AI video generation is revolutionizing the film industry, empowering independent creators and challenging traditional production and monetization models. Discover the future of media in this insightful blog.
This email was inspired by my viewing of Fade Out, a completely AI generated short film made with Google’s Veo 2 (beta), which focuses on an aging rock star’s final years:
While this is not an endorsement of the subject matter, the consistency, & details are shocking. Some people are lobbing critiques its way, but I, for one, would not have known it was AI generated by watching it.
And we've come a long way in 6 months. Back then, Toys-R-Us (who's often been pushing technical boundaries) launched an AI generated commercial which, while impressive, had a dreamy—some would say creepy—quality to it that leant itself to being generated by artificial intelligence.
As an AWS team who does a lot of work in the media & entertainment industry, big moves like this from companies like Google always perk my interest, but the big three cloud providers (AWS, Google, Microsoft) always end up reaching parity. Heck, even Facebook has an AI video generator these days!
But what does it mean?
Creators are the future
I believe we are just about to enter an era, where even long form video—movies, TV, etc.—will start to be the domain of savvy independent content creators just like we have seen on YouTube. Big studios with their massive budgets will no longer have an almost insurmountable advantage when it comes to film or TV show production, but will still be players when it comes to promotion and distribution (Getting a movie into theaters around the globe is no easy feat!)
Smart studios and producers will ink deals with creators, who in many cases will be able to create their film from start to finish with very streamlined teams. The output still matters—nobody wants to waste their time with bad stories, and just like we have seen in the YouTube and Tik Tok, there are some people who have it and some people who don't. This doesn't bode well for the future of movie stars...
But, copyright!
Some of you may know that US District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled on August 18, 2023 that AI generated artwork cannot be copyrighted. This presents a huge challenge to traditional monetization of long form: produce, sell, distribute (and resell). Why would a studio buy a work that they can take for free? Why would a studio invest money in distributing something that can anyone can reproduce and distribute for free?
All good questions, but monetization doesn't require copyright. Rather, copyright provides legal protection for creators of work. And this only matters if a creator has the resources to pursue a violation. However, even without legal protection, the internet has shown there is social protection, which has been seen on display in calling out larger YouTube creators even using the script of smaller creator videos.
And, you can copyright characters, which allows creators to control their usage. And merch, licensing, and a host of other revenue streams.