Tutt Jones - Manic Episode

THE COMPLETE STORIES 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

Daffy's Story

Back in early 2023 Tutt spoke to me of a vision. A music video created as a way for him to illustrate via music and image what he suffers daily in his world, his place of manic episodes.

The film is intended as a pseudo VR experience. Nonsensical front and back camera angles can be viewed in the hero 2d version side by side in fish eye form. Further, this can be witnessed on phones in YouTube 360.

Impatient 9:16 phone freaks can watch the fisheyes stacked top and bottom in a condensed form. The film is loaded with VFX from MAGA dinosaurs and a Jeff Koons style ballon dog to voguing drink cans.

A.I. had played an integral role into every part of this video. Most of it hidden, but here we're embracing 2023 and the AI influx by adopting a selective generative fill effect to bridge the gap between the cropped fish eye and the top/bottom of frame.

The video is full of references. Much like Channel 4's SPACED but in condensed form.

I really fought myself on this job. I fought the part of me that wanted to sabotage the ‘omg we could even do that’. We dove in and we did EVERYTHING we wanted to (right Tutt?). I recognized the opportunity to do something special, given the magnitude and potential of the artist, and the message he brings.

Its been liberating. No clients, no money, no expectation. BIG return. Not financially, but spiritually. VFX industry stole my love of the craft. They NDA’d it. Behind close doors where abuse is rife, imagination is stolen and creativity is raped. This was pure free flow thought process.

Tutt and I have been in a heavenly slipstream trance throughout its inception.

The Video Story

Pre Release Video Treasure Hunt

Unscramble our code and see the video above NOW.
As a fun way to build anticipation, you can get a sneak peak of the video leading up to its release February 4 2024.
The password is hidden amongst the 3x3 @tuttjones instagram wall. Each square has letters contained within, anagramed around give you the jumbled - pro fluid - password.

Manic Episode - Video Cover
In the video Tutt is rudely woken from a dream by his alarm clock. A repurposed Tutankhamun shaped sculpture purchased for a few dollars at Ross. I wanted to add the clock to the dream, but convert the design to reflect Tutts features. The design process was very organic and you can see Tutts reaction in the BTS video below, and then us discussing that it should quite clearly represent the video as the video art.

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