Modartt video contest 2025 - the winning entries

Fourth place (out of competition):

:-)

https://youtu.be/ufdpIX3RE6A?si=OPAR26NNABJWjfdl

Congratulations to Ecaroh and Lylo, and many thanks for your votes !

Hello, thank you to everyone who voted for my video (and especially to Pianotequenthusiast, Borealis, and Carmelo.paolucci)
and thank you to the Modartt jury for selecting my video from the vast array of submissions available.

This year, I only got motivated late for this new session. All of December, I was busy working on a video I was making for my 92-year-old father, an accordionist, for Christmas. I uploaded some pieces he had recorded in 2012 to YouTube and illustrated them with AI images.

Based on this experience, I felt that a video made in the 5 days of the competition was feasible (I submitted it 5 minutes before the deadline, but that's how I've always worked). My main motivation was the satisfaction of finally realizing this concert project at Radziwill, which I'd been working on since 2020. That was enough to give me the energy to dedicate my days to it.

However, I had to revise my initial idea, which was to insert myself into the performance throughout the entire piece I intended to play. Therefore, I opted for an interview format because, given the limited time I had to complete the video, it wasn't feasible to generate enough 5-second AI videos and try to synchronize the random results with the music, let alone film myself and create proper overlays. So I considered this solution because talking avatar AIs allow for longer durations... but ultimately I mainly used an AI that recorded 5-second segments, which was simpler because there was no need to synchronize with the image... until I realized, while filming my hands, that compositing might not have been out of reach (practice makes perfect).

In the end, I was pleased with this idea of an interview with its anachronistic mise en abyme—it's more interesting than what I had envisioned a few years ago, at least for this competition.

And if my primary motivation was to finally realize this project, using the annual Pianoteq contest as a catalyst (thank you to Modartt for organizing it and for rules that open up all possibilities), then being selected was the icing on the cake, and the third prize was the perfect tool to enjoy it.