Transcript: Two Years to Two Weeks: Uncanny Harry's Six Films, Broken Down

The first ever Creator Session, and why Uncanny Harry?

0:07 [music] I didn't turn down the headphones again, Paul. That was super loud, but it's so epic that intro. I love it. We have a special guest on our first ever creator sessions. Thank you so much for joining us, Ryan. I really appreciate it, mate. Great to see you. We've got co-host Andrew and Paul, producer, in the back end. How's everybody doing? Great. Great. Looking forward to today's session. I'm a bit sweaty. [laughter] I was saying in the pre-show, I've been living like a goblin [clears throat] uh trying to get this uh new piece done, so I decided to go for a run and got back 15 minutes [laughter] before the show started.

0:53 If you know, you know how hot it is. Uh Mary's already having a giggle in the back end. She's loving it. Ah, we can see Lola tuning in. Look, we've got the UK people. We know how hot it is. Andrew was asking in the green room, is the UK still as hot as it was last few weeks? Yes is the answer. I It's bloody boiling there. And everywhere in Europe, I'm seeing it's like crazy temperatures right now. Yeah. Where are you based, Ryan? Uh I'm in Rochester, just outside of London, about 45 minutes from here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lovely lovely area. So, what's happening right now is people are responding like they usually do in our Tuesday live show. So, what I will say is, let us know where in the world you're tuning in from, cuz that's what we ask on the usual live show. Also, what your interest in AI is, what you may have seen of Uncanny Harry's stuff.

1:42 This is going to be a special 1-hour broadcast that we do each week now with an individual special guest. Then we're going to watch a load of his stuff and ask him a load of questions on the intro. So, I sent you the thing, Andrew, just quickly, like, you know, similar to how we do our Tuesday show, where it's like, we talk about the news and ads and then we move on to like watching showcases. Similar sort of thing here. We're going to be asking Ryan a bunch of questions and then we're going to move on in 15 minutes to start the showcase and then yeah, just go back-to-back and then maybe questions will arise from the audience about how things were made and all of that bit. That's why we're kind of live and have this live show format, so without further ado, we're on a tighter schedule today, mate. So, welcome Ryan. It's going to be one of those days, mate.

2:30 Why Uncanny Harry? That's the first question that I've got on my on my sheet here. Why Uncanny Harry? Where did it come from and explain. So, it's a play on words on Uncanny Valley, which you know, is the saying used when you see something that's looks human or looks right, but isn't quite right. So, it goes into the Uncanny Valley, makes you feel awkward or nervous about things. And obviously, a lot of early AI really had the Uncanny Valley about it. You know, things looked quite demonic and weird. And otherworldly. Obviously, that's changing, but it sounded like a good monkey at the time. Well, you're an OG like us, right? You've been in it since what? 2022, 2023-ish or Yeah, 2022. Right at the very very very early stage.

3:18 That makes so much more sense in the warp diffusion, stable diffusion era, you know, Kaiber, all of those like Kaiber, man. Yeah. Oh, Kaiber. Oh, man. Those I've been talking to some people like King Willonius, Flusteredamus. They all used Kaiber. We all like had a magic moment with Midjourney 3 and 4 and Kaiber combined. They were magical times, so the nostalgia of that era, man. I love that the being like, you know, the the story behind it. And the next question I have, right, is something that I had no idea about you. So, I'd love you to introduce a bit more of your backstory. Um you studied under Ken Russell. And what we think of AI is this follow-up question.

Studying under Ken Russell

4:05 Like, has he had anything to do with AI or had any like questions to you about your what you're doing now or anything like this? He's long since passed, I'm afraid. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. on Yeah, but I think he I would have I mean, see, when I met him, he was he was he'd sort of moved away from Hollywood. He was doing a lot of what we would call straight-to-DVD back in the day stuff at that stage. He was sort of falling out of favor with Hollywood producers. I think he'd he'd he'd he'd um burnt too many bridges there because he was an independent. He loved doing what he wanted to do, and he took no prisoners. And you know, that would often get him into trouble. Um so, he was doing stuff like he was shooting a thing called The Fall of the House of Usher, which was something he was shooting with Super 8 and DV

4:59 of bugs in a like a massive aquarium, and he was turning it into a story. So, I think he would have really gone for AI uh because it would have enabled him to to, you know, tell stories independently. He had that independent flair, and he wanted to keep making stuff regardless cuz he had it in him. But yeah, I think he would I think he would have probably um probably enjoyed playing with AI. Props to producer Paul for bringing up that question, and uh sorry that I didn't know that he'd passed. Um amazing to think about that, right? Like, the people that would have been amazing with AI. I like think of some of the 27 Club of musicians and stuff and other people that would have been like interested in all of this cuz they were so different at their time. Anyway, Andrew, I'm hogging this interview. What questions do you have for the legends?

Is AI filmmaking his full-time job now?

5:48 No, I just want to like again, just really interested in the background, but is AI filmmaking your full-time like job now? Yeah, pretty much, [clears throat] yeah. I'm I'm wrapping up some broadcast stuff in around about August. There's a few few few projects left in broadcast, but it's been my main form of income for the last year and a half, nearly 3 years probably, but a year and a yeah. And when you say you're wrapping up, is it at the BBC? Cuz I remember you were saying you was working at the BBC before. Yeah, that's correct, yeah. Oh, nice. Are you in Manchester or London? I do go to Manchester, I've been to Salford quite a lot, but mainly based down in Broadcasting House. Okay, yeah, yeah. I used to work I'm an ex-BBCer as well, so I know Broadcasting House as well.

6:37 I was going to say there's a lot of crossover between you two actually, it's interesting, though. One of the things that happened to me was when I left cuz I was at Youlding House, which was where Radio 1 and 1 Extra were, and so I worked in radio. And when I left to set up part of the team to launch MySpace, I was known as like the the social media guy, and I had a bit of I would say backlash. Like what they weren't very happy. How would the BBC taking you going and kind of being known as that AI guy? Or are they kind of like, you know what, you just do your own thing? Well, there's been some crossover with some of the stuff that we were doing in automation, but it it's been purely independent. The obviously I had to get permission to to work separately

7:24 when I was continuing to work at the BBC. But, you know, I think it's much like the wider artistic community. Some people see it as an opportunity, some people see it as a what something that's going to destroy jobs and traditional craft. So, I think there's that same that same argument everywhere. [snorts] Although the BBC has its own AI section now under Alice Lowe. I imagine we'll be hearing more from them in the future. Obviously, I can't speak on behalf Of course. And I'm not speaking on behalf of the BBC. Of course. I am seeing them double. I saw BBC Creative using it as well in a single campaign. And again, I think it's just, you know, as you say that fear of certain people, but other people are experimenting in their own time like you've been doing.

8:13 Like whenever I was doing corporate training and stuff at workshops, I'd ask people, "So where are you using Midjourney? Is it in your day-to-day work or is it in your, you know, your evening times where you're just dabbling?" And it's like 90% in the evenings where they're dabbling. They're not being given permission during the daytime hours. So but they get really good skills just dabbling a few hours every night for like a few months in a row. And uh incredible where we're at now though with all of this stuff, right? Like What would you say is your number one transferable stuff from from your like broadcast stuff that you've been doing to the AI stuff that you've been doing? Would you say it's your ability to make shows or like like what is your like best transferable skill do you think? I think it's [clears throat] I think it's probably directorial stuff.

What transferred from directing for the BBC

9:02 So I being able to talk to a crew member, a cameraman about how you want the camera to move or So I was a former cameraman as well. Started off as a cameraman. Um Uh and having that ability to talk to different departments about what you want is essentially similar to what we're doing with the AI now. We're we're talking to it about how we want to see things. And in quite concise, controlled um ways, but also giving them enough room to put their own stamp on it. And I think that that's how I might start with AI. I'm not one of these guys who who writes 700 page um prompts, you know, I'm I'm not one for these these massive prompts. I do a fair bit of iteration with images to get the the character design and all that down, but in when it comes to the direction,

9:49 well, you know, the animation is quite succinct. I think if you overwhelm the the it with too much information, it gets a bit muddy anyway. If you want you got to be clear and concise uh in order to fit everything that you want in and also not to confuse the AI and get things muddled. You know, cuz it doesn't understand the weight if you put loads of stuff in, it's like, "Well, what's important here?" Yes. Put a nice concise prompt in that's pointing to exactly what you want, um then it gets it pretty much, you know, every time. More or less. I I was always told there was a hierarchy, like the first word you say is the most important and the last is the least, but I've heard that there's slightly differences actually, like some keywords can have further waiting even further in the prompts depending on how much training data, etc., etc.

10:37 So much, like you say, like why overwhelm it if you don't need to if you can do it through image iterations. And everyone's process is how they've just figured it out over the time and yeah. But yeah, clear direction is writing briefs I bet is a really good one, too. Like just the ability to write briefs and have that be into your prompts and just clear direction and yeah, fascinating. So, that really comes through in your work as well. All the lip sync stuff and so much dialogue stuff. Other people don't touch that cuz they fear that that's the thing that can throw them off, whereas you really embrace it, it seems. Like you go the other way with it. Is that been something you've wanted to focus on because of the stories you like to tell or Yeah, I think, you know, I I think a lot of people are probably wiser

Why he pushes dialogue when others avoid it

11:22 in terms of you know, move away from what the the thing's not good at and um and focus purely on what it's good at, which is imagery. And so, you know, the the probably the best thing you could do on a production level with AI now is do something uh with images, close-up, cut to music, with no dialogue, or perhaps voice-over. But the problem is that is not, you know, I think you have to most stories have to have at least some dialogue. I'm quite happy to do stuff without dialogue like the the Winter Soldier, which we'll see later, has got no dialogue in it. I quite like the challenge of telling a story, you know, pure story without dialogue. But equally, you know, most stories are going to have people interacting,

12:07 and and and that means you need to to have dialogue. And I've been pushing that hard. It's been really for a long time, and it's starting to get to the point where you could do Obviously now bringing real actors in is a massive difference. If you see the stuff where they've got real voices um over the stuff that they haven't got um real voices, [clears throat] you can you can see the the quality difference. Huge. is is is huge. I I I I I tuned in briefly yesterday to your pod when you talked about the stock voices. Well, now you guys are seeing a lot of videos, so you're like me, you're picking up on ah there's only a few um voices in the models. So, if you prompt, but what you'll also find is

The mustache trick: faces change voices

12:55 faces will change voices. Mm. So, if you if you prompt like a soldier and you prompt different types of voices, and it doesn't really change, blah blah blah. If you then put a mustache on that soldier and prompt voices Wow. you you'll get sometimes a different What a genius tip that is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you want an aristocratic No, soldier and you don't put mustache on, it becomes there's more weight in, you know, in in sticking a mustache on, which is quite strange. I found that out the other day. That is genius, mate. Yeah, yeah. That's very, very smart. Everyone in the chat, if you've got any questions for Ryan, send them across, please. Mary has already given a really nice one. What is the old school habit from your time in traditional broadcast that you've had to completely unlearn to

The broadcast habit he had to unlearn

13:46 succeed in the AI first world? Old habit? Hm. I think um going slow is is is is is a habit. I I would like to think that we stop till they're perfect, but certainly for the personal work, you need to get it out fairly quickly cuz the models are changing so quickly. Um and you need to um And also because it's for socials, you know, it's not it's not a TV craft. You're not getting the same production standards applied to it. It's something that people are largely watching on their phones. So, you have to sort of if you're producing something for social media, you have to make sure you can get it out quickly.

14:34 Obviously, there's a production standard that's there, but it's not it it's not television. So, um little bits and bobs you could you can get away with, you know, so I think that speed is of the essence now for all of us. You are so prolific that that is such a good question because every single week we've been able to have a new bloody thing from you for like months in a row. It's absolutely insane. By the way, we've got Blacklight tuning in. We've got Jimmy 404 Films. We've got Luca tuning in. Some legends in the house. Yeah. But yeah, Luca said you promised him a beer once. I do owe him a beer, yeah. I did a I did a podcast with him and I wasn't sweating, but it did I I did drop signal halfway through, so I definitely definitely I would I owe him hope I'm at home.

15:24 I was I was on the road during that one. So, apologies, Luca. But, yeah, I do owe him a beer for sure. [laughter] And someone said, uh asking for Glenn, is Ryan auctioning off his sweat towel during the show? [laughter] Great question. No, I don't think I'm going to get James Brown money for it, I'm afraid. Glenn's already bidding for it, he reckons. [laughter] We've had a last question come in from producer Paul, and then we're at our 15-minute. We're going to start the show. And then, uh you know, let's actually get into the showcase. Paul wanted to know, what are your thoughts on C Dounce 2.5 ability to do 30-second generations? Do you actually use the 15-second generation fully in the C Dounce currently, or are you more of a 5-second

Does he use the full 15 seconds, and what will 30 change?

16:11 gen guy? So, what I tend to do at the moment is I'll do a 15-seconder, and maybe run it three times. And from that, I'll get a perfect 15-seconder. And then, I may have to go in and add additional four or five seconds gens to to to bulk it out. So, it comes from looking at your scene, knowing what you can probably achieve in that 15 seconds, because remember, you get the coherency of scene, of space, of uh and and characters a lot better in that 15 seconds. So, you want to try and do as much as you can in that 15 seconds. But, I often most stuff I do is probably run maybe three times. And maybe I'll use the close-up in the second one, and the you know, the intonation in the third one.

16:57 So, um I I do think they're valuable. Obviously, it's quite um expensive, and you you're really going to use the whole 15 seconds. Um but, you know, it's People often go, "Oh, I didn't get a good 15 seconds." And I I think, well, often when you're when you're shooting a traditional film, you're not going to get a whole sequence that's perfect. You're going to use different takes from different hits. So, I think that's an important thing to get your head around that is one button press is not going to get you there. So, yeah, using the using the 15 seconds is great and I think using the 30 seconds would be great. Obviously, we're getting into bigger money cuz a 1080p 30 second uh it's going to cost you a 4K one's going to be, you know, um pretty pretty heavy duty. So, you you I won't be so flippant with my um with my prompts as I am

17:50 now and was back in the day. Often, I look back and go, "Oh, I misspelled that." Or, I forgot to put that in or or I didn't put no music again, you know, or something like that. Um um which has been a bit easier now using stuff like Agent One where you can sort of, you know, specify, "Hey, add these bits to my prompts every time." And then when you write your prompt, it doesn't it doesn't matter. So, using some agentic support with stuff like Agent One is is [clears throat] really useful, but Yeah. Um Oh, yeah, I will be using the 30 seconds. I do think it's useful. I think it will make things faster for me. It'll probably make things slightly more expensive because I'll be not not using, you know, I'll be running three 30 seconds uh to get that 30 seconds, but still it will mean the speed that I can make you know, it used to take me like almost a month to do a three-minute piece.

18:38 It will take me three days now to do a three-minute piece. Wow, amazing. Yeah. Um [clears throat] uh with a bit of prep. Um but yeah, and that'll get shorter, you know, if I can do get good 30 [snorts] seconds, then maybe I can do a three-minute piece in two days. Um obviously, this that's I'm talking about a personal piece. I'm not talking People go, "Oh, you know, it's not that's not a broadcast quality piece." I'm talking about that one obviously take a fair bit longer and stuff that you're involving actors, but I'm talking about a short piece as of what you're going to see now. Yeah, I think I think it's just going to make things faster and it's going to make things better. It's going to make things more expensive. I think we're starting to see a gap opening up between the hobbyists and people who are doing it professionally because that gap's getting bigger because obviously people who are doing it professionally can drop more money on the generations.

19:27 They're getting more time to play with stuff. As well as being more skilled and more experienced. So, I hope that that that it won't remain as expensive for long. Yeah. Right, guys. Let's get into it. So, the reason I've got this one first is because we we've showed all your pieces on the live show. You know, we honestly you're like one of the biggest that we've shown throughout all of the live show throughout the last few years. But this piece we had a really interesting conversation about because it's based on a piece of IP that's no longer in the public domain. So, HP Lovecraft's version of the work you've done the Betrayer and you said that this one was two and a half days roughly made with seed on it.

20:15 Is that right? First first first one with seed on it when it was still in private closed access. Yeah. All right. Well, let's watch it. Let's have a towel break and a drink break and yeah, let's go. Lady Ashworth, I had hoped to find you here. Mr. Thornfield, you should be inside. It's not safe on deck tonight. I am utterly smitten. Every moment away from you feels wasted. Please, don't say these things. [music] Amelia, have I misread your feelings?

THE BETROTHED

21:03 Forgive me. You haven't misread anything. That's what makes this unbearable. Then then what stands between us? I am promised to to something you won't understand. beg you. Help me understand. My family's wealth comes with a price. I am betrothed to the Lord of Rhea. Whatever hold your family has, you can break free. Start a new life with me in America. We could be happy. Do you know why I've spent these five days with you? Because I wanted to know what it felt like to be loved. Marry me, Amelia.

21:54 The hull is breached! EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF! The dreamer has awakened. What are your orders, Captain? Sound the alarm. Abandon ship. Stay close to me. Keep calm! Women and children first! [music] There's something in the water! Amelia! Amelia!

22:49 [screaming] Amelia!

23:53 [music] [music] So, Lincoln epic, right? I love this one that you did and I love the story behind it as well about how you made it and yeah, tell us more about the making of this. This is clearly the big C dance first one you said like but it just looks so epic with the VFX and the characters. It's just so wow. Yeah, I it was literally made up as it went along almost. So, we I've got access to C dance and I wanted to give it a run for its money. Obviously, the Cthulhu stuff is so it's an original story but the character of Cthulhu, the big monster

How it was made in two and a half days

24:41 and the whole history and mythology behind him is all HP Lovecraft which is now open copyright. You know, and obviously a lot of us have been seeing what Cabinets been doing with you know, and all this stuff that doing in of Bone, [snorts] and it's a very quick way of accessing a mythology. So, I thought, "Oh, I'll tap into that." And it's based on a image that I did in Midjourney like almost 2 years ago of Cthulhu grabbing the rising being out in front of the boat. That always captured me, and I thought, "Ooh, what could be a story about that?" And then I thought of all, you know, like it's a love story on on the boat. And she's betrothed to a demon god from another dimension. Uh as you do. Um but yeah, and then I I literally um used the took the image

25:33 and rubbed out Cthulhu, and then said to said to SeaArt, and I had this long prompt about going in and what the characters look like. And then I let it do the opening move, and then I grabbed the characters and turned them into character sheets. So, I sort of let it make the characters up. Uh so, that whole opening shot where they talk to each other all a first image of the boat on the wide, and all that is just text prompted. And I was blown away. I was like, "Wow." And so, I was using first and last frame from for a lot of it. You know, the old go-to uh Nana Banana and try to prompt different shots that sort of look vaguely like they're in the same place. Yeah. Uh because I hadn't really used the Omni model. I'd used Omni models and other um and other models, and it's they didn't really work out for me. So, I was a bit dubious of using it.

26:19 But halfway through, I gave it a run as this was like a test. So, when they're on the boat, I just started prompting with an image of the boat a picture of them two and what I wanted them to happen. And it wasn't even a closer of the boat. It was like a wide shot of the boat. And then I would grab previous images out, uh upscale those, and use them as references for the for the next bit as I went along. Uh which was a good method, and I sort of still use that in some part now. Man. I love it that you got just this early SeaArt dance and got this out so quickly within 2.5 days and getting access to it. You know, you did as you said using previous Midjourney techniques and other things like this. I see we've got John Bizarre Bunny Studios tuning in. We've got some great questions coming in from the audience by the way, so definitely don't want to miss them.

Scoring it in Suno, and the remix trick

27:07 Uh love the music. Would love to know how you prompted for it if that's something that you did prompt or is it uh um it was it your own creation as well for the music, yeah? Yeah, that's a that's I think it's a Suno. Um and What else Suno? I I think it was a just a basic I can't I can't exactly remember that I um I I put rhythmic banging drums and um ominous uh so what I like to do is actually at the front of Suno tell it what it's for. So that a cinematic score for a a You had told me this. with Cthulhu and blah blah blah. So I put that in and and people think that's not relevant, is it? But it's not You're setting tone in that. So reference.

27:54 And then I put went and put, you know, rhythmic drums and and bits like that high pace and sort of try So you know your you know your tip from earlier, which was incredible about putting a mustache and changing the voices, check this out. When I was at Google I/O, Issa said exactly the same thing to me. I he he explains the premise of the video as well as the musical prompt. But what he also does is he puts like like time capsules in. So it's like at like 00:12 seconds there's an intense fighting scene. Therefore, I want the drums to increase X, Y, and Z. And this works actually now in Suno. You can actually programmatically put in like intense scene equals drums intense, you know, so try that next time as well. So great tip that as well from Issa that one.

28:44 Mm, I'd love to use that. I've not and that's that's a good one cuz I got to find myself going oh it's not quite not quite I I guess what we're doing is you're getting the song and then editing to the song rather than you know so you can try both methods with that sort of timestamp. You have to get the piece done first to get the timing right though. Yeah it depends on which way you go about it doesn't it or how the What I actually did with that one is remixed it so so that it starts off quieter and then gets more intense and then chopped in and mixed between the two. So I think I did like three remixes of the same song building the intensity in each remix Superstar. picked good joins so that it worked you know that's the way I got round what you were talking about.

29:29 Got a DAW that you do that with or a digital audio workstation? No I'm just using the the remixing sooner. Oh wow so you're just chopping and changing Wow. it in so starting off with something quite light you know ominous and then putting in the intense drums and then intensifying so just re-prompting in a remix with with more intensity each time and then because it's got the same beat and same sound you can find points where you can just join it smoothly enough that you can get away with it. And Whiskey Woven saying that 11 Labs music can do similar stuff with the timestamp so it's worth checking this timestamp thing across all of the music LLMs that you're trying guys really is Ah man. You give us You give us bread tips we'll give you bread tips.

30:15 I can't claim that one Eesof definitely told me about that one. Um Andrew any questions before we watch the next piece? So many questions but I know that we've got a lot of a lot to watch and a short amount of time. So what I'll do and um [laughter] I'll save my question I like some a question that came in from California girl she says about how easy is it when it comes to prompting for multiple people or the best tip for prompting for multiple people? Or is it is the likes of C dots they just kind of just do it for you? I think the best tips for multiple people is um is try and keep the shots tight and always use character references.

How do you prompt multiple characters?

31:01 You're going to get the most rerolls in in when you've got so more than three people you're going to start to reroll a lot cuz it will confuse people. They're They're They'll pick attributes from one person and transfer them to another. So if you if you've got a I think the most I've got with recognizable people is about six or seven. Um six or seven. Six seven six seven. [laughter] Um I I I'd say six seven then that's today. Very much so. Um so yeah you can do it but it it's wise to keep those sort of wide shots short and then cut into smaller groups within that. So establish your wide shot, show everyone together, and then go into tighter group shots and close-ups and over the shoulders.

31:46 You can also do some work, you know, to to to the effects work against really sticky and like put them in. So do you know, do the same background with three people, do the same background with another three people, call it a static shot, and then add them in over the top. Um so there's ways around it but it is it is one you're going to have to reroll even with good prompting. You can reinforce I wouldn't just use character sheets and use the numbers. If people tend to try and reinforce characters and I don't think that helps. I think if you if you try and use text prompts to reinforce the character that can sometimes give the model leeway to make its own interpretation but if you I think you just use your your six characters you know, um as character sheets with um and remember in the wide shots it's going to focus on on the long shots.

32:35 So you don't really need the close-ups as necessary. Give it the information that that it needs to do that. But, yeah, it it's it's still a stickler. We're We're hoping for 2.5 to be a little bit better at I'm so confused. Like, 50 character references, let's say. 50 and cuts. Like, I mean, let's see about that. Yeah, I think that's right. This one, I want to bring it up, is the most played video on your YouTube page. Can you guess by that which one it is? Um A love letter No? It was it with No, what was that? Oh, um A love letter to the British Yes, exactly. A love letter to the British Hammer and American horror films of the '80s. This one majority made with Cling 3.0, is that right? That's correct, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so for those that haven't watched it, we're about to watch Blood and Canvas.

BLOOD AND CANVAS

33:25 Let's go. Oh, the ice cream These are fantastic, Rajan. Exquisite pieces. And after that article about George and Ringo buying some of your work these will be worth twice as bloody much. Right, I'll send the van around to collect them [music] tomorrow. I've got the gallery booked next week, and at the end of the exhibition, we'll hold the auction. There's been a misunderstanding. I am not selling this collection. Rajan, you need this. You're broke. For God's sake, man, you need to eat.

34:13 You need to live. You don't understand what you're asking, Clifford. These are my dreams, my nightmares, my very soul. I cannot be separated from them. Two years, Rajan. Two years of rent, of materials, of my patience. You owe me. IT'S TIME TO PAY UP! I'D RATHER DIE! HARAM ME! YOU'VE GOT YOURSELF a deal. Now they will be worth 10 times as much. Padme Ja. Hello, Scotland Yard? Hello, police? What's your emergency? Yes, I have found my friend on the floor of his flat.

35:03 He's not responding. There's a wound on the neck. Uh he may have harmed himself. Okay, the address is 4A Arkham Lane. Yes, yes, I'll wait right here. Clear fire. [screaming] [screaming] He poured his pain into us. And now we will feast on yours. SOLD TO THE LADY NUMBER 42. MARVELOUS. WE ARE BREAKING RECORDS HERE TODAY, ladies and gentlemen.

35:50 We have nearly sold out of the entire collection, BUT WE HAVE ONE PIECE LEFT, AND IT'S THE CROWN JEWELS OF THE LOT. WHO will start the bidding at 100,000 pounds? Thank you, sir. Do I see 110, 120, 130, 140, 1 Love it, mate. Just crazy. Like so like different to the last piece and yet like so like as you say like um your your your feelings of the '80s like like your American horror film you could see the inspiration.

Hammer horror and The Evil Dead

36:42 Were there particular movies that you had as inspiration for this piece? Yeah, like the Raimi Sam Raimi stuff like the Evil Dead and all that sort of stuff I really liked as a kid and the Hammer stuff that we used to watch on the TV in the '80s, you know, the Christopher Lee stuff and Peter Cushing. Um and sort of that tells the tells the unexpected Yeah. you know, short little twisty um piece we used to watch so I sort of just thinking about [clears throat] those sort of things and channeling that in the effects and the sort of the mood of it as well. But yeah, I would say coming in people are loving this one. Elements of classic Twilight Zone, Twilight Zone meets Night Gallery. We're seeing all this stuff coming in here like people really love this style.

37:30 This character that you created here is a really nice character. I really like him a lot. I thought what stood out for me is exactly what Miriam said about the facial expressions from both of these characters throughout the whole thing. Cling's very good at that, right? I think the Cling was the right choice for this piece, definitely. It's not a Sea Dance needs so much action, it's more about the interpersonal facial expressions and the yeah, felt more in-depth. Yeah, I was quite surprised how well it did the the acting as such, you know, it sort of responded really well to the prompting. I think Cling's a really really good tool. It's been overshadowed a lot by Sea Dance cuz Sea Dance can do kung fu cats and all that sort of stuff. But I think if if you're trying to sell a subtle story, A it's cheaper, B for for some of the subtler stuff it's better.

Why Kling 3.0 suited this film

38:17 Some shots that I've tried with Sea Dance with of simple stuff like a you know, little gesture and it tries to do too much too much sometimes, Mhm. But Clean will stick to the to the sort of subtle stuff that you're looking for. Um but yeah, I was I was I was really impressed with it because Seedance was out at this point, but this was I was using um Clean 3.0 as part of the Nvidia um thing that they got on the platform. So, it was it was really good to to use it even though I I had um beta access to Seedance at the time. I was really happy to use it. And I think it's still great model for for close-up stuff. So, you know, you can do your 4K stuff at really uh a lot cheaper price. So, if you've got a story that's quite intimate, uh realism it does quite well as well, photo realism. So, I think I think it's still a really good tool that's been, you know, sort of ignored in the in the bluster of Seedance.

39:09 What did Invideo do? Um they uh they paid me. [laughter] Okay. They're the agent, mate. Remember I told you last time Invideo doesn't have foundational models. They're just the agent that can call upon Clean and Seedance and all of the other agents. So, they're essentially like a free pick or a um social sort of say magnetic. Um yeah, uh so, they're essentially a aggregator. They've got all the models on there. They They're They're like the biggest one in India. So, they're they're they're they're serving Bollywood and they're they're doing they're doing really well out there. And you know, they've got good ethical approach. Um they they, you know, um they let the creators sort of roll with it. They're not

39:54 doing these rigid you have to say this or that or this, which I quite like. I sort of love I do it occasionally because you know, for a buck uh on on stuff that I support, but I do hate the sort of agent-tailored you must say this, this, and that is what I don't Yeah, it's it's difficult, isn't it? Like It's difficult, yeah. We we saw Simon Mayer can do them quite well for ads, but over longer story pieces, you're right. I think he loses something. We've got Daniel Radcliffe tuning in saying that he's gutted to have missed some of the earlier chat cuz he's just tuning in. He absolutely loves your work. He is a former legend of the show as well and won video of the week a few months ago. There's so much talent tuning in and watching the show. I love our little community, man. Anyway, let's keep going. By the way, Paul says he loves this new format.

40:42 The show's really working, but it's definitely not long enough. I think we're going to have to make these 90-minute episodes in the future just cuz there's so much pieces that we've got to show that we're not going to get through. This next one The Innsmouth Void, is that how you say it? The Innsmouth Void. So, in 2019, two YouTube potholers went missing on the Yorkshire Dales. Love it. That made with SeaDance 2.0 this one. Let's watch it and then get some questions in from the community. I'm Tom. And I'm Andy. And we are bollocks, where are we again?

THE INNSMOUTH VOID

41:28 [laughter] I'm Tom. And I'm Andy. And we are here at the notorious Innsmouth Gill in the Yorkshire Dales. Now, the weather is taking a turn for the worse. So, come with us as we get stuck in. What a couple of cheesy bastards. [laughter] So, we made it through the first gallery into the upper chamber. Now, we're going to descend into the chamber below. Watch my rope, Andy.

42:22 This isn't in the survey. Shall we risk it for a biscuit? You need to cut down on the pies, mate. Get some exercise. I'm trying. Can you hear that? Jesus, that scared the [ __ ] out of me. What language is that? [ __ ] Look, here's what I suggest. Let's go back to the main chamber and make our way out.

43:09 We're off route. No one knows we're here. We can mark this up in the survey and then come back with a larger group, right? Agreed, mate. The tunnel should be here. I swear it was here. It's probably just a bit further down the passage. Come on. Okay. We're going around in bloody circles here. [singing] Hello? Hello, can you hear me? Oh. [screaming] Come on. Come on. Come on. What the hell was that?

43:59 This can't be real. We need to find a way out of here now. Something's got MY LEG. NO! [screaming] ANDY! ANDY! [gasps and snorts] KELLY, if they ever find this, I love you. What the hell? [singing] [singing]

44:51 Oh my god. That went from a bit of banter between two North Yorkshire lads to pretty damn intense in the space of one video. I love it. And Do you know what I like about your stuff, Ryan? Is that it's very British. So, and I feel and again there's a bit biased here, but I feel a lot of what you see out there is American led and that's why your stuff like even in the last video where it had Camden Market. Like if everyone's ever been to Camden on the bridge, it says Camden Market. So, there's little things like that that you'll notice and here even someone in the in the comments said like spot on North North Yorkshire. I think it was a North Yorkshire accents and yeah, really I love all of that stuff. Really do. Danny grew up in North Yorkshire and the accents were spot on. So, uh How did you do those? Was that C down accents, mate? Were they real people?

Prompted Yorkshire accents, and British stories without compromise

45:41 Oh, they were C down. it's that's C down. So, I prompted the accents. Wow. And in that opening scene where they're both talking saying, "Oh, you know, I'm so and so and I'm so and so. We're here." I then clipped those up and fed them back in as references. So, they they they then kept those voices the whole way through. But yeah, I I I think it's really important. This is the big thing about A I is that we can tell stories about where we're from without compromise. You know, if you go to America if you go to American production companies with a great idea, often they want to turn it into an American story because that's their largest market. That's how they recoup their money. Uh so and that's their largest audience. So they want the film to reflect their audience. Whereas this now gives us the power to say, "No, no, I don't want to compromise on that.

46:26 I don't want to make it a story about an American doing it. I want to make it about a British person doing it or make it about a Thai person or a South American or and I think that's the real beauty of this is that we can uncompromisingly tell stories about where we're from and who we are without having to dilute it down and you know, commodify it for for a mass audience. Definitely. 100%. Man, I love that. Local stories 100% win your niche, win the world. Exactly. Jimmy Jimmy knows too. He's another Brit, you know, like there's a lot of us now that are like trying to tell stories from our locations and it's so good to see. I remember the early early days when people were sending me like Diwali stuff and I was like, "Oh, this is incredible, you know, like to see your culture

47:14 referencing your localized things." Because the thing we always said Andrew is think about all the ideas that were just abandoned on the table when money became the issue, like 95% of them, right? Like Yeah. cuz you have to justify it and then get publishing and do all these other bits that just make it like null and void. But now you can just go ahead and express your localized creativity without having to worry about any of that. And as Ryan said, like it doesn't need to be TV ready. It just needs to be quicker and on social media and telling a story about where you're from and showcasing your skills and people are just starting to do this in whatever way they feel most comfortable, like Simon May does it with his spec ads. You do it with your short films. Other people do it however they want, music videos, you know, it's all sorts of different stuff.

48:00 It's great to see, honestly. I love it. I love it. So, we're going to keep moving on. This next piece is Dust. It's a shorter piece, an AI animated film about meaning. Another one made with SeaDance 2.0. Um let's uh answer some questions. Oh, I forgot to ask, guys. Um we're not doing voting and polling. Obviously, this is a new show format because this is a showcase format. So, obviously, you guys have been so I even saw some ones coming in the chat earlier, which I thought was hilarious. Yeah. It's like, yeah, of course it's a one. It's, you know, Uncanny Harry. But, um so, what we are going to do though is encourage you instead of voting to get your questions in about these pieces, you know, instead of doing the one, two, and three that you're used

48:46 to in the regular show, get the questions in about the individual pieces that we're showcasing. That's going to be the format for this Great Sessions. We're going to watch them back to back when we've got someone like Uncanny cuz he's just got so many pieces that we can watch. Um in other sessions, it'll be slightly different when there's people with less to watch. And so, we'll do more focused questions and stuff. But, yeah, let's get let's watch Dust anyway. Never gets [music] old, does it? It's endless. That's my favorite part about it. I look up there at all those burning suns,

DUST

49:35 and I just feel wonderfully insignificant. Dad, [music] doesn't it make you feel like like nothing we do down here matters? That's exactly the point, Leo. Look at it. Compared to that, we are nothing but tiny specks of [music] dust floating in the dark. But, if we're all just dust, then no one's important. There's no grand heavy purpose weighing us down. [music] Nothing matters unless you make it matter. The universe doesn't decide what's important. [music] We do. We take this dust and we choose to care about each other. Come on then, sunshine. [music] We need to choose to go home for dinner before your mother murders the pair of us. [music]

One Midjourney image, one conversation

50:28 Several comments on this piece. When we first watched it live in the show, it was such a nice break from the heavy sci-fi stuff that we've been doing. Just a conversational deep thing, right? I also remember, and Paul just reminded me, that you said that this was based on an entirely one mid-journey image or something like that as well. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, so it it was the the wide shot, the the reverse. Right. That one in the wide version of that. I got this lovely mid-journey with the with the spaceship at the far from sun. And again, you just don't iterate on that. All right, they're having a conversation. What are they talking about? Yeah. Um and it was that shot there. Well. Um It showcases all your skills, too, mate. Cuz you go from deep dark horror stuff to this, you know, a lovely sweet formatted conversational basis. It's beautiful to see the variety. Yeah, I think that's the other thing with AI.

51:16 You know, as a as a filmmaker, you're seeking funding. And so, you've got to have a have a you're the you're the horror guy or you're the, you know, you've got to have a a genre to bet on and and a history of work that reflects that to bet on. And the they don't tend to like you not doing that genre because they they've got no proof that that will sell or whatever. Again, you don't need that here. You want to You want to make a a love story, you make a love story. You want to make a horror, you want to make something violent, you want to make something sweet, you want to make You're not in that lane and and and and you're not not forced in that lane because, you know, the cost of production is so cheap. Mhm. I love it. And I love even like, you know, when Dave said, "Oh, my son inspired this piece." Or, you know, it has a personal story. And it's like, "Oh, I had a chat at the pub." And now you can go away and make a video.

52:04 And before you know it, it's got 100,000 views. And before you know that, there's someone asking you for the rights to this and to make it an official campaign of some sorts. And Glenn literally can tell you this story. You know, there's many people watching this show that started off with a rough idea for some images, sent them over to us, we showcased them, a brand reached out, it gets made into a real campaign. It happens so often. So, just putting yourself out there with whatever you're feeling that week and being true, like a true artist, I guess, you know, just expressing your like week-to-week what's happening in your life and and what you're seeing and what you're referencing in the pop culture. Like, Andrew's so good at picking out like references. Paul is too, by the way. I'm not the reference guy. Like, he'll notice these tiny little things that have like hundreds of references stored in his head.

52:53 And I'm like the I don't know, I just see algorithms and social media and stuff like this. Uh it's it's so good to have the perspectives of what everyone's going through and stuff like that. It's uh wild. What's your questions on this one, mate? Good question from Dead Guy D. What inspires you? Where do you get your ideas from? Cuz add to that, cuz a couple of like the one before, the quarry one, uh not the quarry, the In- I can't pronounce it. In-town mouth. Yeah. That was It reminded me of Is it the Blair Witch Project? The way it kind of started. Yeah, so it had that vibe. And then obviously there was the Titanic one. So, like where do you get Is it a case of looking at pop culture, looking at stuff, and then thinking, "I'm going to put my Uncanny Harry twist on this." Or look at through an Uncanny Harry lens.

Where do his ideas come from?

53:40 Or like where do you get your ideas I think it's often something personal. Like that that one was I'm a father. I have conversations like that with my boys about the world and stuff like that. So, that was that. Um but the the the I I tend to think it's a great idea when a new model comes out or when you've got some time to experiment with stuff. And there's no point in just going, "Oh, here's some pretty pictures. Isn't isn't this model great?" Make a story, you know. Sharpen your storytelling skills while you do it. So, I set myself a brief. And like like you said, that was like Blair Witch. That's because I thought, "I want to see if we could cuz I hadn't seen any found footage like horrors or anything like that. And I thought, "Well, can can can you do it? Can you do it? Is it possible?" And so, that was the first thing. Right, let's do a found footage.

54:29 Um Innsmouth is a another Lovecraft thing about these fish people. A bloke goes to this town and they're all in bed with these fish demons. And so, I and I'd done a I'd done something really early with with this idea back in Runway with with the Cavers. Um it was really simple. It's like three shots almost. Um but um but yeah, so I think setting yourself your own brief it is a good thing. Often it's sparked by uh like like Chris said, life, conversation, you know, an event, uh some a family thing, a a broader, you know, a political thing, a broader thing, a bigger thing. And then then you set yourself, "Oh, I want to explore that idea." Then set yourself some some boundaries around it and go ahead. The problem is you need to set yourself with boundaries cuz you can do anything now.

Why you need to set yourself boundaries

55:18 You know, when you got two mates and a camera, you've got your boundaries there, right? We're going to have to set it in a room and use your mates. So, you you've got those restrictions but boundaries that helps you follow your artistic effort. The empty people will be overwhelmed by what what I make, you know, when you can make anything. So, it's good to to A pick something that to explore and then make yourself a little brief around that and set yourself a time to finish, you know, like is the best I can do in 3 days or 4 days or 5 days. Talking of that, do you have a hard stop, by the way, at 5:00? No, no, no, no, I'm good. Oh, oh, great, great, cuz I didn't want to like we've got a new piece to show and I didn't know whether to put that now if you had a hard stop or we can keep going then. I'm good to go for another [laughter] 20 minutes if if need be, mate. I'm good. Oh, let's go. Let's go. I think 90 minutes full is this definitely going to be for someone as prolific as as Ryan.

56:09 I think this is going to be the way. Some of the questions coming in then, Danny said it felt like uh the Descent was maybe an inspiration for the potholing piece. Uh again, great film, guys. You know, this is what I love you guys. I love you guys and your references. So awesome. Yeah, that was that was definitely a big inspiration. Um that I really enjoyed that film. It was really tight, low-budget British horror by Neil Marshall, I believe. Yeah. So, I think, you know, I think you need to still watch stuff. You see you need to absorb stuff. You need to be a prolific cinema-goer. I saw Obsession recently. [clears throat] Absolutely fantastic film. I think if any artist doing anything or any creator, should I say? I don't like the word artist.

The Descent, and still going to the cinema

56:57 I'm sorry. Too working class. [laughter] Even [clears throat] though my mom's a potter, my dad studied at the Royal College of [laughter] Art. Um artist seems a bit far-fetched for what I'm doing, but as a as as as a creator, I think you need to be absorbing other people's stuff. You need to be absorbing as much as possible because that, you know, [clears throat] like some of this stuff just comes out. You're not consciously thinking, I'm going to do it like this or I'm going to do it like that. It just comes out in the making of it. So, um a bit like a model, [laughter] a bit like a training model, you know, what's in your training model? You got to you got to put as much in the model as possible, so you got enough to draw upon when you're doing it. So, Andrew, we know Mary as our favorite commenter from the regular live show, and check out this question.

57:43 If your persona, Uncanny Harry, gained sentience tomorrow, would he thank you for the wicked career or sue you for the drama? Wow, what a Even the commas in the right place, Mary. You are [laughter] Um I I think he'd probably Uh well, I I I He's I He owes me a lot as well, you know. You do sink a lot of time into this, and I go into Goblin mode and go into the the cave of working and and sort of withdraw from [clears throat] the world for a couple of days to make these things. So, uh I'm channeling him when I do that, but um let's hope they don't get sentience, eh? [laughter] Yeah. Let's Let's hope they stay tools and not um and not um go beyond that Yeah. Foreseeable. You are the best, Mary. And last question before we move on to the next piece,

What genre is next? One world, many genres

58:34 what genre of film type would you like to tackle next that you have not yet covered? Good question. I I think what I'm what I'm interested in next and what's most people interested in next is is is IP, so an expansive world in which you can explore multiple genres in that. Um that's what I'd like to do. I I create a world where you you set that world, you set the what the how things work in that world, and you can do a comedy in that world. Or you can do a horror in that world, or you can do a social drama in that world, or you can do a romance thing in that world. So, you sort of create the world, and then you can explore genre within that world. Sort of, you know,

59:19 I love Marvel. I I grew up I was a comic book fan as a kid. I think it's sort of jumping the shark now a little bit and getting on everyone's nerves, which is understandable. Um but I I think that the the notion they had of of um of you know, being able to sort of do different genres within the one I think that again it uh it's probably too Hollywood and too [clears throat] too mainstream for me. I I'd like to see more uh off-kilter world, you know, um But yeah, I think that's the best way to So I think I've I've even done a little rom-com. Um [clears throat] uh but uh I I think

1:00:05 I think I'm quite happy bouncing around genres, so whatever I haven't done I'd like to A musical is probably the thing I'm not going to do. A musical? Oh my god, and an uncanny musical is probably You know, I've enjoyed musicals. I've studied film. I've watched um I've watched um plenty of musicals, Busby Berkeley stuff and all that. And uncanny Harriet, please star in the musical because [laughter] uh Could do, yeah. Yeah, could do the uncanny Harriet musical. Those little bursts of genius and those tidbits, Andrew is like, "Oh my god, did you notice that?" And you know, we see it, man. We see it. I love it. But what I like about the world is I I like actually Quentin Tarantino, the way he's kind of got that link between So it's not like a Marvel where everyone's in this world, but it's they're all kind of links

1:00:50 between So I kind of like that, which is um a nice little way to to build those worlds. I agree. Building legacy, huh? Building legacy and like continuity throughout your stuff. I've said it about Simon Mayhew's piece. You can see it within the first 5 seconds that Simon's made this. Doesn't matter what he makes. And it's interesting that you can see this now. I think what you said earlier, Ryan, is like the gap is widening between the people doing professional stuff all of the time and those who are just you know, doing it for fun cuz people are thinking branding and long-term branding and like how to do yeah marketing and publishing and distribution and these are finally the things that people are realizing cuz everyone can make stuff, but where's it going? Who's buying it? What are they doing with it? Where you know, I had a fascinating conversation

1:01:38 for another time but a guy making for TV right now is saying you know, we can't use a lot of the models that people use because you have to use certain models and stuff to be IP friendly on TV and certain channels and stuff. So and even just knowing that you know, you might stop making stuff in the latest tools if that's the case or something like this. But anyway, let's keep going. The next piece is hilarious. Clickbait just because there's the Neil deGrasse and quote, you know, the fact that there's a 50/50 chance that we're living in a simulation because Andrew and I talk about this stuff all of the time and that's why it's hilarious to me. It's a bit of an in joke not that it is hilarious but the fact that we talk about this stuff all of the time. Elon Musk says that there's a chance of us living

CLICKBAIT

1:02:24 in a base reality rather than a simulated world is one in a billion. So what are the odds against us? Let's check it out. Clickbait.

1:03:21 So if we create a simulated reality on a computer that's so comprehensive, its inhabitants believe it's a real universe. If that's possible, and remember I'm someone who's witnessed video games going from Pong to Grand Theft Auto, so it seems entirely possible If it's possible, then there would be a vast amount of simulated realities and only one base reality. I think we need to flat. with the fact that the overwhelming probability Oh, yeah. that we ourselves are inside one of the simulations. Now, I am not alone in thinking this. Neil deGrasse Tyson says there's a 50/50 chance. [music] And Elon Musk says the odds of us living in base reality are a billion to one. God, that's clever. What are you doing? There are big questions like who is pulling Have you seen this?

1:04:11 Do you know about this? Yes, [music] Darren. Will they switch us off? the internet. Are there glitches and viruses that could harm us? No, wait. Wait. We could be returning to a worldview like in the age of the old gods. to bed. Stop being so bloody weird. With our programmers torturing us, toying with our very existence. That was Ryan Roark speaking who died today at the age of 42. [laughter] He certainly did.

1:05:10 [screaming] [groaning] Somewhere an algorithm is learning how to replicate the way loneliness feels. In server farms beneath the cornfields, metal [music] arms breathe binary prayers. And every [music] search becomes a confession to machines that pretend they care. Huh, even the outro song. Oh my god, there were so many tidbits in that when we watched it live as well.

Easter eggs, invented brands and world building

1:06:00 Like seeing you there right in the in the algorithm and then seeing you as the TV presenter, seeing the poster, all the little bits that Andy just loves. Like little like Easter eggs within a piece. Like Oh man, I'm so glad we saved this one till now actually. And god, you've got so much stuff that you've made with the latest models, mate. It's unbelievable how prolific you are. It's genuinely insane that we've got this much stuff to watch. It's inspiring, I hope, to the people watching that, you know, you're doing this along and you're working with Promise at BBC and doing all these other things as well as making such regular stuff like this. Yes, you go into Hobbit Hermit mode to do this, but my god, when it comes out, does it look freaking amazing, dude. Holy goddamn. I don't even have any questions about this one.

1:06:48 It's just freak This one when I watched one, brilliant. It is very Black Mirror vibe. Also, uh it reminded me of a bit of it, the TV show The Capture, which I've just recently watched. [clears throat] It kind of had this like bit of vibe as well. Um but yeah, there's some great comments uh in in the chat as well. I really like this one. I really like this one. The Uncanny Yeah, I think uh Laura picked up on the Streamberry reference, which [clears throat] is uh the fake Netflix in I think there's a thing to um there's a advert for a thing called Spectacular Optics, which is in um Videodrome, which is a uh uh Cronenberg horror film. So, like you said about the Tarantino stuff, we There's little Yeah, yeah. and bobs, you know, like the Pack-A-Max uh Apple cigarettes that's that's

1:07:38 I really like that stuff as well. I really like that. And that to me is world building because that's the Tarantino verse is the Tarantino verse, you know. Did Did Hitler get killed in in the Tarantino [laughter] verse, you know, in the Pulp Fiction in the same place as Inglourious Basterds? I I I I I really like that um the notion of this almost like a world that sits next to our own world. Um I love that in the beginning there's posters for the Innsmouth void for uh Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which is another film. And um I forget the other film, but there's like some of my posters up there as well. And this was actually a No. Do you actually put that as a reference image I I I used to make the poster and put it in the In the latest one I'm doing, I've I've got money

1:08:24 and products that I'm making and they feed them in so you don't ever, you know, you don't ever have to put Coca-Cola. Yeah, Uncanny Harriet at the end there. Um but this was something I shot on mobile before, like probably 5 years ago, 6 years ago. Wow. And remade completely. So, this was a film um that that won some more awards in the States. Um uh I think it was the Filmic, who were the sort of mobile um app maker. Um so, yeah, I've always been trying to make film [laughter] Oh. With with with by hook or by crook. So, this has been a boon for me. And like you say, you know, it used to take me 2 years to make a short film. The The organization involved and getting everything getting together and making sure it was all perfect.

The mobile film he remade, from two years to two weeks

1:09:10 And And now it takes me 2 weeks. So, it is really an amplifier in that respect. Yeah, yeah. [laughter] It's one hell of an amplifier from 2 years to 2 weeks. Yeah. Crazy. Someone said the Metamorph Awards, actually. Um that piece that we watched earlier, Blood and Canvas, was that the one that won the Metamorph Awards? Yeah. So, that that won the Metamorph Award. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. I took Took me missus to the festival and watched it all. It's a good selection as well, which is always nice. It looks really cool. Yes, we watched some of them, yeah. Yeah, you played the Was it the well yesterday? Yes, that's right. Yes. First time on the Metamorph Awards. That was really good. Really well done. Yes, good pick by Paul. Yes, I think we've got some more coming up in the next few weeks, actually, cuz as everything rounds up, it's like, oh, you know, each category and

The Metamorph Award, paid work and 12-hour days

1:09:57 we can pick and choose and then invite the winners on for these sessions, exactly. Like, but again, congrats, mate, on that one. That was a big one, right? Cuz it's meta, like as in meta, the Metamorph Awards, right? Uh I don't think it's meta, no. It's a It's It's a production company. Oh, I got it wrong. I got it wrong. It's funded by Adobe or Oh, are they? Interesting. Something like that, yeah. They've got some some good sponsors and stuff like that, but yeah, it's it's a production company, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, really It really It really cool from the like theater and stuff. People were there and yeah, checking it all out. Heading Castle pub later, ask Jimmy. [laughter] No, I'm not. I've got Goblin Mode. I've got to finish this piece that I'm doing.

1:10:44 I've got the end scene to do and then I've got to go through it all and clean up and edit and do some sound design and stuff like that. But yeah, I get to a point with stuff where I just get so I've got And also I've got so much work piling up. It's like a conveyor belt. If I don't Right. Clear clear this now, then I'll I'll have to wait because I've got some on-site work tomorrow and the next day. Then I've got new work starting next week. So, I've got to clear this out of the way so that the conveyor belt doesn't get clogged. Well, that was one of the questions actually from Eric about what paid projects are you doing exactly? So, that answers that Eric, you know, it's just a back-to-back, you know, stuff. It's very similar to a lot of people and so so much stuff is like Hail Mary last minute, isn't it? And that's the bit that really annoys me. Like so many people are like, "Oh, can you do a World Cup thing? Can you do this?" And it's like, "The World Cup's starting in a week.

1:11:32 Like, what Where was this 3 months ago when you you thought that the World Cup might be like the biggest sporting event in the next 4 years?" Like, for real, have some planning, you know? Come on, guys. Yeah, there's a a lot of work that I can't do because they're like, "Can you do it tomorrow? Can you do it next week?" But, I tend to be booked at least 2 or 3 weeks in advance. I've got some project work that now will take me probably into end of September. So, and in between that, I'm doing personal projects. I'm doing work for Nvidia and stuff like that. So, I'm getting short films funded and making those around work, which means I'm doing evenings and weekends. I am not always so I tend to work like a 12-hour day on on a on a personal project and that's like with a short break and then just machining it out.

1:12:19 Um which is not particularly healthy, but I'll go under and then I'll come up for air and have some family time, have some social time. I'll I'll I'll be at the next one, Jimmy. Um creative and my work ethic is good. Last question, are you a Premiere Pro or a DaVinci Resolve or what's your editing tool? I am a Premiere Pro guy, but mainly because I haven't got time to switch now. Um I Fair enough. I would you know, there's a it's quite expensive. There's an ongoing commitment to it. Um it's it's a good tool. I I I I learned on Avid years ago and then transferred to Premiere when it became the number one desktop. And obviously do loads of people using DaVinci now A cuz it's free, B because even if you buy studio it's a one off fee. So I think from a financial way to do I do like the After Effects integration

Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve?

1:13:07 with Adobe. And Adobe are starting to step up with their AI integration. So um I've I'm got another I think I've signed up for another 8 months. Uh and if if I can find the time to to switch to DaVinci, I will. Mhm. Okay. Mhm. Great [clears throat] questions coming in from everyone. Right, my last question is, do you have enough time to watch The Quarry before we watch the premiere? Uh or Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, right. Let's go in for The Quarry that Quarry then. This thriller um had to be abandoned due to a lack of time which was one of the things that came up as how did it be so good when it's already like abandoned mid sort of project? Cuz again it won like I think our favorite of the week in the live show that we showed it in.

THE QUARRY

1:13:53 Every single piece, as I said, many of you guys will be familiar with it from the regular live show cuz it's just so good and always makes our curation. You're the freaking best, man. So let's watch The Quarry. Look, I am sorry. I overslept, all right? So you're still drinking, yeah? Oh, don't start.

1:14:41 Let you mess him about, Jess. If you want to be part of his life, show up on time. You're his mother. Not his mate. Start acting like it. Come in. Come on then. Your dad's going to let you hang out with me for a bit. After this game. [music] What you reading? Homework. Geek. How's school? All right. How's your dad getting on? All right. Has he got a girlfriend? What? I'm only making conversation. [music]

1:15:34 Come on then, out you get. The fresh air ain't going to kill you. [music] When I was your age, me and my mates used to come down here, run wild, beat the crap out of each other. Happy days. [music] Well, here we are. Where? The way in. It's got a fence around it. Can't we just go to the cinema? Don't be such a conformist.

1:16:26 [music] [music] [music] Promise me you'll never start smoking. Oh, beautiful, isn't it? What? Nature. It's all right. It's bloody amazing, Tyler. I suppose. Look at it. Nature in action. Survival of the strongest. Fittest. What? It's survival of the fittest. Smart ass. Chill out. What was that? A fox, a bird, or maybe a rat?

1:17:17 On guard! What? Sword fight. Come on, grab a stick. I'm not in the mood. Okay, then. How about lightsabers? Star Wars is rubbish. You don't like Star Wars? Sometimes I find it hard to believe we're related. But it's true. I am your mother, Tyler. Mate, the music in this one is just absolutely brilliant. You build the tension so perfectly. No wonder we talked so much about music. I didn't realize just how much of a musical master you are. This piece has to be my favorite piece you've ever made. And I think as a few people in the chat have said the same. Uh asking straight away why it's abandoned. And you know, I think Danny says it's his favorite piece as well.

1:18:07 His favorite unfinished piece in the whole of AI, maybe. I I think that might be fair to say. Like, I love the characters. I love the music. I love the tension you build. I love everything about this piece. Seriously, I love it. What's your thoughts, Andrew? Whenever I'm doing any I do a lot of training with TV producers. I always show them this piece. Um because I'm like, look, this is what's possible now. And for me, going back to what I said earlier on, it's got that British feel. Like, you I can watch this and I The mini. Not just like the mini. It's just the way the conversations that All of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, it's a bit northern as well. It's even got like that like that friendliness of the like banter between the mom

1:18:53 and the dad the mom and the child. But, the conversations between the dad and the mom like I script I thought the script was brilliant on this one. Brilliant. Yeah, so this is an old script that I wrote uh probably about 15 years ago. Wow. And and never got it never got it made. So, um it'd been sitting in the cupboard. And I thought, "Oh, maybe we're ready that this could be done, you know, convincingly now." Uh and I started making it, but it was when C-Darks was 720p. There's a bit of cleaning there as well. But, yeah, I just I just run out like the conveyor belt was getting too packed up. And the problem is once you leave something, if you come back to it a month later, all the tools have changed and you can't then cuz

A 15-year-old script, and why it stalled

1:19:40 we're on 4K now. If I went back to it now and tried to integrate it back into the 720p stuff, you'd see a massive jump. So, what I'll do is when I get some time, I'll go back and do the and I was getting to the the tricky bit. I won't no spoilers, but obviously they're going to meet the guy with the wheelbarrow at some point. They pass and cross. And what is he doing? So, Yeah, so I I this would be a good one to go back to with 4K, perhaps with C-Darks 2.5, and really see how close to the now can we produce something that's convincing enough that most people would just go, "Oh, that's that's that's a real piece of television, isn't it?" Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm. Man, that would be groundbreaking and one of the most exciting like project revisits.

1:20:28 15 years in the making. That was Meta Puppet Story 2. He literally recorded his band 15 years ago, like, you know, unfinished like songs, rough recordings, and I love it. I just love that backstory of it being a 15-year-old script that's now, you know, you're waiting and waiting until the tools are ready and then you can pull the pull the switch. And so, yeah, that really cleans up why the 720p had to abandon it sort of there. And man, this is the most Like I said, my favorite piece that you've ever made. Although, what's about to happen is that me and Andrew, although Paul has seen it, are going to have a live real reaction to your latest piece, which may, you know, take the mantle. I don't We We don't know with your pieces cuz you one-up yourself so often, sir, that it's

1:21:15 It's quite unbelievable. Even someone said earlier, it's quite inspiring, but also, you know, intimidating because you're just so good at doing this. But also, we should be inspired by it, you know, like, we should see it as like a thing to look up to and seeing your TV and production skills and hearing all of the backstory, it all makes sense why you're at the top of the game. Honestly, it all just makes sense and all the all the dots align as to why certain people are like like Gossip Goblin as well. Interesting worlds and building and stuff. That's our next creator session that we're going to have. He's built a world that people absolutely love, you know? And I think that's the same story with the Tarantino stuff. And takes his characters into reels and verticals and shorts.

1:22:03 And now, you know, 16 by 9 like long pieces. And we've got a trailer coming for a longer piece. And it's just building out the worlds. It's so cool to see you guys at the top of the game. So, Andrew, real reaction to this one, man. How cool is this? We get to see a premiere of Here Be Monsters. I'm not going to say anything more about it cuz I want it to be a real reaction and from both of us. So, let's watch it.

HERE BE MONSTERS: first look

1:22:54 [screaming] That's rancid. What's it been eating? Whatever it can get its claws on.

1:23:44 So, what do you reckon? It's young. The greens are paying what? 40 quid for a kid. 42. Not worth the effort. If there's a kid, there's a den nearby with adults. We follow it back, wipe out the den, and make some serious money. Sounds like a plan, man. Oh my god, the noise that beast just made at the end there gave me shivers, dude. The high fidelity audio and the high fidelity visuals. Oh my god, and this scene at in the beginning with the ginger cat chasing the rat. Oh, it just looks We're in new times, man.

1:24:30 What the hell is What the hell is this? Yeah, so this is just the first minute and a half. I haven't had it finished it yet. That's why I would have hoped to show the whole thing, but yeah, I've still got the end scene and then to to read guys that hasn't a grade or anything like that and it's it's still pretty raw, but yeah, so it's about setting out that story world and um sort of combining all the stuff that's gone before. Um yeah. Love the characters, love the scene, the setting. I love it all. I love the start with the ginger cat and the rat. there, is that from something else that aperture? No, that's part of the hint of what's why this is so messed up. Okay, sure, sure. I love the characters. like, wonder if that's if that's either something to connect it or if it's from

Building a world without the exposition dump

1:25:21 your world that you're building. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's from the world. So, there's loads of Like Like we were saying, there's loads of stuff you can do now about inventing brands [clears throat] for your world, inventing So, there's there's there's a story as to why there's monsters running around and that London is, you know, been destroyed in this post-apocalyptic world and so, there's little hints. It's not not going to be a big, you know, blowout with this is what happened, but what I think a lot of our films do that. They sort of they try and do a lot of exposition up front, but this is sort of show you what's happened and sort of build out the world slowly. Nice. I like it. Producer Paul is asking, did we see a statue of that monster in the Innsmouth void in the cave or is that a different monster? Yes, it's it's it's there's a Lovecraftian element to it all, so

1:26:09 it's it's sort of bringing in some of the early stuff with London gangsters and Lovecraftian monsters and horror. Uh, but that sort of London humor and and sensibility. So, it's it's sort of a it's sort of a a a collision of everything that's gone before, really, into this story world, um, uh, in this setting that's going to be that I'm going to be able to explore different characters, um, different factions between in this world, uh, that are working towards different ends. But also be able to just break off and make [snorts] you know, this isn't about the grunts that are in this world, the likes of us who are in this world running around, just trying to survive. It doesn't always have to be

1:26:56 the starship captain or the, you know, the the guy at the top. Sometimes it's nice to see uh, what what people at the bottom are doing in this world. And these guys are they they they they hunt these monsters as obviously it's a bounty, try and clear up the town. Love it. So, you guys that stayed to the end of the show, you'll be thankful now that you did. I'm very thankful for seeing that for the first time and really excited to see the rest of that. Jimmy came in with a ultra specific UK question. Did you use Clapton streets for reference images cuz they were gritty? I I it wasn't exactly Clapton, no, but I did use some some reference images to, um, to sort of tell them style of housing I wanted and all that. Nice. Love to see all the Lovecraft world wants to see more.

1:27:44 Cats chewed here tips, devil in the details. Yes, exactly. Glenn, you know it, man. You know it. You're also a devil for the details kind of guy. Your cracking entities feel like recurring obsession, like the work of a sailor trying to reconstruct a monster you witnessed in the deep. Mary, your comments. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah, I'm like I said, Lovecraft. But as I said, it's like that devil in the details. Like even like where the pub was located in it's typical East London where you could go down a road and then at the corner there'll be a pub. You know, and it's like old school pub bar. Greenwich and there was a pub just like that on the corner near me. Yeah, so it's very very good. Love it. Possible question we missed here from Carlos.

What The Quarry was made in, and where to find Ryan

1:28:34 What program did they make the did you make the quarry in? So, that's a mishmash of it was early C dance. So, it's C dance 2.0 but it was the 720 like just I think I might have you made some of that in closed and a little bit cuz I was only doing a couple of hours here and there. And then um clean some of it was clean as well. So, it's a sort of mishmash. Makes sense. Oh, good to see Damian and I didn't know about this Adobe London Summit. Don't worry by the way as soon as we end the broadcast this whole thing will be re-watchable on repeat on YouTube and stuff. So, it'll just go straight back to the start of the stream where you can catch up if you have the time. We've been live for an hour and a half now. So, mate I really appreciate your time and going over it. Thank you.

1:29:22 Yeah. Yes. I'm so glad that we had you on it number one. You're like like one of the fan favorites of our regular show. We've seen other than that piece that we just watched every single one on the actual show and always just got such you know interesting things to say and I love the British characters that you bring in to all of this. Come on the Brits. Come on. [laughter] Come on the Brits. Come on England. Come on England. Come on England. Thanks as well Andrew for joining and I only said this like you know last minute that we're going to do these [music] Wednesday sessions now. I hope you guys have enjoyed it as much as I did. These are going to be as and when I'm available weekly. Sadly next week I'm probably not going to be available cuz I've got a family holiday [music] booked, but um Yeah, Metapuppet just jumped in the chat.

1:30:12 No way! Metapuppet just Yeah, yeah. Oh, I love seeing you, too, man, and I miss you so much, George. You're the best, man. I love that we just have legends just joining into the chat last minute. We get Rawk, we get Jonathan, we get the best, you know? It's like it's so awesome to see, and everyone's Even yourself joined yesterday as well. Even just when you're getting in, yeah. Love it. Okay. At the very tail end of the show, big love to Metapuppet. Let's go. Thank you so much, guys. Like I said, look out for these on a Wednesday coming up, not maybe every Wednesday, but as regular as we can make them, so it'll be Tuesday, Wednesday [music] back-to-back, and you can get it all through Luma. So, if you subscribe through Luma, you'll see both of the events [music] cuz it's all run through the same platform,

1:30:59 but we're on LinkedIn, YouTube, and everything else. Mate, you're the best. When are we going to see more from you? When Is that piece that you just showed, like, what you're finishing, or is it Yeah, if I can I can get that done tonight, I'll I'll put it out tomorrow. Tonight? Oh my god. No promises. I've I've got some on-site work and then rolling into the weekend, and then I've really got to get stuff done tomorrow and then next week, so it'll be out next week at the extreme latest. I've got to clear my plate for some for some world work. And where can we find more more from you? YouTube, Instagram? Yeah, uncannyharry.com. If you go there, that's got links to all my sites. So, yeah, uncannyharry.com. And then you can find me on X as Uncanny Harry, find me on LinkedIn as Ryan Phillips, my alter ego my real

1:31:47 my real me, not the alter ego. So, yeah. Government name. [clears throat] My government government [laughter] That's what Blacklight called it. He literally got his government He goes, "He's exposing my I like He got Blacklight twice when we were at Up Scale San Francisco." I thought that was hilarious sighting. Want my government name on the back. [laughter] Uncannyharry.com. [music] I love it. I love it. Thanks so much again mate, you're the best. Lovely, thank you for having me and the sport. No, no doubt, no doubt. So like they're about a minute or two behind on LinkedIn, so no doubt a lot of love will come in that you know, we'll pass on as we're closing out the show. It always happens every week. YouTube seems to be like 30 seconds behind but LinkedIn's like two [music] or three minutes live behind or something like that.

1:32:32 So yes. Much love. Mary, comment of the week as per usual, the way that you even like phrase this. Articulate it, brilliant. Articulate it, yeah, so good. Right guys, I will end the show and we'll Thank you very much everyone in the chat for listening. Thank you very much Thanks everyone for coming along. Producer Paul, Chris, Yes, producer Paul, big thanks. Great show Paul. Thank you.