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Advice to a Rookie

Below is a Whatsap that I sent to a younger Millennial. I typed it with great caution as to avoid sounding patronizing. This message would have been better suited as a email but said Millennial does not have an email (or likely just find email to be “so Gen-X”)…

Let me get right to it. I think it’s a bit premature to do the whole NDA thing. We’re giving “early access” to proven producers, meaning people who have experience running productions of this kind. Remember, it’s for inserts similar to Top Billing.

Please don’t be discouraged. This project is about breaking down barriers and causing some friendly disruption to the establishment. We don’t want to hurt the industry through disruption; we want to improve it. The boat we intend to rock is broadcasting—both terrestrial and satellite.

We aim for the production value to be slightly higher and definitely more creative than the usual TV programs. The goal is to make prime-time advertising more accessible to SMEs. We’re all about taking a chance on new talent, and believe me, we understand the situation you’re in because we’ve been there too. That’s why we want to build a structure based on merit first and relationships thereafter. You can spot the catch-22 there, right? How can one gain merit or experience without being given a chance? That’s a problem we’re working on and are open to suggestions on how to approach it.

Ultimately, we need about 20 committed, self-contained production units. If you’re a free agent, start assembling a team right away. Feel free to share this text with whomever. I want to offer you access to borrow or rent all that we have at a reduced rate. If you have the opportunity to get something cool for your showreel but don’t have much budget for it, come talk to us. Freebies won’t be sans quid pro quo, but understand that I’m all about clearing paths for all producers, old and new.

In conclusion, I want to humbly offer you some advice. I wouldn’t claim that this advice is universal—just my own observation. Treat production as a marathon rather than a sprint. One of the seniors involved has produced over 1,000 TV episodes and has been in the business for 20 years. If you do the math, that averages out to one TV episode per week. However, consider that on his latest shows, he takes a whole year to produce one season! That’s 23 minutes multiplied by 13 episodes. He’s at a place where he can take a whole year to produce only 299 minutes of TV. This guy is on easy street, yet he’s getting involved because, as he says, “You don’t wait until everyone is dying of thirst to make plans to dig a well.”

I’m speaking mostly for myself, but I know at least a few other directors who get very irritated with over-committed freelancers. One wants to project an image of being busy and “on the go,” but trust me, you’ll get further if you project an image of calm commitment. When you’re part of a project, that project is all that matters in the world. It should be your highest priority. Fake it if you have to!

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The Awesomeness of AI

Wanted to see how a LLM like chat will do to translate abstract instructions into .svg files….

Behold the results!!!!

Next, I gave it more detailed instructions:

(note some sarcasm there? heheheh….)

At this juncture, the process encounters some limitations. It’s important to consider that Chat is a Large Language Model (LLM) that hasn’t undergone updates in over two years. Additionally, OpenAI may not allocate extensive resources to a free service like the one I’ve been utilizing. When attempting similar approaches in coding, there was a period of trial and error. However, with clear and detailed prompts, Chat was able to achieve success, often in a spectacular manner. It seems that both code and language—code essentially being a form of language—are comprehensible at a logical level, allowing for relative ease of understanding. However, when it comes to visual elements like pictures, the situation differs. While there are AI modules capable of generating images, they may not grasp the nuances of abstraction in a manner akin to human perception. Nonetheless, advancements in this field continue, and it’s likely that we will eventually reach a point where such nuances can be understood and replicated effectively. As an experiment, you can throw your idea for a novel or screenplay into Chat GPT and see what comes out….Don’t hold your breath. But on the flip-side, it’s handy to give different voices to characters in your story. Here are an example.

Original Dialogue: “Give me the suitcase right now. Put it down on the ground here in front of me. Wait! What is the combination. Get back over here. Open it up. Slowly. Hands were I can see them.” Prompt: Chat, can you please help with this piece of dialogue? It is spoken by a over weight middle aged Cogney. He speaks in heavy Cogney accent and uses allot of Cogney slang. Please edit this to add a bit of drama and make it as long or short as you wish. Dialogue to follow”

“Oi, give us the bleedin’ suitcase, yeah? Drop it right ‘ere, smack dab in front o’ me. Hold up! What’s the ruddy combination? Come back ‘ere, ya mug. Crack it open, nice ‘n easy. And keep them hands where I can see ’em, or else…”

What do you think?

When asked to re-do in a Chicago Gangster’s voice in the 1940:

“Alright, pal, hand over that suitcase, and make it snappy. Set it down right here, nice and easy, in front of yours truly. Hold your horses! What’s the combination, see? Don’t you move a muscle, now come back here and give me the skinny on that lock. Open it up, slow and steady, and keep them mitts where I can eyeball ’em, capisce?”

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AI Made Movie Trailers

Attention all movie producers! Are you tired of endlessly wrangling actors, dealing with diva directors, and battling budget constraints? Well, fear not, because the future of filmmaking is here, and it’s called AI-generated movies! Yes, you heard that right. Move over, Spielberg, because the machines are taking over, and they’re armed with algorithms and pixels!

Now, you might be wondering, why should movie producers bother learning how to code? Isn’t that what the tech geeks do in their parents’ basements? Well, think again! In the era of AI-generated movies, coding skills are the new director’s chair. Forget about artistic vision and storytelling prowess; all you need is a knack for Python and a love for debugging.

Imagine the possibilities! No more pesky actors demanding exorbitant salaries or throwing tantrums on set. With AI-generated actors, you can create the perfect cast member with just a few lines of code. Want Tom Cruise’s charm mixed with Meryl Streep’s acting chops? No problem! Just tweak the parameters, and voila, you’ve got yourself a blockbuster superstar.

And let’s not forget about the endless possibilities for plot twists and storylines. With AI algorithms crunching data faster than you can say “action,” you can churn out movie scripts faster than a Hollywood production assistant fetches coffee. Who needs screenwriters when you have neural networks generating plot twists that’ll leave audiences on the edge of their seats?

But wait, there’s more! AI-generated movies aren’t just limited to the big screen. With the rise of streaming platforms and virtual reality, you can create immersive cinematic experiences that’ll make audiences question reality itself. Who needs a green screen when you can create entire worlds from lines of code?

So, to all the movie producers out there, it’s time to dust off those coding textbooks and embrace the future of filmmaking. With AI-generated movies, the only limit is your imagination (and maybe a few syntax errors). Welcome to the brave new world of cinema, where the only thing more unpredictable than the plot twists are the bugs in your code!