Everyone is pushing AI at the moment, even my local green grocer is, and he doesn’t even take credit cards! Most companies are all in on AI though, whether we like it or not. It looks like a lot of people could lose their jobs, including in the movie industry.
Places like YouTube already have some controls in place, requiring users to notify on upload if they have used AI. When you upload something, you are presented with this:
It seems that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are considering the same thing. Which is odd. In, for example, Forrest Gump they had Nixon (as I remember) talking to Gump at one point. That was fake, and it made someone say something they didn’t. Nobody required a disclaimer there.
A new company, Staircase Studios AI, has released the first five minutes of an AI-created movie called The Woman with Red Hair. They hope it’s the first of many new productions.
Staircase Studios AI was created by Pouya Shahbazin, one of the producers of the Divergent franchise. The company has a new AI creation tool called ForwardMotion. With it, the company claims they can create “near studio quality” movies for around $500,000.
The Woman With The Red Hair
Here is a clip from the first of these productions at “near studio quality”:
On the one hand, it is impressive for AI. On the other hand, it was awful!
All of the women look exactly the same. The sound mixing is all fake on the voices, and it all just looks ‘wrong’. I love how you still have to have a human actor to do the voice.
I’m going to say this: it is nowhere near “studio quality” unless that studio is one that does straight-to-DVD movies. Although, I’ll be honest, I’ve seen worse from people who called themselves ‘directors’.
Things like Toy Story work because it all looks fake and not real. The Woman with the Red Hair doesn’t work because it’s trying to look real and just doesn’t. We are still in the early stages of AI and things will get better with time, but we are clearly not there yet.
What are your thoughts? Just to be clear, I know what you’re all thinking this kind of thing should be used for. Stop that, you filthy-minded individuals!