This is our final film pick for Season 5, and it stimulates quite a discussion. The film is a concept test of tools and techniques, but the story and aesthetic is less inspiring. Check out our thoughts and do add your own comments below.

1:47 Introduction to Reflekt by @derunique
4:00 Anachronistically broken
10:25 Gelling the story?
11:54 The aesthetic of Unreal
13:19 Who is the apocalyptic soldier Unreal tutor?
14:00 The attraction of Unreal – its all about the technology, and little about the story
15:02 Comparison to Project Zomboid movie (S5 ep 193)
15:40 Camera work in Unreal is uninspiring!
18:12 Prazinburke Ridge remains the outstanding Unreal film we’ve seen
18:22 Lighting is a standout, ambiguity and some suggestions
25:31 Speaking vs talking to self, and quality and use of the sound library
33:11 Surrealism and uncanny are some of the most creative ideas
37:35 Why is the Unreal creator community just not hit the high notes just yet
39:29 Final words

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer: Phil Rice
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice & SunoAI

This week's film selectiion is a technical masterpiece, made in RDR2. It is both an homage to the game and the film. John Wick's Red Dead Redemption is made by eli_handle_b.wav, and is worth every second of your time watching it!

1:49 Introduction to film, editing quality, compositing and matching RDR2 to John Wick – technically outstanding!

4:11 How?!!! Skill level is well above average

7:00 This is not just cut scenes

9:13 A tribute to both the game and the film

9:47 There are no scripted behaviour mods for RDR2 – the camera in the game all has to be positioned through play for this kind of machinima to be achieved – an editor is a missed opportunity for the game

13:00 Discussing the tools used

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Damien Valentine, Phil Rice
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice & SunoAI

A DC inspired short made with love and artful skill, this week's pick is also an homage to the creative talent of a young creator now sadly passed. Despite us not necessarily being the target audience - due to certain demographic features - we really enjoyed reviewing this. Check out our comments and do add your own.

1:32 Introduction to the film: form and creative technique – Smallville comedy vibe X superhero, and a shout out for collaborations everywhere
6:00 The challenge of being a Minecraft modder and making machinima possible – the Blockbuster mod and BBS mod
9:20 Player control: the visual fidelity is outstanding, the choreography is impressive, the editing, shot selection and sequencing and craft is admirable
12:37 Is it for us oldies? Maybe… target audience is key to this, identifying with the game aesthetic
17:20 Discussing early machinimas: Seal of Nahara and Devil’s Covenant
19:28 Kid Flash comparison to the DC TV show – this is better!
22:58 In conclusion: “This film was clearly loved by its creators”

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice and SunoAI

This week, we discuss a 2013 episode of @Draxtor's interviews series with artists filmed in Second Life series, this episode with Australian artist @lynettewallworth270.

1:43 Get involved in the latest Star Citizen contest, links in Show Notes
3:26 Introduction to the pick
9:12 Phil describes early traditions of interview shows filmed in virtual worlds, such as Late Night with Toxie (filmed in Quake) and This Spartan Life (Halo)
12:44 Could this episode now be updated using AI?
13:33 Quality of audio is the most valuable part 15:49 GenZ viewing patterns are changing – how well does SL as an interview format reflect contemporary approaches?
17:53 The major obstacle to multi-tasking…!

Credits -
Speakes: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice & SonaAI

This is not genSLOP... or is it?! This week's discussion focusses on a recent genAI meme, vlogging from the Fall of the Empire as a Stormtrooper tourist. The series we take a look at is by Galactic Archives, which has garnered a phenomenal number of views in just a couple of weeks. Its quite different to The Glurons we discussed a couple of months back by NeuralViz, which remains a standout for us. There are some excellent learning points from the way this short / series has been created as a narrative arc though, despite the creative process and generative tools leaving something a little unsavoury in the reactor core.

1:35 Intro to film and the meme

4:15 Reminiscent of the Space 1999 aesthetic

10:24 Slop or Slap? Beyond speed, what’s the real benefit of using genAI tools for this kind of narrative approach?

21:55 Tools, tricks, NeuralViz and thoughts

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice and SunoAI

We love AFK! This week's ep covers another of AFK's ambitious world building attempts to round out the Star Wars universe... and of course it works. What do you imagine the worst jobs to be for the most hapless Stormtroopers? These totally make sense to us! Check out our comments, our overview of AFK's background and other projects, and what we really think of this short.

1:39 Intro to film

3:14 Humor and world building

6:12 The most clever way to integrate sponsorship?

10:26 Memories of advertising…. Err maybe

12:47 Background to the series and Peter Haynes as a creator

18:23 What are the most useless jobs you can think of? In jokes and fun references

21:41 Tech tests and pee takes

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice and SunoAI

This week's pick is the complete contrast to the Happy Wheels gag-fest, Ep 191: the film is called They Were Once Here by Werlias and it has everything you would expect from a Project Zomboid machinima, plus some things you wouldn't. Its a dark and sad tale, beautifully told, and delivers a real emotional punch. It makes excellent use of Zach Beever's classic composition for the game, and harnesses a bunch of mods to achieve the outcome. Catch our review and reflections on this one. For those of you into zombie fests, we're sure you'll enjoy it.

1:00 Intro to film

11:11 Background to film, early zombie stories

17:57 Emotional responses to the film, the role of music

20:00 What’s happened to Werlias?

22:03 Alternative perspectives on the narrative

25:25 How would Machinima [Inc] have reacted to this? Tragic tales

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice and SunoAI

This week, we cover a lot of things this month, as usual, but start with a tribute to a machinima pioneer who has sadly crossed the bridge into an unknown world - Tutsy NAvArAthnA. We then go through some more fascinating projects that we want to share, more about genAI and machinima, a bunch of new tools and techniques, some wise words from some great artists, latest games and relevant updates. All links on our show notes link below.

1:39 Tribute to Tutsy

3:45 Projects

5:50 Conversations

7:40 genAI, Anthropic case discussion, implications for creative practice from the machinima perspective, killing YouTube

26:44 Tools and techniques

27:75 Martin Bells’ new tutorial series for Unreal Engine

28:00 Jaws and the power of silence!

31:00 Games updates: Dune discussion

45:49 Another definition for machinima: Fortnite

47:22 Character Creator 5 and iClone 9?

52:26 Cyberpunk 2077 updates

58:10 Getting the call up to produce a show for a big studio… but changing you mind!

1:02:23 More genAI news – Hollywood vs MidJourney

1:03:10 Fender 8 Track software release

1:04:47 mod NaturalVision for GTA5 discussion

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice & SunoAI