This Week’s Overview; I have a pet Bearded Dragon called Little Brother. picture attached.
Conceptual Context; This little goon has been getting older, roughly one and a half years old, which means he’s entering the teenage phase of his lifespan. Because of this, due to a number of reasons like growing too big for his enclosure, temperature, food or attention, (very teenage dramas), he’s been scritching away at the walls and glass. Inspired by this putz’s plight, our group decided to conceive a narrative of his escape, a thrilling adventure and a tale of self-acceptance, familial love and discovering who you are.
Group Prompt; Write a synopsis for a short film about a bearded dragon that is experiencing puberty and a rollercoaster of emotions. Ultimately he wants to find other dragons that he can relate with, but to do that, he needs to escape from his owner’s home. The family love him so much and go on a big hunt to find him. The hunt lasts for 4 days and they get very close to finding him, however something always gets in the way.
GPT Synopsis; ‘Meet LB, a bearded dragon undergoing puberty, which triggers a wild ride of emotions. Yearning for connection with his own kind, LB plots an escape from his loving family. His goal: to find fellow dragons who understand him. LB’s family soon notices his absence and launches a four-day search, filled with comical mishaps. Despite being close to finding LB, fate continually intervenes. Meanwhile, LB faces challenges and discovers unexpected allies in the outside world. As the family and LB’s paths converge, LB learns that his longing for connection is mirrored by his family’s love. The tale explores adolescence, family bonds, and self-discovery, reminding us that true connections might be closer than we think.’
Here’s a direct copy-paste into MusicGen of the above synopsis’ results;
A tantalizing piece I found. About at the 7 second mark, the strings sort of meld into this modulating-harpy-synth chorus which inspired me to try this same prompt with an addendum at the end saying “in the droning style of Blade Runner” which themes fit with the example in the previous piece, as well as Little Brother’s temperature light neon saturated cage in which he’s kept. Here’s the result;
A little too mechanical and grim, not really picking up on the long, waning synth of the original Blade Runner, almost sounding like the thumping action music from its 2049 sequel. So, I made the adjustments saying “in an upbeat synth Blade Runner style ballad”. Here’s how that turned out;
Really taking the upbeat into account. I suppose a bit more fitting, though still not very Blade Runner even if it has the synth. I thought I’d pivot from here to a different genre, as during our brainstorming we took Rango into inspiration, a movie with a very similar premise. I made the addendum “in a playful mariachi band type song” which sounds like;
Fitting for Rango, certainly. Little Brother’s journey, maybe not. It really takes the keyword ‘Mariachi’ and runs with it! It is very interesting how the trumpet or whatever the brass is has been toyed with by the AI, having (I’m not sure how to describe it) but a spikey texture that almost resonates as an accordion. For the next piece, I kept with the Rango Influence and directly referenced it with “in the style of the lizard movie Rango OST” which might’ve been poor prompting as it sounds like this;
I get the feeling the AI doesn’t know what Rango is, mistaking it for Watchmen by the sounds of it. Either way, I think this would actually fit for a low-point of Little Brother’s story where the world is truly terrifying and his life is in peril from a Magpie or something. I’ve learned a lot from these exercises and I’ll very likely be using this programme later on. I think it’s positively neat, even if it’s fiddly with prompts.
Video Reflection; https://youtu.be/DIo84ksbgfc