This is our regular monthly news update on things relevant to the world of machinima.

1:19 Projects: Isoterica’s latest release, DisUtopia; Hamilton in Animal Crossing by GK Animations; EvilDrPorkChop’s No Man’s Sky cinematic

4:28 Phil’s Chuck Norris vs 50K Cavemen – a true scientific experiment

11:20 ElevenLabs vs a cast – choices and rationale

15:30 The Remarkable Life of Ibelin – shortlisted for the Oscars (sadly, didn’t win) >>> but Flow, made in Blender did WIN!!! Congratulations to the creative team

20:00 John Gaeta’s Escape.ai platform

21:30 At All Costs, car chase physics sim/game

22:51 Second Life’s AI character design launched

23:08 Project Odyssey season 2 award winners

25:30 UK’s Govt consultation on genAIs and copyright processes

28:27 BBC Radiophonic sound effects released – subscription vs licensing

37:00 Valve releases source code for mod tools

36:45 Dune Awakening release date announced – worms and thumpers and all!

39:20 Tetris, a game release inspired movie – on Apple

41:37 Liberty City being ported by GTA5 – a fab mod of GTA4

47:06 John Martin, Reallusion, AI generated characters usiung Kling AI

54:15 Nvidia Omniverse launcher – implications for creators

Credits -
Speakers: Phil Rice, Tracy Harwood, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

This week we review a 'golden age' machinima, starring none other than Ricky Grove playing 'Bogart', and Ingrid Moon playing err, 'Ingrid', with Phil having created the score and Ricky having produced the sound design. Its a short by German-American creator, Andre Pesch, called The Days After, made in GTA San Andreas. Its a story that pre-2020 probably we'd have all said, simply, yep that was great, without any real appreciation for what is actually being portrayed in this 2006 film. However, there's a sense in which this now brings back memories of lockdowns and isolation, and the fear of an unknown viral menace devastating our lives. It perfectly illustrates the narrow grip many had on reality, as Ricky observes in this "... war, crime, patriotism - you can name those things but you can never fix them."

0:44 Introduction – a nepotistic choice!

7:05 Phil’s role in the production, how to deal with copyrighted music

8:53 Score design, a development process

9:23 Anti-commercial storytelling

10:54 Lest we forget – the quality of the writing is outstanding

13:00 Embodying the storytelling process in the creative practice

16:00 Using the game to develop a novel stylised aesthetic

21:04 T40X virus and its resonance on humanity

31:44 Ambiguity rocks – take a pause to watch the film HERE!

32:14 Discussion: the ending vs an ending

37:38 Science fiction’s conceit

39:41 Achievements

40:28 A sequel?

45:00 Andre Pesch, where is he now?

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine, Tracy Harwood
Producer: Ricky Grove
Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats

Film link on the YouTube channel

A once in a lifetime event in Elite Dangerous? Yup, that's what fascinated us all too. This week we review a series of machinimas that approach the destruction of a Thargoid ship attacking planet Earth in different ways - a strange and unusual phenomenon in a game world that we reflect on, only possible in open world sims.

1:30 Elite Dangerous: an historic event – Thargoids heading for Earth

3:30 The ship’s problems, community action, the countdown and the consequences – a once in a lifetime event in the game

5:30 Recording the event: a documentary; first person reflection; let’s play

9:12 Why only a one-time event? Phil looks forward to the montage

12:00 The sense of camaraderie in the game vs the paparazzi

13:22 The concept is philosophically interesting but the filmic qualities are variable – context is everything

17:53 Salvaging the remains?

18:52 Open worlds are truly fascinating!

21:06 A model for NASA?

Credits -
Speakers: Ricky Grove, Phil Rice, Damien Valentine
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Animo Domini Beats