writes:As happens from time to time, when we made L’Impératrice des Ombres (the French-language version of Empress of Shadows), Sonauto generated multiple versions before we found one we felt suited the subject.
But along the way, Sonauto also gave us this version… which is a bit out there. It touches more on the insanity side of the story of Empress Carlota.
Historical Notes
Why did Carlota go insane? Nobody really knows, but there are many theories:
- the result of a high pressure childhood, in which she was expected to become a role model and moral exemplar
- the result of an unhappy marriage, with her husband still in mourning over the death of his original fiancee, and feeling neglected by Ferdinand
- the result of medicine she was taking in Mexico, which may accidentally or deliberately have poisoned her mind
- the result of religious fervor which progressed to mania
- the result of the stress of their collapsing Mexican Empire
Making the Music
The music style requested was:
French, folk, singer-songwriter, folk rock
The AI then chose these music tags:
2020s, indie folk, baroque pop, singer-songwriter, french folk, chamber folk, folk rock
Making the Video
To avoid confusion with the previous French-language video about Carlota, I asked Gemini to come up with new art. It came up with a sort of chart in three panels:
I used another AI to edit the image, removing the text so that I could put my own titles later.
Caption files were made in French, as well as English, German, Spanish and Tagalog.
The final step was to combine the music and the art with titles, using ClipChamp:
I've posted the video as a reel on the TMP Facebook page. All of the Carlota music videos have been popular, but this one has not been quite so popular. For some unknown reason, most of the viewers for this one have been in the 35-44 age bracket.
If I ever go back to work on this again, I will add a second title to explain what the video is about.