I saw, one sultry night above a swamp, The darkness throbbing with their golden pomp! And long my dazzled sight did they entrance With the weird chaos of their dizzy dance! Quicker than yellow leaves, when gales despoil,
Quivered the brilliance of their mute turmoil, Within whose light was intricately blent Perpetual rise, perpetual descent. As though their scintillant flickerings had met In the vague meshes of some airy net! And now mysteriously I seemed to guess, While watching their tumultuous loveliness, What fervor of deep passion strangely thrives In the warm richness of these tropic lives, Whose wings can never tremble but they show These hearts of living fire that beat below!
I remember all of the things that I thought I wanted to be So desperate to find a way out of my world and finally breathe Right before my eyes I saw my heart, it came to life This ain’t easy, it’s not meant to be, every story has its scars
But when the pain cuts you deep When the night keeps you from sleeping Just look and you will see that I will be your remedy When the world seems so cruel And your heart makes you feel like a fool I promise you will see that I will be I will be your remedy
No river is too wide or too deep for me to swim to you Come whatever, I’ll be the shelter that won’t let the rain come through Your love, it is my truth and I will always love you Love you, oh
When the pain cuts you deep When the night keeps you from sleeping Just look and you will see that I will be your remedy When the world seems so cruel And your heart makes you feel like a fool I promise you will see that I will be I will be your remedy Ohhh, ohhh When the pain cuts you deep When the night keeps you from sleeping Just look and you will see that I will be, I will be When the world seems so cruel And your heart makes you feel like a fool I promise you will see that I will be, I will be I will be your remedy, mmm, mm-hmm
[Verse 1] I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine I got a love and I know that it’s all mine, oh, oh-oh Do what you want, but you’re never gonna break me Sticks and stones are never gonna shake me, oh, oh-oh
[Chorus] Take me away (Take me away) A secret place (A secret place) A sweet escape (A sweet escape) Take me away (Take me away) Take me away (Take me away) To better days (To better days) Take me away (Take me away) A hiding place (A hiding place)
[Verse 2] I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine I got a love and I know that it’s all mine, oh, oh-oh (Got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine, got a love, and I know that it’s all mine) Do what you want, but you’re never gonna break me, oh Sticks and stones are never gonna shake me, oh, oh-oh (Never gonna shake me, never gonna shake me) I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine I got a love and I know that it’s all mine, oh, oh-oh (I know, I know that it’s all mine) Wish that you could, but you ain’t gonna own me Do anything you can to control me, oh, oh no (You can’t control me, you can’t control me)
[Chorus] Take me away (Take me away) A secret place (A secret place) A sweet escape (A sweet escape) Take me away (Take me away) Take me away (Take me away) To better days (To better days) Take me away (Take me away) A hiding place (A hiding place)
[Bridge] There’s a place that I go, that nobody knows Where the rivers flow, and I call it home And there’s no more lies, in the darkness, there’s light And nobody cries, there’s only butterflies
[Chorus] Take me away (Take me away) A secret place (A secret place) A sweet escape (A sweet escape) Take me away (Take me away) Take me away (Take me away) To better days (To better days) Take me away (Take me away) A hiding place (A hiding place) Take me away (Take me away) A secret place (A secret place) A sweet escape (A sweet escape) Take me away (Take me away) Take me away (Take me away) To better days (To better days) Take me away (Take me away) A hiding place (A hiding place)
[Post-Chorus] Take me away (I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine) A secret place (I got a love and I know that it’s all mine, oh) To better days (To better days) Take me away (Take me away) Take me away (I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine) (I got a love and I know that it’s all mine, oh) To better days (To better days) Take me away (Take me away) A hiding place (A hiding place) Oh yeah, oh Mhm
[Outro] The sun is on my side, and takes me for a ride I smile up to the sky, I know I’ll be alright The sun is on my side, and takes me for a ride I smile up to the sky, I know I’ll be alright
Pushing the pen, Takara finished the shadow of the little star. Her forearm was now covered with tiny stars, flowers, and mysterious symbols. In the center of her palm, the full bloom of a single rose. The petals seemed deep and full. It was magic and soon the journey would start.
When she was young her mother taught her the art of shadow walking. She watched Mother’s hands lightly moving over her arm. Decorating with little symbols. So small but so powerful. The rose on her palm was her favorite. A simple flower would do. But why not have fun with it?
Takara smiled softly. Pushing away the memory and focusing on the task at hand. If she messed this up, she’d be in big trouble.
She admired the drawing’s intricacy. Her brow furrowed. Something was missing. She slowly turned and gazed out the open window. A soft breeze wafted across the room with the scent of cherry blossoms. Melodious twitter of bird-song permeated the air. “The bird?,” she wondered, “A sign of flight.” She smiled again.
In minutes, she sketched a small bird. On the back of her thumb, it perched. “That feels right — whole,” she thought. And closed her eyes. Her dark lashes splayed across her smooth face.
Inside her head, a little dream-spin began at first. Then she felt the need to clutch her arms close. The dizzying spin grew stronger. And then she disappeared into shadow walking.
The spinning eased and finally was a slow rotation. Something wasn’t right. Before she even opened her eyes, Takara knew she was in the wrong place. The air was thick and clung to her cloak and skin like a parasite. It was sour, acrid, and dry. Something was wrong. Her eyes fluttered open afraid of what she would see.
She was greeted by a grim landscape of tall black trees, their branches bare, looming over her. Surrounded by flames and smoke. Her hand flew to her face in shock. Her work was perfect how could she have ended up here?! Her mother always told her never ever go to the Shadow Plains, “What went wrong?” she wondered, “My drawing is perfect.”
Frantically, she searched her arm trying to find a flaw, there was nothing — flawless.
And then she noticed her right hand on the fingers she used to hold that little pen — ink. A smudge of black ink ran along the heel of her palm and up the side of her little finger. Ugliness. Unattractive. This flaw sent her into the Shadow Plains. There would be no water here, no sign of life, only death.
She tried rubbing it off. It was dry. She had no liquid to erase it. Spitting in her left hand, she rubbed the right smudge. But doing so, the drawings on her left hand smeared, too.
She realized in a panic she’d left her pen in her room. Trapped in the Shadow Plains, her breathing quickened.
Scanning the terrain, Takara noticed a trickle of liquid. It puddled between two banks of smoldering earth. She crawled through the smoke. Bathing both arms repeatedly in the hot liquid soon all the markings were gone.
With no marks or images, she had no way to navigate home. But she knew she must end up somewhere better. She closed her eyes. The dream-spin of shadow walking began again.
Was she lost forever because of a simple mistake? Or would she find herself in a safe place?
Interstellar Telepathic Lunar Day: 29.5
Dearest Takara-
I’ve searched for days for you. Some report you’re in the Shadow Plains. That doesn’t seem possible. Not to me who know you so well. You’re always cautious.
If only I could draw as you do, I’d fly to rescue you. But that isn’t my gift. So I await a message. I fear the range of my interstellar telepathy is only a weak signal.
I’ve worried about your safety. Of course, I’m fearful. I know you’re strong. Perhaps you recall the time you shadow walked to the snowcapped mountain peak. And the thin air caused you to faint. That was a close call. I know you’ll find another smart solution and escape from wherever you are. You aren’t lost to me.
I consulted the pond’s visionary goldfish. They attempted some sort of symbol. But it is meaningless to me. Perhaps this is the drawing you need to return.
This video montage is a dream-like story about loneliness and creativity. I have two archetypes or alter egos: the raging black unicorn and a young woman , Ophelia. Childhood trauma represses Ophelia’s expression. She is revived with the help of the powerful unicorn. The young woman is rescued and finds a creative life again. Saving both the unicorn and the woman. The Phoenix rises from the ashes.
PAID COMPONENTS
Voiceover
Voiceover on this video is by Steve Teare, the author of the poem.
Midjourney prompt: ophelia, high resolution, water –ar 9:16
OPEN-SOURCE COMPONENTS
Music Source
All soundtracks are music videos downloaded as MP3 audio files. I used free online YouTube downloader tools. There are many downloaders and they often advertise porn (so watch out!) Sometimes there is a copyright claim. But often when using stems, there is no restriction for monetization. But monetization is not our goal. I use YouTube only for hosting to conserve server resources. And keep our home site http://DizzyPictures.com loading fast. I use a WordPress video lazy-load plugin called Embed Plus Plugin for YouTube Pro ($39). Others are available but this premium one prevents recommendations of competitor video content. We want to keep people on our site and not on YouTube. YouTube has thwarted this feature to a degree with the inset “View on YouTube” non-feature link.
Five pieces of music are used for this video montage:
“Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, A major 68bpm vocals [ezstems.com].mp3
Voiceover audio “Paradise on Fire” by Steve Teare.mp3
“Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson, G minor-132bpm-MJ1-accompaniment_ no vocals.[ezstems.com]-extraction.mp3
I extracted the accompaniment “stem” from Dirty Diana and the Eleanor Rigby vocal stem.
Stems are stereo recording components extracted from many audio tracks. I created the vocal stems using https://ezstems.com/ and https://www.acapella-extractor.com Both free online tools. I cleaned up the downloaded MP3 stems afterward in Audacity. I used: the high pass filter, transformed the stereo into mono, and added audio compression.
Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor. It’s available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. We’re using open-source Linux Mint Cinnamon as our computer operating system.
Music Modules Modular music is the combination and overlapping of different compositions. One over the other. The compositions are also called modules. For me, those modules are covers performed by one or many different artists in different moments. You can add or remove new modules to create new work, a new composition, different from the original one. You can expand and extend a modular composition in time, space and size.
Soundtrack
The video is built around the song “Dirty Diana” released in 1988.
Atmospheric Backing Track
I added a YouTube A-major (F# minor) chord ambient backing track. These are called “pads.” Ambient Pads are atmospheric tones designed to fill out the sound of any music. You layer them under any major or minor chord progression. Pads are ambient, sustained sounds characterized by heavy reverb and delay. They are a staple in audio productions from pop music to film scores. A pad is a sustained chord or tone generated by a synthesizer. It’s often used as background harmony or for atmosphere. Like a string section, it’s used to pad out the sound of an orchestra or film score – or in our case, perhaps a vocal stem.
Music heightens a video’s emotion. It creates an aural mood for each scene, along with sound effects and dialogue. Film scores are custom-made and often performed by orchestras. Today a video score might feature all manner of sounds and instruments. A video soundtrack is already-written popular songs featured in a film or video. In a two-hour movie, there is about an hour of music. My videos are often music videos. And so the music is 3 to 5 minutes long – on occasion, 7 minutes.
Midjourney prompt: realistic, ophelia, petting black unicorn, frank frazetta style, –ar 16:9
Sound Effects
explosion_bomb_06_PremiumBeat.mp3 effects
Sand_Boots_Running.mp3 effects
Open-source Video
We used a stock video montage of dark images. We also created a montage of AI generated with 35 still images. They were created using Midjourney AI Bot. The prompts were lyrics from the voiceover. The Ken Burns Effect tool used to create the video is open-source PhotoFilmStrip software on Linux Mint. PhotoFilmStrip creates video output of still images in 3 steps. First select your photos, customize the motion path, and render the video.
Midjourney prompt: frank frazetta, Friesian, black, unicorn, horse in water, highly detailed, epic, 8K –ar 9:16
Video Editors
We do video production using Kdenlive open-source video editor version 21.04.3 on Linux. There is a newer version available 22.04.3 as of July 10, 2022.
Titles are made in Kdenlive. The free-for-personal-use font is Big Noodle Titling, a display uppercase movie-poster font ($15 to buy the font family). https://www.dafont.com/bignoodletitling.font
Kdenlive video editor for “Paradise on Fire.”
Tracks
There are 11 tracks. 4 video tracks and 7 audio tracks.
V4: Lyrics rollover, logo and title clips, logo and title clips
V3: Fire.mp4 clip and unicorn logo end
V2: compilation of open source dark video clips, 4.5X original speed
V1: AI Midjourney motion video
A1: 0.00dB, Isolated vocal stem Eleanor Rigby
A2: 13.27dB, voiceover
A3: -6.60dB, explosion effect
A4: -8.34dB, sand boots running effect
A5: -9.08dB, “Dirty Diana” accompaniment stem
A6: -15.61dB, A Major (F# minor) backing track (pad)
A7: -10.64dB, drum track
I used a microphone for voiceover and edited it in Audacity and added reverb. But no camera is used to make this video montage. All components except music sound track are free web assets. The final video is a 60MB MP4 file. Google YouTube found no copyright claims.
PARADISE ON FIRE
Invisible friend used to play so free vibrant alive she a joy to me drown in the tub a mystery
Under the water that’s where she’d stay Dead while alive never more to play
I wondered so long why she never came out speechless mummy child never more to shout
Then one day I saw what was plain to see Poor Ophelia drown she was part of me
I wept and I wailed but she’d never arise lost in the water in tears that she cried
betrayed by love for decades gone by watery grave no one knew why
And then one day the unicorn came black raging power her soul to reclaim
He nudged her free she clung to his back they rode like hell escaping attack
She was free Paradise on fire Invisible friend Eden on fire
Thought to give friends what I thought that they wanted
Never had they needed a good friend as I’ve been
Don’t get me venting on friends who resent you
’cause all you’ve ever done is been a noose to hang on to
They thought was a necklace and reckless they fell into hell
where you both hang with nothing to do but
Scratch, kick, let gravity win like
Fuck this, let gravity win like
You could leave it all behind,
even the Devil need time alone sometimes
You could let it all go, you could let it all go
It’s Called: Freefall
It’s Called: Freefall
Called to the Devil and the Devil said quit
Can’t be bothered better handle your shit
Keep about your wits man, keep about your wits
Know yourself and who you came in with
Can I sit down I’ve been hustling all day
I can’t even count how many souls I’ve made
Off the same deal you on
Remember: The Devil ain’t a friend to no one
But FUN, true
You could let it all go, you could let it all go
It’s Called: Freefall
It’s Called: Freefall
Called to the Devil and the Devil said “Hey!
Why you been calling this late?
It’s like 2 A.M. and the bars all close at 10 in hell,
that’s a rule I made”
Anyway, you say you’re too busy
saving everybody else to save yourself
And you don’t want no help, oh well
That’s the story to tell
You could let it all go, you could let it all go
It’s Called: Freefall
It’s Called: Freefall
You could let it all go, you could let it all go
Cause ain’t shit free but falling out
And that shit’s easy let me show you how, it’s like…
Ain’t shit free but falling out
And that shit’s easy let me show you how, it’s like…
You could let it all go, you could let it all go
It’s Called: Freefall
It’s Called: Freefall
Noose video montage
Project Description
This video montage is about the temptation to give up. It’s also about sublimating anger and trauma. It’s also about the disappointment of Pleaser Syndrome: “Thought to give friends what I thought that they wanted.”
PAID COMPONENTS
Voiceover
There is no voiceover on this video.
Lyric AI Prompt: “I said to the devil, “Devil do you like drums?“
OPEN-SOURCE COMPONENTS
Music Source
All soundtracks are music videos downloaded as MP3 audio files. I used free online YouTube downloader tools. There are many downloaders and they often advertise porn (so watch out!) Sometimes there is a copyright claim. But often when using stems, there is no restriction for monetization. But monetization is not our goal. I use YouTube only for hosting to conserve server resources. And keep our home site http://DizzyPictures.com loading fast. I use a WordPress video lazy-load plugin called Embed Plus Plugin for YouTube Pro ($39). Others are available but this premium one prevents recommendations of competitor video content. We want to keep people on our site and not on YouTube. YouTube has thwarted this feature to a degree with the inset “View on YouTube” non-feature link.
Five pieces of music are used for this video montage:
“It’s Called: Freefall” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise (slowed)
“It’s Called: Freefall” cover by Mitch Huckaby. Male vocal stem.
“It’s Called: Freefall” cover by unknown artist. Female vocal stem.
“It’s Called: Freefall” cover by Paris Paloma. Female vocalist and accompaniment.
A major – F# minor Ambient Pad by Odir Ruano.
Audio Editing and Vocal Stems
I stripped the vocal “stems” from Mitch Huckaby’s and an unknown female artist covers of “It’s Called: Freefall”.
Stems are stereo recording components extracted from many audio tracks. I created the vocal stems using https://ezstems.com/ and https://www.acapella-extractor.com Both free online tools. I cleaned up the downloaded MP3 stems afterward in Audacity. I used: the high pass filter, transformed the stereo into mono, and added audio compression.
Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor. It’s available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. We’re using open-source Linux Mint Cinnamon as our computer operating system.
Music Modules Modular music is the combination and overlapping of different compositions. One over the other. The compositions are also called modules. For me, those modules are covers performed by one or many different artists in different moments. You can add or remove new modules to create new work, a new composition, different from the original one. You can expand and extend a modular composition in time, space and size.
Soundtrack
The video is built around the song “It’s Called: Freefall” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise. It was released in 2018.
Atmospheric Backing Track
I added a YouTube A-major (F# minor) chord ambient backing track. These are called “pads.” Ambient Pads are atmospheric tones designed to fill out the sound of any music. You layer them under any major or minor chord progression. Pads are ambient, sustained sounds characterized by heavy reverb and delay. They are a staple in audio productions from pop music to film scores. A pad is a sustained chord or tone generated by a synthesizer. It’s often used as background harmony or for atmosphere. Like a string section, it’s used to pad out the sound of an orchestra or film score – or in our case, perhaps a vocal stem.
Music heightens a video’s emotion. It creates an aural mood for each scene, along with sound effects and dialogue. Film scores are custom-made and often performed by orchestras. Today a video score might feature all manner of sounds and instruments. A video soundtrack is already-written popular songs featured in a film or video. In a two-hour movie, there is about an hour of music. My videos are often music videos. And so the music is 3 to 5 minutes long – on occasion, 7 minutes.
Lyric AI Prompt: “Don’t get me venting on friends who resent you.“
Open-source Video
We didn’t use any stock video. Instead a montage of AI generated still images are used. They were created using Midjourney AI Bot. The prompts were lyrics from the main song. The Ken Burns Effect tool used to create the video is open-source PhotoFilmStrip software on Linux Mint. PhotoFilmStrip creates video output of still images in 3 steps. First select your photos, customize the motion path, and render the video.
Lyric AI Prompt: “Even the Devil need time alone sometimes.“
Video Editors
I do video production using Kdenlive open-source video editor version 21.04.3 on Linux. There is a newer version available 22.04.3 as of July 10, 2022.
Titles are made in Kdenlive. The free-for-personal-use font is Big Noodle Titling, a display uppercase movie-poster font ($15 to buy the font family). https://www.dafont.com/bignoodletitling.font
Kdenlive video editor for “Noose.”
Tracks
There are 8 tracks. 2 video tracks and 6 audio tracks.
V3: logo and title clips
V3: Lyrics rollover
V1: AI motion video
A1: 0.00dB, Paris Paloma female vocalist and accompaniment, “Companions” Lane King.mp3 – outro music
A2: 9.75dB, logo sound, male-stem-F# minor-_99bpm-_Its_Called_Freefall_Rainbow_Kitten_Surprise_Cover-_Mitch_Huckaby-_vocals.mp3
A4: 0.00dB, B major, 85bpm,- rainbow kitten surprise – it’s called freefall (slowed)-eb-eLblT3ak-160k-1660316111882.mp3 effects
A5: 11.98dB, A Major (F# minor) backing track (pad)
I didn’t use a microphone or camera to make this video montage. All components except music sound track are free web assets. The final video is a 104MB MP4 file.
This video montage is about self-harm caused by low-esteem and anxiety disorders. These people sometimes compare themselves to a roach — dirty or unwanted. They feel alien.
PAID COMPONENTS
Voiceover
There is no voiceover on this video.
OPEN-SOURCE COMPONENTS
Music Source
All soundtracks are music videos downloaded as MP3 audio files. I used free online YouTube downloader tools. There are many downloaders and they often advertise porn (so watch out!) Sometimes there is a copyright claim. But often when using stems, there is no restriction for monetization. But monetization is not our goal. I use YouTube only for hosting to conserve server resources. And keep our home site http://DizzyPictures.com loading fast. I use a WordPress video lazy-load plugin called Embed Plus Plugin for YouTube Pro ($39). Others are available but this premium one prevents recommendations of competitor video content. We want to keep people on our site and not on YouTube. YouTube has thwarted this feature to a degree with the inset “View on YouTube” non-feature link.
Michael Jackson – “Dirty Diana”
Four pieces of music are used for this video montage:
“Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson
“Dirty Diana” Cover By Valentina Scheffold
“Dirty Diana” orchestration arranged and performed by: Roberto Fusco Di Maso
G major – E minor Ambient Pad by Odir Ruano
Audio Editing and Vocal Stems
I stripped the intro and outro vocal “stems” from Valentina Scheffold’s cover of “Dirty Diana”.
Stems are stereo recording components extracted from many audio tracks. I created the vocal stems using https://ezstems.com/ and https://www.acapella-extractor.com Both free online tools. I cleaned up the downloaded MP3 stems afterward in Audacity. I used: the high pass filter, transformed the stereo into mono, and added audio compression.
Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor. It’s available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. We’re using open-source Linux Mint Cinnamon as our computer operating system.
Music Modules Modular music is the combination and overlapping of different compositions. One over the other. The compositions are also called modules. For me, those modules are covers performed by one or many different artists in different moments. You can add or remove new modules to create new work, a new composition, different from the original one. You can expand and extend a modular composition in time, space and size.
Soundtrack
The video is built around Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana” song released in 1988.
Atmospheric Backing Track
I added a YouTube G-major (E minor) chord ambient backing track. These are called “pads.” Ambient Pads are atmospheric tones designed to fill out the sound of any music. You layer them under any major or minor chord progression. Pads are ambient, sustained sounds characterized by heavy reverb and delay. They are a staple in audio productions from pop music to film scores. A pad is a sustained chord or tone generated by a synthesizer. It’s often used as background harmony or for atmosphere. Like a string section, it’s used to pad out the sound of an orchestra or film score – or in our case, perhaps a vocal stem.
Music heightens a video’s emotion. It creates an aural mood for each scene, along with sound effects and dialogue. Film scores are custom-made and often performed by orchestras. Today a video score might feature all manner of sounds and instruments. A video soundtrack is already-written popular songs featured in a film or video. In a two-hour movie, there is about an hour of music. My videos are often music videos. And so the music is 3 to 5 minutes long – on occasion, 7 minutes.
Giant alien roach — MidJourney AI
Open-source Video
We didn’t use any stock video. Instead a montage of AI generated still images are used. They were created using Midjourney AI Bot. The tool used to create the video is open-source PhotoFilmStrip software on Linux Mint. PhotoFilmStrip creates video output of still images in 3 steps. First select your photos, customize the motion path, and render the video.
Rainy alley at night – Midjourney AI
Video Editors
I do video production using Kdenlive open-source video editor version 21.04.3 on Linux. There is a newer version available 22.04.3 as of July 10, 2022.
Titles are made in Kdenlive. The free-for-personal-use font is Big Noodle Titling, a display uppercase movie-poster font ($15 to buy the font family). https://www.dafont.com/bignoodletitling.font
Kdenlive video editor for “Roach.”
Tracks
There are 8 tracks. 2 video tracks and 6 audio tracks.
V2: logo and title clips
V1: AI motion video
A1: 9.75dB, female vocal stem
A2: 5.81dB, logo sound
A3: -4.07dB, Dirty Diana orchestral track
A4: -5.94dB, MJ original “Dirty Diana” accompaniment stem
A5: 0.00dB,
A6: -10.64dB, G Major (E minor) backing track (pad)
I didn’t use a microphone or camera to make this video montage. All components except music sound track are free web assets. The final video is a 186MB MP4 file.
