Facehawk vs. Faces: Music Videos Hack Facebook and Exploit Instagram Video

Two new music video projects, one an actual music video, the other more of a hybrid web-art project, take advantage of the ubiquity of social media to create unique videos. "Facehawk" mines your Facebook account for visual material to be rearranged as the song plays while "Faces" turns a house party into an Instagram video shoot. Both are well-done music treatments inspired by and reliant upon social media services and tools.

What is facehawk? (overview) from Rajeev Basu

Big Data worked with Rajeev Basu on "facehawk" featuring their song "Dangerous."

After giving "facehawk" access to your Facebook profile:

"The video kicks off by making it look like Big Data has taken over your Facebook page and updated your status for you. That screen breaks apart until status updates and photos are flying all over the place, slowly assembling themselves back together into a 3D hawk shape. This is your very own personalized 'facehawk.'"

"The video also takes you on a stroll through long-forgotten Facebook status updates and photos, both your own and those from friends. At the end, you can zoom in on and rotate your facehawk."

Unfortunately it wasn't working when I tried though the above video left me wanting to see it in action. Seems like an interesting cross between Take This Lollipop and Glitchr.

Instagram Music Video: "Faces" by Vinyl Thief

Vinyl Thief got their fans together for an Instagram video shoot. In their account:

"We performed for 30 fans in a hot little room on a sticky summer day in July. Instead of hiring a video crew to shoot the gig, We put our fans in the director's seat."

"Using Instagram, everyone filmed and filtered video clips during the three and a half minute song 'Faces.' Each fan was assigned a time period to shoot, but left with the creative freedom to compose the shot and choose whatever filter they desired. A timer in the background let everyone know when their time to shine was.
After everything was uploaded and tagged with #vinylthief and #faces, more than 75 clips were shared."

"Director Connor Carroll and audio engineer Jordan Schneider rounded up the videos and audio to create this crowdsourced Instagram music video. Aside from text added, none of the fan videos were altered in the editing process."

The result is a house party-style video that takes advantage of group Instagramming with a nice looking finished product.

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.