“You have to learn the fundamentals,” he says. “The technology will change, but the storytelling will not.”
To make his short “Mnemonade” really sing, Meta Puppet says he focused on giving the story some emotional weight. “I don’t think AI movies will become fully mainstream until we have an emotional dialogue,” he says. She played all the roles in her short, about the intensity of an elderly woman’s sensory memory and memory loss, using AI from Silicon Valley’s “unicorn.” ElevenLabs to change your vocal performance to each character’s range and voice.
Maddie Hong, who went head-to-head with Meta Puppet in the Culver Cup final, says she understands Hollywood’s trepidation when it comes to AI. “There is a greater chance of legal backlash and financial loss,” he says, referring to the danger of unintentional (or even flagrant) copyright infringement during generation. Studios also have a “higher standard for picture continuity,” Hong says, “since they’re thinking about distribution across all types of platforms and screens.”
That said, Hong agrees with people like Luma co-founder Amit Jain, who says that genetic AI filmmaking could give the traditional studio system some flexibility in terms of budget and product diversity.
“If you look at Hollywood today,” Jain says, “most big-budget productions are just recycling old franchises because it’s too hard to go for a new idea or a new franchise.” It’s simply safer, he says, to reproduce something than to imagine something new.
From Jain’s (admittedly biased) point of view, doing more projects, even with lower budgets, means more people working and more money coming in. “They are more satisfying and long-lasting when they are able to produce things that people really want to see.” If there are going to be any job losses in Hollywood due to AI, he suggests, the people who leave will be the most resistant to AI.
Recent research contradicts that notion. A survey of 300 entertainment industry leaders conducted earlier this year. found that 75 percent believed that generation AI had led to the elimination, reduction or consolidation of jobs within their departments. It had also led to the creation of some jobs, but it was “unclear” whether the new jobs would make up for the jobs lost.
Other studies have examined how the VFX world in particular could be affected by increased AI in production, with artists generally reporting interest or excitement around tools that could streamline their sometimes tedious workflows, but concern about the ethical implications. and technology finance. While it would be great, as Jain suggests, to team up with 11 of your friends to “make a movie about a Boston Terrier who has superpowers” for relatively little money, it remains to be seen what effect the widespread availability of AI will have. will have on the industry as a whole.
For Meta Puppet, it all comes down to skill and who has it. “I compare generational AI to the piano,” he says. “Everyone knows about the piano. Not everyone is Mozart. When writing true masterpieces with AI, you have to wear many hats, which is good and bad because if you have experience, it’s great. If you don’t, whatever you do will probably be bad.”
