What is called artificial intelligence or more specifically LLMs (Large Language Models) that can generate images and even video directly from text (Generative AI) is one of the most exciting technologies to emerge from the whole AI surge.\u00a0 I have seen examples of video that looks as good as anything Hollywood creates with a mix of live action and CGI.\u00a0 Which I guess isn\u2019t surprising in one sense since this Generative AI, basically, is just another name for CGI.\u00a0 But what is amazing to me is that what formerly was a technology that tech companies sold to movie studios for millions of dollars is now at the beck and call of anyone with access to ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
And honestly, I can\u2019t claim to know just how usable these AI videos are from a commercial point of view.\u00a0 Could someone with a reasonable understanding of movie-making produce something that people would pay money to stream?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Maybe not.\u00a0 But what is fascinating is that I believe it\u2019s already starting to happen.\u00a0 Recently several movies have gotten into the theaters that weren\u2019t produced by Hollywood.\u00a0 Several YouTube \u201cinfluencers\u201d have parlayed their eight-figure viewing audiences into a multi-million-dollar box office payday by producing their own movies.\u00a0 Now granted, these forays into independent cinema haven\u2019t been particularly dependent on Generative AI.\u00a0 Just the opposite.\u00a0 The two most popular examples I can think of used almost nothing but \u201cpractical effects.\u201d<\/p>\n
But recently several completely AI generated movies have been exhibited at major film festivals and even streamed on Amazon.\u00a0 Now none of these have made any appreciable money.\u00a0 But that may be because the movies suck as stories.\u00a0 After all, Disney has proven that you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a CGI masterpiece and still produce a story so stupid that no one wants to see it.\u00a0 But the point is if you are at all tech savvy you can now make a short sci-fi movie that looks as good as Hollywood for between $500 to $5,000.\u00a0 That is earth-shaking.<\/p>\n
To me that means we are less than a couple of years until we will see tiny studios making movies that are good enough to see in a theater but have no gate-keepers whatsoever between the creators and the audience.\u00a0 That is a startling thing.\u00a0 Some young version of Stanley Kubrick will make his version of 2001: A Space Odyssey in his basement with the help of a \u201cfilm crew\u201d of less than a dozen people.\u00a0 He\u2019ll make a masterpiece for about $20,000 and it will make a billion dollars and an earthquake will swallow up Hollywood completely.\u00a0 Think of it, all of the bloated, studio budgets and absurd rules that dictate which and how many DEI hires have to be directors, actors and producers will disappear overnight and some much saner award will be handed out for the movie that gets the most views and the highest viewer ratings.<\/p>\n
Well, anyway, that\u2019s the dream.\u00a0 How it really turns out will be interesting.\u00a0 Amazon, Netflix and the rest of the streaming services will be the ones to harness the new creators that will appear along with these new video tools.\u00a0 But they\u2019re not entrenched in the old studio systems, at least not to the degree that Hollywood is.\u00a0 I think they\u2019ll see opportunities aplenty in nurturing independent studios; at least after some of them produce stories people want to see.\u00a0 And that\u2019s already happening.\u00a0 \u201cO brave new world, \/ That has such movies in’t!\u201d<\/p>\n