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 00:05
Ladies and gentlemen, you are listening or watching Completely Machinima. And Now For Something Completely Machinima. Happy to be here again, we're on our second week of May. We got a terrific film. Unfortunately, Tracy couldn't be here today she's at a festival, the Oberhousen Film Festival which is between April 28 and May 1. She's tells me that it's the first major film festival to include a programme dedicated to machinima and virtual production. And their focuses on all avant garde content who wish I was there. I like that kind of stuff. We also talked a little bit last week about AI development, which continues at a just remarkable pace.Phil has been working on an interesting project of upscaling using an AI programme called HitPaw. All of the old the Hancock films, and what were the other projects. Peter Rasmussen Rasmussen? Yeah,
Phil Rice 01:09
we've got a whole kind of memorial programme planned for the two of those guys. Yes, great, individually.
Ricky Grove 01:15
That's great. So more on that later. First, let's get right to Phil's pick. Tell us about your pick Phil.
Phil Rice 01:24
Yeah, this, this film is called Sandstorm. It's a Star Citizen machinima film made by somebody goes by the name of Wailander. I believe that's how that's pronounced whale lender.
Ricky Grove 01:35
Yeah, that sounds right.
Phil Rice 01:38
And, yeah, this it's made in star citizen, which is a platform. I guess the game is still technically in some kind of a beta. Is that right? Damien?
Ricky Grove 01:51
Yeah,
Damien Valentine 01:52
it's gonna, it's gonna be in development for a very long time, because it's vicious it is. Sure.
Phil Rice 01:57
And it's developing, you know, quite a large following. And it's got some interest, we've seen some interesting stuff made with Star Citizen. And before, I can't remember the name of the one in particular, but it's the father and the daughter who are doing some kind of space mining thing and a lot of lot of dialogue. And it was just extremely well done. This is a little bit different style. This is more of an attempt at a kind of a larger scale story, a battle, a large battle that's taking place. So a lot of you know, action scenes and ground and air vehicles, all interacting with each other. And one of the notable things about it is that if I remember right from the credits, I believe, like 97 different people were involved in it. This is a true multiplayer cinema that none of this is like scripted or NPCs flying the aircraft every every shot of you know, one of the spacecraft flying or soldiers running on the ground. My understanding is those are all controlled by individuals logged into the game. On a server. It seems like in in older days of machinima, that kind of thing was maybe a little bit more popular, or at least we heard about it happening more I think of War of the Servers. Remember that old one by Robert Stoneman of Litfuse Films and if my understanding is there's quite a quite a large multiplayer gathering that took place for that not nearly as much I think precision was possible back then for how your actors behaved as is displayed in this film this this has a feel of well rehearsed and well coordinated military movements. I would say it has that appearance to me and it's basically a large scale story of of this army I want to say that they're they're chasing down some rebels or something to that point that have have holed up in this fortress on the ground and they're going to drive them out completely. Something along those lines it kind of reminds me a little bit of the the Warhammer film that that we reviewed a couple of months ago where I was where it was kind of this large scale assault and I was confused about who the bad guys and good guys were and some people in the comments get quite a chuckle out of me trying to prescribe good guys and bad guys in Warhammer apparently. That's that's a boomer move on to even think that So is there some kind of lore in Star Citizen I have no idea. I haven't tried it yet. So if I make the same faux pas please forgive me. But there there basically is a sense that, you know, the, the good guys are the ones that were meant to root for, let's say are the ones that are making this assault. Probably, I guess one of the weaknesses, if you will, is that that you don't get much sense of the personality of the enemy, or the good guys matter, just kind of, you're kind of, I feel like you're thrown into it and kind of expected you to just take it as a given. These are the, these are the good guys. Here we go, you know, and we, you can do it, you know, kind of that. So, some very nice moments of cinematography, for sure, some of the camera works a little bit, ADHD, for me, like, I think it was an attempt to have a handheld feel, or the kind of a field that you'll see in Hollywood films, sometimes where it's not quite precisely tracking with the ship or the plane. It's intended to look like human error. Usually, it's not usually it's planned that way. And I feel like that, there were times where that just got a little too busy. And it was unnecessary and distracting. It's okay to have a shot not move a whole lot, so that what's on screen can just happen. But if these were filmed live, then that may have just been the best that they had, you know, that's a reality of filming like this, that's different from crafting something in like an AI clone or some or unreal, where you can go back and exactly tweak the, the movement of the camera. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna give it a pass for that. Because I think that this was probably captured live. Yeah, and that's very hard to do at all. Sound is a mixed bag for me. The aircraft and the flight sounds are tremendous. I don't know how much of those are in game and how much you're added, but they worked really well. But some of the explosion sounds and, and gunfire sounds a little bit dull, almost thin, lacking some body. Again, that may just be that's, that's the sound effects within the game. But it for me, it was a little bit distracting that, you know, you see this tank firing. And then you see something exploding, and it all kind of sounds far off or low fidelity or something to where I feel like man, those could have been really impactful moments. If the sound had been, you know, that's great, but boom, you know, type of sound, which is the kind of sounds those machines make in real life. So but again, that could that could be sounds in game. And it would be a nightmare to try and you know, recreate the full soundscape on this. Yes,
Ricky Grove 07:59
of course. Be twice in the production. Yeah,
Phil Rice 08:03
it would greatly delay the production if they had to do that. So I understand, you know, this isn't a pro release. This is, you know, people doing what they enjoy. And that would that would add up probably unnecessary and crazy amounts of work. It's a little bit disorienting at times, the way that the editing is, is done in terms of trying to follow a narrative. There's, there's sections of this that come off more as just montage without there being a narrative sequence to it. And you know, it's unfair to compare this to something like the Hoth battle in Empire Strikes Back, which is kind of this iconic it I mean, that's one of the best movies ever made in my book. Yeah, so it's like, not fair to compare that, but that's what this the scale of this made me think of that this big force moving in and taking over and stuff. And if you watch a scene like the Hoth battle, there's it's almost impossible to get disoriented in that it's been stitched together in a way that I don't know keeps you grounded to where you are, what you're looking at, and exactly what's happening. So you know, again, who the editor of this is not the editor of, of, you know, George Lucas Film, so I get it, it's just a comparison that I kind of couldn't help but make. I think maybe the the one biggest weakness to me is the silent and emotionless commander at HQ that they keep cutting to, and it's just this dead faced guy, just blinking and watching something that presumably the commander of the forces that we're rooting for, and all this stuff is happening, and sometimes the battle is going well, and sometimes it seems like maybe it's not going well and his expression is exactly the same no matter what, just this sense.
Ricky Grove 10:06
Yeah, I wonder, well, why Where the hell are
Phil Rice 10:08
you multiple times they come to this guy. And it's like, this is what's supposed to be a reaction shot. And hate to go again. But when you cut to to Princess Leia in the middle of the Hoth battle, you can tell on her face. Is this going the way we wanted it or not? You know. And so I feel like that that was a missed opportunity, perhaps to that, that the ideal would have been that his face expression, even if he wasn't going to say anything, which is fine. But at least his face expression would give some indication that he's thinking or that he's worried or feeling something anything. He's engaged. Yeah, engaged. That's right. And whereas with the other things that I call attention to the sound and the camera work, I can give an easy excuse that, well, maybe that's just the nature of the game, we've seen what can be done in star citizen with faces. So maybe somebody just didn't know how to do that. Or maybe they just didn't think of it. Yeah. But it's something that really stood out to me that I wanted some more from that commander, because it's really the only person we really get up close and personal with in the whole thing. So would have been nice to have him give us something I'll mention, and then I'm going to toss this to you guys. Sorry, I have so many notes, but the post credit sequence, there is one spoilers it appears to have a flavour of narrative to it. Like, there's a sense of some kind of betrayal or double cross or something. And I didn't need to fully understand what that was to, to get what was coming through there. You know, doesn't mean I don't wish I knew who these were and why this was happening. But I didn't need that. But it kind of that flavour of narrative kind of conflicts with the overall film. So it kind of feels disconnected. Like, we've just watched this montage with the stone faced guy not feeling anything. And then all sudden, at the end, there's like this moment that I think is supposed to be Did you see that? Do you see what just happened? Like a Game of Thrones moment or something where like, you know, to Tyrion kills his father. It's like, oh, what? That's what this scene I think was supposed to be is like, Whoa, that guy just betrayed the whole, but we don't know who they are. And we don't know what this has that how this ties to anything. So you know, does a betrayal or an assassination or whatever that was, doesn't have impact when when we don't know who anyone is? I don't know. So I don't know. I feel like I've said a lot of negative and I picked this because I liked it. So I apologise for that. But you know? Yeah, I don't know. I, I. It was good. There were things to enjoy about and that's why I picked it. But I couldn't help finding myself rooting for. We're talking about having someone in the film to root for who I was rooting for was the director. Like, you could come on, you could give us more than this. You could you can do this, you know. So there's clearly a skill set here. That's wonderful. And yeah, I'd love to see, I guess. Some maturity to the story, maturity to the storytelling part of Yeah, I think most of what I've said, falls into that it's not technical downsides, as much as it is. What's happening. What did you guys think?
Ricky Grove 13:52
I think those are great notes. Phil, I think that I don't think you're being unnecessarily negative. You're just pointing out some things that are clear to you when you choose it. And then the fact that you actually chose it means that there's something about the making of the film that was intriguing to you. And that captured your attention. And I think you're right. I think in a way this fits into a category of film that Hugh Hancock talked about, once again, he comes comes back to my mind. He saw machinima at the beginning as a way to achieve filmmaking than in the past only Hollywood, or wealthy amateurs could make that it allowed just everyday kind of people with enough effort and enough intelligence to create things that they could not create before. The downside to that is that unless you have certain skills and storytelling, your film ended up becoming a celebration of the game, as opposed to a celebration of the story that you're trying to sell or you're trying to tell And I think in a way your criticism fits right into that problem is that I think these, the filmmakers, and the people participated, were more interested in creating amazing fight scenes, and interesting cross cutting and showing how great this game is. And thinking about having the only character that gives you the emotional connection. As an audience being emotionless was not something that came to their mind, at least that's, and I don't think it's necessarily because they can't conceive of that is it that they were more interested in something else. And I think that's where machinima tends to get problematic for pros when they watch it, if you will. Remember, there was a famous moment when big Canadian film festival chose machinima when it was at its height in the early 2000s, to be a category. And they couldn't choose a film because they didn't think any of the films were good enough, essentially, and Hugh Hancock and others walked out of the festival was a big whoop dee doo. And I think there were, and I think the reason was, it wasn't because the films were technically competent. It's just that they were more about celebrating the game. And that type of world was not in the judges mind. But they had nothing to connect to. See what I mean,
Phil Rice 16:33
I do. Yeah, that's a really good point. I actually, I'm kind of self examining now of, I probably need to enter into these with a little bit more self awareness that that's because I used to be part of that camp. And I didn't mind celebrating the game. And because I spent so much time there, you know, and that my my, my relationship with machinima has shifted over the last 20 years. And I, I still love games, and I love game environments and all that. But yeah, I totally missed that. As as the possibility what's happening here. And that very well could be what it is, in fact, I think at some of the description of the video. They even talk about that, that it's so neat to see, you know, what star citizen can do, and especially given where Star Citizen is in his development, it's this sense of, it's like when Eve Online first became a thing, and he's people that get in there see that, like, oh, man, I wish more people would come in here, do this and play this and it'd be really awesome. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it's almost like it's almost like a fan made marketing video for the game. But I don't mean that in the sense that they're being shills. I agree. They're conveying genuine excitement they have about this environment. I wish more people would be in here because this is the best. And I need to be aware of that, even though I, I won't necessarily be able to go there emotionally with that. But I need to be aware of that. But that's, sometimes that's the intent instead of instead of storytelling and narrative, you know, and so, yeah, that's, I'm glad you mentioned that, Ricky.
Ricky Grove 18:21
Thank you. Now, the thing that's interesting is that our previous film, After War, by RG Studios, managed to celebrate the game and tell a story successfully. Yeah. So it wove itself in between it and those of the films that are going to tend to catch people outside of the Machinima or the specific game community. Great point. Because they're, they can exist as films on their own. But if you and you don't have to know the story of half life to in order to appreciate that movie, but if you do know it, it's even better.
Phil Rice 19:01
Yeah, especially now. Like, just look at what's going on in the world right now. There are there there are more people right now, who can relate to the idea of, of bombardment and rebellion and the risks and the costs of that. There are so many people in the world for whom that's a very personal they've, they've lived through their version of those events. And so that how much more beautiful it is then that this film holds up at the end of that. There's hope there's hope that this will end and ultimately there will be peace. It's it's not you know, it's not total constellation for someone in a foxhole, but it sure helps. Yep. And it's it's a very positive way of looking at so yeah, I think it I think it actually did three things. I think that that film, like you said, just because it portrayed it so faithfully to the game world, it did celebrate the game. It also conveyed a story or a sense of narrative.
Ricky Grove 20:13
Thank you, Phil, well, we we tend to dominated this Damien and I'm sorry. Let's hear what your your thoughts are.
Damien Valentine 20:21
I was still to Phil, you were talking about comparing it to the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. What reminded me of was actually Starship Troopers. It's still not sure if they're still just first bugs soldiers versus on the soldier. Yeah.
Phil Rice 20:35
Or maybe even a battle in Dune.
Damien Valentine 20:37
Yeah. You know,
Phil Rice 20:38
because that desert environment Yeah, okay.
Damien Valentine 20:40
Yes. That's what came to mind. You know, when the got that outpost in the desert, and the bugs swarming, the defending it. That's what came to mind when I was watching this. My knowledge of the Star Citizen lore is kind of limited. But I would imagine that you're right, the the attacking forces, the sort of the military of that world coming in to squash the rebellion and knowing Chris Roberts other games, that the military usually aren't the good guys, they're the heroes because you're playing as them in the plant? Or are you struggling with the just being in ore of the logistics of actually putting this together with seven players? No kidding. There's that shot near the beginning, where you see all these ships flying down in perfect formation. And if not just two or three, there's about a dozen of them all, perfectly lined up. Yeah, the amount of practice that must have taken because even one slight tweak to the joystick, and that ruins the whole thing. And also, because this is a persistent world game, I don't know how this isn't, is the goal is to make it that way. It's a very expensive film to make it with in-world currency because of so much destruction and the chips getting blown up. It's they have to buy new ones to every time. That's right. You're right. Yeah, I mean, it's all in game currency. It's not like they're actually spending real money, but still play the game along a lot, a long time to actually get that wealth to, you know, to be able to make this and that's quite an intriguing idea is started is being set up as a big open world where you can have any kind of space adventure you want, and you think, is gonna be a space pirates or, you know, join the Navy, or go out trading or smuggling whatever, like you'd expect from any kind of sci fi story. But this peep these people, their space adventure, is to make a futuristic movie studio. So they call it stem, and they've basically shot a movie in this online world. And that's what they've done. And that's a testament to how open Star Citizen is that they could go and do that. And I think you're right, that it was about celebrating the game in a way that this is what the game can do. And it's not so much about the battle itself, it's, we can make this movie with all these people playing it, because I can't think of any other game where you could do that. Because the games like even other MMOs, where you get lots of players trying to get that many together in one place, it's probably going to slow the game down to a crawl that you wouldn't get any footage. So I don't know how they managed to pull this off. But it's a very impressive feat from their perspective. Yeah. And they will see how to plan out the Battle of how it was going to unfold as well. It's not just random shots of the film's and then put together there's kind of a structure to it. So like I mean, this battle, it goes badly for why it goes better. And then of course, there's the ends and then you go that post credit scene, which I'm not really sure what that's add, either. But it is interesting to have that and it says To be continued. So obviously they've got more planned. And I wonder if they're going to try and one up themselves a bit by doing something even more impressive because this is this was made about 11 months ago or so at least 11 months ago. It doesn't say how long it took them to make it but I mentioned it took quite a while. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, yeah,
Ricky Grove 24:17
I liked the movie. There's a word that I I learned when I was younger, that comes to mind. It's called verisimilitude. I just love that that term and what it means is it means I need details that all fit together into one thing. And in a way I thought that that was a strong feature of this thing, every detail that they had fits into the whole. Now perhaps they over emphasised spectacle at the expense of storytelling. In their next episode. I hope they spent a little more time on the storytelling. Also, I thought that they could have done some colour grading and a shorter runtime for the film. The many scenes at times would look a little washed out. And I think it's the same problem that you pointed out with the sound Phil, they're using in game look. And I think in a post processing thing like DaVinci Resolve 18.5 They have a brand new version, which is just spectacular by the way. They they have a fusion section in there, which allows you to do really easy colour grading, even for people who don't know how to do colour grading - one 10 minute tutorial on YouTube and you can change the look of your, your scene lawlessly. So I think a little work on that. They could have improved the contrast. Sometimes because things looked a little washed out at times. I also was particularly pleased with the fact that they use that wonderful Hollywood scream that I always scream, the Wilhelm scream. Yes, at one point that always brings a smile to my face when somebody uses that machinima or even even mainstream movies. Right. I know. That's what I thought that was gonna get it made me happy. You're obviously right about the points. Phil and I think I think if they listen to this, they might make some improvements on it. It was a great pick. Really great pick.
Damien Valentine 26:22
I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I did too.
Ricky Grove 26:25
That's our that's our show for this week. Really excellent pick. Sandstorm, a Star Citizen machinima by Wailander I hope we pronounced that correctly. If you have comments or you're in the machinima and you want to talk to us, send us a message at talk at Completeymachinima.com. We have a full set of notes at completed machinima.com website for the series. And we've got two more films this month. And both of them are particularly interesting. So I'm looking forward to talking to them, talking to you guys about them. Well, that's it. Tracy, we hope you're having a fun time at the festival. Take care everyone we'll see you next time. Bye