The Scaramanga Six : Hully Gully

The Scaramanga Six:  Hully Gully – Single Review / Video Premiere

“I was at first wary of Generative AI, but…”

Since their formation in 1995, The Scaramanga Six have been one of the most inventive and prolific underground rock bands in the UK, describing their sound as ‘cinematic punk’. Hully Gully is the first video release from their eleventh studio album GLUT, which is out on April 4th on their own label Wrath Records.  Ged Babey talks to singer/guitarist and video director Paul Morricone about the striking promo video. 

In his time Paul Morricone has directed videos for Graham Coxon, Young Knives, Nitin Sawhney, The Pigeon Detectives, The Charlatans and Funeral For A Friend amongst others. These days, he mainly only produces videos for his own outfit, with the notable recent exception for Leeds Learning Disability Band Ultimate Thunder, because “they are finest example of what music should be”.

LTW reviewed Pauls solo album last May and have been covering the Scaramanga Six since 2015.

Personally I think this new video is fantastic – but is it only because the song is great? Catchy, engaging. weird, manic – Cardiacs  style art-punk, but with a vibe of it’s own. It has a kinship with young guns Erotic Secrets of Pompeii too!

Paul told me about the making of Hully Gully and the use of Generative AI:

“I was at first wary of Generative AI, but have come to recognise it as one of the many tools in video production to truly create. I wanted to explore the basics of image-to-video manipulation, so I took a recent photo session – partly because I was having trouble getting us all together for a real-life shoot.

Here I already had the images, all shot a couple of years ago in Birmingham by Damian  John, so the art direction and shot composition was already there. I then applied my directing eye on what scenes I could create and what narrative to construct.

I’m used to directing film as well as animation and don’t differentiate, so generative AI is the sweet spot between the real and the imaginary – and in this case the results are from prompts rather than actions. I wanted to keep in some of the more random results and there are a few extras in this video that make an appearance. There’s even a coincidental Mark E Smith-like gurning man in there. But it is also about knowing when to stop, and believe me, there were some truly strange results I didn’t put in!

Is AI the end of creativity – no, not when it is in the hands of those who can manipulate it to a cinematic effect.”

Using Generative AI  must save a lot of time and money – you are not having to use choreographers, set designers and the man who throws buckets of blood – aren’t you replacing skilled people with the ‘tech’?  

Coming at it from a traditional production background, I’m used to working with a production team to produce commercials and music videos. No amount of AI is going to replace the reality this video is based on – which is a well thought out and art directed photo session of the band.  So let’s say if we were shooting this as live action instead, you’d need a decent crew, good production and direction and time in a location to get a similar end result. I’ve used AI to add movement to the stills, so I’ve faked a photo shoot to become a video shoot. In that sense, saved the cost of the pre-production, crew, kit and location. What generative AI has added are the elements you would add – some in-camera and some as VFX in post. Some of the effects like the blood could be done physically but you’d most likely want to spend time augmenting this in post. We have also circumnavigated choreography, dancers and many other things by AI adding these things in. Even adding false movement in shots means replicating something you would usually have to use a jib or a crane to shoot the shot.

This is the important bit: The end result is interesting, but is very crude and absolutely nowhere near the standard of high-end film production. To say this is a replacement for all the individual elements of craft the video faked is completely wrong. It’s at best a bit of a knock-off. The only reason it works is because of the quality of the original still images.

And you still have to account for the time and experience in generating and editing a good cut that tells a good story. No AI will do that. It has to come from the hands of a human to direct.

So, the video is only as good as it is because you were at the helm, controlling and directing the AI ?

Well, if it was down to just AI it wouldn’t be anywhere near as fucked up, so YES. We humans exist to fuck shit up!

Well, Hully Gully to that. 

The Scaramanga Six release not one but two studio albums this summer, GLUT on 4 April, then DEARTH in July on Wrath Records

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All words Ged Babey