A ticking time bomb for studios and tertiary education — AI filmmaking.
Nicolas Neubert @iamneubert has shown a future of storytelling, and he’s sharing it. This week his amazing trailer took to social media and was promptly picked up by CNN. Here it is.
He’s not alone; there are many engaged in this creative experiment, but Neubert’s work gets the doffed cap. What’s more he’s deconstructing how he made it with The Making of “GENESIS” (Midjourney + Runway).
The top photo on this post was generated with the following prompt he provided which underpinned his film.
___________ , star wars warfare, in the style of detailed crowd scenes, earthy naturalism, teal and yellow, frostpunk, interior scenes, cinestill 50d — ar 21:9 — style raw
He offers a guide into what will be one of the most disruptive, fearsome, or levelling techs/ creativity available.
Phrases like this can often appear like hyperbole. I’ve been involved in several innovations in my career presenting at Apple and being profiled by them, presenting at SXSW, working with the google team on innovation, and picked up a few awards.
History tells us too of significant innovations which were disruptive, such as the art revolution of 1880s, the photographic revolutions 1840s onward, the 1960s and television e.g. cinema verite, then the digital and mobile revolution, so to put things into perspective what’s happening is a levelling of tech and knowledge commensurate with its time. Star Trek has caught up with itself.
Prized positions developed and crafted over the last 150 years are being crow bar opened so if you have the money for these softwares, then you’re in play. Social and tech will do what it’s always done, force change and create new professions.
Anybody who’s read or subscribed to Computer Arts magazine back in the day will have seen frequent quantum leaps in innovation. These are showcased regularly at SXSW or OFFF.
Back in 2003 I crossed paths with Rob Chiu, from us both being featured in Computer Arts mag.
Rob was/is the OG. His work pulled him from obscurity, and solo creativity into becoming one his generations commercial directors
Self editing, and shooting started Rob off, but him and his peers didn’t destroy a film industry. They emboldened it, challenged it, and when they were comfortable they joined it. Others have built their own companies.
AI of course feels different, but much like other social revolutions the magnitude and depth of change is going to turn ideas inside out. It’s going to impact work and learning in unnerving and exciting ways.
My adoption as a storytelling innovating in journalism and docs makes me wonder how it can be used to eke out stories from the past, such as this one. A story about my father who undertook some journey when he was young.
I made this using After Effects, and Mid Journey in its early stages, generating images that could be used where they did not exists. It’s so convincing my family couldn’t tell images that were not our father.
What is the breadth and depth of AI storytelling across fiction and non-fiction film?
In the next year, I hope to be bringing a community together working with us at Cardiff University where I’m based. I’ve a background doing this, from chairing my unis Future of Journalism which involved 300 scholars from around the world, the StoryLab, and working with Google.
I’d like us to deep dive into the unknown, and from my own re-work the above to tell my dad’s story using Midjourney + Runway.
For me these films work by themselves but also are a calling card for industry. I reckon the industry is going to come calling for Nicolas Neubert @iamneubert soon.
