My grains of thought: Filmmaking vs. AI
My grains of thought beyond the podcast
Check out THE GRAIN Podcast for my dialogue with Walter Woodman of Shy Kids, the Toronto-based creative trio behind Air Head, the first-ever viral video short created with Sora when it was initially demoed by OpenAI. It was the sort of success story that defines a career. What happens now? Walter dropped by to talk about it. AI vs. Filmmaking: Walter Woodman of Shy Kids
Our chat took place after Shy Kids scored major Hollywood representation, not long before announcing a feature film now in development: AUTOBiOGRAPHY explores what happens after a compassionate AI connects with the internet—and has an existential crisis that leads it on a path of self-discovery. So, this story has just begun.
Listen to the episode at this link or find THE GRAIN wherever you get podcasts. And to accompany each episode, I’ve got some grains of thought on other recent pieces:
When AI can make a movie, what does ‘video’ even mean? [The New Yorker]
The earliest legacy media contemplation of OpenAI’s text-to-video software (way back in February 2024) wondered if you got Sora to fill in the blanks with an angle or moment, would that make the imagery less real, or more real, if it accurately depicted the event? Is a colourized photograph a more accurate representation of reality than the original black-and-white? Or, are we asking the wrong questions by demanding more from artificial intelligence than we do from literary fiction—which prompts the reader to fill in the blanks around events. Perhaps, instead of humans prompting AI, we consider that AI is providing novel ways of prompting us to use our imagination.
David Cronenberg on AI’s film industry impact: ‘The whole idea of productions and actors will be gone’ [Deadline]
“Do we welcome that or fear that?,” pondered the legendary Canadian director at the Cannes Film Festival in May. “Both, both.” It’s possible for two things to be true at once—and it’s possible 81-year-old Cronenberg will be out of a job even before he retires. But if the industry capsizes under the weight of artificial intelligence, it won’t be because he made it so. The Shrouds, the film he was promoting, was inspired by his wife battling cancer; mourning her death took him away from working until he “felt the impulse to tell the story.” The impulse is a remarkably human one, prompted by grief, acceptance, desire to process, and transcend. These are human traits an AI couldn’t replicate, because AI doesn’t “need” to make a film in the way that Cronenberg does.
Justine Bateman warns AI will ‘burn down the business’: ‘The structure will collapse’ [TheWrap]
As she prepares to mount the first no-AI-allowed film festival next March, the Family Ties actress turned industry activist behind CREDO 23 spoke about how she sees the movie business splitting into two distinct disciplines: one that embraces artificial intelligence, and one aligned against it. She sees the embracers as wanting to “crush the structure” of the industry, while the shunners will “continue pushing the art of filmmaking.” But somehow—even if it’s unclear which side will absorb the other—these factions will converge into something downright utopian, because it’s been decades since a new genre arrived on screen, and the rare examples of exceptional work have been drowned out. Bateman doesn’t consider corporate movies to be “actual” filmmaking, even though many would no doubt love to prove her wrong. So, why bother creating rival camps if they’re just going to converge in the end? If the goal is regulation, it can be achieved without pitting filmmakers against each other.
Filmmakers are worried about AI. Big Tech wants them to see ‘what's possible’ [Wired]
Amazon Web Services sponsored the inaugural Culver Cup, a generative-AI film competition, as part of its effort to court Hollywood. Hundreds of filmmakers applied, but only 50 were chosen to compete with less than three weeks to create a two-to-five-minute short. A winner was selected from eight finalists: Mnemonade, which publicly premiered today, was made by a seasoned video editor, actor and screenwriter who goes by Meta Puppet. He played all the roles in the film, and used the ElevenLabs voice generator to modify his voice to each character. It’s just one example of tech companies seeking camaraderie with the industry, with the hopes that a creative renaissance will result—rather than a flurry of highly processed slop. “Everybody knows about the piano,” says Meta Puppet. “Not everyone is Mozart.”
AI is supposed to be Hollywood's next big thing. What's taking so long? [Los Angeles Times]
Judging by all the hype this year, you’d think most of our jobs would’ve already been taken by AI, but the truth is less sparkly and fast-paced than news articles might have you believe. Tech companies have been grinding through talks with Hollywood studios for access to their trove of intellectual property, but solidifying these deals is slow and cumbersome: there’s a slew of ethical and copyright considerations, many of which are still not addressed by existing contracts. And while the masses may think popular intellectual property has the most value, there’s more interest in films without brand recognition, because those can be seamlessly integrated into new products without noticing the source material—which can mean more royalty payments to independent filmmakers. So far, video generator Runway struck a storyboarding deal with Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Discovery partnered with Google to caption unscripted programs, and horror film producer Blumhouse is feeding Meta’s Movie Gen. But with so many stakeholders at play, it’s a wonder that any of these deals were made at all.
Meta teams with Blumhouse and filmmakers like Casey Affleck to test movie gen-AI tool [Variety]
Movie Gen will reportedly be available via Instagram in 2025, giving Meta its own service to rival OpenAI’s Sora—which was used by Shy Kids for Air Head. Blumhouse initially drafted the likes of Casey Affleck, Aneesh Chaganty and the Spurlock Sisters to test the software. “These are going to be powerful tools for directors, and it’s important to engage the creative industry in their development to make sure they’re best suited for the job,” boasted Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum. Meta promises the service will help filmmakers “more quickly express their creative ideas and explore visual direction, tone and mood.” So, while the first wave of AI-generated films have been associated with technical imperfections and creative inhibitions, it’s up to Silicon Valley to improve its software by listening to feedback from experienced filmmakers.