We are starting to see the works of some producers at regular intervals. Which is a good thing. This is a good way for allows us to follow the development of AI software. There are few ways to get a more in-depth view of the changes then in a contest. Contests bring out some of the best competitive instincts in film artists. Just look at the winners chosen for Peter Gabriel’s Stability AI/#DiffuseTogether contest. Mr. Gabriel understands the potential of AI music video development, may be the reason he is using this contest to develop videos for the songs on his new album i/o. This week we highlight one of these videos. This video was created by Junie Lau as part of this competition.
While you are on Peter Gabriel's YouTube channel check out some of the other video he has chosen for his new album. We recommend the video to Panopticom (Dark-Side Mix). While reviewing the videos here I got to thinking about the title for this video "Panopticom" and checked it out. What I was thinking of was "panopticon" — which is a design of an institutional building — likely a prison — designed by Jeremy Bentham. Producer Stephen Grzanowski aka Vnderworld, may have considered this meaning when developing the video. Reading the description on the video helps with understanding its narrative.
With all the AI videos blazing across our screens we find some very unique videos. The first is from the National Speleological Society. Yes. That’s correct. Spelunkers. From the mind and camera of Chuck Sutherland here is brilliant play of abstract images and light from far below the planet’s surface.
Once again we see a video from Rex Pearson and watching it is like pushing pause on all that happened in the crazy world this last week. Rex is doing an acoustic piece here. But I have to admit, after watching this beautiful and lazy float down a river in the English countryside, I went to his channel and watched him shed his Ibanez with a cover of Joe Satriani’s “Surfing With The Alien.” There are other ways to take a deep breath.
By the way, if you're interested why we are seeing more work from the same producers, it is because they hashtag their videos with #tikikiti. We’ve discovered these producers are good at what they do and want to do more of this work. All of us in this business have been there.
When you tell someone you’re making a music video, do they snicker? If so, point them to our YouTube channel for a history of the last five years as told by the music video. At TikiKiti, we’re all paying more attention to the music video’s future. The following videos show this.
From Spain we have Jesus Plaza who brings us this beautiful AI video to "Y de Repente Despiertas" by Salak. Ribbons of color flow by in this abstract dreamscape set to music. Plaza writes in the video description how he developed this video and he reinforces what we already know — that making a good AI video is a lot of work and takes dedication. "The music video, ... is a shared voyage into Salak's imaginative universe. Plaza has transformed dozens of conversations between them into a visual masterpiece, exclusively using images generated by artificial intelligence.The workflow has been intense. More than 600 prompts were used to generate images, which eventually became 160 videos that had to be edited and refined to achieve the final result.
The abstract video productions dominated this week, but not all were AI. From South Korea we have "Extras" by Milano. AMDD produced this video. As mentioned, this is an abstract video with some brilliant camera work. But it was the dancing guy (I think) in the fuzzy blue suit that really threw me off — very abstract indeed.
From Singapore we have this video from Naim Follebouckt to the song "Parasail" by Travis Scott. For the longest time TikiKiti has been treating the music video as an art form and not just a marketing tool for the big record labels. This beautifully edited production highlights the music video as art. Some of the best drone photography we've seen. The camera work seems simple. However, it is anything but simple. It takes patience and a lot of work to edit these shots to make a video of this caliber. Such a pleasure to see a producer embracing the idea of the music video being an art form.
BP Video Syd us Brian Poulsen from Denmark, and he produced this video to "When the Ships Arrive" by Guano Apes. This lush video reminds me of a movie from the 1950s. The storyline goes, "The lady wants to leave her husband, who's out sailing. He doesn't treat her well. When he's at home he treats her horribly and when he's out she's left in an empty vacuum." It was BP Video Syd who introduced us to The Backyard Babies, part of Sweden's sleaze rock scene. But Brian has a diverse style and has been building an incredible portfolio.
This beautiful and lush video is a ballet in primary colors that dance across your screen. From Spain, Optimoos (aka Jorge Dugule) is another producer who we have been following lately. It's difficult to remember when he first came to our attention. Maybe it as "The Best AI Animation For Nonverbal Autism." But we also saw "Skibidi Toilet - Loneliness" — an animation based on the Skibidi Toilet trend. We always look forward to videos from Optimoos.
Back in real life we have this fun rap by Gaito/Tokyolittleboy to "Go" from Nerd)Jiro. It starts off in a barber's chair and ends up on the streets. Gaito/Tokyolittleboy, an art student, has a variety of excellent video he produced taken from all over the world.
As we mentioned earlier Rex Pearson brings us another of his videos — and he never fails to impress. What better way to spend a late summer day then to float down a river in England. Ever day we hear about the world falling apart. What a welcome relief it is to get lost in this video with Rex and his crews. And the crew is certainly noteworthy by the excellent crew he has working with him. Particularly with the vocals of Saskia Pattinson and his band including Oz Dechaine on bass and Max Burton on drums. Behind the scenes there is Meadow Arminger who directs and operates a camera. With the excellent audio quality we have to mention Asher Garcia as the lead audio engineer. There is no shortage of impressive performances from Rex on his channel — well worth the time.
By far, the biggest surprise this week comes from National Speleological Society (Yes! Cave explorers.) From the mind and camera of Chuck Sutherland comes this brilliant abstract of light and shapes 1000 feet underground. This award winning video has some of the most creative the camera work we have seen. On the surface (pun intended) it seems as if it's just a series of cave images. But Sutherland does something different. He uses a moving light to show us how the texture and nature of these images changes as he moves the light around. He shows us this incandescent world and all the amazing patterns and colors that few people know even exist. He shows us the beautiful helictite called Bubba's Hand. His techniques shows how phosphorescent this world is. We see that this alien world is not alien at all, but under us. It took me awhile before I realized this is not a video of still images — just a very still world. All set to the music of "The Tired Road to Hope & Peace" by Those Who Ride With Giants. Checking out other videos on their channel is recommended.
As we get down to the top two videos we have two familiar faces — so to speak. Here at #2 is PaulG and the Invisible Twangonauts coming back to our Top-10 with this video to their song Twangonaut Bubble Gum. The video description says, in part, "...the President has announced the first successful moon landing by a Twangvarian Twangonaut, and a national Bubble Gum holiday has been declared." Another trip back to the 50s and 60s. But this is how the Twangonauts roll. There music and videos are inspired by a narrative. In this case that narrative is full of lizards, spies, and the Queen of Twangvaria just to name a few of their characters. They say they are inspired by @TheWhyFiles — a channel as they say, "...for people who are fascinated (obsessed) with mysteries, myths, legends and conspiracies."
The #1 video for the week is part of Peter Gabriel’s Stability AI/#DiffuseTogether contest. As we said above Mr. Gabriel understands the possibilities of theAI music video and how its development is important to the future of the music video. Which may be the reason why he is using this contest to develop videos for the songs on his new album i/o. This week we highlight one of these videos. This video was created by Junie Lau as part of this competition. Visit his YouTube channel to see the videos from this contest. All have been featured in our past Top-10 lists. This is the first to come in at #1.
