Earlier this year, as ChatGPT, Midjourney, Runway and a long list of other AI tools ignited a national conversation about artificial intelligence, many of my colleagues in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California shuddered in horror over the displacement of human craft and creativity by visuals created through simple text prompts. Published in The New York Times in February, columnist Kevin Roose’s description of his creepy conversation with Bing added gasoline to the fire, prompting a desire to prohibit the use of all AI across all of our programs. And what about plagiarism?! The general […]

We see a childhood photograph nearly centered in the frame on a black backdrop. In the photograph, a boy of three or four years of age smiles inside the bathtub with his two dogs. A few seconds later, the black screen around the photograph becomes part of the photograph; the image expands and the rest of the room is revealed. Everything looks familiar and slightly off at the same time. The tiles are slightly skewed, as if the wall has melted. The shape of the bathtub looks normal but perhaps larger than usual. There are suddenly three more dogs in […]

While researching and writing the science fiction screenplay that would become his ingenious debut feature, The Artifice Girl, Franklin Ritch studied the dialogue and body language found in police interrogation tapes. “Detectives have a rhythm to their questioning,” the Jacksonville, Florida–based filmmaker says. “It was especially intriguing to watch these tapes without knowing the context of the crime. It became clear that in order to keep the audience engaged through the heavy exposition of [The Artifice Girl‘s] first act, each page of the script needed to alternate between revealing a secret and setting up a new enticing mystery.”  The dialogue […]

The lobby is packed. Within minutes of opening, a line has formed for Frankenstein AI: a monster made by many, and we’re completely booked for the day. Festival-goers curious about emergent forms of storytelling weave their way through the New Frontier section of the festival, a labyrinth of VR, AR and AI. Now in its 11th year, Sundance’s New Frontier is hosted in two venues and has expanded to over 30 exhibitions ranging from individual experiences to a social VR theater for close to 100 participants. The last few months have been a whirlwind. On November 13th I received an […]

I recall the first time I heard the word “Sundance” uttered. A friend had returned from the mythical mountains of Utah and, like a sage returning home from a quest, dropped a book in front of me. I scoured that festival program guide — studying every photo and accompanying film description — hoping that some filmmaking knowledge, and maybe even a little magic, would rub off on me. It was the early ’90s, and indie film was filled with starry-eyed promise. After all, those were the days of pre-sales, physical media and the elusive multi-picture deal. When I finally made […]

Candice Drouet’s latest video compares a number of shots from Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence — which he famously took over at Stanley Kubrick’s request — with shots they’re modeled on from Kubrick’s work. Refreshingly for a supercut video, the Spielberg shots do seem directly modeled after specific Kubrick shots rather than merely relying upon vague similarities.