I wanted to see if I could create a short ambient video piece quickly, using nothing more than my Iphone and a handful of apps. The challenge I set myself was to make both the music and the video in about an hour. It wasn’t about polish or perfection more about exploring, experimenting, and seeing what could happen when I put some limits on myself.
The sound came first. I’ve always been drawn to music that feels more like an atmosphere than a song something that wraps around you, the way a shifting sky or a gentle breeze might. Working within that spirit, I layered textures that drift and blend together, creating a wash of sound that doesn’t so much tell a story as it creates a space to sit with. To me, ambient music works best when it feels like a place you can step into, and I tried to capture that sense here.
The visuals came from the same impulse. I used an app on my phone that gives footage a vintage, grainy look, the sort of thing you might find on an old reel of film tucked away in someone’s attic. I wanted images that felt slightly faded, as if they had lived a life before being rediscovered. Nothing too flashy just enough to add a visual counterpoint to the sound, a companion rather than a distraction. Editing the two together was a simple process, more about pacing than about tricks or effects. I wanted the images to breathe alongside the music.
Of course, there were challenges. Making something like this on a phone sounds straightforward, but in reality it means wrestling with tiny buttons and menus that don’t always cooperate. My eyesight isn’t the best, so that part was more frustrating than I’d expected. But in a way, those limitations kept me from overcomplicating things. I didn’t have the time or the patience to fuss endlessly over details, so I chose simplicity.
Looking back, what I like most about the piece is that it feels immediate. It’s not perfect, but it captures a mood, and that mood is what I was after all along. The hazy visuals and the drifting soundscape meet somewhere in the middle, creating a moment that feels suspended in time.
I think of this excercise not as a finished piece but as the start of a series of sketches. Each one could be different some darker, some lighter, some rooted in natural imagery, others more abstract. By giving myself permission to work quickly, I’ve opened a door to a way of working that’s playful rather than pressured.
In the end, what matters to me is that the piece exists. It’s proof that I can make something atmospheric and reflective with the tools I already have in my pocket. That sense of possibility the idea that an ordinary phone can become a window into another mood.
Screen Shots from Ipad version.
Screenshots from ipad version.
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