'The Manifesto'

'The Manifesto' was written as a 'Satirical' and 'Nihilistic' Lyrical Comedy Song. Obviously, 'The Manifesto' had to be performed, 'AI-LIVE @ Woodstock 2025', which can only happen with AI creativity.

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My Inspiration:

The Inspiration behind 'The Manifesto' was twofold, the first was watching a film on Netflix about the original 'Woodstock' festival and second, listening to a Tim Minchin song on YouTube.

From these two inspirations, 'The Manifesto' was born.

As a satirists and lyricist, I wanted to combine the two concepts.

What it does:

'The Manifesto' tells a lyrical satirical story of the futility of telling ourselves lies about what the real cost of living is in exchange for our existence.

For example, the chorus lyric, 'You Can't Live Without Killing' is not only powerful but true.

'The Manifesto' attempts to satirise and make absurd the idea that we exist without killing and as such as more advanced than animals, when, in fact, we are just like animals in our parasitic human existence.

As a retired psychologist, I wanted to show my own failings as an 80's Vegan.

How I built it:

This involved my real world professional artistic and creative knowledge, skills and abilities in an assisted combination, collaboration and co-creative process of using several AI tools, to help me create 'The Manifesto' comedy music video for the Chroma Awards Competition.

Music Creation Build Steps:

  1. Make the music which involved using my midi-keyboard to work out the basic song structure.

  2. Make a voice clone of my singing voice.

  3. Upload these to SUNO for creating my 'persona' and midi 'reference' track.

  4. Create in SUNO several variant's.

  5. Download the 'stems' of the best song.

  6. Edit, mix and produce the original finished song in Reaper DAW.

  7. Output as an MP3.

Video Creation Build Steps:

  1. Sketch, draw and illustrate an original storyboard concept based on the stage of the original 'Woodstock' festival.

  2. Use real world photographs of me playing the piano and singing as well as face reference images.

  3. Upload these reference image 'datasets' and create images in SeaArt AI from those original images.

  4. Choose the best 'single' static storyboard to lip-sync the song and music audio to the animation.

Lip Syncing Build Steps:

  1. Split the mixed and finished audio into equal 30 second clips for lip-syncing in SeaArt AI's lip-sync generator which currently only has a 30 second maximum upload and processing ability for lip-sync.

  2. This created ten, 30 second video clips animated and lip-synced to the lyrics and music.

  3. Downloaded these for 'post production' in Microsoft Clipchamp Pro and subtitling in Filmora Pro.

Putting it all together:

  1. Downloaded all AI assisted assets and uploaded the original audio for post production.

  2. Used Microsoft Clipchamp to compile the video, overlay titles, add transitions, add camera movements and align the audio track with the video track.

  3. Exported in HD 19:6 Landscape format for subtitling in Filmora Pro as a final post production step.

  4. Imported into Filmora Pro and added, aligned and edited lyric subtitles in real time.

  5. Exported the finished video as a MP4 HD 19:6 Landscape AI Animated Music Video.

  6. Uploaded to Social Media for Submission to The 2025 Chroma Awards Competition.

Challenges I ran into:

  1. The SeaArt AI generated images were not consistent and so I decided to use just one single image.

  2. The Lip-Syncing was limited to just 30 seconds which meant having to split the audio track.

  3. I spent 80% of my project time in 'post production' which could have potentially been avoided by using another AI Video and Image generator with more options and capacity for lip-synchronisation.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of:

  1. I'm extremely proud of my song writing, lyrics, composition, production and musical arrangement for 'The Manifesto' and feel as if the 'song' can stand on it's own without the animated music video.

  2. I'm proud that I experimented with just a single 'image' and feel that I've proved to myself that a 'single' image animated and multiply lip-synced and video directed differently each time can actually create and result in something truly original and entertaining when combined with camera angles, movements and direction in 'post production' and 'editing'

  3. Keeping going even when I was not physically or mentally well, using the process as therapy and healing for my mind and body. (I have a terminal illness which is why I use AI to speed up my projects)

  4. Pulling an all-nighter at 63 years of age and still working on the project for the next three full days.

  5. Taking just four days to complete, 'The Manifesto' which is a personal best and record for my AI projects to date.

What I learned:

  1. That, I may have gotten better results if I had upgraded and 'upscaled' my original 'single' image for the best lip-synching possibilities, as, I'm sure that I would have achieved better results if my original starting image for lip-syncing had been 'upscaled' to reveal and sharpen the image details.

I simply forgot to use this option and afterwards decided not to do so as I actually like the AI authenticity.

What's next for 'The Manifesto':

Since making, 'The Manifesto' music video for the comedy song submission slot, I've begun to conceptualise the ideas of - 'AI-LIVE @' as a possible brand and presentation platform for creating music videos of my 'AI Character'.

These creation would be of myself as a digital character performing my original songs and lyrical works in the most interesting environments, be them surreal, natural, imagined or real and in existence in the world, such as, 'AI-Live @ The Hollywood Bowl' or 'AI-Live @ Moon Base 1'.

I'm looking forward to my new AI creative projects in 2025 and 2026.

Built With

  • affinityphoto2
  • audacity
  • chatgpt
  • clipchamp-pro
  • filmora-pro
  • reaper-daw
  • seaart-ai
  • suno
  • word-pad
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