Mathery Welcomes You to a Nostalgic-Drenched World of Pigeon Bikinis and Chaos with AI Short Film

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.

Erika Zorzi, one half of directing duo Mathery said, “We see every film as an opportunity to observe the world we know and transform it into one we don’t, one that’s filled with mystery, irony, and satire. This time, we thought it would be interesting to use AI to help us realise that transformation. Far from being a threat to creativity, making this film showed us how AI can augment it.”