Films and Shows Should Never Lose the Personal/Emotional Touch
Andy Marken September 24, 2024
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You should try building a boat with hand tools after a couple of shots of Jack. - Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS, Belisarius Productions, 2003
Back in 1964, US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was asked to describe his test for obscenity (pornography) he said something to the effect, I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.
That's about where we are right now when folks are trying to describe how good/bad, beneficial/evil AI is/is going to be for the entertainment industry.
Some experts say it's going to democratize content creation making the production of great/entertaining shows/movies available to everyone.
But we're still struggling to understand creativity.
In 1954, Robert Gober unveiled his three urinals masterpiece and some art connoisseur paid $3.5M for it.
We've only seen pictures of this work of art but one of the first things we noticed was the d**n things weren't even plumbed so they were sorta useless to 99.9 percent of the folks who looked at them.
We walked into the men's room after returning from a business trip and there were three urinals in a row.
They all worked and we're pretty sure the airport commission didn't pay $3.5M for them.
The airport urinals are seen and more appreciated annually by more people than Gober's.
His work doesn't make us laugh or cry, scream or cheer. Instead, it So, which is more creative?
Process - Writing is hard work. Good writing is **** hard work.
Experts claim that AI is going to speed, simplify and improve project plot/script writing, which seems at best in our opinion impossible.
Of course, our tech experts probably disagree with Ernest Hemingway as well
Good writing is true writing. If a man is making a story up it will be true in proportion to the amount of knowledge of life that he has and how conscientious he is; so that when he makes something up it is as it would truly be.
That's because
writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge, and it is more difficult than anything else that I have ever done - so I do it. And it makes me happy when I do it well.
So, what does AI feel after it wraps up a writing project?
About the same as our computer sending us a love note nada! Jeff Katzenberg, former head of DreamWorks Animation and now head of WndrCo, a tech investment firm, has said that AI is going to streamline projects, reduce production time and save project owners millions.
Emotion - Inside Out 2 was a smash hit and financial success because it was filled with emotion and feelings from people who wanted to tell a story to people everywhere.
When he says AI can replace 90 percent of the jobs in animation production, slash the time required to create a project like the latest hit Inside Out 2 and dramatically reduce the production (5.5 yrs., $175M) budget, we believe him.
After all, he knows that stuff!
O.K., even techies agree that AI sucks at empathy and emotions because you can't reduce them to a bunch of 1 and 0 codes and the men, women and kids that are packing theaters wouldn't notice would they?
To reinforce his statements, Bain & Company pointed out that taking full advantage of AI in something like a modest family comedy could reduce the time and cost by five to 10 percent.
Yes, But - There are a lot of places along the creation/production cycle where people can streamline activities and are reducing time/money budgets without replacing the heart/soul of a project.
For studios and streamers that are struggling to turn a profit on their content, that's nothing to sneeze at.
WBD shareholders would like to see management turn the ship around and deliver more than just tax savings by shelving projects and staff reductions.
Even though shareholders love Bob Iger, they'd like to see the company's family fare, sci-fi blockbuster sequels and streaming activities turn red ink black.
The boss of Paramount's three bosses would probably like to see the former entertainment powerhouse regain its respected position in the industry.
While Netflix, the industry disruptor, is profitable (thanks to the really smart use of subscriber viewing data to disrupt content selection, production and distribution); what senior management team wouldn't like to be more profitable?
Yeah!
Combine Gen AI with NVIDIA's powerful new GPUs (graphic processing units), Unreal's insanely great game engine and really creative content quality can be more efficiently and effectively produced and delivered.
We appreciate the potential and recognize the challenges/issues AI presents for the content industry.
The challenge will be to use it selectively and carefully.
Folks like Bain and AI executives reassure us that the technology won't replace our heroes, heroines, actors and stars. Not that we're dismissing them from the equation, but they are what, 10 percent of the creative team?
Protected - People like Scarlett Johansson (l) have already unleashed their lawyers on AI firms - and others for unauthorized use of their images/voice that hurt them where it counts, their bottomline. Others, like Tom Hanks (r), wouldn't mind cutting back on his busy schedule and letting AI do some of his heavy lifting along with proper compensation.
Actors like Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and the rest of the A (and B, C) list actors already have expensive lawyers who have spelled out every detail in their contracts that ensure their images/voices will be protected and paid for in perpetuity.
They and their heirs will receive residuals whenever/wherever their likenesses are used.
There are icons we have lost
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Films and Shows Should Never Lose the Personal/Emotional Touch 
