In Flux

Been doing some thinking over the past two weeks. I spent much of July focused on the current state of AI video and was trying to determine its limitations and capabilities. That meant researching Gen-3, Dream Machine, and Kling. There are others but those are the main three so far. There is great potential. No doubt. But, to get the best results you need to use Image-to-Video, preferably with one or two images. I can see generating between a series of single images in a longer sequence as a thing. Having one at the start and one at the end of a 10-second clip is wicked cool, but I've heard of these tools being able to do 2-3 minute sequences. Imagine adding 120 single images and next thing you know you have a whole scene created without needing to be so tedious with these shorter clips. Not all the models are doing these beginning and end frames yet but they will soon. Oh, and FLUX is giving Midjourney a run for its money as far as realistic images. 

I love all of that. Imagining how it will progress is just as fascinating to me. It's amazing to watch. New use cases are rolling out every few weeks. For instance, you can shoot a video with your camera and take an image from that video to add a VFX sequence that can be edited into the live shot using editing software. After I saw that I realized I could go back and test on old short films I made years ago. I am discovering these brilliant techniques people are coming up with and testing them to determine possible use cases. 

Like many people who have realized over the past year that we have entered a new era-- one that seems likely to change society and the way we live our lives, I have been trying to determine how to pivot. While I am no longer a young man, I still have dreams and aspirations similar to those of that younger version of me who returned from California with a creative fire burning in his eyes 25 years ago. The stories are the key. They reveal the lessons learned along the way, and the possible futures based on the world as it is perceived.  

Give me an hour at a cafe with a cup of coffee, a good book, my phone, a notebook, and a pen and I couldn't be happier. It's a pocket of time when I am free to let my mind wander. While some of my best story ideas happen while I am out for a walk, so many of those ideas are fleshed out at a cafe. The constant change around me, people coming and going, as I sit there observing while looking inwards, making connections, recalling the journey, and trying to predict and plan for what comes next. 

I have given myself till the end of this week to assess AI Video models to see what I could learn and then determine how that might impact me creatively in the near future. I still have another week, and there are likely to be many new use cases to discover, but I feel I have made my mind up already.

I am not in this space to be the guy who is the first to discover new techniques with these GenAI tools. I do not feel obligated to post content every day to keep my engagement metrics up. No, not yet at least. I want to see how others are using these tools to learn from them so that I can tell my stories in new ways. I think we are in a new frontier-- creatively speaking, and I consider myself one of those pioneers. My goal is to create a multimedia company. Or a "media empire" as a friend recently joked after reading my most recent TV series bible. It lays out big plans for the TV series that involve a few new ways of interacting with the content. 

Simply put, the goal is to work with Gen AI tools to be able to do more. Two things came to mind last spring when I began to immerse myself in the Gen AI space: How do I use these tools to help me creatively? And, how do I use this technology to help others? 

I am by no means an altruistic saint who thinks only of helping his fellow man every second of every day. Far from it. We are a screwy species and it is often best to mind our own damn business. But I do come from a long line of educators so maybe genetically that is where it comes from. Anyway, an APP was one of the first things I thought of last spring after sitting down with GPT-4 for a month. I have been researching ever since. 

While I won't go into detail about the APP at this time, it is interesting that other than creating moving and still images to accompany my written words that I thought of creating an APP to help others. The idea just made sense. Even more so now. Not only can I help others with it but I can also help myself as well.

As I was assessing the current state of AI Video tools last week I realized something. 

If I am serious about starting a multimedia company, I can't expect AI video trailers/ short films, or graphic novels to fund the way forward... yet. AI Video has gotten a whole hell of a lot better than it was this time last year. However, it's not easy to tell a substantial story. And while the trailer I am working on means a lot to me, it cannot be my main focus. These tools need to get a lot better. Right now you need to be a patient and persistent puzzle master to piece together a worthwhile 2-minute trailer. You'll need to pay out your ears for all the tools needed to create something special. But it can be done. Within a few months, folks will start creating longer works where they have pieced together using the same methods from shorts to create something special. We'll learn their process and cringe at how difficult it was. And yet that will be the most difficult it will ever be. By this time next year, it will be so much easier to do all of this.

There is a window that has opened for AI Video creators and those like myself who are gradually learning more about it every day. The familiarity with these current tools and the proven results of using them may help during the big run to create content that will likely arise next year once AI Video takes its next big leap forward. That leap should be to provide the ability for these models to take a script from a scene, ask you questions about it to make sure it understands what you are wanting and then generate the scene. Once these models can communicate with us like LLMs do using chain of thought then we will see a massive explosion of AI-empowered storytelling. 

For the time being, AI Video is still too unstable, both with its outputs and the overall process. These tools have only become worth my time since June. Sora was in February, but that doesn't count because we still haven't gotten our hands on it. Again, I am not here to discover all the techniques and share those. The people doing that are amazing and I thank them for what they are doing. Their work will be a road map for all of us. They are the OG pioneers, charting the path forward for the rest of us. 

As far as the APP, I can help people with it while working in the background on the more creative side of things. I want to avoid going the clickbait route where I create disposable content to feed a metric. I prefer substance not only with my creative output but also with the APP. The goal is to provide a service that people need.  I want to create value for others and I fully plan on doing a free version of the APP, which may be all people ever need. And that is great! But, I also see charging a monthly fee for premium services for those who need more than the basic service. 

The decision to focus on the APP is not the one that I wanted to make. If I was calling all the shots, then I would have access to all AI video tools that are being held back for the election. That would mean I might be able to go full-steam ahead on making movies and TV with AI tools. Something that I may be able to do now with animation, which, as I have said before, has more room for error than the life-like AI content. But I am not in the animation mindset yet. Once I transition to the comic book series/ graphic novel then I might be more open to focusing on AI animation. Thinking about that now maybe I should focus on the comic book sooner rather than later. Food for thought. 

My evaluation with one week to go in my AI video assessment period is that with the publicly available tools you can make comics, illustrated novels, commercials, trailers, music videos, short live-action films, and longer animated projects that most people would never know are largely AI-generated. The VFX part of this can't be overlooked. That means those who have been filming live-action sequences but have been strapped financially, can actually do some amazing things right now with AI tools. That is all great but these are not my main creative focus. While this company I am creating will include illustrated novels and comics, these current capabilities are still short of where I would need them to be to create realistic AI TV series and movies. That said, in the meantime, I can focus on all the other things I can create using AI video and audio tools, which is a lot. For me, it is all training for TV and movies, though.  

If I had access to all the tools that are being worked on behind the scenes I would likely have a different take on things in this moment. I like to think I have some idea of what may be in the pipeline, but you never know for sure. The good thing is that it is highly likely that these tools will only get better, and fast. So, it makes sense to focus more of my attention on creating the APP for the next few months. Once the dust settles after the election, it will be the perfect time to shift my main focus back to AI Video. Not that I won't be working on AI Video at all between now and then. No, I just need to prioritize the APP for now to try an make some headway before Fall. 

This time last year, I was thinking that we would be right about where we are with video. A short scene is not a performance, though. Not yet, at least. Consistency and stability are nearly solved and performance will be the next big hurdle. Or at least I think it should be. I believe we may have an AI-animated movie out by the end of the year that will be indistinguishable from a traditionally animated movie.

While I want to be able to do all of these things, I am not attempting to be the first. I want to keep learning about all of it because my goals are more intricate than just trying to be the first to create a proper AI movie. That said, I have thought about what that might be like-- the first AI movie that most people cannot tell was created using only AI tools. It could be a hybrid that actually has some live-action. That seems likely to happen soon, which will raise a lot of eyebrows. And that may open the door for the first all-AI movie that generates enough buzz to create some acceptance and appreciation from the public. The Blair With Project always comes to mind when I think of this. 

That said, these AI tools will continue to improve with each passing week. While my main focus will be on the APP, I will keep working on the trailer for the TV series. I won't be sharing a lot of details about the APP until it is ready for public testing. My initial goal is to have it ready for initial testing by November. Rolling out the APP after the election is a good target. It seems likely that even better tools will become available then. This will allow me to adapt the APP based on any updates before final testing and release. 

I'll keep pushing with the trailer and the illustrated novel series in the background. If I am to create a proper multimedia company I need to have a lot of content. I am also open to doing more with these tools in ways that may not be top of mind at this moment. I may get adept enough with these tools that others may want my assistance with their projects. I could grow fond of creating commercials or fall in love with AI animation. Maybe I decide to create a video game. Who knows? 

The one thing I would stop everything to work on is a new form of storytelling entertainment. If the tools get good enough that I can do all I laid out in the bible for my recent TV series, then that will be my top focus. In reality, I am building towards that anyway. So it is best that I take this step-by-step approach toward the likely inevitability of a more immersive entertainment experience. 

It is a process. A process guided by imagination and fueled by rapid technological change. Embracing it was much easier than expected. Some are vehemently against any use of AI for anything involving creativity. Again, I get it. However, the dreams I have had for over 20 years were stifled in the pre-AI era. My creative visions had remained only partially realized through the written word. The chance to create more with these stories may allow me to fulfill the creative goals that I began setting out for myself when I returned from LA at the turn of the century.

I am an independent artist, and through the years I have grown to value my artistic freedom more than I felt a need to sacrifice it all for someone else's idea of success. I just love to create stories. And with AI I will be able to create all the worlds I've ever imagined while maintaining my artistic autonomy. And that's all that matters. Thanks for reading. 

All At Once

I love Time Bandits. A TV series based on the movie is coming out tomorrow on AppleTV, which I didn't realize until I started looking for the GIF. Hope it's not what caused AppleTV to essentially shut down. Anyway, I love the original. So, what does this have to do with anything? 

Today, I got up early and went to the store for a few things. That was when I saw an odd wreck. Some guy ran his car over a curb, between two poles, through a flower bed, and into the stone wall/ sign for an apartment complex. 

Went right between two poles and smashed right into the wall, which you can see in the picture cracked upon impact. The guy was talking to the cops. I'm guessing one of his flip-flops got stuck and he couldn't stop or he was intoxicated. A peculiar accident to see at the beginning of the day. 

When I got home I took out the trash. As I was putting a new liner in the can, a story idea came to me. Ideas sometimes develop over days, weeks, or months. This one came all at once. I normally don't Tweet about ideas, but this one was one of those amazing ones that comes almost fully developed. 

Is it too late to be thinking in terms of Classic Hollywood? 

For a decade, with the rise of streaming, I rarely thought in terms of movies, but stories just decide on their own what they want to be. This story is either an anthology movie, a mini-series, or a holodeck experience.

A what?

By the time I get around to actually writing this story Gen AI tools may make it possible. Nothing wrong with thinking ahead. If this is to be a new frontier we are entering, and it sure seems like it, then we need to think beyond what has been possible up until now. A holodeck or a truly amazing immersive video game-like XR headset experience are what seem the most likely next big steps.

As a storyteller of fictional worlds, I have long wondered what it would be like to tell stories in a gaming format. The worldbuilding on my recent TV series got me thinking about the creation of a gaming world. This was before the era of AI started last year. 

Again, I write a lot of anthologies. I do this because I have a lot of stories brewing at any given time. Most of which have been on the backburners for years. One has been sitting there on simmer for 2 decades. It too is an anthology tale but on the grandest of scales; it feels like the time has to be right, like I have to earn the privilege of writing that story. And I haven't yet. 

Many of the other stories that are waiting their turn upon the stage are stand-alone stories. As time passes while I am working on other projects, these stories will sometimes magically coalesce into something greater than their parts. An Anthology is born. What once could have been three to upwards of a dozen or more, otherwise stand-alone, stories come together like a pod of killer whales ready for whatever the ocean might bring. 

Good grief, I'm mixing metaphors here. What it means is there are certain tales within the fictional world of my current TV series that a gamer may want to explore, especially one of the three interwoven stories in the first season. The same could be said for this new idea I'm so excited about, but also the one that's been sitting on the back burner for 20 years. 

Today's new story harkens back to the early 2000s once again. An era my mind gravitates towards. So many of my beliefs about the world were carved during that period. It was a time when I started to think more like a writer and less like an actor. The new millennium began with so much drama, much more than any of us could have expected. This is likely why the first decade of the 21st century so deeply resonates with me. 

The reason this new story idea triggers my recollection of that time is because it has similarities to both Monarch and Psykosis. The Monarch similarities are because of the story Cipher, which actually echoes back to the 90s when I was studying philosophy and poetry. Therefore, this new story echoes back to those days when I was kicking around Hollywood and Los Feliz. 

Why do so many of these stories always seem to be anthology-type tales? I am not sure I can pin that down. With this current idea, could it be a movie? Yes, of course. Could it be a series? 100%. It really is a collection of stories that make up one story. Sound familiar? An anthology. 

The TV series I am creating a trailer for is the same. However, this new story might be better served as a movie. In fact, even though there are a ton of storylines it might be better to put it all into this one overarching story. I think people will relate to it. A full series might dilute the multi-story potency if not done right, but a mini-series might be another option. I've been surprised by how many movies I once wrote have evolved into miniseries. The specific nature of this new story's overall tale makes it perfect for a future holodeck expedition or a video game. It will be very personal.

The stories I have been comparing it to since this morning are all movies. If it were to be a series, I think it would be better as a limited series than one with multiple seasons. The multiple-story aspect would likely be better served in a more contained format (a movie or a handful of episodes) instead of a sprawling 8 to 14-episode season.

I will probably develop it as a movie and expand if needed depending on how it feels once completed. 

And that's kind of how these things develop. An Idea pops and the next thing you know you're making plans on how to write it. I keep wondering if I will have a normal story idea stir my soul like this one day. But then what is a normal story? A Norman Rockwell painting comes to mind. Hallmark movies and Romantic Comedies too. I'm not sure any of that is normal anymore nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st century.

Nowadays, everything seems to be perceived through a superhero filter, but that's not normal. Normalcy is no longer one view of the world. The most normal story I created over the past decade was not received well. My writing partner thought it was boring, and then I used up one of my last contacts from my time in California with it as well. I thought it was something that it wasn't or had a hard time making it come across. I can't help but think it was too much like an episode in a telenovela. Which was too bad because it was meant to tie into the Monarch universe. Oh well. We go again. 

Okay, it's time to get back to working on the Trailer for the TV series. Need to get some traction on that by the end of the week. I finished the script over the weekend and started working on visuals yesterday. 

I probably should have paid for unlimited generations when I signed up for Runway Gen-3 at the beginning of the month. That way I could just keep generating and generating without concerns for running out of tokens. However, by having spent most of the month focused on getting the script for the trailer right I have also been reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the model based on the outputs of others. 

We'll see how this week and next week go. Apparently Kling will become available worldwide very soon. I have been reluctant to jump through hoops to get access. It's a Chinese company which gives me a bit of pause but it was the technical hoops I would have to jump through just to use it that has really kept me from using it so far. 

If I can achieve all I want with the trailer using Gen-3, Luma, and Hedra then I will. But Kling may be better than all of those models. We'll see in just over a week what I've got and go from there. And I can't help but wonder if all my new ideas will be geared toward a holodeck or a cinematic videogame. Thanks for reading. 

Summer: Let's Do It!

The past year has been so interesting. A year ago, I believed I would continue on with just writing books and screenplays. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. I had been doing it for fifteen years. Not going to lie, things had become... stagnant. Why? I knew the outcome before starting: excited about the story, mild response, and repeat. I lacked options and the willingness to change my routine.  

GPT-4 drew my attention in February of 2023. And then I dove into research mode about AI. I haven't come up for air since. There is so much to learn and the landscape seems to change every few weeks, often within only a few days or hours. It took me a few months to gain a broader view and see how things were unfolding.

You can see what is possible in the short and long term with just a little research, but you have to be willing to dig. And I love research. A large part of writing is research. It never really stops. 

There are different fields that I have an interest in when it comes to the emergence of AI. Not only do I have an interest in how these tools can creatively help me as a storyteller, but I also think about how these advancements may affect the world. 

Creative Path: AI images, AI Video, AI Voice, and AI Music

World Path: AGI, ASI, Education, Health, and Security

The Creative Path is self-explanatory. I am a storyteller and these are the tools that I need to tell my stories differently than by just writing them, which is why I started writing in the first place. Not to be read but to have a story fully experienced as a viewer.                        

Beyond the worlds within my head that motivate my pen, the World Path is more about us as humans being aware of how computer intelligence will affect us more broadly. My own angle will likely focus on Education.

There is a chance we may all become much smarter as a result of these advancements. We may even be able to live longer and figure out ways to have clean energy to meet the world's needs. It would be nice if we could also figure out a way to keep a handful of greedy people from profiting from the destruction of the planet. 

I am not saying computer intelligence will change human nature. It may, but it might take some doing. And we can be a stubborn lot. But there may be a chance we can clean up our act and become better stewards of this rock. I'm not sure we can do it without evolving in some way. Maybe if we can better educate all people and extend lifespans, allowing more people to become at least wiser if not smarter, maybe we can keep up with computers. Maybe. 

I know my current limitations. I am not the greatest writer in the world. I do not crave the limelight and often move on to a new project before I have exhausted all efforts to sell something. These are flaws I constantly work on. The act of creation is my main purpose. Each evolving story and her menagerie of characters are a mystery for me to solve and the source of my inspiration. The process is the point. Even if I do create a brilliant movie or TV show with the help of AI tools, I will need to be able to entice people into watching, and I loathe shaking my ass. Shake it, Pitters, shake it. Gross. 

I try to keep it simple and do no harm to others. Writing is a way of dealing with the world as I have come to know it. And my path has completely changed since the spring of 2023. The simple, well-worn writing path I had been treading for a quarter century has forever been changed.

AI destroyed that path and I couldn't be happier. 

I know these tools will update within months, but I am committed to learning what I can about them before they do. The tools I have needed to allow me to realize all the creative dreams I have had for decades are here. I have been released from the shackles of my own creative limitations. I cannot draw the images I need to create the graphic novel I've always wanted to make, and I can't create an entire "REAL" movie or TV show without a ton of help. World-building is one of my favorite parts of writing, and I've always wanted to use that passion to create a video game but lacked the wherewithal to attempt it. The tools now exist to help me compensate for those deficiencies. 

For years, I have had images in my head that I have wanted to share, to express in a way that I could be satisfied with and that might allow others to take something away from the experience. The act of writing has had to suffice for a long time. Words are one thing. Images another. Adding images, video, and audio allows me to present stories in ways I have long dreamt of. And they will only improve, maybe even create some new form of entertainment. Would I have loved to have had these tools 25 years ago? Of course. But they are here now and only getting better. 

They will soon be so good that I hope to be on the frontline of a new form of creative storytelling. Ever since I started packaging the TV series this year, I've been imagining exactly what that will be like. There is still so much to learn but the tools are here and a path is clear.

While I try to get up to speed with all of these tools, I fear I may have to push out work on the next illustrated novel series and the graphic novel. Since I already knew how to write a book before AI and I now know how to create a graphic novel with the help of AI -- something I learned over the past year, I can no longer just write books and screenplays when I can also get more involved in creating movies and TV shows. In case you weren't aware, I started writing to create the kind of stories I wanted to be cast in as an actor. An actor? I know, right. 

However, thinking about the story from a character's perspective has taught me a lot. By the mid-2000s I came to think of myself as a method writer. What the hell does that mean? I was never a "method" actor, my teaching was grounded in the work of Stella Adler who preached personal experience and imagination over emotional memory. Over time, that not only helped me understand the motivations of my characters, but also opened my mind to imagine all kinds of stories. 

The sheer volume of writing work I have cranked out over the years has gone largely unread. With 75% of that material meant for the screen, it is not surprising that I always visualize a story for the screen, even if I am writing a book. I see the movie play out before me, all around me. I live those moments with my characters as I write their stories, even to this day. Therefore, to now have the ability to visualize stories for the screen is like turning back the clock to Day 1 of my writing journey. Not that I want to act in anything ever again, but to have control of the sound and images of a story is both exciting and terrifying. 

The terror comes from knowing that it's all on me now. I can't just toss a new story onto the dust heap and say, "I tried to convince people to help me create the movie or TV show but there wasn't enough interest. Oh well, I guess I'll try again with something new." No longer. I'm breaking the cycle. The pile is too tall and I have new tools to work with. 

While my first objective is to create a teaser and a longer trailer for my current TV series, I would like to try and make the series the old-fashioned way while we still can. The long-term goal is to revisit some of these other stories using AI tools. Whether as movies, TV series, or this new hybrid storytelling format that is emerging. Very exciting! 

I mentioned the dusty pile of stories from the past 25 years. That is not a joke. Maybe that's just me laughing so as not to cry. Either way, I have several dozen stories that I can use to build a video library, with new tales waiting in the wings. That is why I have completely changed the path ahead. I can't see myself fully focused on an illustrated novel series while learning how to use the tools needed to create a teaser and a trailer, which may be more like a short film. 

Once I have a handle on these tools, I can start to divvy out more time for the illustrated novel series. My hope is that it will only take until August to get up to speed. When considering that I have written, directed, produced, edited, and arranged the music for several short films, maybe that will help me learn on a bit of a curve. We'll see in August. Until then it's time to accelerate my AI video research. Next stop? Teaser. 

July

June was interesting. July is already intriguing and it's only the first day of the month. Buckle up! 

I spent much of June waiting for OpenAI and Google to release all of the features they had both pimped out to us in May. OpenAI did come out and say that the Voice model will gradually roll out and that most of us plebs won't see it until the fall. Whether that means after the US presidential election or not who knows. But that was not the only new feature. I also need to try the image creation capabilities they teased. Especially to help me create a graphic novel or illustrated novel. I prefer to use only a few tools to create everything I need for these image-heavy projects. I like Midjourney a lot more for image creation, but I keep hoping that OpenAI will improve either Dall-E 3 or provide a new image generation tool with better quality and more capabilities. Not sure where Google's updates are either. I especially wanted to try the video model Veo and Project Astra. Oh well. I guess this is yet another lesson in how patience is a virtue. 

While the big boys have been overpromising and underdelivering in a timely manner, we now have a few new AI video generation models to fawn over. I touched on this in my last post. However, I have had time to think on things since then. On Friday, Runway started to grant access to more people, namely those in the Creative Partners Program. While I did apply to this last week, I was too late to get access. Hopefully, I'll be allowed to join the CPP program at some point so I can get early access to future tools. After seeing what GEN-3 could do I was thrilled to see  GEN-3 Alpha rolled out to everyone today. I am all signed up and ready to start using these new tools. Perfect timing. Thanks, Runway. 

Over the past year, I was reluctant to use the existing AI video tools, something I have mentioned here several times. The quality was not good enough. My focus for part of the last year had been on AI images. Even my writing plans have been guided by the great quality of AI images and the ease with which they can be created. My main focus after the recent two-month query period for a TV series I created was meant to be on a two-part illustrated novel series and a graphic novel series. Having learned enough about creating AI images, I felt confident I could not only create illustrated novels but also graphic novels. However, with these AI video tools all dropping in the past few weeks, and more still to come, I have been forced to reconsider my immediate plans. 

Ever since last spring, I have had an eye on the AI video space with the thought of diving in once the quality reached a certain point. Sora had me dreaming, but its belated release had me focus on what I could do with AI images. If I had access to Sora in February, I would have created a trailer for the TV series to go with the pitch deck and the series bible I created for my query package. Oh well. 

I knew when I saw those early Sora videos that other companies would start to catch up. And when they did I would pivot some of my time and attention to AI video. While AI images are at a point where I can create what I need for the illustrated novel series and for the graphic novel series, I think those projects have become secondary for the next month. It is time to learn to use these AI video tools. I have been waiting so long to have this type of control over moving images once again.

It is one thing to write a story and have people read it. With a novel and illustrated novels, I still have control over what a reader sees. Whereas when screenwriting I have to rely on countless others to bring my vision to life. With AI video tools I have near total control. I say near because we are still early in the AI video space and these things are not perfect, even if they are incrementally better than what we were seeing before Sora. This reminds me of the kind of control I had back when I was making short films back in the day. Because of that, I will spend a big chunk of time in July focused on AI video and learning all I can about AI audio tools. 

The one thing I have not mentioned much about here is my desire to create an APP. I spoke with the people close to me over the past year about my desire to create it, but I wasn't sure if the APP was something that was needed because I saw others creating somewhat similar APPS or GPTs. However, I think I can make an APP that can help a lot of people and help me learn more about the process of creating an APP. I had considered making a GPT through OpenAI, but I think an APP is a better way to go, even though I will have to do a good bit of research. I think it can help more people in that format than as a GPT. 

GPTs seem to be quickly becoming a thing of the past. Microsoft is doing away with them and there are rumors that OpenAI is not as keen on them as they used to be. I want to keep learning about technology but I also want to create. I will likely lean on AI to help me build the APP, while also learning about the process. I am an artist not a martyr, so I don't mind leaning on AI for not only the image and video side of my new creative process but also some of the technical aspects of creating and launching an APP. I have learned a lot over the past year, but I cannot just sit down and crank out this APP without some guidance. 

So, I am making my main focus of July all about educating myself. Learning about AI video, AI Audio, and APP creation with AI assistance. We'll see if I can learn all that I need in one month. Maybe, maybe not, and it may be that I need to keep at it for another month or two. I'm up for the challenge. In whatever free time I have left, I'll also try and get some work done on the first book in the illustrated novel series and create a few panels in the graphic novel. Busy. Busy. Thanks for reading. 

The Rapid Rate of Progress

This past year and a half has been a blur as far as technology updates. Nvidia has launched into the stratosphere with AI companies needing their latest breakthroughs to keep up with AI's rapid growth and the public's need for a never-ending stream of new products and constant updates. It's almost dizzying at times. 

Last week, I was writing about Kling (an AI video model made in China and only available to those with a Chinese phone number) before Luma Dream Machine dropped and we in the States got access to it right away. Dream Machine is brilliant. It was at or near what I was seeing from the Kling and Sora videos. I quickly made a few myself. This is an AI image I generated last year. I used Dream Machine for the video and Pika for the background noise. I would have just snatched the audio and removed the Pika watermark if I were going to use it for anything other than as an example. 

Then everything changed yet again when Runway showcased their new model Gen-3. Based on what I have seen it is more creator-friendly than Sora and on par with their outputs, even better than those of Dream Machine, which I feel bad for because it is also a wonderful AI video tool. However, Runway will become my default model once we actually have access. That is until someone else comes along and blows Gen-3 out of the water. Until then, not only does it create great video 1,000 times better than Gen-2, but it's faster, you can create text, and there is also the lip-synch tool you can use with the video you generate. This video below is 100% generated with Gen-3 and the lip-synch tool. 

While it is not perfect, it may be good enough to be a starting point for me to start taking AI video tools seriously. I am not sure you could make an entire full-length live-action AI-only movie using just Gen-3, but this is lightyears better than what we all had to suffer through up until we first saw Sora's outputs. Check out Runway's Website for Gen-3 to take a look at some of the video samples.

The hits kept coming this week as Hedra, another AI video tool with lip-synch, was released. For my test run with this tool, I used one of the early Dall-E 3 generations of Thomas Edward Downs from my re-released illustrated version of Michaelmas. It's good, however, it feels like we will need to wait until the next update for it to be a tool that can be used professionally. That said, I have seen much better examples of Hedra since its release than the one I created below. 

On Wednesday, ElevenLabs released Voiceover Studio. You can take a video without sound and add voiceovers and sound effects. And you can use those voices to create conversations without video, say for a podcast.

For most people, these are just cool new temporary distractions. New ways to create cute little TikTok videos for their followers. For me, someone who has been writing stories for twenty years, these tools are something else entirely. I am drawn back to a time when I thought I could create short films to sell larger stories. 

Over the past year, I watched countless sketchy AI clips and pieced together dodgy AI short films. These people were trying to do what I had done all those years ago with real film. I could not chase that trend because the results were not good enough for me to put my name on it. No one who was not following the AI Video space would want to watch them. I grew to loathe these videos by late December, and by January the whole community began to show its frustrations at the limitations. Then Sora started to drop videos in February, yet only sharing the tool with people in Hollywood. Until last week we had been stuck dreaming of Sora and lamenting the unrealistic AI video that dominated this space for well over a year. 

Dream Machine is amazing, but it is Runway's Gen-3 and ElevenLabs Voiceover Studio that have me dreaming like I am back in my short film days. So, what does that mean? 

What it means is that I am continuing to work on the two-part illustrated novel series, planning a graphic novel, but I now have the tools at my disposal to do so much more. Tools that make me rethink things.

Over the past few months, I spent time working on a pitch package for a TV series that I then reached out to Hollywood about. I am not dialed in like I was back when I was making short films. For the most part, I have kept my expectations in check since 2009. Up until last year, I thought most of the spec screenplays I had written over the past 20 years would go largely unread and that no films or TV series would ever become of them. 

That all changed last year, as a new hope started to take root in my imagination. New dreams began to blossom. I started to envision how things might go with the rapid expansion of AI. I even rewrote a TV series so it could adapt along with the changes in AI. Immersive entertainment is the way of the future, even if sales for the amazing yet ridiculously overpriced Apple Vision Pro have ground to a halt. 

While I have been unable to persuade anyone to option my TV series, that doesn't mean I'm going to toss it into the library along with all the other spec stories I have written. I see now that the market for buying anything has dried up in a big way, and this was not a good time to try and sell such an ambitious project that has no pre-existing IP. The financial effects of the Covid years and all the strikes last year have streamers clutching their purse strings, afraid to take chances. 

No worries. Not like I haven't faced rejection before. Only now I no longer have to toss this story into a dusty heap along with all the others. Now I can start to develop the story myself. I had included an AI-generated storyboard for the opening sequence in the pilot with the pitch deck I sent around, but I was reluctant to create an AI trailer using all that wobbly 4-second stuff that was available at the time. Images have progressed a lot faster over the past year and a half than Video up until now.

With the advancements from Luma and Runway I can do a lot. Can I create an entire episode using AI video? No, I don't think so. However, I know for a fact that I can create a fairly good trailer. While I had been reluctant to jump into the AI video waters when the outputs were so poor. These are a 1,000 times better and I can't not jump in now. 

This is exciting in several ways. Not only will I eventually have a trailer for my TV series, but I will also be adept at using the tools by the time I am done, and new tools will be ready by the time I'm done as well. Who knows, maybe they will be good enough that I can just start work on doing the whole damn series. 

In addition, with ElevenLabs Voiceover Studio I can also create the entire pilot episode for the podcast that is part of the TV series. What do I mean? Well, I mentioned that I had developed this series to be something that could be augmented by AI and the trend of immersive entertainment. The podcast is hosted by two characters in the TV series. They are not main characters and only play more of a background role in one of the three main stories that run throughout the first season. However, their podcast looks into the mysteries in the small town. So, I decided to develop a fictional podcast that could stand alone from the TV series while also enhancing it.

These are two exciting new AI projects that I look forward to starting work on. Initially, they are meant to help me try and sell the series and have it produced in a traditional way on film. However, times are changing and if I can't sell this series to a streamer then, if AI keeps advancing at its current pace, I may be able to create the whole damn thing by myself. I don't want to have to do this, but it is likely the future for storytelling. So, I am not afraid to be a pioneer in this new art form either. But it has to look and feel real. I have seen people over the past year dive into creating dodgy AI videos and fall in love with what they were doing so much that they were blind to the actually limitations. If regular people can't enjoy it then I don't want to be wasting my time on it. 

This is why a trailer using these updated tools and a 30-minute (audio-only) pilot episode for the podcast seem like an acceptable option at this time. This will not only be great practice for me with these tools, but the trailer and the pilot can be used to pitch the series. I may or may not make them publicly available because I will be contacting producers with them. 

I don't want to be releasing anything to the public that is not of the highest quality. That's why I do not think that even these updated amazing tools can capture and hold the public's attention for 30 let alone 120 minutes. Not yet. They bring us one step closer, but we are not quite at the point where I can work on my own with these tools to create a proper movie. 

However, one way some people will be able to use these updated tools is to augment a live-action production. I also think it may be possible to create an animated film that people will enjoy once Gen-3 is released. That would be HUGE. But live-action will take a little longer. I saw a few good animated shorts over the past few months that were made with the last-gen AI video tools. I mentioned last summer and I still believe it is true today that the first film people will watch and enjoy that is 100% AI-generated will be animated.

Do I have material that I could use in an animated film? Of course. Can I do the current TV series using animation? Yes, but... I would like that to be in live action. However, there are three stories interwoven in the TV series. Maybe I could tell one of the stories through animation in the trailer. Yeah, I kind of like that idea. I have a lot to think about as far as the trailer before I start generating scenes. 

Exciting times. And as I am finishing this up another AI update has dropped. While it's not another video model, Anthropic just released Claude 3.5 Sonnet. 

This will put more pressure on OpenAI, Google, Meta, XAI and others to keep pace. Google and OpenAI each made big shows over a month ago and have yet to release all that they promised. Tick tock you're getting lapped on the products you haven't even released in full yet. Good on you Anthropic for keeping the pressure on and continuing to accelerate towards AGI. 

Last year, I made a promise to myself to try and keep up with all the AI advancements and it has been like a rollercoaster. There was a bit of a break around the holidays, and even into the new year. However, over the past two months things have started to gain speed. TBH I am having trouble keeping up and trying to get work done. Once I get deeper into these multiple projects I may struggle to keep up, but I'll try nonetheless. 

To sum up. The tools are now here that people can use to begin work on building their so-called media empires. My own plans will start with stories that existed before AI was a twinkle in my eye. We'll see over the next few months how much progress I can make using these new and improved tools to create in a wide variety of media: illustrated novels, graphic novels, trailers, and a podcast. Thanks for reading. 

The Old and The New

Despite my concerns about how much AI will help me gain attention for my work, I am proceeding to make plans. This past weekend, I started going through my library of written stories and some of the stories I have planned to write in the future.

My top priority is still the two-part novel series I abandoned several years back to work on a few collaborative TV series scripts. One of which I fell head over heels in love with. The same one I have been querying folks about recently. It is ideal for this moment we find ourselves in and I wrote it to reflect this moment. With one eye still on that TV series, my main focus shifts to the novel series and the future. While I settle into the rewriting process and start adding a few AI images to illustrate some of the pages, I am also taking a macro view of the future in my free time. 

During a review this weekend I created a document and separated it into two parts: "Old" and "New." The "Old" section is for those stories that have already been written, while the "New" section is for projects I have been thinking about but have yet to write. I then created two columns for each section: "Graphic Novels" and "Film/ Television." 

While I now know that creating "Graphic Novels" is something I can 100% do with the help of AI image generators like Midjourney, I cannot yet make Films and Television Episodes using AI that the public at large would be willing to consume. However, this will be possible soon based on what we have already seen. 

How long will it take before I, as an individual, have access to such tools? That is my biggest concern. OpenAI has been pimping out its video tool Sora to Hollywood elites and established artists. We found out about Sora in February yet no one outside of that small circle has been given access. My fear is that only Hollywood will get access to the best features. 

Kling is a new Chinese AI video model that is similar to Sora. They promoted the ability to make 2-minute videos. However, people who have gotten access can only create 5-second clips. This is exactly what I am worried about. You cannot make anything worthwhile using 5-second clips. This is what Pika and Runway have been doing for a year. And I am more than a little reluctant to use a Chinese company's AI video model. Other AI video tools have been rumored like Google's Veo, another Chinese tool called Vidu, and it sounds like Stable Diffusion and Runway are about to drop new or improved tools. There is apparently at least one other mystery AI video tool that some people have signed an NDA not to discuss.

I worry that Sora and all these other tools will do the same thing as Kling and only allow us to create 5-second clips. Sora has shown that it can create minute-long clips, but I wonder if only Hollywood will have access to that and we plebs will be stuck with 5-second clips that are only good for making TikTok or Youtube clips. Eventually, we will all be able to make our own Films and TV Series, but who the hell knows when that will be. I am not sure you can make a proper movie or TV show right now even if you had full access to these tools. There are still distortions and character consistency is still a major issue as well. Until those things are fixed and we are allowed to create at least 20 to 30-second clips I won't be able to create at a level of quality that I need to be able to provide to the public something actually worth watching. 

Okay. Back to my list. I can see all of these stories -- the 11 screenplays I pulled from my library, and the 9 new tales I want to tell -- could be created as AI Films or TV Series. I mean that's how I wrote the older stories in the first place. However, since I don't know when I can use those tools, or when they will be good enough to allow me to create films and TV Series on my own, I decided that for my previously written screenplays, I could create seven Graphic Novels, one Film, and three TV series using various AI tools. Since things are still fluid concerning these tools, I reserve the right to change that list as AI Video tools improve and should I get proper access to them. 

While I still have the one Novel Series to release with illustrations, I think Graphic Novels will be the format I settle into away from Film and TV until things improve. There are still a few novels in me, though I might reserve that format for my possible auto-biography or stories that just can't be told any other way. I learned a lot throughout this literary period. Gained a lot of confidence as well. However, my passion has always been film. Ever since I was in my mid-20s movies have been my passion. 

TV series only entered my thought process once I started writing anthology tales that were too long for a single movie, which happened to coincide with the rise of streaming services. I hate commercials with a passion. God only knows how much of my life has been wasted watching stupid commercials, or how much of my brain's compute has been used to memorize some of the more annoying ones. For me, ad-free streaming episodes are a lot like a movie experience. Even if an episode is only 30 to 60 minutes in length. You get an uninterrupted chapter. And I like that a lot. The fact that I, a lowly scribe who has been writing non-stop for over twenty years, can have total control over a film or TV series is exciting and a bit terrifying. 

I have joked recently that I want to create a media empire. However, it was my longtime writing partner who suggested this after I asked him to read through the pitch package for my recent TV Series. So the idea has stuck, not because of that one TV Series, which would be amazing if I could get it produced the traditional way, but because I am looking at my library of unproduced spec scripts in a new way. 

I am a dreamer, so you'll have to forgive my desire to look beyond what seems possible at this moment. I can see it all as clearly as the foliage on the trees outside my window. If I think back a few months those same trees were bare. This emerging AI video technology is like the seasons changing from winter to spring, and my old screenplays are like those bare trees starting to bud with the warming weather. Eventually, they will emerge and become leaves and part of the delightful foliage that makes up the tree canopy outside my window.

As far as future projects, I only put nine on the list. However, I have no less than ten notebooks to go through that likely contain several other ideas that may eventually make that list. So it will continue to grow as I work. 

I don't have a large following online because I have refused to pay Elon Musk a penny just to have a blue check on Twitter/ X, and I don't really like any of the other social media sites. Facebook now reminds me of Myspace. TikTok and Instagram are for videos and images, not words. BlueSky and Threads are largely vacant versions of Twitter. With 21 projects to work on, I have better things to do than do the social media dance across platforms. Give me information, let me comment and share, and I'm good. 

Once I get closer to releasing more stuff, I'll get out there and shake my tail feathers a little more. And, the eventual, continued release of work with the help of AI tools may help me get more eyes on it. But there are hard yards yet to cross before that is even possible. For now, it is just the dream of a dreamer waiting for the tools he needs to make those dreams a reality Thanks for reading. 

One more thing. Right after I dropped this post LUMA dropped "Dream Machine" a Sora and Kling-like video generator. Unfortunately, it only offers 5-second clips, but I like how clean the examples have been. I animated the image I created at the top of the post. Check out Luma here for FREE!

 

Will AI Change Everything Or Will It Be The Same Only Different?

I am starting to have doubts about how much AI will benefit me as a creative person. This time last year, I was just getting my beak wet, but my imagination was soaring with how it would creatively benefit me. While I have said for a long time that I write what I want to read or see play on a screen, deep down I'd like others to take some enjoyment out of the process as well, and maybe even make some money off of the hard work I've put in and the sacrifices I have made. 

Self-publishing books has almost run its course for me. What started as a personal challenge revealed a lot about not only myself but the business of books. It is tough as hell to sell books. You first have to have a great book, and then you have to stand out and be recognized amongst all the other books. When you self-publish it is almost impossible to stand out, especially now after the newness of the self-publishing craze has died out. 

Now think about Movies. Independent movies have always been a tough sell. And now, even blockbuster movies made for 100s of millions of dollars are having a hard time breaking even. This time last year I could see how AI would give me superpowers. The thing is that it also gives everyone else creative superpowers. Most of whom have never lifted a finger in an attempt to create worlds for themselves before AI, let alone done so to entertain others. And yet, within a year or two everyone will be able to do just that. 

Those who have been keeping up with the progress of generative AI and have seen the demos for all the new products know that massive change will wash over the general public soon. Many of those in Hollywood who have been fortunate enough to get access to Sora can see that this technology will change the business forever. Those of us who have been paying attention since February know exactly what I mean. The results are stunning and will only get better.  

At that time, I was knee-deep in preparing to query Hollywood about a TV show I had been working on. But, it was plain to see that Sora would change everything once people had access to it. I didn't let that deter me from my task, contacting others about the incredible TV series package I had put together. In fact, I worked into my pitch just how I envisioned AI tools could help with the post-production marketing of the series and may even be able to augment what had been shot after things were completed. I didn't want to suggest that any new tools like Sora should be used in the production. Those things should be left up to the production team. My job is to lay out the road map for the series. All I need is one person to believe in my story and the big ideas I have laid out. "It's hard out here for a pimp."

The most important part of my process is coming up with a story and then putting in the work to write the story for others. Once that is done, this is where AI would be massively helpful to someone like myself. Most people who are not authors or screenwriters will need AI to help them write stories, therefore they will be unable to copyright them - as the copyright laws stand now. That might be my only leg up on the masses who would be able to create just about anything with a few prompts. But, if I can eliminate the need to convince others, who are busy with other projects and in constant contact with other writers who they actually know and have worked with in the past, then I could focus on actually using my storytelling skills to create a film or tv show with tools like Sora. I'd rather work with people the old-fashioned way, but they have to want to work with me as well, and I can't force people to buy my work. Unlike most people, I would be able to copyright the stories I would want to use in partnership with Sora-type tools because I would have written them, and maybe that is the window of opportunity for me. Maybe. 

With each email I send and get no response my heart breaks a little. Not for myself, don't pity the Pitters, but for the work and the people it might touch, inspire, or somehow affect. I look forward to using AI as yet another creative means to an end. It feels like I am an explorer awaiting a ship that is being built. Soon enough I'll be off exploring new lands. I've sent thousands of emails through the years. It's like water off a duck's back at this point. I know my efforts are usually in vain because they largely have been for twenty years, which is fine. That's the way it is. Sometimes you catch a break but more often than not you will have wasted time, energy and passion only to be ignored.

If I had been more involved in the business over the past twenty years I might be more conflicted about using AI tools. However, I spent much of last year during the strikes and the rise of Generative AI wrestling with my conscience about its use. And recently I have had time to reflect on all the blood, sweat, and tears I have put into projects over the past twenty years with 90% of people unwilling to even respond to an email. And I feel empowered for the first time in a long time. 

I will not hesitate to bypass people in order to get my stories in front of an audience. Hopefully, those AI tools will be available soon so I can get trained up and put them to use ASAP. I've gained a lot of experience over the past two decades and learned even more about patience. In the meantime, I'll keep writing and sending personalized emails to those whose work I respect and would love to work with in creating movies and TV shows. 

I never dreamed of having a media empire when I started writing, I have just kept plodding away at creating stories in different formats. But, with the help of AI, I may be able to create dozens of movies, TV shows, and graphic novels in a short span of time, and all of the stories will be copyrighted. There are likely thousands of people like myself who have been writing for decades and only publishing or putting onto screen a few of the works they have actually created. In fact, if the technology is good enough that will be one of my goals-- a media empire. My ambitions are usually bigger than what I can achieve but then I am a dreamer and always think big. 

Once I have actually completed my first ready-for-consumption production I will have to deal with marketing and sales. Cringe. At least I will be on the backend of production and not stalled out waiting like a jackass for people to respond to an email. I have been reluctant to call producers and directors about the TV series at this point-- even though I have a few phone numbers, but once I have a TV show or movie in the can you bet your ass I'll be on the phone using all my sales skills. Regardless, it will still be a tough task to earn people's attention.

This is where I am starting to have doubts. Not in my own abilities to tell a good story or that the technology might not be good enough. It's that the technology likely will be good enough and I believe I will be able to create all the stories I decide to pull from my library of unpublished works. However, the marketplace will become over-saturated and I will face a similar problem that I face today: getting people's attention and earning their interest. The good thing is that the work will be completed and I won't have any regrets about stories sitting on a shelf because I could not get anyone to help me make them into movies or TV shows. But they might very well be stuck on a cloud unwatched next to millions of other unwatched movies and TV shows. I'm not sure which is worse, querying dozens of people with a well-written story whose plan for the first season is ideal for a number of streaming services with only a few responses, or creating the TV series using AI and no one watches it. Both are tragic. 

I've always said that I write what I want to read or watch because it does not yet exist. But if everyone is doing that and not consuming what anyone else creates then that is pretty damn depressing. And it probably won't be good for society if we just stay in our own imaginary bubbles without taking in new information. I hope that doesn't happen. I like what other people create and I always will, but I also like what I create as well. I may create it because it is something that I would want to read or watch, but I use that as a barometer because what I really want is to create something that others might enjoy. I don't want to sit around at night and read or watch my stories. That sounds vain and fucking boring. I hope we don't become a society that sits around quasi-creating movies or TV shows with a simple prompt custom-made just for us from scratch. Storytelling is something that is shared with others, even if we may experience it on our own in our own homes. We then go talk about it with others. 

I can hear the conversations with friends in the future. "I generated and binge-watched this amazing cop show series this weekend. I programmed it to be like The Shield  and NCIS: Los Angeles." Will people even be able to send that show to their friends so they can watch it or will it just be something that you can watch? Can it be shared with the world? Who makes money off of it? Do people get quasi-famous for prompting something that they had very little actual input in? So many questions. What I fear most is the loss of shared experience, which is the point of stories going all the way back to cave art. There are things we can learn from each other that we may not have learned on our own. 

The writing of a story is the act I love most, inspired by personal experiences and what I have learned about the world. An AI will do much of the same but without the personal human experiences of its own. That seems to be the possible barrier that these tools may struggle to pass. Blade Runner touched on this subject. They may become humanlike but may never be able to become truly human. But then we may become more machine-like as we look to expand on our own mental limitations. 

Once a lot of entertainment is AI generated there may have to be a notification system informing viewers how much of a story was created by a human. This might tell a viewer or reader if it has been copyrighted and how much was manufactured by an AI-based upon a prompt or prompts. It will likely get to a point where it won't matter as much because the AI will be a better storyteller than most people. However, there will always be a need to know if what we are consuming comes from the soul of a flesh and blood person who has lived a human life or if it is from an AI that has been trained to simulate those experiences. 

It's tricky because eventually we will reach AGI and we've no idea if that will be a net good thing for society as well as storytelling or a net bad thing. Until then, I will try, however futile my efforts may be, to create the stories that do not exist that I would want to read or watch hoping that you might too. Thanks for reading. 

Memorial Day Weekend

This year has been an interesting one so far. The sacrifices I have made will go without mention, though I could write and may write a book or two about them one day. But not today. I will sequester that for the sake of perceived normalcy. While I may have selfish goals, I do not make those efforts while being a bull in a china shop. I do not seek the attention I once sought as a younger man. Give me a cup of coffee, a quiet place to write with internet access and all is right with the world. 

I am nearing the end of my current query period for a TV series I have worked on for a few years. A few follow-ups and I can wipe the dust off my hands and be satisfied with my efforts. Getting anyone to take an interest in what you do is difficult, and I chose a direct route this time. Bypassing the contests, the agents, the managers, the readers who have slowed me down in the past. 

As a grown-ass man, I prefer to cut out all the BS and get to the point. Being respectful but direct has become my mantra this time around. Never let it be said that I didn't try to save Hollywood in my own way from the 100-year-old spreadsheet-loving and algorithm-driven studio executives who only want remakes or different takes on something successful back in the 80s, 90s, & 00s. Creativity and Originality are not as important as they used to be. Give them the formulaic tripe that people can watch while cleaning the house and you've made the execs happy. 

The echoes of 2009 and my last major screenwriting push are reverberating. The shadows of disinterest from that time approach on the perimeter of my campfire. I can shoo them away these days, but in 2009 they haunted my days and nights and led me to start writing books. My objective this time around is not an entirely selfish endeavor as it was back then. I have a love for Hollywood and the magic that it can bring as part of my mission. But, things are a bit shit right now. And I don't mean that there aren't some good shows and movies out there because there are. However, we are going through a tumult of change in viewership, and the powers that be are living in a bye-gone era. 

While my current project is a TV series, my head is and has been concerned about the state of both TV and movies for some time. I am not a studio exec and would never want to be one, but they need to pull their heads out of their butts because movie after movie is only in the theater for a short few weeks before it is released to digital. This is a disaster of epic proportions because they are meant to have long runs at the box office. YIKES! SNAP OUT OF IT! 

What the hell am I doing being worried about the movie box office when writing a TV series? Again, we as a society are going through change. Even before the pandemic movie theaters had begun to struggle because of the rise of streaming and cell phones. The pandemic only exacerbated it. And now they will struggle to get back to those 20th-century numbers. It's just not going to happen. And the execs are realizing this and are making the turnaround time from theatric release to digital release more quickly than in years past. However, the effects of doing this mean that we will be less likely to get movies with big budgets above $150 million made because of diminishing returns from theatrical releases and an over-reliance on digital to save their bacon. 

What does this have to do with my TV series? I began this conversation in an earlier post How to Save Cinema? I mentioned ways to adapt and merge the movie-going experience with streaming platforms. I had my current TV series in mind when I mentioned it, so I pinned it to my Twitter page. The TV series I have been shaking my tail feathers for recently is structured in a way to be one example of how execs can adapt to these changing times in an intelligent way as opposed to the knee-jerk way that has them paying hundreds of millions for a feature that they pull from theaters to try and save it on digital. 

My TV series has eleven episodes in the first season. I am an anthology nut who has long been combining multiple stories into standalone movies. Yet, I have been writing TV series for a decade since streaming started its takeover, occasionally reimagining some of my longer anthology movies into mini-series. Insanity right? Well if you mix my brand of insanity with the instability of movie releases and the change in society because of technology you get a recipe for a new way to think about the theater-going experience in the age of streaming, which isn't going anywhere FYI. 

The simple solution I came up with is to merge the two. While my current TV series has 11 episodes, three of them are designed to be movie-like episodes, with each of those movie-like episodes different in style from the other two - the pilot, the mid-season cliffhanger, and the season finale. The pilot is the most movie-like episode with all three storylines seamlessly intertwined. The midseason cliffhanger is similar to a traditional anthology movie where each of the three episodes are standalone segments one after the other like in the movie Two Evil Eyes without a narrative break, but with titles between the chapters. The season finale was inspired by the alternate ending of the movie Timecrimes. 

Motivate people to go to the theater for the experience and for financial benefit. Streaming services are coalescing into cable-like agreements to protect themselves from the streaming wasteland. I say streaming wasteland because there is so much shit out there with no easy way to sift through it all, and the fact that people can leave anytime they want. Unlike when people had cable contracts and you were locked in for a year whether you liked it or not. Executives would love to have that model again. However, since people have cut the cable and won't be going back, execs had to find something as similar to that old model as possible. Hence, the packaging of multiple streaming services for a higher price than you would pay for just one of them on their own. 

I spent an hour or more last night scrolling through Disney, Paramount, Netflix, & Prime trying to find a movie without having to pay $19.99. To no avail. I settled in and watched two episodes of Only Murders in the Building, which is hilarious. What I really like is to get lost in big-event entertainment that is a must-watch because it feels like I am part of something we are all watching -- Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Dune 2, The Mandalorian. While I also like being able to binge-watch shows, I much rather have to mark my schedule for a show or movie because I am so excited about it that I don't want to miss it and I want to get wrapped up in the moment.

My plan for my most recent TV series is to have the two-hour pilot episode premiere in the theater one or two weeks before it releases on digital. In the previous post, I mentioned providing discounts for the streaming service that would be carrying the series. This is something that I am sure is possible and some people would love; however, a studio or streaming service might be less likely to sign off on it as it would mean less money for them from each person. I am not a businessman by any means but I do understand people and their motivations. While the economy is good people are still feeling the pinch of lingering inflation. And even though a studio exec or a streaming exec might get less money from each person, you would be likely to gain more streaming members with that discount and thus compensate for the discount by the sheer volume of members. But what the hell do I know? 

Let's say someone purchases a movie ticket to the theatrical release of the movie pilot of my TV series. They love the movie and want to then watch the series but are not signed up for the streaming service. They can scan that movie ticket into the streaming service and receive a 25%-50% discount on that service for a year. Same for people who already have the streaming service or don't like the movie, they also get that discount on their existing service. It creates trust and a symbiotic bond between the theater, the streaming service, and the viewer. Maybe it even opens up further discounts for other movies at the theater or other similar types of streaming shows that release at least one episode in the theater. 

Movies and TV shows are a form of entertainment, yes. But they are also of cultural importance to our society. I think studios will soon start slashing budgets for movies, if they haven't already, and do these limited theatrical releases on purpose before sending them to digital. Unfortunately, we may see far less massive productions unless they have a baked-in audience. Which is sad as hell. Most people don't go to a movie on the opening weekend and haven't for decades. My childhood revolved around the movie theater. Go see a movie and then hang out with friends in the area around the theater. Take a date and maybe grab some dinner. Things change though. Now going to a movie seems like an afterthought. And some movies are getting run out of theaters and onto digital before we even get a chance to experience them on the big screen. And in other cases, the movie is still in the theater but already streaming. If that is the case then why go see it in the theater? And that is awful for theaters. We are witnessing the death of the 20th-century entertainment paradigm and need to adapt. 

Ideally, I would like all three two-hour episodes of my TV series to be released in the theater for a week or two. To me, this is a great way to not only get people to go to a theater and spend money but also to create an excited fan base. Maybe you could only get one of those episodes into the theater, so that would likely be the pilot or the finale. Ideally, if you got all three theater releases, you would want the streaming service to air the episodes during the week between Monday and Wednesday so that you could release the midseason cliffhanger (episode 6) in theaters on a Thursday or Friday. This would require movie theaters to change. But if movies are going to get shorter runs because of a lack of popularity it would also open the way for my plan, and for others to emulate the same model for a symbiotic relationship between theaters and streaming services. One that allows them to cross-promote and benefit each other.    

This would also require studios to agree to change the format of  some TV programs. Plenty of shows have storylines in a season that are broken up into at least two parts to maintain an hour-long structure. This way creates suspense, yes. But also frustration. And it lessens the importance of having to watch the first part on the day of release because you have to wait a week to watch the second part. This is not the 20th century when people were trained to wait for gratification. Again, we are in a new era when people need instant gratification and you could risk losing them if you keep delaying it because the method worked in the past. This is why the binge structure has taken off. Again, what I am proposing is a way to satiate both needs -- the patient and the impatient. 

It is time to adapt. If you want to save theaters then imagine how this makes sense. Again, this is not your father's century where things are black and white. We are 1/4 of the way into this century and need to take steps to create a future that reflects the times we now live in. A hybrid of movie and TV storytelling that blends them both into a new kind of entertainment would generate huge buzz simply because it is new. But, it could also change the way we view series. We would still have standalone movies and TV shows that adhere to the traditional structures that worked so well in the 20th century. However, to blend the two formats, to me, is exciting as hell. Even if all the 90 to 120-minute episodes do not end up in a theater, the fact that there are longer episodes makes them unique from the majority of the other episodes and raises the stakes and hopefully audience interest.

The pattern of release for my TV series is 1-4-1-4-1, with each "1" being movie-length episodes that could all be released in theaters, and the four episodes between them being the straight-to-streaming hour-long episodes. I have thought a lot about what is wrong and right about the movie theater experience, the benefits and flaws of streaming, and the effect technology has had on how we watch and consume movies and television shows. From what I can tell in my attempts to be objective about this, these ideas are well-suited for the 21st century. Just carrying on with a 20th-century mentality when it comes to entertainment seems counterintuitive. Ancient box office track records don't need to be thrown out the window but adjustments need to be made.  

Even if my TV series gets produced and released just as I have described it could still be a bust. Whether that be because the story doesn't resonate as intended, or the production could have been better. However, this way of merging the theater experience with a streaming series is something I can get behind. You can't do this with every series, that would be awful. Can you imagine every NCIS series following this format? While I can see them doing standalone movie-length episodes, a theatrical release seems less likely. It would mean the death of actual movies if every series got an episode with a theatrical release. However, if Game of Thrones had done a theatrical release of a two-hour episode season premiere I would have been there and the atmosphere on opening night would have been awesome. Guaranteed! I think back fondly on The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a time when everyone in that theater was thrilled to be there. Same with Avengers: Endgame. 

While I would want but never expect that kind of excitement for my TV show, it does not take much to imagine what it would have been like had Game of Thrones put a season finale in the theater before putting it on streaming. The level of excitement would have been through the roof. People would have been talking about it the week before and while in line as they waited for the theater to open. That is the buzz that is missing these days. That is the kind of social interaction that elevates the movie and the spirits of those who are there to see it. You can't create that buzz as much as we used to because studios are not taking enough creative risks. Those studio execs have to accept it and take ownership of their not having adapted well enough to the changed landscape. But we (execs and creatives alike) need to adapt and realize that we can still create those moments if we are willing to understand what it now takes to achieve them. Not only does that mean green lighting more creative original material, but also adapting to the streaming landscape in a way that is symbiotic between the theater and streaming. Not knee-jerk reactions that make execs look like they have no idea what the hell they are doing and have no grasp on what is going on in the world. 

While the plans I have envisioned for my TV show are pie-in-the-sky-type stuff, I am realistically optimistic about the chances of it ever happening. Or at least that we can make a shift to a similar type of format for other productions. I just want to get swept up in the excitement again, preferably with a group of people who also want to enjoy the moment. Everyone is complaining that all that studio execs want is more of the same that worked before. There are problems with this way of thinking but creatives also need to find a way similar to the one I have laid out, or that are unique in their own way that create a blueprint for success, as opposed to just feeding the execs what they ask for. It's that or just write some crap that makes execs happy and yet will fail because times have changed. This cycle has to change at some point. We've been talking for over a decade about how cinema is dying. There will continue to be a few movies a year that buck the trend, but if we don't change things will continue to decline. That is until I get a hold of an artificial general intelligence model that will help me bypass all the impediments in my way and allow me and others to make our creative visions a reality. Thanks for reading. 

Late April Update

Can't believe we're almost a third of the way through 2024. When I was younger time seemed to drip by as I was absorbed in every moment of every day as if tomorrow would never come. Nowadays, the days fly by, and I still have so much to do. That's just the way it is.

This year, like most years over the past decade, has been very fluid as far as my creative objectives. I looked back at a few of my posts during the past decade and noticed that my plans should have all come with the caveat: *Subject to change. In 2017 I was focused on trying to finish and release a two-part novel series. I learned with Monarch that everything will not go according to plan, which is one reason I have become more fluid in my approach to writing and don't get as bent out of shape when things come up and throw a plan off course. That's why when my plans were derailed halfway through 2017 by unforeseen circumstances, I realized I could no longer manage the expectations I put on myself with the two-part novel series. Instead, I shifted focus to the more manageable origin story in that series. At the time I was calling it In the Wake of Newton, but you will know it now as Michaelmas. 

That two-part novel series is still at the top of my list of pre-AI material to focus on. (I say pre-AI to mean stories that I began writing before the Spring of 2023.) I can't believe I've let that project slide largely overlooked through the years without more attention. It's written but still needs a proper rewrite and I do plan to sprinkle in a few illustrations as well. My hope is that by June I can restart work on that project. Who knows when it will be finished. Hopefully by this time next year. It has been a labor of love and I will be so relieved to be finished with it. While it is my main priority as far as long-term literary works, I still have so many other projects that need attention. 

I can say that querying is finally underway for one of my screenwriting projects. That project has been evolving over the past few years and it is nice to finally be able to start reaching out to others about it. 

Beyond those two projects, I have the TV mini-series that I am going to turn into a graphic novel series. This story has been near and dear to my heart ever since I first wrote it almost twenty years ago. It was such a massive undertaking that I strongly considered making it into another novel or novel series. This was the second massive story that I had written after the Cipher trilogy, which became a part of Monarch. I don't know how it became my preferred style or why I felt so comfortable telling these intertwined stories. At first, I thought it was just because I had so many stories and needed a way to tell them. I have written dozens of normal-length movie and TV scripts, but there is something about developing these epic tales often with multiple main characters across several storylines that is so enchanting to me as a writer. It's a bit like when I went to Disney World as a kid and entered all of these different amazing rides that are similar and yet different from one another. A psychiatrist might possibly say that the trip to Disney laid the creative foundation for my creative path. I wouldn't dispute that. "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "It's a Small World" certainly made an impression on me as a child. 

I suppose the magic I feel with these grandiose stories, in some way, is what I am trying to provide an audience. Monarch certainly was meant to take readers on a somewhat magical psychological ride toward middle age. However, my stories are also meant for younger adults because they are usually packed with action and/ or suspense. Oftentimes, they are meant to provide an experience for people who are trying to find their way in life. Something I did for a long time. Hell, I'm still not completely sure where I fit in on this rock. 

I often think back to a question that was posed to a writing friend and myself. We were asked, rather unfairly, "Who is the better writer?" My fellow writer did not answer. I don't know why I said it, but I stated, "He was." Did I believe it to be true? He is a wonderfully talented technical screenwriter who can give you 10 pages in a few days on any type of story. Did I feel pressured into saying it because my writing friend's best friend had asked the question and I didn't want to rock the boat? It doesn't really matter. But that has always bugged me that I felt like I had to say that. 

And you know what, maybe he is a better screenwriter than me. He's certainly had more work produced. He will write anything, and I respect him for that. He's good at writing anything quickly, which is why we have collaborated so much through the years. However, my main goal as a writer has always been to write what I want to read or watch. This is likely one of the main reasons why I have a library of screenplays with so few screenwriting credits to my name. I have a ton of stories that I have to tell, a list of well over a dozen at present. Unless someone is willing to pay me well, I just don't have the time to take my focus off of my work to tell other people's stories. Ironically, this may be the same reason why those who are best suited to help me out with my current project will likely not respond to my queries, even though the TV series is amazing on several levels and would be a smash hit with its intended audience. An audience that skews younger and is interested in edgier content that they can interact with in a multitude of ways. My main objective is as it has always been -- to try and write and deliver stories that I've not seen told before and that make my mind do cartwheels. 

While I don't have any regrets from this century—don't ask about the 20th century, two moments changed my path during the past 24 years. The first was in 2000 when my father got sick, and I moved back to Atlanta from LA after establishing some roots on the West Coast. Once he passed, I lost some of my motivation to wander in the desert alone in search of creative success. The second moment was in 2010 when I decided to divert my focus from screenwriting to writing books for a decade. During that time, I chose to only work on screenplays in collaboration with the same writing friend, but without putting myself out there like I had the decade before. I had been plodding along here in Atlanta without gaining much traction other than making a few short films. I was tired of querying hundreds of people with very little response and going to festivals where I have only within the past few years become more comfortable schmoozing with people I don't know. And so focusing on the writing of books seemed a much more tolerable way forward.  

During that decade, I not only completed numerous literary projects but also through my collaborations with my writing friend we managed to create half a dozen screenwriting projects. That was the plan: write literary works and collaborate with my writing partner. While I would have liked to publish that two-part novel series before today, I now have a small library of published and unpublished literary and screenwriting works. Some of which I have big plans for. 

However, I cannot help but wonder if I had not chosen to take that break in 2010 from screenwriting could I have gained more of a foothold here in Atlanta? The film and TV production industry was just starting to explode after the tax breaks kicked in. And looking back to the year 2000, I was in the thick of things while in LA. Not only was I starting to transition from being in front of the camera to screenwriting but I also had an interest in directing. My mind was on fire, but once Dad passed I needed time to heal and develop as a person. Since I had not really done anything of merit by that point in LA, even though I had created a few connections out west, written a few screenplays, and directed my first short film, a return to a different kind of creative struggle was not in the cards. 

Both of those choices (moving back to Atlanta from LA and focusing on literary work for a decade) served as cutting ties with the progress and most of the industry relationships I had fostered for years. I don't regret either choice but both of them likely led me away from opportunities. Would I have been more open to writing for others during that decade had I not made the turn toward literary works? Maybe. I think that making that turn in 2010 solidified my belief in only writing the stories I wanted to tell. Now it is just who I am. You want me to help write your Hallmark story. Sorry, not interested. I could see myself writing a story for someone else's anthology series or taking someone's film idea and meshing it with my own ideas, but an established program like CSI? No thanks. Those are someone else's characters. Bless those who write for those types of programs but I just can't do it. I prefer creating characters and stories from scratch. 

We are the choices that we make, right? My choices have led me to write only what I want to read or watch. This means if I want to have a film or TV series produced I have to seek out others to help me realize my vision. While I am not against helping others realize their vision, I just do not venture down that path very often. It may limit what I do as a screenwriter but I am working on many other things as well. With the novel series and the graphic novel topping the list. 

To sum up, we are a 1/3 of the way through the year. There have been two moments this century when I chose to shift away from the path I was on and hurt my screenwriting career, but I have no regrets. While I've been keeping up with AI developments, my current focus is on enhancing my earlier, pre-AI writing projects with AI-generated images to further bring these stories to life. In addition, I've started querying people in the industry about a screenwriting project for the first time in years. I know I may not be the most accomplished screenwriter in the world, let alone in my own creative circle, but few can create worlds with intertwined stories like I can. My desire to merge seemingly unrelated stories into a larger tale was born out of necessity—dealing with a glut of ideas that might otherwise remain untold and from a love for anthology stories that started in my childhood.

We are about to enter the hot months. Soon everyone will start going on beach holidays and check out on the rest of the world. Enjoy! Don't forget the sunblock and thanks for reading.