For Project 1 the task was to use AI (MidJourney) to create film stills of famous directors with their visual style. I decided to recreate my favorite directors’ visual styles, including Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and Denis Villeneuve.
I decided to develop the first mini-challenge we did in class even more and used Quentin Tarantino style as an animation.
/imagine pulp fiction movie still for fans of pulp fiction the family-friendly animation for kids cartoonish style, in the style of dark amber and violet, y2k aesthetic, smokey background, blink-and-you-miss-it detail, pensive poses, dark blue and gold
The prompt looks very interesting (just like the image) because I tried to use the /describe function for the Pulp Fiction film still and included them in my prompt. The animation style looks really good, it seems like the picture was indeed taken from some cartoon show, that is why I decided to continue the sequence with just a simple story – two characters are sad in their house, leave it, and drive to get an ice cream.
One of the first iterations of playing with the styles created a wallpaper:
/imagine pulp fiction wallpapers wallpapers for fans of pulp fiction the family-friendly animation for kids cartoonish style, in the style of dark amber and violet, y2k aesthetic, smokey background, blink-and-you-miss-it detail, pensive poses, dark blue and gold
Another picture looks too much like wallpaper, yet I really love it. One of the film stills I used in the /describe function was using “wallpaper” in the prompt 3 times, thus I decided to go with it. Here is the result. I wouldn’t say it is an animation/cartoon, yet it looks like an intro for a TV show with graphics (on the left of the image there is a lot of space to add the name of the actress/the show), so I felt this can be included in my project.
The next director on the list was Christopher Nolan. I am a big fan of his immersive worlds and the serious themes he creates in his films. I decided to use the most known films he made and combine them – Batman in Oppenheimer’s world and Oppenheimer in the Batman world.
/imagine film still 32K of Christian Bale facing the camera standing straight in a Batman suite in a field with trees far behind, in the style of Christopher Nolan, intense gaze, strong facial expression, very muted colors, natural day lighting close-up intense shot, shallow depth of field
I don’t think more explanation is needed. Below I include the original picture I used for the /describe function.
But Oppenheimer in Batman should be discussed more. First of all, when I used Cillian Murphy in the prompt, it was creating very Instagram-type posts with very model-like poses of him. I decided to add more description and say “as Oppenheimer”, but it created a very different man from then. So, I went back to Cillian Murphy, but now it felt like MidJourney forgot who it was.
/imagine Oppenheimer film still 8K of serious Cillian Murphy looking away from a building in a brown suit holding a pipe, in the style of Christopher Nolan, Gotham city, foggy weather, night setting, muted limited colors, wide high angle shot, deep depth of field, natural dramatic lighting, batman symbol beacon is visible in the sky, by Christopher Nolan
But this prompt is not the only one I used. For the Batman symbol in the sky I used the In-Painting function and said “Batman symbol, batman light is visible in the sky”. Besides that, I also used the same function for the face of the character, since in the beginning, it looked too different. I tried many prompts, but “Cillian Murphy as Tom Shelby” worked the best for some reason (maybe because he is most known for that role).
/imagine Oppenheimer film still 8K of serious Cillian Murphy looking away from a building in a brown suit holding a pipe, in the style of Christopher Nolan, Gotham city, foggy weather, night setting, muted limited colors, wide shot, natural dramatic lighting, batman symbol, batman beacon is visible in the sky
The same prompt, different iteration. Here MidJourney thought I was asking for Christopher Nolan himself, and I thought it looked cool. Also, the same for the Batman symbol in the sky — Vary (region) function is a game-changer. I was not worrying about the minor details, such as the pipe or the logo, since I knew I could work on them later with Vary (region) function.
The last director, whose films apparently I love, but never knew they were from the same director, is Denis Villeneuve. I used two of my favorite movies here and tried to just recreate a small sequence/film stills for both (Prisoners and Blade Runner 2049).
/imagine the room features a beige desk on which there is a liquified body on the desk and Ryan Gosling as a blade runner is standing in front of it, in the style of conceptual light sculptures, roger deakins in the style of Denis Villeneuve, luminosity of water, matte photo, narrative paneling, swirling vortexes, wide shot, Unreal Engine 5
This is the iconic shot from the Blade Runner, where Officer K (Ryan Gosling) realizes what is happening in that mysterious building. I used the describe function and stole some of the words from all 4 options it gave me, which almost made it similar to the setting of the original film.
/imagine the room features a beige desk and chairs, one lady is sitting in the chair and Ryan Gosling as a blade runner is standing in front of it, in the style of conceptual light sculptures, roger deakins in the style of Denis Villeneuve, luminosity of water, matte photo, narrative paneling, swirling vortexes, wide shot, Unreal Engine 5
Similar prompt, but an even better effect I could achieve when trying to make it a sequence of 2 photos with the main character being in different rooms and roaming around the building. The details of the characters here are not the best and look more like a painting from the previous century/low-polygon game, yet the building looks really good.
I decided to go further with the sequence and make it a very bloody horror after the class discussion. I think it really applies to the theme and vibe of the movie itself but also has the horror element in it, slowly immersing us to the setting.
Trigger Warning!
Let’s move on to the next scene.
/imagine Ryan Gosling in a coat standing next to a eroded tree near a futuristic car, in the style of Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins, movie still, dystopian landscape, futuristic shapes, sci-fi aesthetic, dark gray and beige, concrete, muted tones, muted colors, medium wide shot, 8K
Another iconic introduction scene from the movie, everything looks pretty much the same, but the car looks old rather than new for some reason.
/imagine a man in a coat walking on the street, rainy stormy night, Unreal Engine 5, desolate landscapes, classic american car, deep depth of field, in the style of Roger Deakins, gloomy, blink-and-you-miss-it detail, realistic practical lighting
Good recreation of another Villeneuve film Prisoners. It looks too gloomy, but without the word “gloomy” in the prompt it looks too bright and happy.
/imagine a man in a coat opening a door of the classic american car, and innocent 20 year old nerd is sitting inside of the car, rainy stormy night, Unreal Engine 5, desolate landscapes, deep depth of field, in the style of Roger Deakins, gloomy, blink-and-you-miss-it detail, realistic practical lighting, close-up shot of the hand
Here I was trying to recreate another scene, where the detective is finding one of the suspects in the cars, yet even after 20+ iterations and different prompts, it didn’t create a second character. I decided to use this image because it also represents the mood and the style of the director.
Overall, the whole experience using MidJourney felt really nice to me, yet it feels like it still struggles with the close-up shots. Nevertheless, I will continue using it on my own.
/by Ramazan 04.02.2024
Updated on 05.02.2024