Luma Studios

Luma Studios is a digital-first music and film studio. Stories, music, and artists created by humans and brought to life with AI. Featuring Luma Vale.

[lumastudios]

Except You (releasing tommorow), is contained within a mythological garden. Symbolism abounds, as luma acts, almost like a reverse medusa, turning stone things back into life. Stone birds at a waterbath, stone carp in a fountain, a stone clock that begins telling time again, a stone Venus that comes alive and enters Luma's world. Except You is a song about solitude, really. Sometimes, we think we are perfectly content with how things are, and then you appear, and everything changes.

[lumastudios]

My relationship with youtube is a never ending tug of war over what I want to do, and what an algorithm is telling me I must do.

let me explain:

As an artist, I want to create things in this world that strike at my emotional core, those things which I believe move others as well: it is a desire to put something in this world, that has artistic integrity, that holds true to a vision, that speaks to me, and that I am compelled to share with others.

That is, for me, what it means to create. And while I can play guitar and sing and act and write, and have dabbled in oil painting...I choose, at this moment, to express myself through the medium of music and music videos, using AI as my medium to create, through Luma Vale, and through youtube and soundcloud.

But in order to feel a sense of satisfaction, I must find my audience. I need to connect. that's the handshake, between those that make art, and those that consume it. And at Youtube, that means, I must create shorts.

Shorts are, by design, dopamine hits. that is it. You have less than 60 seconds to create a vision, and that's far too long before people swipe away. Realistically, you have to hook them within 3 seconds. 3 seconds! And if they're not hooked, and they swipe away, you don't get the performance metrix for youtube, and the algorithm stops distributing your short. that's the punishment you get for trying to make something artistic vs. as Gemini likes to call it, "sticky". Those that watch shorts, are trained, if I may, to swipe fast and keep moving. That's not enough time to absorb and consume nuance, artistry, beauty, meaning, or substance.

and if you don't make shorts, you don't get the organic audience.

And it is this dynamic that forces me to have to think about creating dopamine hits, little bits of back scratches, as opposed to art and message. and you know what? that's not really what I signed up for.

That's the tug of war. does that make sense?

and so i am now a factory clickbait maker. And it is neither satisfying, nor compelling, nor really at the core of what I am trying to accomplish with Luma Studios.

But i"m trying. I'm trying to find a balance within myself between what the shorts wants, and what I want.

this is my latest attempt. I'm curious to know what you think, and f you struggle with this same thing. Is this 'sticky', and yet, does it have artistic relevance, both at the same time?

How do you find your audience?

[lumastudios]

"The Vinyl" music video (Luma Vale) is a juxtaposition of noise vs. analog: We film Luma essentially in three locations: her apartment brownstone in Brooklyn New York, narrator Luma in a hazy lavender field, and a dreamy suspended space that I called Vinyl-Land on the storyboard.

As Luma puts her headphones on, and closes her eyes, we travel with her down to the very micro-elements of the vinyl record. The lyrics treat these elements as luminal moments, and hopefully we succeeded in rendering this visually. Luma sings about the moment the needle just hits the record, there is a crackle in the air, and the textured physical groove of the vinyl releases dusty particles, and music: honesty and truth in the physical manifestation of the sound it creates.

Rotational motion was essential as a familiar and iconic aspect of what a vinyl record represents: simply. It rotates. and having Luma on the record, rotating slowly around the spindle, was not easy, but I wasn't going to finish this project without it. Hopefully we succeeded, and it comes off seamlessly and effortlessly.

Anyway, these images represent Vinyl-Land. I hope you enjoy them...

[lumastudios]

We finished putting the final polish touches on The Vinyl (music video), and published to youtube yesterday.

We placed Luma Vale in a small brownstone apartment building within an upscale urban Brooklyn neighborhood setting. The apartment is small, quiet, and calm, suggesting an opposite reaction space from the city and noise luma is surrounded by. The Vinyl is a study in contrasts between urban and intimate, giving way to the core thesis in the song: reset and go back to analog, real sound, an antidote if you will, unplugging off the grid.

We had fun with placing luma in an abstract internal vinyl record world as well: elements associated with the physicality of them: spinning records, crackling sound, small dusty reactions to the needle in the groove of the record itself.

Finally, we have a 4th wall broken luma narrator in a lavender field, a way to step out of the narrative, and connect with the listener, a calm color motiff for a 'safe space' to connect.

Please enjoy The Vinyl, and let me know your thoughts. I'm curious what choices may have worked for you and what may have connected.

I'll post our stills and artwork on a later post to share more of our specific detailed choices.

[lumastudios]

[Alt pop] Quiet Controlled

Just published our new music video, Quiet Controlled to YouTube. Thank you for your ears, we welcome your love... like, comment, subscribe.

[lumastudios]

In its final chapter of the Luma Vale song, Quiet Controlled, we place Luma Vale in rendered aesthetics of the redwood forest near Lake Tahoe, Northern California. Luma is physically standing high above the forest floor on a tight-rope without a net, to create the emotional sense of finding balance with the real consequences of failing to do so. The haze, green and wood aesthetic, along with nature, water, and flow, all serve to counter earlier elements in the song, where Luma is facing the barrage of real world noise: working as a barista in a coffee shop, being inundated by perceived self-serving and argumentative customers, transactions, noise.

Releasing on youtube this wednesday.

[lumastudios]

Polishing up the music video for Quiet Controlled, launching it on Wednesday. Here is a short 22 second clip. During the pandemic, I began to notice a widening generation gap between gen-x, millennials et al, and gen-z.

Often described as the 'gen-z stare', I felt that description and reaction was not only kind of insulting, but in fact deeply misunderstanding what was actually happening.

Gen-z is not disconnected. Gen-z, is curating emotional connection. In other words, connection is not something you are entitled to, it is something you earn. You don't get to enter the door, just because you knocked, in other words.

So, this led to the inspiration for Quiet Controlled. This is a song about inner strength, balance, and choice. IMO, Gen-z is a generation of order, not chaos: It is a hell of a world left to them, and they are organizing it and taking it back.

I'll be posting various rendered imagery and aesthetic choices we made when crafting the music video here on tumblr, as we move forward to launch date.

You can hear Luma Vale tracks available now on soundcloud. Music Videos are up now at youtube, @lumastudioshq.

Thank you!

[lumastudios]

“Don’t Say It Yet” sits in the silence between knowing and saying, holding on for one breath longer.

[lumastudios]

clip of don't say it yet, presented as a short on youtube. This moment captures the essence of Luma's journey through those moments just before inevitability.

[lumastudios]

We are releasing Luma Vale's song, "Don't Say It Yet" on Wednesday, which was virtually shot at Cannon Beach, Oregon. The aesthetics are haunting and beautiful in this location, amidst the ever--present and iconic Haystack Rock. In the song, "don't say it yet", we are in both an emotional and physical place of inevitability with Luma. It is the moment just before an end, or a goodbye, that moment of hesitation and loss and knowing. Luma doesn't want it, she wants to live in a a pause, but at the same time, she knows it is necessary and inevitable. In essence, Don't Say It Yet is trying to convey that those moments of loss, or goodbye, sometimes need to happen, and we know it, but that does not require approval, just acceptance: Cannon Beach, Oregon feels like that. These images depict an afterglow of a golden palette, with haze and depth and inevitability. I also added images of biolumiscent tidepools, driftwood, and duality. much of the visual imagery I created involves pairs of things: birds, rocks, driftwood, as Luma walks through this environment, the environment informs and connects to these moments.

[lumastudios]

dont say it yet, Luma Vale's newest release, music video scheduled to drop this wednesday: setting is Cannon Beach, Oregon, amongst the natural dynamics of Haystack Rock, driftwood, tidepools. This is that moment of approach where you know you must face it, but wish it would never come.

[lumastudios]

Cityscape aesthetics, Luma Vale shots for music video, visible

[mensmusics]

[lumastudios]

you are not invisible.

visible,

Luma Vale release, see cinematic music video on youtube.

watch in 4k listen with headphones

thanks for supporting Luma Studios!

[lumastudios]

the dust motes dancing

stillness isn’t empty

aesthetic stills from Just This — Luma Vale

[oystersandcaviar]

[marcolivolsi]

Guys, I need a little favor 🙏 I created a playlist with my songs on Spotify, and it would really help me if you saved it to your favorites. I put a lot of heart, time, and passion into it ❤️ If you'd like to support me, just take a second: save the playlist and maybe give it a listen. Thank you so much! :)