The BC Fourteen Cinematic Universe

Bigfoot in space, Krampus as a demonic Christmas weapon, a clone of Alistair Crowley, reptilian Stalin, Satan pulling strings, and a title card that promises a fight that may never happen. That’s not a mad lib we wrote, it’s the kind of chaos you can trip over on Tubi when the autoplay algorithm decides you’re ready for BC Fourteen.

We go beyond the handle, the pseudonyms, the surprisingly normal “working creator” backstory, and the pivot from horror shorts and writing into kid-friendly projects and then adult animated “versus” movies. From there, we unpack the most unhinged loglines in the BC Fourteen cinematic universe, including Bigfoot vs. Krampus and the larger web of Trump vs. the Illuminati style entries that seem engineered for discoverability on streaming.

Transcript

Cold Open And Content Warning

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Get the hell out of my mind.

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Get out of there. We got a bit of a things to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Gentlemen, let's run our minds.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Record. That wasn't very original. Record? It's accurate.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Is it the Illuminati versus podcast?

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Is that what it's Bigfoot and Dispatch Ajax closer than you think?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Krampus versus Dispatch Ajax.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

We'd like to give a warning up front. This podcast is best enjoyed with at least three alcoholic beverages of your choice. And one of ours. That was actually a sort of a paraphrasing of warning from a movie by Jason Trost, because I went down a tube hole. Ah, the tubi holes. Which would just be a tube, I guess. Jason Trost makes movies that are relatively similar to our topic today. I don't know who this is. Well, he did one called The FP. He did All Superheroes Must Die. The one I was watching is really douchey.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Oh. I know. Okay. I've died. I'm aware.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Yeah, he's just this California upper middle class kid who had access to the movie industry and made a bunch of douchey movies. But I don't necessarily think they're mean spirit. Well, anyway, you judge for yourself. It's a lot of weird cultural appropriation and white people using a lot of black patois. I don't know. Patois. It's very, very white Californian. So caution to anyone.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Tubular.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

No. No, I I wish it was that innocent.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Uh sounds pretty bodacious to me, dude.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

A lot of the C-word, a lot of the use of the word twat, which surprised me.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Interesting. The C-word came up in the films of this particular gentleman. We'll be speaking of soon.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

The naval vessel, the C-word?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

One of our proudest exploratory naval vessels.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

All aboard the USS Kunt! Seaword and beyond!

SPEAKER_02 2:32

We're going down in the depth of the skunt. Plumbing the depths of the seaword.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

It's more of a submersible, really, if you're doing it right.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

You spent a lot of time lower decks, huh?

SPEAKER_01 2:42

If you really get adventurous, you can go on the poop deck.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Uh yeah, just uh make sure that you spend most of your time below C deck. Because that's where the C-word really comes to life. So welcome to Dispatch of Ajax. I'm Skip.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

I'm Jake.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah. So today we're we're talking about something really weird. It's gonna be short and

Falling Into The Tubi Algorithm

SPEAKER_02 3:00

bitter, but I went down a tube hole. Not a tube tube, just a tube.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

And not a boob tube?

SPEAKER_02 3:07

If you were aware, fair audience, of how tubi's algorithm works, it's actually pretty spot on for recommendations during its autoplay. Especially if you're into like weird qu w geeky quirky shit. It definitely sort of like well, at least it used to. It might have gotten worse recently, but essentially, my I don't want to say AI, but uh automated Tubi algorithm eventually while I was doing other things. In fact, I think I'd left the house and come back, stumbled across a film by a director named, and this is his legal name, BC 14.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Well technically it's not, but we'll get to it.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Well, I read a lot of that too. That is his handle, and that's what he goes by. Do not confuse that with the Black Run indie film company out of New York, BC 14. The numbers. We're talking about BC14, 14 spelled out. Correct. The man who has written and directed things you wouldn't possibly imagine.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Which one did it did it bring you? Did the magic service delight your eyes with?

SPEAKER_02 4:12

I believe it was Van Helsing.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

I believe it was, yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Yeah. Who was in that movie somehow a weird colonial marine?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Well, we'll get into that.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Uh I know you did some research. I did a little bit of research. Most of my work was the dirty work, watching the things. Which I do not recommend necessarily, though reviews are mixed as far as reaction from audiences. So let's see, what do you got? What did you find?

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Okay. So BC14 is an American screenwriter, novelist, film director, film editor, and actor. Now, BC14 is just one of his names. I believe that his legal name might be BC Fertney. F-U-R-T-N-E-Y.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Yes, that seems to be the consensus.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

But he has also gone under other pen names, such as Christopher Maitland, which is an homage to the Peter Cushing character in 1965's The Skull. True. But he has also gone other names like Denise Skulner. BC, he is, I believe, from Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh to be exact. And he's been a horror fan seemingly all of his life. Like you said, he's wanted to a horror guy. He started out making short films that went to festival circuit and won some contests.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yes, in fact, I'd like to interject just for a second because two of the things that he won contests for was he's the only director that has been included in both of Fangoria's Blood Drive releases, which were indie produced and then backed financially by Rob Zombie and Fangoria. One of which, the first one he's on, the original Blood Drive, also features a film of a guy that I know who lives here who directed Song of the Dead. His name is Chip. And so there was a lot of confusion when I first moved here. A lot of people thought that I was him. Because I wanted to make a zombie movie when I first moved here. And he was already doing it, and uh, we have very similar names. So uh I know that guy, I have known him for many years now, actually. He did some work with me, actually, but there is a local tie to that. So I understand the level of type of film that he would have started out creating. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Like most budding filmmakers, he began making short films. He was also he's written multiple novels. Tend to be of a horror variety, although he does enjoy noir elements in both of his films and his written work. He has also written for the This Is Horror magazine. He ran an article called Horror of Babylon. Get it? Hmm. I read some of those. That's a thing that I did. So now again, he started out, you know, as most normal working directors do. A lot of uh, you know, low budget, indie fair, some you know, live action, you know, stuff like New Terminal Hotel and things. Um, but uh you're standard horror fair, but I think he was kind of looking for some steady work, and then he got into some kids' films. He was doing Pup Scouts and Trolled and Wii Dragons and Penguin Rescue, lots of kid stuff, which was outside of what he was really interested in, at least from interviews that I have read and listened to. But at this time in his life, he him and his wife were having kids, and he wanted to he thought it was interesting to make something that could be enjoyed with the whole family at home. But then he was approached by a producer that he knew, supposedly a producer from Maui, is how he's described. We will get into this. There is very little information about any of the people that BC14 works with. The production companies, if you go to a ruthless

Who Is BC14 Really

SPEAKER_01 7:50

production, uh one of the studios that's that's uh distributed and produced a lot of his stuff, they have no website. I can find no address, I do not know how these things function. Seems legitimate. Maybe there's a secret Rolodex in Hollywood that you can figure out all of the production info, but otherwise, any standard simple Google search without paying for IMDB plus or whatever, I can't find anything. But he was offered a new venture. This is gonna take him far away from the kids' fair that he'd been doing. It was adult animation and supposedly had no rules. He could do whatever he wanted within the bounds what he was given. And I believe this began with the first film I saw, 2020's Trump vs. the Illuminati.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Oh boy. I think I may have started that at some point and then just abandoned it immediately. Or fallen asleep in my in into the state in which led me to put that movie on in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Now, I'm not gonna get necessarily into Trump versus the Illuminati. I would like to journey into the future, dear listeners, to a film a couple years after that called Bigfoot vs. Krampus.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Oh good.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Is the army mobilizing? Drone Ship 4 is picking up a flurry of activity on one of the Kerbalongs of Star Board.

unknown 9:28

Unless that's what ain't going down with this ship.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Let me just let me just reread this for you. With Christmas time approaching and the Illuminati forces on the retreat, the Allies are in high spirits. Space Roughncked Van Helsing considers taking his relationship with Allied Forces leader Princess Kali to the next level. Unfortunately, Satan is set to ruin the moment. From the depths of hell, every time, the wicked Lord of Darkness summons the demon spirit of Christmas, Krampus, to wreak havoc on the living. Upon hearing the news, the clone of magician Alistair Crowley joins forces with the reptilian form of General Stalin and the Illuminati to mount a Christmas Eve attack on the Allies, forcing Van Helsing and Kali to take drastic action. With help from the rowdy space rogue Bigfoot, that's that's how it's how it's written. I'm gonna say it exactly how it's written. The Allied forces bait a syndicate of monsters to help take down the fiendish Krampus and restore peace to the galaxy. Does that sound bat fucking shit and insane to you? Because it should. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

It's completely out there. Uh also great grasp on history. The magician, the Alistair Crowley, is uh quite a generous uh assessment, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, I think in an interview someone asked him about out his version of Alistair Crowley, and he said he wanted to just take the most far out wild aspects, both of the quote unquote uh magical abilities and the sexual deviances.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, the things that made him an asshole and a rapist, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

And like turn them up to a 10. Yeah, let's put that out there. Now, you might be asking yourself, what? How yes, fair. That seems like a quote. Okay. How this is done, apparently. He said that it started with Bigfoot vs. the Illuminati, which came out after Trump versus the Illuminati, that the producer came to him with outlandish premise, and he tried it. He said he lets the characters take the stage with a mix of horror, noir, and sci-fi. Okay. And he was given again no rules except for a few things the producer wanted in there. One so so a few rules. Most of the films are a versus. So a lot of the stuff he's done, uh Trump versus Illumnati, Bigfoot vs. Lumnati, Bigfoot vs. Megalodon, Bigfoot vs. Krampus, Bigfoot vs. Megalodon 2, Bigfoot vs. Megalodon Resurrection. The verses were a staple and needed to be in the film. Apparently, BC14 uh pushed back on some of that because in a lot of these, these characters did not actually fight, sometimes never even interacted. Yep. So he didn't feel that comfortable with that aspect, and through later iterations, wanted a big fight piece spectacle at the end to give a film a resolution. Because if you watch a lot of these, they just kind of trail off.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Yes, they they just kind of meander into not being on anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yes, the plot dwindles, and then the credits come up. Yep. But he was given license to pack every crazy thing he could think of, and he took that, you know, those reins by the teeth, and just threw in everything he could because he had been cooped up making kids' films for so long, so he was just throwing crazy shit at the wall. And he was able to do this because he wasn't using actors or sets or you know, those other things that live action films do, because this these are all CGI animated films that apparently are made with Unreal Engine, the uh video game tool.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Although BC said he doesn't really know, he's not really involved in that. Like apparently, it all goes through the producer, and then BC gets the animation in blocks that he cuts from that and then kind of works the dialogue into those scenes. Ah, the Marvel method. Yeah, and he's apparently asked for some specific things like the getting actual fights at the end of films put in, but mostly he's just kind of given a title and some CGI story boundaries, and then kind of runs with that. And so these films tend to be the Unreal Engine character bits. Almost nobody talks. You'll get a lot of these things where people are wearing masks or helmets or are giant grotesque beasts that don't really move their mouth, and then they're intercut with whatever stock footage that the production company has licensed, and they just kind of construct a narrative out of that that is tends to be as off the wall as you can think.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Oh, yeah. You can tell. I mean, there's a reason, and I'm sure we'll get to this in a second, but I'm there's a reason that people think these are written and or performed uh by AI, which is a debate, but I don't think is true, and we can sort of prove why.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Correct. Although I do have some questions about some of it. There is a what develops from here is what some might call the BC 14 cinematic universe.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Boy, oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

And it is a a long weaving plot between all of these movies. They're all set in a far future, generally space-based, involving Trump. Uh, or like what's become uh Chinese clones of Trump in the far future that are helping quote the allies against the Illuminati, which are these aliens, kind of kind of gray-ish, kind of a mix between grays and reptilians, and they are also influenced by Satan, exactly what you think, who likes to work with Krampus, you know, a version of Krampus you can think, but imagine. All right, skip. Yep, here's a deep cut. Do you remember Plokoon the Jedi?

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

How would you describe Plokoon?

SPEAKER_02 15:22

If I'm remembering the right one, is he the one with the yellow lightsaber?

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Um, I don't remember what his light. Let's see. Let's uh lightsaber color is yellow. You are correct, sir.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

He seems like a Voyager also ran alien.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Plocoon was one of those interesting Star Wars prequel characters because he had a breathing mask and like cybernetic eyes. And it's like, oh, this guy looks interesting. I sure hope I get to see and find out more about him. Nope. Nope. Fucks off. But Krampus reminds me of him because he has the same kind of gask mask a lot of times. Why? Of course, like Krampus famously does. I think just so they don't have to, again, animate the mouth. Yeah, Bigfoot seems to be the one who's talking the most, and this is imagine a version of Bigfoot, but he has a bunch of spiky teeth, but they wanted the character to kind of sound like fat Albert, so he's like, hey, I'm Bigfoot. I want to go fuck some ladies. And that's kind of stuff he he says. Because that's funny. Uh in quotes. And he pairs up a lot of times with Jack Van Helsing, who's a long descendant clone from yes, the Bram Stoker Van Helsing. Is he fighting any vampires in any of these? No, it's just a name that I guess sounded

From Kids Films To Versus Movies

SPEAKER_01 16:40

fun. So they went with that. There's a lot of blending of other things. There's Osiris and Anubis that are kind of blended into one god being that they mess with.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

But they talk about the Anunnaki a lot too in those in those.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

The Anunnaki come up again, the Anunnaki, the Illuminati, lots of buzzwords. I think this is how it kind of probably got into my feed originally.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

It's word cloud. Essentially, he's making films with word clouds. Yeah. The sort of cyber version of Mad Libs.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

It's special. So there's very little out there on BC14. I found that there was somebody, apparently on Reddit, somebody like a guy and his friend, they watched all 30 plus BC14 films and started a podcast about it. From I don't think that's still extant. I could not find it archived anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

No, in fact, it's been taken down from SoundCloud and everywhere else that I can find. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah. I I saw that BC14 got on Reddit a few times and interacted with people asking about his universe.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

I saw that.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Then deleted his account.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

I actually have that up right now. The he the this is how bizarre that is. Somebody posted on Reddit. Can someone please explain BC14 to me? And then he started talking about how it feels like AI generated, he really wants to like it. He kind of breaks down exactly what we just said, points out that a lot of the dialogue is ADR, which I'm sure it is, though there are current like Well, it has to be, it's all like CGI. Well, I mean, sh fair, but it seems like additional dialogue recording. So like not just voiced over. They went in later when what they got whatever animation back and then added more dialogue to try and make the narrative make sense, I guess, though it never does. And so his final statement here is well, he says, So my question is, is BC14 an AI or is this some elaborate multi-year performance art piece that just went way over my head? And then the first response, this was two years ago, from a deleted account, uh, not AI, maybe the latter, though going over anyone's head wasn't the intention. Bigfoot's sci-fi universe is meant to have fun, okay? You may find lots of Easter eggs in the dialogue. Best served with the beverage of your choice and not taken too seriously. Thanks for watching, BC. So he did create a Reddit account, go on here to comment, and then deleted his account. Yeah. The thread is full of people going, oh, he deleted his account, shit.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

If you scroll down, also apparently his wife created an account to comment on some of that as well. This is Jennifer 14.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Jennifer 14, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Is also in many of his films.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Which is funny because that was actually to her just AOL instant messenger handle. What a coincidence that she married a guy named 14.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Yeah. So in the more recent time, now he's he's begun to expand. So BC14 doesn't just love his CGI slop, wild, crazy future battles like the time travel and cybernetic giant megalodons, and fighting for Christmas versus Satan, and oh god, what was I saw what like Lucifer's in a wheelchair because the Kennedys shot him?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Apparently that's that's not officially in canon. Supposedly he brought that up in a podcast interview, but it's not officially in canon.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

This world. If you do want a little more complete sense of this cinematic universe, the podcast Horror for the Holidays, a podcast where a couple guys they go through holiday-themed horror films. Oh they did one on Krampus versus Bigfoot, and then they did an addendum called Stocking Stuffers episode 37 into the BC 14 universe, where one of the hosts, bless his soul, he watched and put together the cobbled timeline of like 15 of these films and how they flow from one into the other and how the story evolves. Question mark. But if you'd like to know how some of this stuff comes together, it is that. Apparently, BC has said that he's not a big Trump guy and that he's quote, calling it down the middle. Oh, Jesus. But I believe that he and his producer found oh, this is what sells. When he put out Trump versus the Illuminati, it got written up in the New York Times.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

It made mainstream circles. So, like, oh, okay, this is good. We can we can roll with this. And so he has gone on to do what have been titled documentaries. I suppose he's mostly saying facts in these. I've watched, honestly,

Bigfoot Vs Krampus Plot Breakdown

SPEAKER_01 21:30

some of a couple to kind of get a flavor of what he was doing. He has multiple Trump ones from Power to Prison, The Trump Story, Part One and Two, Mega Trump, a few different things. He also has what is I'd say has a symbiotic relationship with the versus films. And this is pairing a character from fiction and a character of salacious nature from our history. So this is Bundy and the Wolfman, closer than we think. A Dahmer and Frankenstein. Closer than we think. There are uh uh Manson and Dracula, closer than we think. It's using stock footage. It is utilizing footage uh databases and pictures, and I guess trying to see how these two are similar. I don't really know if I guess what are the bounds of a documentary? Yeah, that's a problem. It feels more like to be clickbait than anything, which hey, should I knock the man for his hustle? You know, I mean it's working for him. We can't argue with the hustle, man.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Is it art if that's the case? That's a debate to be had.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Uh that's a good question. When I was working on this episode and then watching some stuff and then thinking about it, my first inclination, you know, is the same thing I thought after I first watched Trump vs. Illuminati some six years ago. I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Ugh.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

This is weird and ridiculous. And is it is it AI doing this? You know, uh a lot of the the credits on these films, the actors, the the storyboardist, people like this, they've only worked on these films. Yep. That's it. And then if you look them up, I can't find much of anything about most of these actors. And you're like, well, are they real people?

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Right. I mean, that is a genuine question.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

I I don't know. But I again I was thinking about this, and my first clination is like uh a bit of apprehension, a bit of like, oh, this is some some bad movie schlock that maybe goes for it a bit too much. It's just trying to be out there and wild for wild's sake and for the to be clicks. But then I was thinking that one, this doesn't really seem to be BC 14s. He is the writer, director, editor, actor, and a lot of this stuff, but for at least from what he says, he's he said this producer from Maui approached him with these things and kind of gave him like, hey, do something about Trump and the Illuminati in space and just go wild. And he started writing these things and making them, and he's continued on. I believe this gentleman might be Randall Finnings. He seems to be the only producer that is with most of this, at least all of the versus universe. He seems to be the guy there. I think he was the one who pushed all of this and set this in motion, and he is that the man behind the curtain pulling all of these strings. So maybe this should be the Finnings universe. Because I think he's the guy who wanted this done. And BC, it's like, I'm looking for work, it's a steady gig. I just write a bunch of wild stuff. The quality is certainly debatable. Is he is he having fun doing bonkers things, writing uh particularly poor dialogue, unfunny scenes, certainly uninteresting characters and action, but combining them all into a hodgepodge of what the fuck? And right, this is weird. That just happened. Can I fault him for that? You know, should I? Part of it's kind of the American dream, you know? Yeah, he falls into this, he just riding this wave and it keeps on pushing along. He keeps making more movies.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yeah, the producer you're referring to kind of reminds me of like the Sulkines or something, you know. They had this idea of what the kind of slop they wanted to put out, or it's very it feels very canon coded, but in the modern digital age.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah, and I think going through these other asylum adjacent or uh you know sub-asylum, Rutus Productions or Wow Now Entertainment, oh boy, uh MVD shop. These companies who are putting this stuff out, and I'm guessing it's pretty cheap to make. Well, it has to be. It looks pretty cheap to make, and there's a lot of reusing of footage. I don't know how long it takes some of these people to make their Unreal Engine things, especially since they don't have to like work hard on mouths, eyes, right? Anything looking or feeling real.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

And a lot of the movements of the characters are very obviously templates that have been set up uh ahead of time, probably that are available for free, or even maybe with a charge or whatever. But like you can download these templates that will make characters walk and move in a certain way. I mean, because I don't know if you noticed any of the stuff in those films, but like all of the like you know, space marines or whatever, they walk with a swagger.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

There's a bounce that like comes from the knees to the hips to the shoulders that isn't normal human machinations.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Unless it's performative. And it's weird because every human character uses the same swagger. And also Bigfoot. And Bigfoot's a part of it. Well, he's a big part of it. He is.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

If we were to name like the main character, it would be Bigfoot. Bigfoot is the through line for a lot of this.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Yeah, he's not in everything, but he's in most of them. Sometimes it's just at the end, the first one I watch, literally ends with Bigfoot going, hmm, I heard noises or whatever, and then he's like, I better go investigate, and then shows his weird swagger as he walks from some other part of a different movie, I I guess. And then it ends.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

It's a weird yeah. All of these films begin in Media Res. And then they just kind of end, and then another film starts, but there's never like connecting material.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Do you think at this point, with the volume and number of films that they're putting out, do you think that is designed specifically for streaming now? Because they know it's gonna autoplay, and so it's almost like a uh a soap opera by default.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Yeah, no, that's that's probably a good idea to point out. I think that's that's definitely a part of it. I think also not having to write uh an intro or beginning or an end, really. Right. You just roll with your ideas and just drop them wherever you like.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Yeah, I mean, is this not maybe the new model for streaming content where it's like we're keeping the audience engaged by not really giving you a three-act story structure necessarily, but sort of pulling the the soap opera playbook, flowing one into the other with brief recap as your first act, and then no actual denue ma, but instead a pseudo-to-be continued. The people behind this, money-wise and production-wise, I feel like maybe they believe they're getting in on a ground floor of another hustle. Not just the buzzword appeal, and not just with the versus stuff

Unreal Engine Aesthetics And Editing

SPEAKER_02 28:40

and all that, which works with certain algorithms or whatever. They're only basically on Tubi. And they know that Tubi has an algorithm about what to play next. Maybe they think they're playing into that as an in-road that gives them a leg up, to use a lot of metaphors, all mixed together in a blender there. Do you think that that's their angle here? Do you get that impression?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

I don't know if that's how they started, but I think as the snowball has gained momentum, I think it fits nicely in their niche.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Right. Well, like you said, there's a difference between BC 14 specifically and some of the money that comes in and the producer that he has to sort of like go through. So is that part on BC 14, or is that you think uh a design by, or at least maybe a happy accident by the higher ups that that finance it?

SPEAKER_01 29:33

What the structure or the ideas?

SPEAKER_02 29:36

No, no, he he comes up with the ideas, but the the structure, the idea of exploiting the algorithm of 2B and things like that. I think that's probably right.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

One that's had to come from somewhere. I'd be really fascinated if we could get a Genesis point for starting this versus universe and what the long-term play was. I mean, was this a passion thing from this producer? It's like, hey, I want you to make this just do whatever you want, just as long as it's versus. I want Trump and aliens in there, and you know, just go wild after that. And then BC was like, hey, I I can write this out in an afternoon. I I could I got this gig and yeah, you know, then it it just became what he does.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yeah, the impression I get just from looking at the timeline and the output, it is easy to think that it's AI generated writing and or voiceover, uh, because that's what it feels like, no matter how old these are. But I mean, ChatGPT didn't come out until late 2022. So a lot of these movies predate that. So unless he figured out how to do an AI model way beforehand, I doubt that's the case.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

BC14 is actually a pseudonym for John T Dor, and this is what he came back in time for.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

This is what John T Dor came back in time for. Not uh not to save humanity, but to make a bunch of schlocky shitty direct-to-video streaming bullshit animated by somebody else.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

What if this was the future mythology of civilization 200 some years in the future?

SPEAKER_02 31:08

So John T Dor is a future Ken Burns trying to point out how bullshit our media consumption is. Okay. Hey, why not? That's more plausible than a lot of the shit that happens in these movies. Alright. I guarantee you it's not, at least at first, straight up AI writing. You go back to his filmography, it's starting in like 2018. He's writing what, like 10 movies a year. It's fucking crazy the output. But after quote AI, and we've talked about this a lot, becomes a thing, his output increases almost exponentially. So he claimed, in the very few times he's talked about any of it, that he writes all of it. Sure. And I do buy that if the case is that he puts this stuff together, they animate it, and then he has to rewrite shit around it. Okay. That makes more sense. And also is why it sounds like what we think of as AI generated. It is incoherent and it is just desperately trying to do the Marvel method with bad animation and and horrible output that he has to then retroactively save. It would make sense if he is using AI now. He's putting out a fuck ton of stuff now per year. At least was until relatively recently.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

He certainly didn't start out this way. No. But whether the producer or BC14 himself, whether they've started it already, it will happen in the future. If I was the producer, do I need to hire BC14? Could I license his name and just let AI do it after this?

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Right. Is the purpose to make good films or is the purpose of a filmmaker to stay relevant and make money? Uh in that sense, now you're in um, is it Aranoski that's been doing that AI bullshit?

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Yeah, he's the one who's trying to get make his AI short films, I believe, about It's the revolutionary whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

I sadly saw a trailer the other day, and then it turned out it was a trailer for the new season of Outlander, and I was like, oh what? Come what? What is going on?

SPEAKER_01 33:10

I didn't know they were still making Outlander.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

The last season. That's the trailer I saw. And I was like, oh, really? Oh, so that's real, and with people I like behind it. Weird. Because it feels like an AI slot bullshit. And I would like to say it it is pretty easy to pick out AI slop in videos. I know a lot of people get duped, a lot of uncles, and a lot of We're we're uncles. Well, we're unc now, I guess, sure. But a lot of like even our uncles and our fucking in-laws or whatever are fooled by AI. With my former in-law one time, I had to explain in a long argument, not argument, but a long dissertation, I guess. He was watching a Chiefs game and the score didn't reflect the final score. And I had to explain that it was because he was watching a video game simulation of the full game that had come out the same day that he thought was live gameplay.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

He couldn't tell the difference?

SPEAKER_02 34:08

Oh yeah. Exactly. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Oh my god. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

I mean, if we talk about real world stuff, the use of AI-generated disinfo, that is what will dominate after that. The next election cycle, oh, it's gonna be everywhere. And it's gonna have major ramifications.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Yeah, but at the same time, a lot of that is subsidized. It doesn't actually have any basis in real economics. So, like, everyone says, oh, it's cheap now and we can replace people with this, yada yada yada. That's not true. It can't

Is It AI Or Performance Art

SPEAKER_02 34:40

possibly bear out that way. Most of it is subsidized, and most of that stuff, the the actual compute and generation time and cost are actually way more expensive than just having people do it. But right now, the money is being th jizzed all over them by venture capitalists in a lot of illegal ways, also, uh, other companies that have weird circular investment schemes like with NVIDIA. So I don't think that's going to last as long as people think it is. These movies, though, kind of obscure that, or kind of baffling, because they feel like they're AI, but actually they're probably just bad writing based on bad game engine CGI. Today it might be a little different.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Yeah, it's an interesting oddity.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

It's an oddity, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

It does seem like that he is aware of what he's making, that he's taking the piss with a lot of things, and he's enjoying just putting wacky stuff out there. Which, you know, hey, have fun, get paid. I don't think any of us should make look at it. Yeah, he writes other things and he's written books and and other shows, and he has live action production stuff that he's doing as well, because I think he actually does have a drive to do something. But when it was all sudden done, when BC Fertiny or BC14 or Denise Schoolner or Christopher Maitland, whoever it is, actually gets put in the ground, it is the Finnings versus uh BC 14 universe, is what he will be remembered for. Right. If we remember any of this in the far future, Wastelands.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

You know, maybe one of the reasons that he sort of like uses a pseudo-seudonym, because you know, well, at least early on he wanted to be called something else, so he wasn't directly tied to this stuff specifically necessarily. But now that pseudonym became more advantageous and more recognizable and became sort of a brand that he could run on, like asylum or or something like that. So yeah, maybe it's gonna be one of those like I made a deal with the devil type things, and then it's gonna define what he does.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

For good or ill, you know. Uh yeah, we found it, we found it interesting enough to look into and discuss.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Because there's a lot of it.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

There's a lot of that shit out there. There's a lot of it, and I think if you were with uh a few friends, I think you put a BC 14 on in the background while you're drinking, you're gonna look up and be like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah, but in a fun way. He definitely doesn't take any of this seriously. No, and I don't think he thinks any of it's high art. I think it's questionable and debatable whether that's a good or bad thing, but he's making a living, he's having a good time, and he's putting out some weird stuff into the universe. I think there's gonna be kids who see this, take that in, and then put something, you know, doubling down on that out in the future, and then you gotta question like what's that gonna be like?

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Right. It's not like it's Ben Shapiro's production company. It's just a buzzword that he's using for that angle, it's not some propagandist bullshit. Especially if you watch that movie, it doesn't have anything really to do with that. It's completely absurd and doesn't really flatter or boost Trump in any way, except in this hilariously uh cartoonish way. And if he's doing it just for the clicks and for the money, hey, you know, good on you. Making your way in the world. Especially in the the environment we have today.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Mm-hmm. And if he's doing it for the love of the game, hey, have at it, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Yeah, I mean you and Scorsese might not get along, but I get it. Making your way in the world today is takes everything you've got. To quote the theme song. Well, okay, sure, yeah. Uh god, the show's our age. Yeah, essentially that's it. He's a weird dude who makes weird stuff and is generic and as overarchingly uh blanketed as that sounds. It's actually pretty accurate. Even to his admission, he's just a guy who likes weird things and puts in weird stuff in movies and makes weird movies. Okay. Alright, I guess that's it. Yeah. What else is there about it?

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Okay, so he mentioned three comics on this particular interview that he had on his shelf that he was getting ready to read.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Quick take. Savage Sword of Conan. Ooh. Nice. And Shadow Force. The image comics? No, no, the DC Shadow Force.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

I don't remember Shadow Force. I was thinking of Shadow Hawk. Shadow Force? I know Tomb of Dracula, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

No, Night Force.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Oh. The sort of pseudo-horror.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Yeah, Night Force. I think I I I wrote it down wrong. If you want, we could re- just retake that.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

Wow. Is he a product of the 80s and 90s, just like us? Uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

He's

AI Slop Anxiety And Real Costs

SPEAKER_01 39:30

a just a few years older than us. Yeah. But I mean, at least hey, it's a deep cut.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_01 39:35

I mean, I'm not a huge Night Force guy, but you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

No. Not very many people were. Swite does not exist anymore. I I do remember that though. I remember thinking it was like a fun DC going into at that time was Marvel Territory with uh occult. Well, I guess they were both doing it. Occult, super powered stuff. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

Yeah, I I don't think it ran super long. It was just 14 issues, so I think he had the omnibus on the shelf that he talked about.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

It is funny though that he takes inspiration from comics that are very specifically just horror fantasy comics.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

He seems to be a total horror head. Right. If you see all of the stuff his passion projects seem to be, you know, horror films and horror books and horror articles, that's what he's into. He just kind of gets sucked into something else that pays the bills.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

It's not for us to judge him for that. We can individually and sort of in a vacuum criticize the films and even overarchingly criticize the process in which they were made and and the money behind it and all that. We can definitely criticize that, but it's really hard for us to fault a guy for getting a steady job doing what he likes to do. Even if he doesn't have the luxury of being like like a Scorsese or somebody like that who can just make whatever he wants when he wants.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

And even if he's not like a Neil Breen or one of those cult filmmakers who's just making you know weird passion projects. He's a working guy, he's putting in the work, he's getting paid, he's making some wild stuff that I think, again, with a few choice beverages can be enjoyed as it's meant to be.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Mm-hmm. Well, you know, have at it. I've seen I've seen his movies pop up on mostly Tubi, but whatever technique they're using apparently works. And for good or ill, he's carving his way out and making himself relevant and and and making a limit. Good for good on him, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

And I I I I would guess we're gonna see more of that in the future as people see this work.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

And I don't think his work is as cynical as Asylum is.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Yeah, he's definitely like he's carving his own path, which is why it it sticks out.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Um I think he's laughing the whole way to the bank, that guy. Honestly. Oh yeah. Okay, good on him. They're not gonna say like I love this shit, because most of it is pretty much unwatchable, but hey.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Yeah, you know. Have at it. Do your thing, enjoy in moderation audience.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

Yeah, please do. And always with a sponsor.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Do not watch a BC 14s by yourself.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Please have a moderator or a spotter. Because they require heavy drugs andor alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

So check your carabiner, make sure your lifeline is fully secured.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Make sure you've written a letter to your friends and family. You don't make it out.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

If I'm not done with this BC 14 film, just wait longer. Make another. We hope you've uh enjoyed. Go check out a BC 14 film for yourself. Draw your own conclusions. Do your own research with your own Unreal Engine of uh Toonami Tom and Toonami Tom. I mean that's what I thought of like when I was whenever I watched those. It's just Toonami Tom is banging other Toonami Tom atlets and hanging out with Bigfoot. It's about right.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Say maybe the Tsunami Tom might be a better animated, but what was that one adult swim show that was extremely absurdist? Uh it was like some dude in the desert.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

Um so you use your powers to save people?

SPEAKER_02 43:07

Powers are for the weak. I have no powers. I mean, unless you count the power to blow minds. It felt exactly like that. I'm trying to remember what it was called. That's what I should have looked up.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Okay, yeah. Um we'd

Final Thoughts Plus Listener Homework

SPEAKER_01 43:20

like to thank you all for again go see a BC 14 film for yourself. But while you're doing that, if you wouldn't mind like, sharing, and subscribing, rate us five Van Helsing's on the podcast app of your choice. Didn't go Bigfoot? Apple. You know what? I kind of hate the Bigfoot.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Yeah, his Bigfoot is a douchebag.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Yeah, I I hate this cinematic version of Bigfoot. Van Helsing's a douchebag too. All of his characters are pieces of shit. That's another thing that we could have talked about, but that's uh neither here nor there. Again, thank you all for sticking around, checking out uh a weird cinematic niche that maybe you weren't aware of before. Come back and see what we bring for you next time. But until they get lost in the deep end against Krampus, Lucifer, Satan, Anubis, Osiris, Time Travel, Bigfoot, Van Helsing, Princess Kalia, and Tickles the Clown. Uh, that's all I could think of off the top of my head, which is kind of sick when you think about it. Uh Skip, what should they do?

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Well, if they just happen to be in the audience when Tickles the Clown and Trump face off in a half-filled swimming pool, I would suggest that they pay their tabs. Make sure they have tickle the hot, tickle hot day. Until then, make sure they have paid their tabs, cleaned up after themselves in some sort of reasonable degree. Make sure they have tipped their bartenders, their weight staff, their KJs, their DJs, their podcasters, and supported the local comic shops and retailers. From Dispatch Ajax, we would like to say no matter where you go, there you are. Thank you, and good night.