Whurligig - Minds Eye Music
WHURLIGIG - MUSIC VIDEO MAKER VIDEOS
TRANSFORM SONGS INTO MUSIC VIDEO STORYTELLING
By Reid Genauer
Whurligig Music Video Maker App
Whurligig is a prototype or beta iOS app of my imagining. It transforms the lyrics and mp3 files of any song into a music video. The beta app works on an iphones, ipasd or Macbooks. The truth is this puppy is a half baked idea. Check out examples that I made for songs from my new album Angels and Alibis below. My dream is to find a way to visually express the feelings and minds-eye imagery that songs evoke for both musicians and fans. On a deeper level I think of it as a way to actualize the ethos of Conspire to Smile . The idea is that we can explicitly lean on music and the community that s surrounds to find wild freedom and deep belonging in the act of creative collaboration. My hope is that in so doing we infuse social media with posative music video stories. Substance to counter balance sensationalism . An easily accessible way to link to our actual experience of living instead of just haphazard likes about what we ate for lunch . On a global level there are 80M songs on all music services like Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Thats like the largest living body of human experience/emotion of all time. But because of cost and complexity only ~1% of those beloved songs have scripted music videos. So in theory if this thing works the “collective we” could easily give the sound track of our lives a living and dynamic visual face…! #IGIveYouMyFace
A STEP BY STEP GUIDE
Upload a song to Wrrly
Cut and paster lyrics for the song into the app (Hint: Start with partial lyrics to a song. For example the the first verse and chorus - it makes the video shorter and easier to make
Synch the timing of the lyrics to the song
Choose a Wrrly video style (this is an important step)
The app will generate six still images for each scene and pull some gifs. pick one “seed” image orgif for every phrase of the lyrics you uploaded
Once each line has an image that you feel represents something you dig, press the Up arrow in the top left of the app to make a video
It takes 5-7 minutes to render the video once you press the arrow at which point you can watch it, remix it if you want to make fixes, download it and share it
Once the video is rendered download it, share the link on social media or remix it.
Trust me, this is gonna be FUN! More than anything I hope you enjoy the experience of experimenting with Whrly as a way of engaging with my music, me and the collective we
Note - keep in mind this is an experiment of sorts - its raw so dont be discouraged if there is a bump or a bug. If you get confused listed to the music play…
Example: Angels and Alibis Glass Blown Style
HOW TO THINK ABOUT WHRLY
The easiest way to think of Whrly is a way to visually “Jam Out” with your favorite band. The app is designed to approach lyrics as short form social story or a prewritten social script. Each phrase in the song its treated as a scene in the video to come. As a reference point when you read a book you see a minds-eye visions of the places and characters that the book paints in words. If the book is one of the few that get made into a movie most times we feel disappointed with the movie because the production doesn’t match our own vision of the story. One exception to that rule for me is Lord of The Rings. In my opinion they nailed the visions i had in readin gthe books. The same thing happens with songs and related music videos. If there is a music video at all, it’ often feels “off” from how we feel about the song. Wrly uses AI assisted sensory storytelling designed to help musicians and individuals unlock their own “mindseye” visions and feelings about a song. To make sure each of us has a visual version of a song that nails it like Lord of the Rings did for me. In so doing we are adding to connection to the art and to each other which ideally infuses social media with posative personalized stories. Its a way of using AI that makes the human experience richer rather than degrading it. Check out the examples I made to the right and below.
Request Access to The Whrly Beta App
Us My Songs & Lyrics To Experiment
WHRLY EXAMPLE VIDEOS Created By Reid Genauer
Whirligig (The Song) Mexican Folk Art Style. Whirligig (The Song) - Tattoo Art Style
Hell’s Kitchen Silver Painting Style
Blissed Out Noise Mexican Folk Art Style. (Enhanced By Capcut & Canva)
Cowboy For A Crown - Reverse Photo-Realism Style
Strange Ranger String Art Sytle
Ghosted Notes Hologram Style
Just Beyond The Pale Beyond The Pale Style
HELP ME INVENT A VISUAL VOCALBULARY
I could use your help in fleshing out IF and WHAT Whirligig should/could be artistically, sociologically and technologically. I imagine as it evolves it can become a form of visual vocabulary for storytelling of all kinds. If making videos for songs remotely interests you or if you just want to hook me up in experimenting please request early access to the app here. I or someone on my team will send you an invitation to install an app called “Testflight” which is an app that lets you test beta apps on your iOS phone or ipad.
PLEASE SHARE YOUR OPINIONS AND VIDEOS BELOW
Your input really counts. It doesnt matter if you love the idea or hate it. If you make a great video, a bad one or none at all. Please share you opinions, experiences with the app and if you make a video, the link to the video in the message field below. If you happen to publish one of the videos to social - please take me so I can check it out and offer encouragement. -Your’s in the living lore of musical storytelling - Reid
High Level Heady Background
Here’s some heady high-level background that informs my thinking: it turns out mind’s eye visions are a physiological mash up of moods, sensations, sense of place characters etc. Wrrly is designed to help you actualize your minds eye vision of a song as a music and video mashup. Think of how SOME books meet your minds eye vision and MOST dont. Ideally when this bad boy is done EVERY “Wrrrly” you make will meet your mindeye sensation of any and every song you choose. Ultimatly its a way of visually jamming that affords you a chance to infuse the muse by personifying a song. The distinction of the word personify vs personalize is super important to to fully “getting ” what i’m going for.
Personify means to insert oneself into an abstraction, like a song, making it MORE HUMAN.
Personalize means to customize. Example shitty ads “personalized” making MORE NOISE
Whirligig uses ai art to assist the creation of your minds eye music videos which I understand might sound counterintuitive (and slightly scary) But heres the thing, machines can only personalize things like make ads more relevant. Good news folks. Machines can’t feel BUT people sure as hell can. We often feel far more than we realize. That’s why the collective “we” dig music so much. We feel it by sensing it. And so by making a music video infused with your “person” you are in fact making the song MORE HUMAN, yourself MORE HUMAN and the collective MORE COMMUNAL. Simply put Whirligig is just songs infused with your own personified minds eye aesthetics and/or personal feelings, emotions, thoughts and values. And… Voila personified interpersonal, posative, kickstarted social media.
Hate begets hate; violence begets violence And so it is annoying social ads beget more ads, ass’s beget more ass’s, trolling brings more trolling, Bullies beget more social media bullying. Through music and ideally Whurligig I choose to face darkness with light. I hope you’ll join me and that we can one a hell of a good time in doing so. Full stop.
Be Good To Each Other Folks - In Angels and Alibi) - Reid