7 OCTOBER | LONDON 2024
SEPTEMBER 12TH - 14TH
The O2, LONDON
Cinema & AI
Your weekly CogX newsletter on AI and content creation
Is the future of filmmaking cameraless?
This week, Hollywood strikers rebuffed the studio's latest offer for writers to integrate with AI, noting its ‘incidental’ alignment with new copyright laws. YouTube also ramped up efforts for deep-fake detection in music, but could song-covers mislabelled as AI-generated have a devastating effect for young artists?
Meanwhile, Sony tested its new cameraless technology for ‘filming’ scenes, and Harmony Korine unveiled his vision for the future: a high-tech intersection of film and gaming.
Explore these topics - and the latest on Denzel's deaging, Hollywood’s budgeting problem, and the story behind McFadden’s Chat-GPT musical - in the CogX Must Reads.
CogX Must Reads of the week
Writers guild slams studio offer
The new studio offer has been rejected by the guild as it fails to sufficiently protect writers rights. The offer proposes writers use AI as a ‘helping hand’, but amidst new laws requiring human input to copyright AI-generated scripts, strikers believe the offer to be insincere and self-serving on the part of studios.
Youtube’s new approach to gen-AI may harm young artists
Youtube has partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) to flag down and remove deepfaked UMG artist voices from their platform with re-release of Content ID technology. However, there are concerns about the technology's accuracy, with independent artists fearing their work will be falsely identified as ‘AI generated’, and banned from the platform.
Industry
Sony’s new cameraless innovation
This groundbreaking new technology allows scenes to be built and adjusted in real time within a virtual space – not capturing the moment, but creating it – without the use of a camera. A new ghostbusters scene was created as a proof-of-concept, aiming to pave the way for cameraless tech for flexible, cost efficient filmmaking.
The future of film will intersect with gaming
Harmony Korine explains the latest trends in EDGLRD, a creative hub that makes movies more akin to video games, with playable characters. Their vision is to create art that’s right at the intersection of animation, gaming, filmmaking, and fashion – there’s nothing like it.
Hollywood
De-aging Denzel for an Equalizer origin story
Inspired by Harrison Ford’s AI-enabled youth in the recent Indiana Jones release, Antoine Fuqua is considering de-aging Denzel Washington in the next Equalizer film. Fuqua believes there may be an origin story to Robert McCall, that this AI technology can help to tell
What can Hollywood learn from box office flops?
Most major productions have flopped this year – Barbenheimer aside – and the common denominator is massive budgets. Overspending, coupled with shortened theatrical windows has created a culture where audiences wait for at-home viewing, instead of opting for cinema experiences.
Creativity
McFadden’s Chat-GPT musical
The 10 minute musical ‘My Little AI’ is a roaring success, but what compelled the director to write it with Chat-GPT? McFadden speaks out on his vision, detailing his attempt to inspire a debate on AI ethics, exploring both the benefits and limitations of AI in creative projects, speaking directly to the heart of the SAG-AFTRA strikes.
AI for creative visualisatino
Whilst actors and writers are fearful of AI, some are embracing how it will evolve filmmaking and creativity. Director Kriv Stenders is among the hopeful, admitting he uses Midjourney to bring his scene ideas to life before production, stating AI not only aides creativity, but provides an exciting immediacy to the filmmaking industry.
Quote of the Week
“You could look at the Call of Duty trailer now, and it looks better than anything that Spielberg’s ever done."
Top Stories
In case you missed it
Which industries, beyond entertainment, have been hurt by the Hollywood strikes? Check out the exploration from AP news below.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on this week’s Issue and what you’d like to see more of.