A trip and a fall down memory lane. A continuous push forward through time, tracking the relationship of a couple from middle-school into the afterlife.
This is the first officially commissioned music video collaboration between a music artist and filmmaker made with OpenAI’s Sora video model.
This video is about learning to let go of a loved one and dreaming of them after they are gone. For this, I leaned into the hallucinations and Sora’s dream logic to explore memories that never existed.
The music video for The Hardest Part by Washed Out is a groundbreaking project, being the first full generative video made with OpenAI’s SORA text-to-video model. The song is about moving on from a lost love, and I wanted to honor this theme while putting a unique spin on it. The video spans several decades, starting in the early 80s, and follows a young couple meeting in school, falling in love and going through the twists and turns of life.
I aimed to lean into the hallucinatory, dream-like qualities of SORA rather than depict something entirely real. It’s about trying to preserve someone in time, with memories feeling fleeting and hard to grasp. The surreal blends of environments and impossible transitions—from cars to buildings to landscapes—create a fluid drift through the subconscious, attempting to hold onto what’s real. I aimed to use AI from this conceptual standpoint, using technology to drum up dreams and memories of something we can never have.
Washed Out „The Hardest Part“, photo: Paul Trillo
Washed Out „The Hardest Part“, photo: Paul Trillo
Bio
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Photo: Shyama GoldenPaul Trillo
US
Paul Trillo is a director and video artist who challenges both his own curiosity and illusion with his visually inventive, conceptual, and technical films. His diverse body of work spans various genres and formats, infusing meaning and purpose into his experimental uses of technology and technique. While creating in-camera practical illusions, Paul is always looking for new ways to push the boundaries of what is possible.
Credits
Writer, Director, Editor – Paul Trillo
Music Artist – Washed OUt