Tutt Jones - Manic Episode

THE A.I. STORY OF
MANIC EPISODE - TUTT JONES
BY DAFFY LONDON

Diagnosed with bi-Polar, ADHD and manic episodes Tutt Jones strives for the
stars, a better life, and to be a voice for the queer, black, non-binary community. In 2023 he wanted to visualise his every day life within a music video, via a single journey through his house in the mountains, channelling his hero’s Busta, Minaj, Doja and Missy. Seeking out and adopting never before seen film techniques. Director, artist and VFX guru Daffy London took the challenge and spent a year working with Tutt
to reimagine the VR format, to utilise his 25 years of VFX experience and inject A.I. to aid and enhance the production. Neither could expect a third, unwelcome angle as Tutt faced increasing levels of homophobia and racism within his own neighborhood. But without fear, embedded this into the production. The result is Manic Episode. Frenetic, fashion forward, whimsical, colorful, funny, political and eye popping. A dream. And it became a vision resolved. Tutt and Daffy elevated their skill,
camaraderie and understanding through its inception. 

“Wow! A great artistic use of the tech.” Paul Debevec, USC ICT

The dawn of A.I.
Daffy adopted the new wave of AI very early. Became fascinated by its generative nature. ‘After a while I found myself feeling like I had a mate sat by me, who in one sense was naive and looking at a new world with inquisitiveness. But who also could see things I couldn’t. Could solve problems in seconds vs. the days it would take me. I expanded matte paintings and textures. And then a Eureka moment came when, after we agonized over the choice of shooting full fish eye in 2K, or cropped in 4K. Wanting to push this experience to 360 on mobile devices. Creating scripts in photoshop, we realized that we could embrace the cropped nature of our chosen fish-eye lens / Canon 4D combo, by letting AI go wild with the surroundings. ‘Thats what my mind looks like’ Seeing focus and noise at once within the same image. We obsessed over every a.i. generated frame, and truly collaborated on the best findings.
Instead of wearing 20 outfits, he now wears 100’s, albeit in a flash. The Haring scene required a tarot moment to homage ‘Carmen - a hip hopera’, starring the death card, Daffy used LCM Illumine to navigate doodles, and prompts to get to base 1. Then after photoshop and manipulation, the low res images ran through magnific. Eye’s wide we realised we could curate an entire 78 card deck of cards. It took two weeks. And we use them daily in conjunction with an AR sparks version within IG live and the real deck. We experimented with Runway and other tools to fill the borders, in amazement, but so happy with Adobe’s solution, decided that it would constitute the key part of our journey. Tarot deck available from tuttjones.com

VIDEO CREDITS
Starring, Written, Produced, Music/Lyrics, Wardrobe/Hair by Tutt Jones
@tuttjones
www.tuttjones.com

Directed, Produced, Shot, Edited & VFX by Daffy London
@daffylondon
www.daffylondon.com

Featuring
Dakar ‘Kari Banz’ Harrigan
@dakarbanz_
K.O. Kelly
@olympian.ko
Isaiah ’Zeo’ Sossou
@zeovertt
Brett ‘brettosaurus’ Rex
@brettosaurusrex

Engineer ; Kook ‘Zemoney’ Kardon The Legend
@zemoneyproductions

Original Music
Hydra and Dee
@hydrabeats

Tarot Cards available from store
www.tuttjones.com/store

US Management - Daffy London
@daffylondon
European Management - Justin Wright
@houseofvasoline