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I work in the media space. AI is absolutely ripping through film, TV, and advertising. Several medium sized studios I've talked with are bidding $50k for proje

I work in the media space. AI is absolutely ripping through film, TV, and advertising. Several medium sized studios I've talked with are bidding $50k for projects (eg. Netflix, HBO, Proctor & Gamble are typical clients) they used to bid $400k on, and they're winning more contracts. They don't need to shoot in person in Venice for pharma ads or animate elaborate TV show intros anymore. This is having a huge impact to the fundamentals of how they do business. They haven't laid anyone off yet, but they're talking about the ramifications if this gets cheaper.

deleted 1y ago
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bob1029 1y ago
Have these studios actually shipped any of their projects to their customers yet? Do we have feedback from a quality perspective? It's quite easy to promise dirt cheap services and get paperwork signed.
- zahlman 1y ago
  > Do we have feedback from a quality perspective? ... Have you watched YouTube (without attempting first-party ad blocking) recently? The ads created with AI are pretty obvious, and pretty bad.
  - Loughla 1y ago
    My local news has started using AI bullshit they would've used B roll for in the past. And it's obvious. And it's very jarring.
  - ortusdux 1y ago
    Many people think all plastic surgery looks bad because, by definition, you don't notice the good examples.
    - zahlman 1y ago
      Even if every ad on YouTube were AI-generated now, there would be enough bad examples for me to be negative on the entire idea.
      - echelon 1y ago
        You're not the customer. Also, if the viewer doesn't recognize or care, then it's a moot point.
      - ortusdux 1y ago
        There is tons of bad CGI, but that hasn't stopped its near universal adoption.
        utyop22 1y ago
        Lol CGI makes up a tiny portion purely because economically it makes sense.
- echelon 1y ago
  Yes. You wouldn't recognize them as AI. These studios are doing a lot of roto and comp work. It's highly touched up and edited.
IMSAI8080 1y ago
What component of the production process is the AI being used for? Is AI video now good enough for green screen backgrounds or something like that?
- ToucanLoucan 1y ago
  I can't speak for the industry side but as a consumer, I've noticed many cable TV ads in hotel rooms now are clearly using AI generated video. It looks like shit. This is going to be the "bad chromakey" of this particular time period in terms of weirdly prolific visuals in media. Or if you prefer, the ads you used to see on late-night TV that were clearly broadcast from a poor quality VHS. Cheap bullshit has always hung around our media apparatus, and it's just that: cheap bullshit. Tbh I just note it in the same way I've always done: well, that's a company I'm going to avoid doing business with if at all possible.
  - IMSAI8080 1y ago
    Now you mention it, I can see there's a lot of demand for very cheap video ads on YouTube and such and I can see those kind of productions using AI slop and not really caring. I was just surprised by the calibre of client the poster above mentioned, such as HBO and Netflix and such. That sounded more like AI video making an impact in higher class professional work.
    - ToucanLoucan 1y ago
      I mean I'm sure they would LIKE to use AI. What sane company wouldn't explore the possibility? That said I think any serious creative team is going to run into headaches with it really, really quickly and give up on it.
      - ryoshu 1y ago
        They do. I watched a person quit because they had to hand edit video frames that came out of AI. It would have been cheaper to do traditional VFX.
alehlopeh 1y ago
What are they doing with AI instead of eg. shooting in person in Venice?
MontyCarloHall 1y ago
>Several medium sized studios […] don't need to animate elaborate TV show intros anymore. What projects are these studios doing for HBO? Its shows generally have high enough production value that AI slop in intros would be a no-no (unless this has dramatically changed under Zaslav's leadership).
imtringued 1y ago
I believe you, but what I don't understand is why aren't these companies producing custom models tailored to their in-house needs? You'd think that Hollywood would have the most advanced image and video generation models, after all the studios have high quality training data and more importantly, they have the IP rights to that data. Meanwhile back in reality it's Google that is massively ahead of literally everyone.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

bob1029 1y ago

Have these studios actually shipped any of their projects to their customers yet? Do we have feedback from a quality perspective? It's quite easy to promise dirt cheap services and get paperwork signed.

zahlman 1y ago
> Do we have feedback from a quality perspective? ... Have you watched YouTube (without attempting first-party ad blocking) recently? The ads created with AI are pretty obvious, and pretty bad.
- Loughla 1y ago
  My local news has started using AI bullshit they would've used B roll for in the past. And it's obvious. And it's very jarring.
- ortusdux 1y ago
  Many people think all plastic surgery looks bad because, by definition, you don't notice the good examples.
  - zahlman 1y ago
    Even if every ad on YouTube were AI-generated now, there would be enough bad examples for me to be negative on the entire idea.
    - echelon 1y ago
      You're not the customer. Also, if the viewer doesn't recognize or care, then it's a moot point.
    - ortusdux 1y ago
      There is tons of bad CGI, but that hasn't stopped its near universal adoption.
      - utyop22 1y ago
        Lol CGI makes up a tiny portion purely because economically it makes sense.
echelon 1y ago
Yes. You wouldn't recognize them as AI. These studios are doing a lot of roto and comp work. It's highly touched up and edited.

IMSAI8080 1y ago

What component of the production process is the AI being used for? Is AI video now good enough for green screen backgrounds or something like that?

ToucanLoucan 1y ago
I can't speak for the industry side but as a consumer, I've noticed many cable TV ads in hotel rooms now are clearly using AI generated video. It looks like shit. This is going to be the "bad chromakey" of this particular time period in terms of weirdly prolific visuals in media. Or if you prefer, the ads you used to see on late-night TV that were clearly broadcast from a poor quality VHS. Cheap bullshit has always hung around our media apparatus, and it's just that: cheap bullshit. Tbh I just note it in the same way I've always done: well, that's a company I'm going to avoid doing business with if at all possible.
- IMSAI8080 1y ago
  Now you mention it, I can see there's a lot of demand for very cheap video ads on YouTube and such and I can see those kind of productions using AI slop and not really caring. I was just surprised by the calibre of client the poster above mentioned, such as HBO and Netflix and such. That sounded more like AI video making an impact in higher class professional work.
  - ToucanLoucan 1y ago
    I mean I'm sure they would LIKE to use AI. What sane company wouldn't explore the possibility? That said I think any serious creative team is going to run into headaches with it really, really quickly and give up on it.
    - ryoshu 1y ago
      They do. I watched a person quit because they had to hand edit video frames that came out of AI. It would have been cheaper to do traditional VFX.

alehlopeh 1y ago

What are they doing with AI instead of eg. shooting in person in Venice?

MontyCarloHall 1y ago

>Several medium sized studios […] don't need to animate elaborate TV show intros anymore. What projects are these studios doing for HBO? Its shows generally have high enough production value that AI slop in intros would be a no-no (unless this has dramatically changed under Zaslav's leadership).

imtringued 1y ago

I believe you, but what I don't understand is why aren't these companies producing custom models tailored to their in-house needs? You'd think that Hollywood would have the most advanced image and video generation models, after all the studios have high quality training data and more importantly, they have the IP rights to that data. Meanwhile back in reality it's Google that is massively ahead of literally everyone.