4 ms·

AI music models are a tool. They're only as good as the person doing the steering and curation. I am a filmmaker. I have made photons-on-glass films for decade

by echelon 10mo ago

AI music models are a tool. They're only as good as the person doing the steering and curation. I am a filmmaker. I have made photons-on-glass films for decades. I have always wanted to make big-budget sci-fi and fantasy films, as have my friends and colleges who went to film school. The barrier to entry is almost impossible to climb. Most of my friends wound up in IATSE or doing commercial work, but never had the chance to follow through on their passion projects. Ten thousand kids go to film school every year. Very few of them will wind up being able to make what they dream to create. It's a fucking tragedy that all of this ambition withers on the vine. Getting a large film budget requires connections. You see a lot of nepotism. Sometimes a director who was in the right place at the right time with the right ideas will make it, but that's such a survivor's bias problem. There are orders of magnitude more people that didn't make it. Talented people full of dreams. And that's a tragedy - imagine how many Martin Scorseses, Hayao Miyazakis, Yorgos Lanthimoses, Denis Villeneuves, and Chloe Zhaos we're losing. AI is the first tool that will level the playing field for truly driven individuals. I mean this with my full heart - this is a great tool for creative and driven people. It's the arrival of the printing press for us. But the news of this gift has been twisted and soured by the media and by popular influencers who push only a fear agenda. By trying to make AI films, I have been doxed, sent death threats, insulted, called thousands of names. Every day! People pour out hatred, racist comments, sexist comments - they literally want me (all of us) to DIE because they've been taught to hate this. I can't even begin to tell you how exhausting this is. Instead, let me focus on the good. Here's a list of (what I think) are really good AI films. Each of them takes 10+ hours of work: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tii9uF0nAx4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tii9uF0nAx4 - Made by a film school grad as a demo of real filmmaking combined with AI VFX. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAQWRBCt_5E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAQWRBCt_5E - Created by a Hollywood TV writer for an FX show you've probably seen. Not the best animation or voicing, but you can see how it gives a writer more than just a blank page to convey their thoughts. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWZYP5jn5w4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWZYP5jn5w4 - Music video. Slightly MAGA-coded, but made by a Hollywood VFX person. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAAiiKteM-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAAiiKteM-U - Made by a film school grad as a Robot Chicken homage. If you're going to tell them "don't use AI", then are you going to get them a job at Disney? Also, all the pieces are hand-rotoscoped, the mouth animations are hand-animated, and every voice is from a hired (and paid) voice actor. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4NFXGMuwpY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4NFXGMuwpY - Made by a film school grad as a Robot Chicken homage. See previous comment. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_KXYpaTe_8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_KXYpaTe_8 - Another slightly MAGA-coded music video. Made by the same Hollywood VFX person. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hlx5Rslrzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hlx5Rslrzk - Amazing Spider-Man vs. Carnage anime created with ComfyUI and other models. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqoCWdOwr2U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqoCWdOwr2U - Christmas Grinch anime. It's really funny if you like Jojo and get the references. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKYeDIiqiHs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKYeDIiqiHs - Totally 100% cursed. Made by a teenager following the comic book's plot. Instead of this teenager spending 100 hours on Fortnite, they made this. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps5Dhc3Lh8U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps5Dhc3Lh8U - A Pixar-like short film These tools do not remove the need for editing, compositing, rotoscoping. You still have to understand film language, character arcs, story, pacing. The human ingredients still have to be there. By using these models and tools, directors and editors can finally pursue projects that would require many people and potentially very large budgets. Like the Red vs. Blue creators sitting down and making machinima, they can create vivid sci-fi worlds or whatever genre or mood they want to evoke. AI is a tool. In the hands of an artist, you can make art with AI. Yes, people are using AI to make slop. Cameras also make slop - selfies, food pics. Your own camera roll is full of garbage. People are posting slop AI because it's novel. If we'd gone from "no cameras at all" to "smartphones" overnight, you would see so much smartphone camera slop it would be unbearable. We, as a society, had time to develop filters and curation around cameras. That'll eventually happen for AI too. Cameras can make incredible art in the hands of an artist. They can also make a lot of shit. But we don't demonize the cameras. Soon, our feelings towards AI will become equivalent. But right now, it's extremely painful to be a creative person using AI. I - ABSOLUTELY HATE ABSOLUTELY DETEST THE "ALL AI IS BAD" MEME IT IS MIMETIC VITRIOL People have let this stupid meme boil over to the point of sending death threats and doxxing creators. And that is beyond unacceptable. We need to stop adopting angry slogans of hate and start thinking on a case by case basis with nuance. This entire conversation needs way more humanity and humility. And we need to accept that there are good things being created with AI too.

alwa 10mo ago
I agree with you on pretty much all that you’ve said here. Thank you especially for the recommended viewing! I wonder what happens, though, as the economics shift? It’ll be great, creatively speaking, for people who have a project inside them itching to get out into the world. Those were always the people who made the most interesting art anyway. But viewership economics aren’t expanding in the same way. Same number of viewers, less patience for feature-length work, less willingness to pay. If the status quo only generated enough money for an already-small universe of Hollywood professionals to feed their families through their creative work, what happens when even that withers? Film school, it seems to me, is partly about the access to equipment and talent, but mostly about the time and community expectation to dedicate every waking hour to your creative project. Art and commerce have always been awkward bedmates, but it makes me a little sad that the price for anyone being able to create is that ~none of them will be able to make money from their creative labor.
- echelon 10mo ago
  Hollywood budgets aren't growing, but they're not shrinking either. Most recent cost cutting has been Hollywood offshoring IATSE jobs to Europe and Asia. 80% of Atlanta's once burgeoning film production has moved away. We have tremendous, multi-billion dollar studio facilities here too. I do expect AI to eventually be used for saving on VFX costs, pre-production, and even B roll, but I don't think it'll replace principal photography right away. It might be used in more animation projects. I don't think those budgets will disappear. Rather, I think they will be spent on other projects to increase the slate of offerings. Meanwhile, completely orthogonal to all of this, the creator economy has been growing tremendously year over year. We have lots of independent creators that are now household names and brands. Some indie YouTubers that have grown big include: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Hadel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Hadel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Medrano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Medrano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Haver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Haver All of them were offered network deals. I suspect we'll see a rise of indie filmmakers and that the field will begin to look more like writing, indie music, or indie games. Anyone can bring their talent and not much capital and make interesting and compelling work. The problem, as always, will be discovery. A lot of good work will still go unseen. But this is better than the work not being practical or possible. As long as people capture minds and attention, there will be incredible value in creating and captivating. Artists will get paid. It's just a matter of artists breaking through and finding an audience.

by echelon 10mo ago

alwa 10mo ago

I agree with you on pretty much all that you’ve said here. Thank you especially for the recommended viewing! I wonder what happens, though, as the economics shift? It’ll be great, creatively speaking, for people who have a project inside them itching to get out into the world. Those were always the people who made the most interesting art anyway. But viewership economics aren’t expanding in the same way. Same number of viewers, less patience for feature-length work, less willingness to pay. If the status quo only generated enough money for an already-small universe of Hollywood professionals to feed their families through their creative work, what happens when even that withers? Film school, it seems to me, is partly about the access to equipment and talent, but mostly about the time and community expectation to dedicate every waking hour to your creative project. Art and commerce have always been awkward bedmates, but it makes me a little sad that the price for anyone being able to create is that ~none of them will be able to make money from their creative labor.

echelon 10mo ago
Hollywood budgets aren't growing, but they're not shrinking either. Most recent cost cutting has been Hollywood offshoring IATSE jobs to Europe and Asia. 80% of Atlanta's once burgeoning film production has moved away. We have tremendous, multi-billion dollar studio facilities here too. I do expect AI to eventually be used for saving on VFX costs, pre-production, and even B roll, but I don't think it'll replace principal photography right away. It might be used in more animation projects. I don't think those budgets will disappear. Rather, I think they will be spent on other projects to increase the slate of offerings. Meanwhile, completely orthogonal to all of this, the creator economy has been growing tremendously year over year. We have lots of independent creators that are now household names and brands. Some indie YouTubers that have grown big include: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Hadel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Hadel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Medrano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Medrano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Haver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Haver All of them were offered network deals. I suspect we'll see a rise of indie filmmakers and that the field will begin to look more like writing, indie music, or indie games. Anyone can bring their talent and not much capital and make interesting and compelling work. The problem, as always, will be discovery. A lot of good work will still go unseen. But this is better than the work not being practical or possible. As long as people capture minds and attention, there will be incredible value in creating and captivating. Artists will get paid. It's just a matter of artists breaking through and finding an audience.