don't know why, but they just wear them. You know, why wouldn't you, I suppose, and it kind of concludes in a rather unexpected way, which I won't spoil for you. Now, the creators use mo cap in this, which is why I think the movement looks really good, it you know, it doesn't look either game like or, or animated in any way really. And I think what you can see is how the aesthetic sort of approach to it is also quite interesting. There's not really much of a dialogue, he kind of stories driven by sort of heavy breathing, and actually really quite naturalistic sort of behaviour, which I think is really intriguing and really interesting with how it's done. But I think the most interesting part to it is this kind of background story to it. Anyway, I've been wanting to share this emerging thread with you, I wanted to share it with you all of last year. But for whatever reason, I just didn't think it stood up some of the other things that we actually picked last year. But now I think it's a really good time to show you because I think it's probably come to the end of the current sort of viral cycle, that it's in this sort of last little reunion thing seems to sort of conclude it for me a little bit, I think. But I think I think it is the viral explosion of it. And the and the you know, with the with all the videos, the memes all the different responses, all the hyping that's, that's gone on around it around that sort of original post. I mean, it's it is a genuinely co-created co concocted if you like, story. So what did you think?
Ricky Grove 07:05
I have a couple of questions for you. Is backrooms a game?
Tracy Harwood 07:11
Yes, it is a game.
Ricky Grove 07:13
It's an actual game.
Tracy Harwood 07:14
It's an actual game. It's but it's, it's it was it was created, I think as a meme on the back of the thread that was on a 4CHAN ,
Ricky Grove 07:25
right. And reunion was shot inside of this game.
Tracy Harwood 07:28
I believe so or, or at least this the scenes were extracted. Maybe Maybe it was made in Unreal. I can't remember reading that bit. Actually, I think it was made in Unreal. Come to think about it.
Ricky Grove 07:40
Okay, because I was absolutely convinced that this was all live action. In fact, my note is, why did you choose a live action film for a machinima podcast? I believe that's how convincing that was to my at
Damien Valentine 07:57
the exact same question is why is this right clicks on the right, Link?
Tracy Harwood 08:01
No, it's not live action. I think it's
Phil Rice 08:05
or some live some
Tracy Harwood 08:07
live action, but it's not. It's Unreal.
Damien Valentine 08:09
Yeah. The opening shots live action with the the the guy in the site. Yeah. Yeah. So I that kind of throws it off? Yeah. Yeah. But it's not.
Tracy Harwood 08:19
Wow. But if that's
Ricky Grove 08:21
the case, then it's it's amazing. Another question is, when did the game come out?
Tracy Harwood 08:30
Yeah, I think I mean, the the actual thread was posted in, I think, I can't remember somewhere around mid 2019. I think the game wasn't launched until 2020. Okay, so it's not about old.
Ricky Grove 08:46
Because there was an a novel published by Jeff Vandermeer, part of a trilogy called Annihilation, in which there's a strange zone in which people go back go into this zone to recover others that have gone into the zone and have been lost. And they end up having themselves discombobulated. It was a one of the main novels that revived the weird fiction movement that's been going on. So my son, I suspect, as people latched on to that idea, and just applied the note that notion to back rooms because you have a perfect environment for that. So for me, it leans more towards weird cinema. Weird, which is an element of horror. You don't know what you're getting you there's a looming threat. Sometimes it's ambiguous. You don't know where it is. A sound is extremely important. The atmosphere is extremely important. The language isn't dialogue so much is that it is kind of technical, technical chat. You know, and you feel this mood, this mood of unease of weirdness of of what's that term that Freud used? Look, guy, I think was the word uncanny. He wrote he wrote an essay about the uncanny. And I think that's what this works out as what a fantastic film now that I know that it's machinima. Interesting, interesting film.
Tracy Harwood 10:32
Yeah, he's used. Oh, sorry. He's used the Rococo smart suit for the animations. It's made in Unreal Engine.
Phil Rice 10:41
Wow. Yeah. Game, by the way, is on Steam. It's called The Backrooms game and it's free. Yay, you can buy you can buy a DLC content pack to support the game for $2.99. Now that's put it in that that may just be a donation vehicle, I'm not sure. And the publication date on Steam is July 25 2019. Oh, okay. There you go. That doesn't mean that's when it first came out. They've also got a website for the game Backrooms game.io. Yeah. Oh, for those who want to, I've never even heard of any of this. The only the only what's the term for these creepypasta
Tracy Harwood 11:30
creepypasta yeah, I've not even heard of it either. Creepy Pasta
Phil Rice 11:33
story now that I know what that term means that I've ever heard of is I assume that Slenderman Yeah, that falls into this category too. I know that emerged on 4CHAN as well. So
Tracy Harwood 11:45
I just looked at I'm gonna play the game it
Phil Rice 11:48
is it's a little too much for me, but I'm sure there will be people who will want to
Tracy Harwood 11:53
read the original thread that was posted on the 14th of May 2019. Okay, see how quickly that took off? 49 million views on this though. This is
Ricky Grove 12:06
extraordinary. How did they technically do that? If it was shot in Unreal? How do they use the game that they take the characters from and port them to?
Tracy Harwood 12:17
I think they just made the characters up my guess is you can buy those characters on the marketplace somebody in a house and then just just sort of I mean, it wouldn't even be that technical to do it would it?
Ricky Grove 12:29
Right right you're right. And
Phil Rice 12:32
the player by the way, you can get in with your friends and get lost in The Backrooms to
Ricky Grove 12:38
this might this might be an actually very interesting machinima platform for those who are looking for something new to to create movies in.
Phil Rice 12:48
I think we ought to film a future episode.
Ricky Grove 12:51
In the Backrooms. backrooms. It'll be creepy pasta me. Forcing pasta PASTA like creepy pasta, creepy pasta. Horrible really got a big bowl and there's suddenly shadows in the pasta.
Tracy Harwood 13:10
Yeah, yeah. A portmanteau I didn't even know that term existed. But you know what 4CHAN is one of those platforms that I never really followed. I don't know if you guys do
Phil Rice 13:24
they do they come up with their own terms for things and it's a it's a weird thing. This film just what it was made in getting past what it was made and I made it okay, so it was Unreal. That's we we already know Unreal can do anything really in the right hands. So, but what I love I think part of what obscured it and for me may I thought that this was I was like struggling to find where's the animated content in this movie? Genuinely, that's what I thought. I thought the same thing that you YouTube did Ricky and Damien's like, what is this? And I knew that it had to have something or you wouldn't have picked it Tracy but I couldn't do it. Well, part of what obscured that is that VHS noise? Ah, whatever it to make it to give it a found footage. Feel that's that's just a plugin that they've used obviously. brilliant choice. The four three aspect ratio if you notice on YouTube, yes. Yeah. 90s footage would would look like now that didn't make me think it was real. But I admire that little detail. of okay, if we're going to imitate found footage from the 90s let's let's really do so. And so it does it kind of looks like VHS in a way. And I think that grain Yeah, they obscured the, you know, most most animated things of this nature, everything's so clean. It's hard to mistake for, certainly for old footage. But even for, you know, it's almost too pristine. Yeah, maybe there's repetition in the in the textures to where you pick up on. Okay, this is a rendered world. I didn't get any of that, like I was really struggling with. There were a couple moments where I thought, okay, that's animated. But it was fleeting, you know. So just an amazing achievement and wonderful backstory,
Ricky Grove 15:32
wondering is the motion capture for the actors is fantastic. The Bloom effect on the the lights, flashlights and things like that. Were extremely effective. Yeah, I honestly was convinced that it was live action, I was going to take you to task for action. So I'm really looking forward to dressing you down. But now I look like a fool.
Tracy Harwood 15:58
Well, don't you think Unreal is such just such an amazing platform that allows people to do this kind of thing that
Ricky Grove 16:05
you go. There are the first film from last month, your fantastic Voice in the Hollow look, you did that was an Unreal, it's hard to believe that the same engine could create this film.
Damien Valentine 16:21
Yeah, I watched this last night. And I watched it my phone because my desktop was rendering something. So my phone was the only screen I had available. I was really tired. And I was. I was also convinced, as we said, this is real. And I was surely this the wrong video that's been posted in our group chat that we have to share our selections. But I watched it because I was kind of intrigued by what this is. So I watched it again, earlier today, one more week on my proper desktop screen. So I could have a better look because I thought this has to be animated. Because I was watching on such a tiny screen, I missed the giveaways. And there was a couple of things stood out to me there's a scene caught early on with a toy with this robot drone thing on it. person standing behind. If you look really closely at her hair, you can see that it's not very realistic. But very quickly, she's obscured so you don't get a chance to really see it clearly. I think it's another character that appears like that. But having the characters in the hazmat suits. I found that if you want photorealism, you can do a good job with faces. But if it's a completely covered character that your helmet on, or in this case, they got masks, gas masks and hazmat suits on, you can hide the imperfections, because all you're seeing is the outer protective layer. So you get some Yeah, he gets a really good, good bobcat. And you set the textures right on the clothing, you can make absolutely perfect. And I think the other clues, the other thing is having such a bland environment, but there's no there's no texture on the walls, because it's all painted, sort of a monotone colour. You don't get any imperfections that would give away like Phil, you said repeating textures, because it is just exactly the same. Right. And that. Yeah, and the the ageing the footage that you said that also covers any imperfections, which I think the whole very
Phil Rice 18:31
hard choices there. Yeah.
Ricky Grove 18:35
So we're looking at a kind of theme. Yeah, me films from a meme. From a January and into February is we're talking about people who are very skilled with the craft of making the world that they're creating believable.
Damien Valentine 18:51
Yeah, like Interloper, like we've covered a few weeks ago.
Tracy Harwood 18:55
Yeah, right. So lately. Yeah. That's a great follow on to last week's actually because into
Ricky Grove 19:02
go to Law Abiding Engineer. Yes. Getting involved in the in that is incredible. You know, that's a really, really interesting choice. And I didn't know you've been holding on to it for so long. I'd like to contact Kane Pixels or someone in the back rooms movement to find out more about it and then perhaps do an interview or a blog post on it. So that will be my job for the future for the February.
Tracy Harwood 19:36
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Ricky Grove 19:38
Yes. Yeah, it's a great find. I'm gonna definitely check Creepypasta from now on. All right. That's it for everybody. Thank you, Tracy for coming up with such an interesting and picking kicking off the month of February. Make sure you contact us if you know more about the Backrooms phenomenon. Oh, the meme or Creepypasta talk that Competely Machinima.com We also have an interesting blog that puts out a lot of machinima related technology news. Tracy has put a lot of time and energy into that. So it's worth your time. Thank you all. Thank you, Damian and, Tracy and Phil, for your thoughts on it. I'm Ricky Grove signing out. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.