7 OCTOBER | LONDON 2024
SEPTEMBER 12TH - 14TH
The O2, LONDON
Cinema & AI
Your weekly CogX newsletter on AI and content creation
Hollywood GPT; James Dean returns; Parliament investigates film
Production on Snow White and Deadpool shut down as Hollywood strikes hit the UK. With 86,000 film production jobs in the UK, local economies are braced for impact.
Terminator director James Cameron ruled out directing an AI written script and championed human storytelling. Some experts believe that Hollywood should instead embrace generative AI and build their own LLMs to own the disruption.
Meanwhile, James Dean, who died in 1955, is being resurrected as a digital clone to star in the sci-fi film, Back to Eden. But who controls how the images of dead actors get used? And will the use of digital clones mean fewer opportunities for new actors?
Read on for more on these topics - as well as a parliamentary investigation into film, a South Korean AI film and a text to film generator from Fable Studios, in the CogX Must Reads.
CogX Must Reads
Cameron warns against AI adoption
James Cameron has refused to work with AI-written scripts and said that they are a threat to the industry. If an AI wins the Oscar for Best Screenplay that may change his mind, he said — but in the interim, he’s more interested in making a film on AI than using it.
Hollywood strikes hit the UK
Leading blockbusters being filmed in the UK have ground to a halt following strike action. £6.3bn was spent on UK film and TV last year, sustaining 86,000 jobs. Freelancers, technicians and those working with studios worry about the economic impact of strikes.
Hollywood
HollywoodGPT
Former HBO consultant, Roger McNamee, argues that Hollywood should train its own LLM with decades worth of scripts and proprietary data rather than get disrupted by Silicon Valley. It would produce much better outputs than ChatGPT - but who would own and benefit from it? An American start up, Story Fit, is leading the way in using AI to improve scripts.
Extras worry about AI
Background actors might be the easiest to replace with AI. Extras often rely on this work to gain exposure, build contacts, and earn income as they audition for acting roles, but AI could cut off this route.
Industry
Film stars return from the dead
American film icon James Dean has been digitally cloned to appear in the upcoming Back to Eden film. Resurrecting dead actors raises ethical and legal questions: who decides how an actor’s likeness should be used after death? It also risks blocking entry paths for new actors
Parliament investigates film
Large British studios are booming, although spend on independent UK filmmaking actually fell by 31% in 2021. A parliamentary committee is examining how to enhance the UK as a destination for production, focussing on skills, retention and how the sector can adapt to AI.
Use Cases
End to end AI experiment
Wayne Hills, a Korean generative AI company, released a trailer for its new AI movie. From script-writing to audio, video and subtitle production, all processes were automated. After an extensive premiere, the film will be screened in Korean cinemas shortly
South Park generator
Fable Studio has created an app which makes short episodes of South Park from just a single prompt. The output is impressive and demonstrates just how easy it will become for people to create visual content.
Top Stories
In case you missed it
Barbie or Oppenheimer? Curious Refuge has created an AI-generated trailer of the two films merged: Barbenheimer.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on this week’s Issue and what you’d like to see more of.