Anyone who has been following me online will have noticed I have been toying quite a bit with AI creatively.
Although I remain completely dismissive of the quality of AI writing, I believe AI generates excellent music. I attribute this ability to the mathematical nature of music. I have been using AI to realize the songs I have been writing since the early 1980s. I am also using AI to create the lyric videos for my songs. I have been surprised by the rapid advancement of the quality of the images and animation. It has reached a point where it could be taken seriously.
I made a few semi-narrative short films for the amusement of my wife Deborah and myself. She always dreamed of being a pioneer in the Old West and I was able to make that dream come true through the magic of AI. I can't post that film here because some of our adventures were of a romantic nature perhaps more fitting for Cinemax After Dark. (I got a community standards warning on the film on YouTube and quickly removed it.)
I was able to transport us back in time again in the music video for my wife's upcoming song Remember Eve. In the music video, a modern woman, modeled on Deborah at the age of thrity-three, looks back with longing on Eve's innocent life in the Garden of Eden before she ate the apple. Eve is modeled on Deborah at the age of eighteen. Fortunately, she had long hair at that time! I, of course, play both Adam and the dullard modern husband. Here's the video:
That video gave Deborah an idea. We could start a business where we transport people back to a time they longed to visit. To test the concept, Deborah approached our friend Trish, a longtime film business persona. Trish was game. She said she wanted to be a writer in the 1920s. I suggested being a screenwriter at Paramount (where she once worked on the lot) during the late silent period. Deborah asked who her period celebrity crush was. She said young Gary Cooper. With those details in hand, I created the story you'll find in the film.
Here's the logline: A Hollywood screenwriter finds herself entangled in behind the scenes romance and politics during the making of a 1926 silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Clara Bow and an ambitious, up and coming Gary Cooper. Meanwhile, her friend F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is slumming in Hollywood for quick cash, advises her to leave the movie business and write a novel instead.
I know a number of AI generators will create two minute plus sequences of a film at one time. I've seen some amazing action sequences created that way, but I wanted a more human story. To do so, I felt I needed to keep more of the process in my own hands. Here's my workflow.
I storyboarded the film shot by shot by creating 89 master still images in ChatGPT. I later created some additional submaster stills in Grok. Using those stills, I created 94 video clip using Grok. Because of the subject matter, I opted to make a silent film. (I was also afraid of the voice acting, but it would have been adequate.) The film was a very talky silent film. I generated 66 title images. I created all of the music tracks on Suno. The song, Red Hill Way, was written by Deborah and myself. The French translation was generated by ChatGPT. I edited the film in Premiere Pro. Total time invested: Less than 30 hours. Total budget: Maybe $50 more than my normal monthly AI subscription budget.
Here's the film:
First, I want to report that Trish loved the final project, and, fortunately, allowed us to post it publicly. I'm glad she did. I am quite proud of the film. So is Deborah.
I must say that I enjoyed the making of this film more than the making of twelve of my fourteen produced features. Normally, I am only a writer. This process allowed me to immerse myself in all aspects of production: Writing, direction, cinematography (I have a cameo as the camera operator), casting, wardrobe, locations, set decoration, music supervision and post. A filmmaker friend of mine was depressed by what he saw. He said it would be end of writing and directing. I strongly disagreed. I reminded him that wrote and director the film. The same skills were needed. Only the tools changed.
Hey, I understand his attitude. In my day job, I initally resisted non-linear digital entity. Then I embraced it wholeheartedly. I'm glad I did. If I hadn't I would have been out of the film editing business by the early nineties.
Adapt or die...
(I see an AI feature in my future.)
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight
Be sure to check out my novel Chapel Street. It tells the story of a young man straddling the line between sanity and madness while battling a demonic entity that has driven his family members to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 2, The House
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 3, This Is Us
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 4, Arrival
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 5, Methodology
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 6, Clara's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 7, Clara's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 8, My Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 9, My Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 10, My Tale, Pt. 3
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 11, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 12, Natalia's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 13, John's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 14, John's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 15, Come Inside!
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 16, Marion's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 17, Marion's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 18, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 19, Jeanne's Tale, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 20, Lisa's Tale
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 21, Recap, Pt. 1
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 22, Recap, Pt. 2
The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue, Part 23, Recap, Pt. 3
