And then Yesterday Happened

This month I have been doing a lot of blogging because this time of year my gears are still churning out plans for the year ahead. In December, it is not always easy to take stock of the past twelve months with all that is going on during the holidays, so this time of year is also about reflection. A lot happened last year with the rise of AI and my recalibrating is an attempt to adapt to all the changes. I didn't achieve all that I wanted, but I did enough to not hate myself either. Adding AI images to a previously written book was just a few baby steps but it was something. Preparations to begin on a larger project, my first graphic novel, were well underway. And then yesterday happened. 

Before I get into what happened yesterday, one hour after I published my last blog post, let me go over another writing project that has been percolating for a few years. Not only have I been laying the groundwork to use AI to create the images for my first graphic novel, but I've also been preparing to pitch a multi-story TV Series. A series that I created a podcast for last year that would not only stand alone as part of a transmedia pitch package but also take place smack-dab in the middle of the first season. Had I not created the fictional podcast I would not have had the biggest idea of them all, something I have been wanting to do since I was a kid. Back then I read several "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories that captivated my imagination because they were different than traditional books. 

Over the past few years, there have been a few interactive stories like "Bandersnatch" that give you a couple of chances during the movie to change the course of the narrative. Netflix has also done a few other interactive shows, mainly geared towards children like those books I read as a child, but that "Black Mirror" movie reawakened something within me. My taste in the stories I like to read and watch has changed since I was a kid and so has the technology. 

While most VR goggle devices have not really moved the needle, Apple's Vision Pro has blown people away. So, as I was preparing my pitch documents for this TV project I realized that this multi-story series  I have been working on is actually ideal for a "Choose Your Own Adventure" TV Series. I will pitch it as a multi-story series but I will also present it as a candidate to be made into an interactive story as well. The fact that there are multiple stories told within one season, some of the sci-fi, supernatural, and mystery story aspects of the series, as well as the podcast worked into the story makes it a prime candidate to be a groundbreaking interactive TV series unlike anything that has come before. 

I had planned to go into even more detail about this interactive story next week, but then Open AI (the company that brought us ChatGPT and Dall-E) released a demo for their new text-to-video tool SORA. Why is it a big deal? Because, as I stated in my blog yesterday one hour before the Sora news dropped, AI Video has been stagnant for almost a year. If you could manage to get a stable render you would only get 4 seconds of video. And so we have had to suffer through unstable pieced-together 4-second clips that only people working in the same space could really appreciate. The rest of us would check out of these at the first sign of instability or once we got tired of the constant cuts. It had become annoying. 

That is why Sora is such a big deal. While we do not have access to the tool as of yet, the crew at Open AI released a few dozen videos that showcased Sora's capabilities. And at the same time ended the need for us to ever have to watch any of those dodgy 4-second videos ever again. The companies like Runway and Pika must have lost their damn minds yesterday as Sora all but ended them. Unless they have some better models that they have been holding back. But I doubt they will come close to Sora. 

Open AI took the lead in LLM chatbots. While Google narrowed the gap yesterday in the chatbots field, the introduction of Sora hints that ChatGPT5 is also about to be released and will likely blow Google out of the water. 

Sora will also be challenging Midjourney for the image creation title as well, as Sora will also be creating far more impressive static images that look even better than what Dall-E 3 was creating. Dall-E 3 is impressive but it has more limitations than MJ 6, which was released in December. 

One of the problems, if you can call it a problem, with all these tools is that there are just so many of them. 2023 was all about ChatGPT4's domination and the multitude of fantastic image generators -- Midjourney, Dall-E 3, LeonardoAI, Stable Diffusion, Firefly, and several others. 

While the video generators of 2023 were amusing they didn't really move the needle as much as the ChatBots and Image generators. Runway, Pike, Leonardo and a few others were all generating similar types of results that created those pieced together 4-second clips. Deforum is a bit different as it created longer videos where the image is constantly morphing into something else that is similar to what it was. I liked all of these to varying degrees but the Deforum content will likely rise above the others because it is unique from the others just mentioned but also different from what I have seen so far from Sora. 

Interestingly, over the holidays I started to think about video games because I was so frustrated with AI Video's limitations. Unreal Engine 5, which is mostly used for gaming, has been used in shows like The Mandalorian and Duncan Jones is using it to film Rogue Trooper. So, while I was thinking about UE5 potentially being something I might need to learn more about if I wanted to create a more realistic AI video, I saw Sam Altman's tweet about Sora. As I am looking through those videos I notice some similarities to UE5. Last evening, Tim Brooks of Open AI, one of the people who worked on creating Sora, dropped some of the research on Sora in an article entitled Video generation models as world simulators and then I realized that even though I am not a tech guy I was able to deduce with my limited knowledge on this stuff that tools like UE5 were needed to take the next step in AI video. 

I've already seen people groaning that UE5 may be a part of Sora's training data, but it does make sense. Not all of the video that Sora creates has the look of a game, but you can see the influence in some of the videos. Let's just say that this is even more exciting to me than ChatGPT or Midjourney. Tools that I can use to make so much more content than I ever could before. But with Sora, there is a real hope that I, along with millions of others, will be able to make movies. Maybe even a TV show. 

This takes me back to the 2000s when I was making short films. I stopped because I was paying for those out of my own pocket, and even though they were just short films the time and money needed to create them took a lot out of me. 

Anyone who knows me will understand what something like Sora could mean for people like me. There is a lot to learn about this new AI Video tool. You can create up to a minute of steady video. One Minute! I was saying in another blog post that until we get to 10-30 seconds of stable video making a movie was impossible. Whether it is possible or not now will depend on how much control we can have over the generations. Can we create a character in one video and have that character be consistent in the next? That is the big one. That has been the big one with AI Image generators and only recently with Scenario and other tools has that become a much simpler thing to achieve. Consistency, stability of the videos, believability of what is created, and ability to edit what has been created. I'm sure there are other things I'm overlooking right now, and I'm sure there will be plenty of flaws that may limit what can actually be created. But it is a time to hope and dream again about AI Videos.

Sora brings us closer to a truly immersive world like that in "Ready Player One." We storytellers are going to have to step up our game to meet the challenge of creating these worlds because the tech is getting a lot closer to making it possible. I am trying to rise to that challenge with a possible interactive series, some of which may be able to be augmented by content created with a tool like Sora. But I may have to aim even bigger than that, or maybe this TV Series can be altered into an even more immersive experience. Either way, I am attempting to adapt, but I still have to keep learning to keep up with these changes. 

I know I am not the only one who cannot wait to get their hands on Sora. But, I literally have a library of screenplays that are ready to be created. I know this tool will not be perfect, and I am not getting my hopes up to high because I have learned that is never a good idea, especially with these early AI tools. Even the best image generators still have major limitations. Sora will change the game of AI Video generation, and we will likely see some amazing short movies as a result. However, based on the previews some major buzz-kill issues may limit what we can do. Someone with more technical nous than me may be able to overcome those issues and even be able to create enough excitement about their project to get a theater or large platform streaming release of a movie before the end of the year. We'll see. 

My being able to tackle my library of stories may not happen until we get a few more updates in, but we are getting closer. I hear Midjourney is close to showcasing its own Video model. Exciting times to be a creative person that is for sure. Now it's time to come back down to Earth and work on the projects in front of me until Sora actually releases. Then I'm not sure how I will be able to focus on anything else, but until then I have a TV Series to pitch and a Graphic Novel to create. Thanks for reading. 

The Storyteller's Dilemma

 

Storytelling has been vital to human evolution ever since we crawled out of the mud. We are at the Dawn of Artificial Intelligence being integrated into all of our lives, and storytellers are being confronted with a choice. Adapt your process to this new world or not.

Some will not adapt & will continue on as if they are still living in the glow of the 20th century. And that's 100% okay. Creating stories is a personal journey that can be completed entirely with a pen and paper, coffee, and some free time to write.

The choice is a personal one. Storytellers don't need AI to help them create their tales. I never needed AI to help me write books or screenplays. But then I've always wanted to create more than just the written word.

Like many a storyteller, I have worlds within me that I long to share with people. While writing a book isn't easy, once it's published you're done. That's satisfying, but not if you've always wanted a story to contain images or play on a big screen. For that, I needed a lot of help.

Until last Spring, I was accepting that getting one of my mind-bending, epic stories made into a graphic novel or a movie on the big screen or any screen would be a major challenge with lots of obstacles. Then AI exploded and my view of storytelling changed forever.

Not only can you now speed up the writing process with AI acting as an assistant, but you can tell your stories in many more ways. And you have control of the final product. That appeals to me at my very core as a storyteller.

I no longer feel boxed in, trapped by only being able to write books and screenplays. That has allowed me to tap into the filmmaking spirit I once fostered. Graphic novels are possible and soon we'll be able to create movies worth watching once AI video improves.

What has stood in my way for two decades is being removed because I can bypass many of the roadblocks with the help of AI. While I enjoy collaborating with others, I am more than happy to work on my own as well.

Not only will it save time to create new material, but I might never have been able to afford to hire an artist to create the images for a graphic novel. With Generative AI tools, the cost and the time to create the images become manageable if time is taken to learn how to use these tools. And I have been more than happy to do that. It is much easier to learn how to use AI to create images than to learn to create the images by hand or having to shell out thousands of dollars to get someone else to help me complete my vision. Now I have total control, which may provide some dodgy results to start with, but eventually, I will become good enough to create that graphic novel. 

Tip for those wanting to create a Graphic Novel with AI: The scripts for a Graphic Novel are very similar to a screenplay, so if you have a screenplay that you want to see as a Graphic Novel AI can reformat that for you. 

The key is to have a story to tell. AI is great at images but the story should come from you. A graphics artist may say the exact opposite, which makes sense. AI can help compensate for your weakness. Mine is that my hand is not steady enough to draw or paint. 

Creating a story takes a lot longer than creating a digital painting anyway. One of my best friends is a brilliant artist. He can knock out a hundred paintings or more in the time it takes me to come up with a story, write it, edit it, and say it is done. That has always annoyed me. Not anymore. Now I can do what he does in a fraction of the time and I have both the story and the visuals to accompany it. He is not a storyteller, so I'm not sure which one of our AI-assisted works would be better.

AI can create stories, but just like with creating images you have to work with the AI to create what you need. You can't just expect it to come back with an image or a story right out of the gate that will be perfect. It may never be perfect. That is why it needs the human touch. 

As far as AI Video, it seems like we're nearly there, but then I don't know. I am not training these AI models. In the early summer of last year, I thought that we were about a year away from being able to create high-quality videos using only AI tools. I figured animated AI videos would be the first to achieve a level of quality that would be acceptable to all viewers. While I still think that is true, animated AI scenes look just as sketchy as lifelike scenes. There is a built-in threshold of forgiveness for animation because of all the differences in animation styles we have all seen in our lifetimes. Whereas lifelike images have to look 100% real across every frame or you risk losing the audience. 

People have become finicky about AI video, and that includes the best creators of AI video. I too am dismissive of most AI videos. It's all so obviously AI-generated that I can't even be bothered to watch more than a couple seconds of most of them. There are exceptions of course, but they are few and far between. 

Some Twitter accounts say that Hollywood is rattled. They are not rattled by what is being produced with just AI tools at this moment. This does make me wonder if the tools will be slow-rolled out to the public because of how much it will change things. Not to be a conspiracy monger. Lord knows we don't need more hair-brained conspiracy theories circulating out there this year. 

However, let's think about it for a moment. Once AI video is good enough storytellers like myself will be clamoring to create movies with AI. If people actually enjoy some of these movies, then Hollywood will be rattled. However, I don't think it will be the end of Hollywood.

On the contrary, Hollywood would still have most of the best creators. It's not like they won't change with the times to keep up. Things will likely just be a bit different. Maybe all the best AI TV shows and movies will be animated. Maybe lifelike AI video will take far longer to achieve. Think of how far ahead AI Images are right now. You can create anything with AI image generators. 

The public will dictate what it is willing to accept and consume. I can't see us rejecting animation entirely, but quasi-lifelike TV shows and Movies generated with AI may be a bridge too far anytime soon. AI advances have been rapid. However, they are also gradual now that we are all caught up in it waiting for the next big update. And video is a lot trickier than static images. 

Maybe with a big election coming up and Hollywood growing anxious things have been slowed towards the public. Maybe not. Who knows? Either way, we are nowhere near a lifelike movie or TV show yet. 

Having watched this space for a year, and having seen what people have attempted to create with AI, I am not sure they will all be able to tell a compelling story once we can use AI to create movies. And without a story, you might as well be pissing into the wind.

My artist friend and I have shared story ideas before. Do I think he could create a graphic novel with only AI to assist him? Yes. He would have to lean on the AI for the story part, but he'd be able to easily create the images needed. 

It does make me wonder, who benefits more from AI tools a Writer or an Artist? Surely those who had both skills before AI will benefit most. I think I have benefited a great deal as a writer who can now add images to my stories. If an artist took the time to learn how to use AI to tell a story, I could see how the artist might save more time. Because writing a story, for the most part, is more time-consuming than creating a picture. Therefore, a writer might still want to spend more time getting the story right than the artist, who may think that a story is good enough when it might still need some work. While an artist might be more inclined to ensure the images are perfect, a writer may think that an image is good enough when it still needs some work. The lack of experience may expose flaws in the finished work for both. 

I think if my artist friend and I both set out to create our own graphic novel or digital comic, the scales would just about balance out. His visuals would be better and my story would be better. However, when it comes to AI Video, I think I'd edge him on that because of my experience with both writing and directing. That is where it is clear that people who have experience in both storytelling and image creation or moviemaking will have an edge over everyone else.

Once the AI movie excitement fades people will come home from a hard day's work and the last thing they will want is to watch something just because it was created entirely by AI. The standards of storytelling will not be lowered just because anyone can create a movie. In fact, they may even be higher because of all the scrutiny. 

This is why it would be smart of those who have neither an art background nor a storytelling background, but who have learned how to create AI images and are eager to create movies using AI, to learn how to tell a story first. I have been in awe of plenty of AI images over the past year, and while an image may say a thousand words, it does not tell an entire story. 

People have gained minor fame for their static AI images over the past year. But anyone can create those images if they learn how to prompt or rewrite the prompts of others, which is a lot easier than learning to draw or write a story. It is a new type of skill. One that creates magnificent results without a need for artistic talent. I have had to learn to prompt to create the images I need. Some are just better prompters than I am. Is AI Art Real Art? That's a tough one. I have made some amazing images over the past year. However, I would not feel comfortable showing it at an Art Gallery. Though I have no problem using those images in a Graphic Novel or a Movie, once AI Video is good enough. But to each their own. I tell stories and would prefer the focus be on the stories I create, AI images and video are just another means for me to tell a story. 

We are hard-wired to need stories. So much of our lives revolve around the stories we tell one another on a daily basis. The stories we choose to consume during our downtime need to be even better than the ones we deal with all day. Commercials, news, your boss, the waiter, the mail, your friends and family. We are the stories we tell each other. An image or series of images can be seared into your mind and stir your soul, while a gripping story can captivate your heart and your mind. Combine the two effectively and you can break through all the mundane stuff in people's daily lives, capture their imagination, and help them escape their mortal confines just for a moment. It's no replacement for time spent in nature or with loved ones, but reading a good book or watching a good movie can inspire people or just entertain them.

That's what it's all about, for me at least. I write for myself so that I can get lost in a story that I would want to read or watch, but the story does not yet exist. While everyone may not want to read or watch the stories that I create, a few might. And if they take away something positive from the experience then that is a bonus. 

We do not all walk the same storytelling path. That would be boring. We all have our own paths based on our experience or lack thereof. Choose a path that works for you. Stay on that path if you like or change paths if that seems the right thing to do, just keep moving and learning along the way. Thanks for reading. 

Why Do I Write?

I am not perfect, nowhere near it in fact. I am as flawed if not more flawed than most. Sometime after I had released "Monarch" someone whose opinion I value suggested I write a story from a position of authority. Never have I truly believed that I am a king of anything, instead thinking of myself as a jack of all trades yet master of none. Once upon a time, I considered myself a clown who needed to entertain others with laughter. What does any of this have to do with writing? 

Some people know what they want to be as a child and their whole life is geared towards achieving it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it sounds quaint and boring to me. I used to think of myself as the calm within the storm, a hero who would stand up when needed to protect what is right. Youth came with a shield of protection that I would use to fend off opinions contrary to my own so that I could keep from getting hurt all in pursuit of something I did not understand - myself. Those were my acting years. I made myself a vessel to be filled because I had not chosen another path. 

But then I had not wanted to. Why had I wanted so badly to be an actor? I was good at clowning around and had learned to hide my emotions during my childhood. Stories had always appealed to me, but I was lazy, angry, and distracted in my youth. Sports had been my outlet, it allowed me to focus on the ball instead of the future. Did I think I could be a professional? If I did I abandoned those thoughts once I started to have arm troubles. Back in those days, it was not required to know what you wanted to do with your life during grade school. And so I drifted on to college without much concern for the future. 

Life can be so random sometimes but the choices we make can change everything. I was a big fan of movies and loved to read. Being handsome and funny as well meant I was also popular. People gravitated to me even though I always felt like the odd man out at parties. I took a personality test once and it said I was an extroverted introvert. Perfect for the clergy or the stage. The church was never an option, so after taking a public speaking class and meeting Julia Robert's sister, I decided to try being an actor. 

I put everything into learning the craft and even managed a few decent performances during those years. Once I was living in LA, I realized that while I liked the idea of being an actor I preferred writing poetry and creating my own stories. This was something I had glimpsed in high school but was too scattered in my own head to realize I should have pursued it at that time. As a jack of all trades, acting had given me insight into "the business" and propelled me into screenwriting. 

By that point, my head was overflowing with story ideas, so I learned about the craft and set out to write the stories I would want to star in as an actor. I still held out some hope that I might be able to do both. It took a few years, but eventually, I let go of acting entirely. However, not before I starred in a few short films that I also wrote and directed, adding again to my jack-of-all-trades status. I wanted to know everything about the creative side of "the business."

Ever since I set out to be an actor I have never lacked in discipline or focus. I have always loved to get lost in ideas and always like to take what I am seeing in the present or have seen in the past in a fictional way through storytelling. I have never written a non-fiction piece. Whether that is so that I don't have to address my own truths or that I just don't have an interest in doing so, I'm not sure. These blog posts have always been enough for me.  I could see myself writing a memoir one day, and maybe I could tell someone else's tale. Though, I have a long list of fictional tales that I have to write in the meantime. 

So, why do I write? I write because, during my acting years, the need to tell stories was activated within me. I can probably pinpoint it to one moment. A friend asked me to help them write a script and I was hooked from that point on. I think that moment also sealed my fate as an actor as well. Once I saw that I could write for myself the characters I wanted to play I began to lose interest in auditioning for roles that I didn't like. I knew while creating my short films that they may be the last bit of acting I ever do, and I was ok with it because I had achieved what I wanted. 

I no longer write stories that I would want to star in but tales that I would want to read in a book or watch on a screen. My tastes are not the same as others. I don't like reality TV at all. You can keep your Hallmark movies, your romantic comedies, your formulaic procedurals. Some writers try to write everything under the sun. I'm not that guy. I like to write what I like to read or watch. If I wouldn't want to watch it as a TV show or a movie I sure as hell have no intention of writing it. Give me dark mysteries, suspenseful sci-fi, thrilling dramas, and adventure. Give me high stakes and a bit of horror for good measure. Keep me wanting to know what happens next. That is the stuff I love to watch and write. I write because contrary to what people say that every story has already been told I know that is not true. And I know I can come up with something unique enough to keep me interested. In the end that is all that matters. As long as I am still interested in telling new tales that is why I write. 

The Path Forward

During the last ten months, I have considered many different ways that I might attempt to make money using AI. I have taken classes and spent hundreds if not thousands of hours doing research. In addition, I have also spent a lot of time on social media (mainly Twitter/ X) in an effort to keep up with what others are doing. That Blue Check that some people have paid for has been beneficial for a few people who have been able to monetize through the platform. However, they have to post constantly and I have no interest in being an influencer who needs interactions to make their numbers. Not that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, some of the best information I have taken in over the past ten months has come from influencers. That path is not for me though.

To be fair, a lot of what I have learned has been about what I do NOT want to do to try and monetize AI. I am a dreamer, a world builder, an author, and a screenwriter, yet I come from a long line of educators. While my work has never been on any best seller's list or featured in cinemas around the world, I take pride in what I create. So, while I can see there are ways to make money that do not include using my storytelling skills, I am reluctant to pursue them. 

One very appealing option that I am reticent to pursue is selling some of the AI images I have created as NFTs or in some other format. There are a ton of people who are doing this. A few are making money. I have spent a lot of time on Twitter/ X checking out images, image prompts, and the various image generators that created these images. Much of this was done so that I could determine styles that I might use for images to go with my written work. I probably spent too much time on this but I like keeping up to date with image generations and image generators, as I want to create images, in one way or another, to go with all of the stories I tell from this day forward. I was fairly interested in video generation as well. However, I have lost some interest in this over the past two months as the tools are not developing at the same pace as static images. Back in March, I had hoped that by now I could create a proper short film or film trailer using just AI. While some people are creating some cool things, the best AI video content is more artistic than realistic. Could I make a proper trailer for one of my scripts that I'd be willing to show a producer? Ehh... I'm not so sure. Maybe if I poured my heart and soul into it and made it part of a larger pitch package, but not the focal point of it. And I just can't see Joe or Jane Public taking much interest in a full movie created by AI at this point. 

Eventually, I will jump back into video generation so that I can tell movies with AI tools. I'll likely create a trailer or something over the next few months. In truth, I will likely fall behind and miss out on being on the cutting edge of AI video generation, but I just don't have the time to mess around too much with it in its current state. I have stories to write and static images to create to help bring those stories to life in the meantime.

I am still interested in being able to monetize what I have learned about AI. However, I am not keen to do so in some way that involves me having to post every five minutes just for clicks. I want to create something that people need. My desire is to help others with what I have learned as a storyteller and as someone who took the time over the past year to learn about Generative AI. When I can merge those two I will have found a way that benefits myself and others. I would be quite happy with that. 

It may be a few weeks or months until I can say more, but I can assure you that I am working on something that takes my experience in a way that helps others. My hope is that I can monetize this.  We'll see.