What Does It Mean To Be A “Creator” In The Age Of AI? Lessons Learned From An AI Movie Trailer

AI is disrupting the entertainment industry in ways that are hard to understand and virtually impossible to predict. In my last article about the intersection of AI and the entertainment world, I reflected on the rise of AI-generated music. While I’m not afraid of it, I do recognize that it has the potential to completely alter the production and distribution of music as we’ve known it for decades.

?

In this thought piece, I want to pull back the lens and take an even broader look at how AI is impacting something that is foundational to this industry: creators. AI has the potential to completely disrupt our notion of:

?

• What a creator is.
• What a creator does.
• How one becomes a creator.
• The credentials required to be a creator.
• Whether or not AI creators will be recognized as legitimate by existing institutions that have long influenced the industry. This would include voting institutions (Oscars, Emmys, Grammys) academic institutions (film schools, music schools, art schools) and the media (newspapers, magazines and publishers who generate trade press in the entertainment industry).
• How one earns income as a creator.

?

In the age of AI, all these things are up for grab. For the record, I will not claim to have answers to these complex questions. But I do think these are the questions that will be hotly debated both today and for the next several years. My goal is not to take a side in that debate, but rather to explore how the notion of being a creator is rapidly changing. I will leave it to you to decide where you stand on these debates.

?

Love or hate AI—it’s here to stay. So we might as well do our best to understand it. We also would be wise, I believe, to understand how AI might impact our careers. The more we can see it coming, the better the opportunity we have to pivot, to make choices that will protect us from disruption and possibly even open new doors for us.

?

To help us think about these topics, I’d like to draw upon the work of Jason Steinhauer , an author and public historian who wrote a book called History, Disrupted: How Social Media & the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past. Jason’s ideas about “credentialism” can really help us understand how things are changing.

?

I’d also like to introduce Ari Binus , who describes himself as “artist, author, creator.” Ari is legitimately recognized today as a creator. His credentials are impeccable: BA Fine Arts from Boston University with an emphasis in painting. His work spans film animations, book illustration, storyboarding and concepting, art directing, writing, being a lyricist and the list goes on. For 20 years, Ari has derived his income from being a creator.

?

He is also one of a handful of people to gain early access to AI tools that allowed him, completely by himself, to create a “movie trailer.” Ari is also a thoughtful human being. We have been sharing emails and messages on this topic for a few weeks now. Ari has graciously agreed to let me show his AI-generated movie trailer here and describe how he created it. After reviewing Ari’s work, I will put forward some propositions about how I anticipate AI will impact creators and the broader industry. I’ll also make some suggestions about how to prepare for what is coming.

?

?

What Is A Creator?

?

A creator, in the entertainment space, is someone who creates original artwork: visual, auditory or intellectual. This isn’t a dictionary definition. It’s my definition after years of working with other creators, learning about their backgrounds and watching their processes and outcomes. By that definition, this could include:

?

• Writers who create original scripts, screenplays and stories.
• Directors who inspire and direct actors to give original performances.
• Producers who assemble teams to create original works.
• Actors who deliver original performances.
• Composers who create original music compositions.
• Songwriters who write original songs.
• Set designers who create original visual spaces.
• Directors of photography who develop original approaches to photographing scenes.
• Costume designers who create original wardrobes and costumes for actors.
• Art directors, storyboard artists and designers who create original worlds.
• Character designers who create original characters, especially in gaming.
• Editors who exercise creative control when producing a final product.

?

Now I know this leaves a lot of professions out and it’s not an exhaustive list. Please conduct a search on “below the line workers” to see a more comprehensive list of roles that could be considered candidates for “creating original artwork.” I apologize in advance to anyone who feels slighted. I do make a distinction between being creative and being a creator. I also acknowledge that one can be very creative and yet not produce original artwork.

?

?

Creators, Credentialism And Legitimacy

?

Credentialism is the process by which one gains opportunity in a field of endeavor. This is about earning the credentials that others in the field recognize so you can get into the industry and generate income. The people who’ve earned these credentials probably worked incredibly hard to do so. This means credentialism is also about exclusivity. If you don’t hold certain credentials in certain fields, you may not be granted access to the field or recognized as legitimate by gatekeepers who seek to maintain standards.

?

One of the best articulations of this concept, that I’ve heard, comes from Jason Steinhauer in an article he penned recently. While reflecting on what it means to be a historian in the age of AI, Jason writes:

?

“In the discipline of history, for example, traditionally it has been a linear path of credentialism that determines who is qualified to hold the title of ‘historian.’ Complete the requisite steps—high school degree, college degree, graduate degree, terminal degree—and those in the profession will accept you as one of their own. Today, thousands of people around the world who did not follow a linear path identify as ‘historians’— including journalists, activists, public officials, TV hosts, filmmakers, Wikipedia editors, blockchain enthusiasts, tech entrepreneurs, teenagers and disinformation agents. Authority today can be acquired in very non-linear ways. The current communications environment challenges whether the linear credentialists can maintain their gatekeeping functions.”

?

As it relates to the production of original artwork—my criteria for being designated a creator—much the same rules of the road have applied for decades. Writers, directors, composers, actors, set designers, photographers and a host of other creator types went to school, studied the masters and learned their techniques. This is how they became credentialed.

?

More importantly, submissions from non-credentialed people were often rejected out of hand. Just ask anyone who is a novice filmmaker, who didn’t go to film school, but who created a film and tried to get it into Oscar-track film festivals. That individual will run into gatekeepers pretty quickly.

?

Legitimacy, on the other hand, is about being regarded by institutions that hand out recognition. For instance, winning (or even being nominated for) an Oscar adds tremendous legitimacy to any actor or director’s career. Similarly, a glowing review in Variety or Deadline of a new TV show adds legitimacy to the show’s creators. Almost every discipline in the entertainment industry comes with three legitimizing entities:

?

1. Academic institutions that produce credentialed creators.
2. Voting academies that evaluate and recognize creators.
3. Trade publications that critique creators’ work.

?

This is where legitimacy and income generation intersect for creators. For decades now, to earn income in the entertainment industry, most creators needed to at least have credentials. But that alone may not have been enough to sustain a career and earn a living wage. Creator’s careers were enhanced, and their incomes increased, by winning awards and being favorably reviewed by trade press. If one didn’t win awards or get favorable press, one’s career might be cut short or one might become a starving artist.

?

But with the rise of the internet and AI, all of this is being called into question. Before we look at Ari’s movie trailer as an example of this disruption, I want to reflect on a few reasons the linear credentialing system has worked well (even though many might find it constricting today):

?

• Creators learn the history of the discipline. Can you imagine a Film Director who hasn’t studied Hitchcock?
• Creators learn the techniques of the masters. Can you imagine an painter who didn't study Monet?
• Creators learn form, function, balance and symmetry. Can you imagine a writer who doesn’t know that every story has a beginning, middle and end?
• Creators learn the creative process. Can you imagine a sculptor who doesn’t know that a clay mold comes before liquefying bronze?
• Creators learn to ideate. This is about beginning with the end in mind, a picture, an idea, of what you’re trying to create before you start creating. While happy accidents will generate a spark of fresh creativity here and there, most creators know they can’t count on that. It won’t sustain a career. Ideation is about having a controlling vision in one’s mind of what one is trying to create. This controlling vision keeps the project on track, especially as the creator tries things that don’t work and that have to be scrapped. The more unique one’s vision, the more distinctive and differentiated one’s art. Of all the benefits one gains from going through the credentialing process, learning to ideate may be the most significant.
• Creators learn how incredibly hard it is to actually create something original.

?

History, technique, form, function, process, ideation: this is what creators learn as they become credentialed. But with AI, will all this knowledge and experience be necessary? Can AI provide the history, form, function and even shortcut processes? Why do I ask? I have a sense that we are standing on the precipice of a new era. In this new era:

?

• Creators may not need to have credentials to make meaningful original art.
• Creators may not need legitimacy from voting bodies or the trade press to earn a living wage or even very high incomes.
• Creators may be able to leverage AI tools that allow them to venture into other disciplines without having learned the techniques of the masters of that discipline.

?

This is new territory. We’ve never been here before. This is both exciting and a bit scary.

?

_______________________________________________________________

?

"Ideation is about having a controlling vision in one’s mind of what one is trying to create."

?

_______________________________________________________________

?

An AI Movie Trailer

?

Ari Bunis created a movie trailer based on an Edgar Allen Poe short story. His trailer is called The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar: A film trailer by Ari Binus. Just to be clear, there is no film to follow the trailer. This is a trailer only. Ari created this to explore what AI can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kVmO0Dj5So

?

The visuals are all from Gen-2 Runway's AI platform. Ari’s process included:

• Ideating – coming up with controlling vision of the story he wanted to tell based on a Poe work.
• Prompting – using the AI tool to generate footage that is a match to the concept.
• Tweaking – tinkering with AI prompts repeatedly to get something closer to the desired footage.
• Voicing – feeding scripts into AI-generated vocal tools to generate voice over performances.
• Music Selection – picking tracks from YouTube’s creator library.
• Editing – using traditional editing tools to assemble the final product.

?

If you’re like me, your first impression of this might be “not ready for prime time.” The footage is grainy, the voices sound digital and the music is rather stock. But that would be missing the point. I think there are three very powerful take-aways here:

?

1. One creative person with a clearly ideated vision of what they wanted to create leveraged AI tools to do so. This was not a team effort, unlike most traditional trailers.
2. Most of the tools he used are brand new. Imagine what they’ll be able to produce in a year, in five years or in a decade?
3. Ari created this trailer in under a week. For those who are unfamiliar with the trailer world, that’s lightning fast.

?

Given our earlier analysis about credentialism and legitimacy, I would make a few observations.

?

1. Ari is credentialed to write, direct, create visuals and edit this trailer.
2. He is not credentialed as producer, actor, voice-actor, director of photography, composer, hair and makeup, wardrobe and costuming, set design and a host of other disciplines that normally would be employed to create a trailer.
3. All of those disciplines he otherwise would have had to hire got “replaced” by AI tools or public domain content.
4. His lack of experience and credentialism in those disciplines did not stop him from leveraging the tools to produce something pretty cutting edge.
5. His experience as a creator in other disciplines gave him a leg up in using the AI tools to produce a product that he’s proud of and that reflects his original vision. What he ideated in his mind is pretty close to what the final product became.

?

_______________________________________________________________

?

"If you are a legitimate creator today who produces original artwork for the entertainment industry, I don’t believe you have to worry about AI putting you out of a job anytime soon."

?

_______________________________________________________________

??

Where We Are Today With AI?

?

Given this interesting trailer, I feel fairly comfortable extrapolating out from this single example to make some broader observations about how AI may impact creators.

?

• AI is not ready, yet, to generate award winning storytelling productions. This could change quickly as the AI machine is fed content to analyze.
• AI today is prone to create “beautiful” things that will quickly become stock. Once the market is flooded with beautiful AI creations, differentiation will take on a new importance. Ari’s focus was to create something dark and gothic. Had he chosen to create a romantic comedy, it’s highly likely he would have had more beautiful options to pick from. ?
• AI is ready to do a lot of heavy lifting. An individual can now generate work that formerly an entire team would have had to do. This could have a major impact, over time, on the need for below the line workers.
• AI, today, is not particularly flexible. Most of us, when entering prompts, have an image, storyline, music composition or sound in our mind. AI will not read our minds and give us that. AI will give us what the database thinks we meant based on the data it has been fed. This makes the “trainers” of AI systems very influential and powerful in our culture.
• AI has the potential to make creative people far more prolific. Creators can now cross over into many differing disciplines where they may not have formal training. This could engender a new breed of solo creators.
• AI can be a democratizing agent, giving creative people tools to create in new ways: graphic artists become composers, composers become animators, animators become writers. The distinction of the swim-lanes that have historically separated the disciplines may, at some point, become almost non-existent.
• AI has the potential to radically alter production timelines. Film, TV, gaming and other creative fields could see substantially shortened time-to-market.
• AI has tremendous potential to disrupt careers in differing creative fields. It could put people out of jobs. That risk is very real.
• AI, today, will not produce “meaningful” art without human intervention. Much of what AI generates today is unintelligible to humans. This is why Midjourney generates photorealistic images of humans having an arm in the middle of their stomach. Today, the tool cannot recognize the rules of “form,” but that may change soon.

?

?

Is AI The Enemy Of Creators?

?

As I have said elsewhere, AI does not create, at least not in any sense that we recognize today as creative. Instead, AI recombines input elements it has been trained on to produce derivative new works. The output of AI tools is a derivation of, a recombination of, the original sources it was trained on. This is why I believe that at least for the foreseeable future, most AI products will be novelty acts, not the main show. As Ari says, AI will likely flood the market with “mountains upon mountains of beautiful junk.”

?

In other words, if you are a legitimate creator today who produces original artwork for the entertainment industry, I don’t believe you have to worry about AI putting you out of a job anytime soon. The future becomes much murkier as the tools progress, but for now, I don’t see AI as a real threat to creators.

?

One of the other reasons I say this is because the entertainment industry’s money system is built on title and copyright. The question of AI title and copyright will be hotly debated, no doubt, over the next several years. But for now, a computer system cannot own a title or file a copyright.

?

I also do not see a world any time soon in which non-credentialed people will be granted legitimacy for their “creations” by voting bodies or the trade press. The gatekeeper functions will remain in place and will be powerful. Gatekeepers have too much to lose and they will not give up quickly or easily, no matter how powerful the technology becomes.

?

At some point there will probably be AI film festivals. ?Criteria will need to be established for just how much of the work came from the AI machines versus a human. Those should be very interesting debates.

?

One credentialed creator with a fully-fleshed-out concept could leverage AI tools to create original artwork that does gain legitimacy by voting bodies and the press. To me, this seems like a really lonely path compared to working with a team, but I can see this as a distinct possibility. It is also entirely possible that this could enhance their incomes by a wide margin.

?

Another possibility is that AI studios will emerge. These studios could be founded and run by credentialed people who deeply understand storytelling, character development, visual appeal, music and sound and other disciplines. In fact, of all the possibilities I see for AI today, this one seems the most logical and likely to me. These studios could become some of the most profitable and prolific businesses in the entertainment industry.

?

?

Some Recommendations

?

Given this analysis, I’d like to make a couple of recommendations. If you are a credentialed creator today who wants to explore what AI can do, you might be very pleasantly surprised. This could open up new creative territory for you that you could only have dreamed about a decade ago.

?

Ari says: “I have to say that as someone who’s reasonably well-acquainted with creative and artistic problem-solving, I’ve already derived the same sense of creative satisfaction in some of my own tinkering with AI as I have from other pursuits prior to the recent emergence of AI tools.”

?

If you are in a role in the entertainment industry today that could be negatively impacted by AI, I would advise you to plan your pivot now. Disruption hurts the most when we don’t see it coming and don’t have a plan to deal with it. Gaining new skills, making new connections, even leveraging AI to enhance your capabilities could help you land on your feet in this new world. I recommend that you keep an open mind, explore options and discover ways to make this technology work for you.

?

If you have any questions or comments about this rather long article, please do share them below. I very much want to hear from creators.