-: A Feather and a Prayer

In a parallel universe where pigeon bikinis have become the must-have fashion item, a woman suffers a wardrobe malfunction and calls the customer care line for help. It’s a plot that feels too far-fetched for a human brain to have dreamed up - which is the raison d’etre behind A Feather and a Prayer, a surreal short film written, directed and starring 1stAveMachine directing duo, Mathery - and generated almost entirely using AI. Balancing a nostalgic 1970s/1980s vibe with uneasy humour, the creepy-yet-comic film represents a bold experiment outside the bounds of conventional filmmaking - with only the overlaid graphics, titles, music and sound design created by traditional means. Rich in detail and saturated in colour, the film is set in a fantastical world - a surreal space where, as the narrator tells us, “technology ruled and humans craved the strange and sensational” and the fashion item du jour is a pigeon bikini. The bizarre narrative centres on a phone call between a glamorous customer who has lost one of the birds from her bikini while sunbathing on a beach, and Lola LeClair, a customer service agent for bikini manufacturers Birds of Paradise. As the action cuts between an idyllic beach location and Lola’s office in a midwestern gas station, the customer attempts to explain her predicament to the disinterested and deadpan Lola. Ultimately, the situation descends into a farce, with the errant pigeon going on the attack. Known for crafting abstract universes with humour and visual flair, Italian-born, Brooklyn and Milan based duo Matherly used a suite of generative AI tools to realise their creative vision - from the script, which was partially written by ChatGPT, to the initial images (created using a mix of Runway’s Frames and Midjourney) and the film footage (generated with Runway’s Gen-3 Alpha Turbo). At the heart of the film, the dialogue between the two protagonists was achieved through Runway’s Act-One tool, which uses a ‘driving’ performance to bring a character reference video to life. Overlaying the action, the narrator’s voice was created from Runway’s Generative Audio program.