How (and Why) we used A.I. for my Documentary FORTITUDE

There’s so much talk about how A.I. will replace jobs that I wanted to highlight how it can also give creators a new tool kit. Most of my advisors wanted to stop me … but I used A.I. because 1) some creative ideas would not have been possible otherwise and 2) budget constraints left me no choice.

Here’s a short run down.

1.???? The Facemorph. In this scene, I speak about (“embody”) the childhood of one of the space billionaires. The script: ”Jeff Bezos was inspired by legendary Science Fiction writer Robert Heinlein. Maybe when he grows up, he can build his own rocket and fly to space!” … which, of course, is exactly what he did with Blue Origin.

The great team at INVR.SPACE GmbH with whom I have worked with for over 10 years used for Pinokio and other more traditional VFX tools to create this scene. It’s the most expensive 7 seconds of the film but among the most satisfying for me creatively.

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2.???? Animated Asteroid Mining Rig. In one of our most futuristic story segments, our film team visited the Californian asteroid mining company AstroForge . In order to match an image of an actual NASA asteroid mission to with their CTO’s vision, our A.I. Consultant Norman Eppenberger prompted DALL-E and turned the A.I. generated still image into a 4 second video with RunwayML. This shot would otherwise not have been possible to execute.

3.???? Backgrounds for 2D Papercut Scenes

One of our most elaborate scenes is the Elon Musk Rap Battle made as 2D papercuts. It went viral on TikTok last year. (See it in full here: https://youtu.be/2s7DKXsUdxs). The figures and hundreds of other assets were handcrafted and scissor-cut by our Art Director Joscha Mayer. But as you can see in these behind-the-scenes photos, the backgrounds were our tiny version of LED walls for virtual production sets. Those were generic A.I. prompted “moon landscapes”, etc.

4.???? Key Art. I needed eye-catching key art for AppleTV. I posted this cool photo shoot with the mega talented photographer Fliss Barsky a few weeks ago. This is a great example of how very specific human skills can be enriched with AI. Midjourney created hundreds of backgrounds but the time-consuming part of the job and the real magic was very much her human effort.

5.???? Music Score.

Of course, we hired human musicians to perform the music synchronized ‘frame by frame’ (see photo of our drummer Jack at one of our practice sessions). But … I ran out of time and money, so I used some VR software to create sound effects and some A.I. tools to score the music. How do you like the Space Techno for our end credits? https://youtu.be/mhJ-KJhgqnw

The production of Fortitude took 3 years and we worked with almost hundred professionals in eight countries. Will my next film still require drone operators, editors, animators, colour graders, musicians, audio engineers? I definitely think so. Do you agree?

The documentary will be launching on AppleTV. Mark your calendars for July 16th. Watch the teaser video and consider organising a film event, premiere, screening at your company or conference via our website www.FortitudeMovie.com.

S?nke Kirchhof Jessica Zippel Jose Acain Marissa Gonzalez Billie Henry Kristofh Pozo Alan d'Escragnolle Liam Lischak Cieron Cody Torsten Kriening René Puls Daniel Smith AstroAgency Chris Kamen Sarah Hutt Michael W. Lewis Levent Dylan Taylor Iman McPherson Kazz Basma Bob Bowen Morris Hille Julian Tse Jerome Simonpietri SOUNDRAW Dallas Campbell DALL-E Open Ai Andrea Monteiro Ana Russell-Omaljev Nicole Thalhofer Carolin Wittmann Darren Vukasinovic Michelle Czernin von Chudenitz Thibaut Denonain Phil Macdonald Julia Sch?nst?dt Rusty Manoff Verstiuk Production Olena Chernei Jack Yewman Samantha Smith