September 19, 2024 - Note: Apologies for the double emails, but my last version inadvertently had email instead of web links, and a couple of readers suggested I resend the post with the correct links
I don’t know about your feeds, but mine have been dominated this week by multiple things AI related. As with most things AI, that means any news is accompanied by a lot of vitriol and hot takes, and not a lot of serious contemplation on the socials, but I did find some more reasoned thinking in the mix, and my personal take is that it’s best to bring cautious optimism to all of this, because just hating on it won’t make it go away. Here's just a few items that caught my eye, and I'm sure I missed many others.
The biggest news item was the announcement that Lionsgate made a huge AI deal with Runway to give it “access to its content library in exchange for a new, custom AI model that the studio can use in the editing and production process” according to Jessica Toonkel in the WSJ (this link should get you past the paywall). Or as Alex Weprin reported for THR, “While details are scarce, the companies say that the new model will be “customized to Lionsgate’s proprietary portfolio of film and television content,” and exclusive to the studio. The purpose will be to “help Lionsgate Studios, its filmmakers, directors and other creative talent augment their work.”” Speculation ran rampant online, with many people arguing (in my feeds) about whether Lionsgate owned the rights to do any of this, how this would impact jobs, or creativity, or… life on earth, generally.
But as Audrey Schomer posted on LinkedIn, “Lest this be misinterpreted, it's not licensing – and it's not to train the general video generation model. It's to train a model for internal use.” In theory, but of course that’s just step one, and Lionsgate vice chair Michael Burns was quoted in the THR article saying, ““Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilize AI to develop cutting-edge, capital-efficient content creation opportunities.” No one likes a suit talking about “best-in-class” cost cutting. But as Schomer also points out in an extensive piece for Variety’s VIP+ (this part isn’t paywalled), no one can even figure out what the costs should be to license any of these film assets in the first place, and right now, it seems the AI companies are dictating the cost-cutting by setting the prices paid, before anyone truly understands the ultimate value. That’s not good, because that value is much greater than anyone probably suspects, and it applies not just to Hollywood, but also to your indie film and your old home movies, or your social feed, as well.
Of course, the Lionsgate news wasn’t in a vacuum – AI is moving too fast for that. On the more indie side of things and a week earlier, documentary powerhouse XTR announced that they had acquired Late Night Labs, an “artist-led” AI film and animation studio, and under a new holding company called Asteria, they would be producing animation, fiction and nonfiction in addition to running their Doc+ streaming channel. Founder Bryn Mooser also used that “best-in-class” wording but seemed much more genuine in his goals to enable “artists and filmmakers to unlock creativity like never before,” Mooser said. “They empower rather than replace filmmakers by amplifying their vision and ultimately making more stories possible.” This is exactly what I hope more studios will use AI to do – empower more creativity, so I for one will be giving them the benefit of the doubt, as well as kudos for being smart first movers here (full disclosure, I’m also doing other business with XTR, so I am inclined to be open-minded). I suspect we’re going to see a few other big announcements like this in the next few weeks or months, as more indies realize they should move fast before others lock-in all of the advantages.
But even if you’re worried, it’s not like people are completely asleep at the wheel about all this stuff, either. At the Camden Film Fest, the Archival Producers Alliance launched their guidelines for the use of Generative-AI in nonfiction filmmaking (THR report), with the backing of a lot of respected documentary groups and filmmakers. It’s a pretty comprehensive report/guidelines document, and I recommend downloading their PDF here. And in Hollywood land, we also had California Governor Gavin Newsom signing two important bills regulating the use of performances generated by AI (SAG-AFTRA pushed for these post-strike, to protect actors), and they also passed some on deep-fakes and social media as well.
That’s all pretty great, but as Ted Gioia noted in his newsletter today (and h/t to Ted Hope who sent me this article) many AI companies are taking a “parasitical” approach to film and other “content,” operating without transparency, and getting themselves locked-in before we know what’s what. He lays out eight easy steps we could take to wrest back some control:
- Full transparency when AI is used, with disclosures required and attached to each work (not hidden in terms and conditions).
- Financial penalties for businesses that pretend AI works were made by human beings.
- A ‘Creators Bill of Rights’ which would limit platform exploitation of ‘content providers’ (who, for example, would retain copyright, have rights of termination and appeal, etc.).
- Payments for the use of copyrighted material in AI training.
- Opt out as the default, with no AI training allowed unless creators explicitly agree.
- Fines for platforms that share AI work from users without taking reasonable steps to identify it.
- Total transparency on how payments to creators are determined (not the vague runaround currently served up).
- Actual enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act (and other anti-tying laws) so that quasi-monopolistic platforms can’t use their dominance in, for example, search or operating systems as a way of enriching other business units.
These all seem reasonable to me, but as Gioia hints in closing, you likely won’t see any politicians taking up this cause anytime soon, as they like being cozy with the money from big tech. Perhaps some of these early-mover companies should embrace these principles publicly. It also makes you think we need some kind of lobbying group here, but more on that thought in a future newsletter.
Even with good ideas like Gioia’s and the work of people like the Archival Producer’s Alliance, one could throw their hands up in despair just trying to make sense of all these developments. I’ve found it better to try to find those reasonable voices I mentioned above. Here are a few of them. In addition to Audrey Schomer from Variety/VIP+ who I mentioned above, I recommend following Simon Pullman on LI, who pointed me towards Schomer in the first place, as he’s a smart attorney working in this space who is pretty prolific online. I’ve also been liking the videos put out on this subject by the Locarno Film Festival. Here’s their interview with Kelsey Farish, which launched this week (it was recorded at the fest’s Locarno Pro events). She can also be found on her website here, and followed on LI here. Locarno also hosted a pretty cool cinema futures conference, curated by Kevin Lee, and I found this video of a conversation with artist Paul Trillo to be pretty interesting – Trillo is using AI in his artwork, and he’s not naïve about it, but he’s also pretty bullish on using it instead of fearing it. That’s the attitude I’m trying to bring to my thinking about this subject – but I also admit, things are moving so fast here, it’s hard to be more than artificially intelligent about what will happen next.
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Film
Registration Open: How Loglines, Synopses and Decks Can Make or Break Your Documentary: The D-Word has partnered with internationally renowned speaker and writer Fernanda Rossi for a series of virtual seminars that tackle the art of loglines, synopses, and pitch decks. Fernanda will use her 25 years experience of lecturing around the world and working with filmmakers to break down her thorough knowledge into easy steps, exercises, and plenty of before/after samples so you don't need to guess how to put your best foot forward. You can register for the workshop here. Details: The workshop takes place September 21-Oct 5 on Zoom, and recordings will be available to those who’ve registered for 15 days following each session. You can save by signing up for a combo package of all three sessions or take them as standalones. (GSH) Having seen many great and not-so-great pitch decks, and because my clients often ask for examples, I can't recommend this workshop enough. (BN)
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Branded Content
 Watch Now: Brand Storytelling Interview With Brian Newman: Last week, Brand Storytelling ran an interview with our own Brian Newman as part of their Perspectives series. You can watch the half-hour interview here: The Value of Strategic Distribution in Brand Storytelling. In his conversation with host Braden Dragomir (Founder, Untold Storytelling), Brian shares his career beginnings in the film festival and distribution worlds, his first foray into brand film consultancy with Patagonia, and the foundational elements of what he's learned about the efficacy of brand film along the way. He shares valuable insights and advice gained via his expertise in guiding brands through the process of leveraging entertainment for marketing and corporate social responsibility purposes, impressing the importance of building distribution and marketing into a brand's initial storytelling strategy, taking advantage of the expertise of great brand marketers and a marketing mindset, and pursuing innovative solutions to creating awareness around brand films. Enjoy! (GSH)
Coming to theaters soon: REI Co-op Mountainfilm Adventure Shorts: REI Co-op and AMC Theatres presents Mountainfilm Adventure Shorts screening at 100 select AMC theaters around the country for just two days, September 28-29. The program features 14 short films specially curated from the Mountainfilm festival in Telluride, CO that showcase extraordinary individuals who push boundaries in the outdoors. It’s great to see REI making moves (and movies)! Sub-Genre helps REI with REI Co-Op Studios and has been consulting with them on this project and other strategic planning for new film initiatives for over 3 years now. Watch the promo video and learn more about the screenings here. (GSH)
Swimming With Butterflies: An Invisalign-Funded Documentary: Check out filmmaker Karl Stelter’s piece about how he got his passion project / doc film about 3-time Paralympian Lizzi Smith picked up by Invisalign. You can watch the official trailer and learn more about the film here. Takeaways (1) A good pitch deck tailored to a specific brand is key (I’m sure this will be echoed and expanded upon in The D-Word’s upcoming workshop); (2) The brand’s values must align with the message of the film (Invisalign had no alignment issues here) as Lizzi happened to already be an Invisalign brand ambassador; (3) Persistence is important (a number of brands shot the film down before Stelter’s film was picked up). (GSH)
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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