And Now For Something Completely Machinima

This week we discuss one of the best HL2 films from the 2009 era - Shelf Life by Pixel Eyes Productions. The film, which is in two episodes, won a heap of creator awards back in the day and has definitely stood the test of time for us. There are some fun sci-fi and weird tropes integrated into the story, which we discuss, as well as the very well done sound design and original music. We'd love to...

An homage and 'unofficial tribute' to the classic 90s TV series, this week's review discusses a film of a game demo created by Blue Rose Team for the PS1. The demo covers the intro and events surrounding Special Agent Cooper's arrival at Twin Peaks and his encounter with Laura Palmer and the Black Lodge. Steeped in the mythos of the virtual world that has been created, well, at least that applies...

A truly terrifying short for some, Horror is more like an absurd dream for others. The film is made by Yang Hyunjun, released 4 June 2023. Its creator showcases some incredible scene detail, especially at the beginning of the film, but thereafter, loses a little of the pathos and credibility in the storytelling. Key points - 6:00 Tracy picks a horror film.  11:52 Situating yourself with the charac...

This week's review is of a No Man's Sky machinima called Origins, produced by Evil Dr. Porkchop. Its a beautiful cinematic travelogue showcasing the vast expansiveness that is No Man's Sky - a game in which you will almost never have the same experience twice.  Of course, Ricky wanted more drama and story but Phil nails it, reflecting on what might be possible if you could use No Man Sky's environ...

This week we feature two films by Chinese artist collective studio, @Motzify Mohua. These two shorts, The Crown and Hunt, are made in Unreal Engine and show extraordinary qualities in very different ways: The Crown is a fairytale made originally for World Children's Day and illustrates traditional cultural references with gorgeous imagery; Hunt is a cyberpunk anti-hero teaser. Our main 'complaint'...

A performance by a camera ham, shutterbug or just a plain histrionic narcissist? This week's review discusses an older machinima that has highly contemporary themes in it: carry-on-regardless, daydreaming, whatever, so long as the virtual camera is rolling. The film is called Daydream (2009) set to the titular song by Lovin' Spoonful, created by  @Mystfit and made in  @Valve 's Half Life 2. Needle...

This week's film review focusses on a story made with building blocks and without voice acting... and yet, what a spectacular story! The game world is Minecraft of course, and the story is based on Telltale Games' episodic release called Story Mode. Made by @SquaredMediaAnimations , we discuss the production values emcompassed within the film, why we think adding voice acting would have enhanced t...

In this ep, Phil introduces the Machiniplex [Remastered] Collection, a curated selection of machinimas from the early years. Machiniplex was a site created to host classic machinimas at the point that Machinima [dot] com began to assert its energies over the community as a corporate entity.  The site was a community endeavour, with both Ricky and Phil playing a pivitol role in managing the project...

A love letter to Cyberpunk 2077?  In this week's episode, the CM crew discuss a cinematic music video that perfectly captures a uniquely human feeling of people watching... and reflects on the phenomenal creativity of procedurally generated character content in the Cyberpunk world. The film is called Don't Fall Down by Puttefnask and the song it accompanies is Pray by Haelos - it is perhaps a more...

This week's review is of 12 minutes of the wackiest of Wacky Wests we could ever imagine! BedBananas has used a a whole host of mods, created by Weds_Garbageday, to devise this truly surrealist Red Dead American Dream machinima.  Seeing is believing - and its probably one of the best machinimas of all time! 8:16 Surrealist machinima at its very best.  11:30 Buster Keaton and the Wild Wild West 14:...

Nope, its not 'just a game', its one of the most visually stunning Gothic story open worlds ever created (according to Ricky)!  In this ep, we discuss GraysonFlows' tribute to the world of Elden Ring, set to Max Richter's November composition, which highlights the beauty of the game from the exhausting open sequence to the final prize, creatures, battles and voice acting.   0:12 Intro.  2:00 Hacki...

This week, we discuss some of the best flight sim machinima we’ve ever seen, thanks to Damien’s picks.  We couldn’t decide which was better, so we discuss two films: The Ghost and The Right Stuff by J P Ferre, made in DCS.  The first is a horror story and the other a story of one of the most influential pioneers of modern space flight today: Chuck Yeager. It is an outstanding retelling of one part...

This week, Phil has selected a short that will make all those H&S and Half Lifers smile equally... HEV Suit by  @Zapper770 ... because we all need more head crabs in our lives. The film is an example of great comedy timing. Credits - Speakers:  @RickyGrove @zsOverman @tgharwood @DarthAngelus Producer: Ricky Grove  Editor: Damien Valentine  Music: Arp Solina

This week’s film review looks at a work by Ally Kustera. The work artfully conveys a sense of feminism without the politics through snippets of video game character cutscenes from Lara Croft to Ellie (The Last of Us) and others in between.  1:00 Kitbash for Blender of the Back Rooms by Daniel Grove.  1:30 Machinima by Ally Kustera.  13:35 Feminism in the video game world.  16:17 A celebration of w...

Still Here... a chilling dystopian tale of a world devasted by climate crisis and wealth inequality. This week's review is of a film by Guido Ekker, featured on the Film Shortage Channel (YouTube), and is one of the few shorts we've seen that attempts to make a point beyond pure entertainment. We identify some of the stereotypical tropes used and discuss the creative potential of machinima and vir...

In this bonus episode, Tracy talks to the curators of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Vladimir Nadein and Dmitry Frolov. 1:31 How did you get interested in machine?  10:28 Dedicating one of the screenings to solomon.  19:49 The interplay between analogue and digital.  26:36 What was the response from the audience?  36:01 Machinima techniques and tools.  41:47 What are your takeaw...

Following on from Tracy's visit to the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, which took place between 26 April and 1 May, Ricky leads a discussion with Tracy on the thoughts about film selection at the event, different distribution strategies, topics discussed at the panel, and the future of avant-garde machinima films and filmmaking for festivals generally. You can also follow this episod...

A well-trodden path in alien encounters, this week’s short is Genesis by Edy Recendez, filmed in Unreal Engine. From the very beginning the film is such fun, with great editing and sound design – right up to and including the ending ‘rap slash dance’ credits.  Ricky, Phil and Damien also talk about the upcoming Diablo 4 release.    0:08 Introduction 3:56 The detail is important to the director 7:1...

This week, Ricky, Phil and Damien discuss Torn Seas – a feature made with Unreal Engine, by Richard Boisvert.  We don’t often review feature-length films on this show, not least because few are brave enough to make them, and we talk about that aspect a bit too.  Overall, we were impressed by this film but we also have a few suggestions to consider.   5:21 Cinematic Design.  9:35 Difference between...

Made in the still developing game, Star Citizen, this week's film is a large-scale production showing 97 players creating a complex battle scene. The film is called Sandstorm, directed by Wailander.  Ricky, Phil and Damien discuss the extent to which machinima is about showing off the game vs telling a story, what the role of the director is in game-based machinima productions and, of course, take...

This week, Ricky, Phil and Damien begin with an brief discussion of the roles AI is being used for to restore old machinimas, and in particular the very exciting upcoming release Phil will be doing of old Machiniplex films - more on that in due course!   The film discussion centres on After War by RG Studios, and their approach to telling a story without moving a camera in the Half Life 2 world. ...

Recently, we've seen some really great HL2 shorts, and this week we have an excellent one for you - Patient Zero is by TheParryGod aka Richard Makk, released in Feb. This is so well done you can cut the atmosphere with a butter knife, the choreography between the actors is brilliant and there are even some gratuitous small animal shots to boot.  Hear us discuss the details and check out the film f...

This week's film selection comprises 2 shorts, both untitled but actually worlds apart in their development. Its not often we get to comment on a first ever machinima project as the framing for a creative idea but our first film is just that, by Sydney Walker, and made in an environment we have never seen used for machinima before, Final Fantasy 14. Our second film is a psychological thriller, dra...

TOP GUN Maverick Intro by  @godivasl in  @secondlife , as you've never seen it before! The attention to detail in editing the scenes and character performance is outstanding - well done to all those involved. Credits - Speakers:  @zsOverman @tgharwood @DarthAngelus (MIA  @RickyGrove )  Producer: Phil Rice  Editor: Ricky Grove  Sound Effect: Motorcycle driveby by Severaltimes / Freesound.org

This week's review is of  @Astartes40k aka Syama Pedersen's stunning Warhammer 40K masterpiece called Astartes Project. The film was first released two years ago and has been recommended to us by  @orencloud . It is currently hosted on  @TheChach 's channel - we explain why. 1:07 Disclaimers 4:38 Thoughts about the game 8:02 How to carry the story forward 11:39 Are they the good guys or the bad gu...