“Part of my job is testing AI products to find out how well they work, what they can be used for and just how good they are at different tasks. So, inspired by my mom’s favorite genre of movie I decided to ask ChatGPT to write a Christmas story in the style of Hallmark.”
His ChatGPT 4 prompt? “Can you help me come up with the plot for a Hallmark-style Christmas movie?”
The resulting basic plot? “In ‘Christmas Carousel’, a New York architect discovers love and the value of tradition when she teams up with a local carousel restorer to save a cherished holiday attraction in a small town.”
There’s a more detailed plot, characters and even dialogue.
Oops! There is a real 2020 Hallmark movie called “A Christmas Carousel” with this plot: “When Lila is hired by the Royal Family of Ancadia to repair a carousel, she must work with the Prince to complete it by Christmas.”
My take: even though it appears ChatGPT 4 came extremely close to ripping off the title of an existing Hallmark movie, I like its plot better than the real one. Go figure.
The mock-up asks you for a text prompt and then writes lyrics, music and has a voice-cloned artist sing:
YouTube is also testing Music AI Tools:
This is all possible due to Google DeepMind’s Lyria, their most advanced AI music generation model to date.
Cleo Abram also explains the real issue with AI music: When do artists get paid?
My take: AI is just a tool — I use it occasionally and will be exploring it more in 2024. What we as a society really need to figure out is what everyone’s going to do, and how they’ll get (not earn) enough money to live, when AI and Robotics make paid work redundant.
“Movie Trailers may have started out as a tool to sell films, but over time they have evolved into their own spectacle. Before a film is released there are a multitude of Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots, Web Shorts, and even Trailers before the Trailer starts. How did Hollywood turn from a simple marketing tool, to a an ever expansive industry of movie trailers that mostly give away the entire plot of the film? How did Hollywood crush the Movie Trailer?”
“Movie marketing expert and creative director Jessica Fox takes us through the steps of creating a successful movie trailer. From the collaborative process that takes place between filmmakers, studios and creative agencies to audience testing, she breaks down how each play a role in deciding how much is shown, what stories are told, and why trailers tease missing scenes from the film’s final cut.”
My take: I think the job of trailers is much harder today than in the past, given the fractured entertainment environment and peoples’ frenzied attention spans. And yet the goal remains the same: get folks to watch the whole movie. But I think the “Exquisite Corpse” might-as-well-be-a-random-sampling-of-the-movie trailer editing method is not working well. (Imagine if they did that with books — a word salad of the paragraphs from five pages of a four hundred page novel.) I much prefer the “In a world where…” trailer structure that is once removed from the film but still sets up the premise and asks the audience a question, one that they can only answer if they watch the movie. Oh, and my pet peeve? I feel cheated if the music in the trailer is not in the movie.
“As an indie distributor, Elevation competes in the shadow of Hollywood studios dominating the local multiplex with star-driven tentpoles by embracing indie filmmakers in Canada and international art house titles.”
“Many of Elevation’s potentially zeitgeist-capturing releases come via output deals with American partners, including Black Bear, Neon and A24, with whom Elevation is a preferred partner north of the border.”
“In all, Elevation releases about 35 indie titles a year, with a third of those locally produced or acquired at festivals on completion that hopefully will become box office winners.”
“Key to Elevation’s proven playbook is that focus on financing homegrown directors and their films, with support from local funding agencies like Telefilm Canada to share the risks and rewards on what can be an uphill battle to launch and monetize Canadian indies.”
My take: I notice on Panoscope that Elevation is almost always the leading Canadian distributor each week.
“The bill makes changes to Canada’s Broadcasting Act. The legislation requires streaming services, such as Netflix and Spotify, to pay to support Canadian media content like music and TV shows. It also requires the platforms to promote Canadian content. Specifically, the bill says ‘online undertakings shall clearly promote and recommend Canadian programming, in both official languages as well as in Indigenous languages.’ The changes give the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada’s broadcast regulator, broad powers over digital media companies, including the ability to impose financial penalties for violations of the act. The government says the legislation is necessary to impose the same regulations and requirements in place for traditional broadcasters on online media platforms. Right now, broadcasters are required to spend at least 30 per cent of their revenue on supporting Canadian content.”
The bill doesn’t prescribe how the CRTC should direct undertakings to do this: “But the government is expected to clarify many areas of uncertainty through a policy directive to the CRTC. A Senate amendment that the House of Commons accepted requires the CRTC to hold public consultations on how it will use its new regulatory powers.”
“The legislation will head to its next phase including a policy direction consultation that will seek to clean up at least some of the uncertainty in the bill (that Bill C-11 was subject to so much scrutiny yet still leaves so much unanswered is hard to explain), followed by years of CRTC hearings and appeals. Sometime in the future – best guess would be 2025 or 2026 – digital creators will have been forced to make multiple trips to Gatineau to urge a hands-off regulatory approach and the industry will find that the bill generates far less than it expected. Further, those modest benefits will be accompanied by revised Canadian content policies that will leave some doubting whether the trade-off was worth it.”
My take: I worry about the concentration of administrative power in an unelected government-appointed board. And the unintended consequences! For instance, will smaller streamers just forgo Canada if this will increase their operating expenses? Will the definition of Canadian content change so much that the domestic television industry is threatened? Will the government be able to censor Canadian UGC? Cannot predict now.
“The new Relight FX lets you add virtual light sourcesinto a scene to creatively adjust environmental lighting, fill dark shadows or change the mood. Light sources can be directional to cast a broad light, a point source, or a spotlight and be adjusted for surface softness and specularity control.“
My take: wow! This looks like so much fun. I can see using Relight instead of a power window to punch up illumination on the subject, drawing the eye exactly where you want it to go. This tool brings new meaning to the phrase, “We’ll fix it in Post!”
Telefilm Canada invites the industry to participate in the Canada Media Fund’s newly launched national #CanConDef survey focused on the Canadian audiovisual sector’s views on how the current definition of “Canadian content” could evolve and contribute to the conversation following the passage of Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act.
The 10-15-minute survey is open to all individuals who work in or aspire to work in Canada’s audiovisual production and broadcasting sectors. It’s designed to be widely accessible, regardless of role, level of experience, or knowledge regarding Canadian content policy.
The survey will close on March 31, 2023. Click HERE to fill out the survey.
My take: please fill out this survey as it has the potential to shake up the film and TV scene in Canada for decades to come. Just ask all the Canadian Music Icons who owe their careers to MAPL, also known as CanCon, established in 1971, over 50 years ago. It’s a long survey so have a drink nearby.
“If big streamers are like a shiny fast-food chain, where you always know what you’re getting, we’re the food truck parked across the street with daily specials and better ingredients. We’re hoping that JustWatchMe.tv can grow to feel like home for Canadian producers and their content, which we all love but rarely get to see.”
Most content on the service will be free. A premium tier will be $4.99 per month.
My take: Hey Michael, let’s talk about doing a web series!
