AI + Art = Connections

A large weight was taken off of my shoulders when I realized that the gatekeepers of the entertainment industry would no longer be able to hold me back. - M. Tolin

Nov 19

“Does it feel like art?” I’m asking visitors to Art in the Age of AI: Evolution or End?

The exhibition, which I curated in collaboration with Christina Hiltscher of Unchained.Art Gallery, Austin, TX, features thirteen visual artists working with AI, 3D, and generative technology.

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High Tech Art was swiped to the left decades ago by Big A art critics because they felt it could not express complex human emotions and ideas. The tools have come a long way since then, but negative beliefs have remained. I say that because “This is not what I expected,” is the phrase I hear most often after guests have circled the gallery.

Some people don’t like the art specifically because it’s made in creative collaboration with a machine. Yet most are surprised to find they do feel the human sensation of connection that we expect when viewing fine art. I think seeing the work in person as physical objects rather than as files on a glowing screen accounts for the positive responses.

Interestingly, the work is raising questions about other creative AIs like writing, music, and film. Here in Austin, Texas, we will soon have a chance to experience AI film in person at the first Austin AI Film Festival. I met the co-founder Matisse Tolin, invited him to the gallery to speak, and interviewed him for this post. Will film, a screen-based medium, pass the test of audience appreciation? Here's what Matisse had to say about AI films.

You worked in the Hollywood film industry for fifteen years. Why the move to AI films?

The circumstances that led to AI filmmaking are fatefully tied to the timing of my decision to move out of Los Angeles after trying to make movies somewhat successfully but mostly unsuccessfully. It was a frustrating process: I was able to get into advanced stages but never got the green light. Upon arriving in Austin in 2022, AI tools like Midjourney were just beginning. I wanted to use one of my scripts as a test case to see if AI could help me visualize the film.

Has AI changed how you feel about traditional filmmaking procedures and tools?

A large weight was taken off of my shoulders when I realized that the gatekeepers of the entertainment industry would no longer be able to hold me back. Now that the floodgates are opening, so many more filmmakers are going to have the opportunity to tell their stories in whatever aesthetic they choose. Does that mean most of these new films will be good... probably not. But the democratization of the medium is a truly disruptive moment in our history as a species and as storytellers.

The tools and tradecraft that were established in traditional filmmaking over the last hundred years are going to be integral to creating good-quality stories in this new hybrid medium. "Generative filmmaking" is a squeezing together of the production process and post-production process but now for far less cost and fewer humans involved.
That being said, I think there are going to be a lot of talented visual artists playing in this medium and making cool stuff that is super visual. Turning that into a 30-minute or 60-minute story that can remain entertaining and original is not something that all those visual artists have in their skill set. That's where team building and working together with people who are talented at story development is important. It will still take a small army to create a virtuoso generative film.

How has AI altered your traditional filmmaking instincts?

Things are happening a lot faster now in this new process. I can think of an idea or change a scene in a certain way and then immediately manifest those changes in a short period of time and edit them into the film. It's as if we were laying down train tracks with a train that was pretty far away when we were doing it with traditional live-action filmmaking. But now with AI involved, it's like you're building the train tracks at the same time that the train is running over them, so you have more direct control over its direction and movement in a way that's way more immediate and gratifying.

Do you think audiences will have to evolve their conceptual and emotional sensibilities in order to be able to enjoy the synthetic nature of AI Films?

Yeah, I do think there will be a bit of a paradigm shift in human consciousness when it comes to truly accepting and believing in an AI film that one is watching. At the same time, we have been watching animated films for a very long time, so our brain is a bit used to them and accepting of them already.
The bottom line is that a good story is a good story, a good shot is a good shot, and a good performance is a good performance. When a group of talented humans are behind all those elements and making those decisions, the best stories emerge, whether made with the help of AI or not.

The medium of AI Filmmaking is just getting started, why create an AI Festival now?

If someone is passionate about something that is beginning to really take root in the world, then I always think they should follow through on that in a way that benefits the community and grows into the ecosystem early. A festival event feels fun and friendly, and Austin is a fun and friendly city that lives at the heart of tech and entertainment. Creating this festival with my partners felt like a no-brainer, but there is definitely a large amount of work that goes into it. I felt like the timing was right in my life to pursue something like this, and I always try to stay on the pulse of the intersection of tech and entertainment.

How are you handling the copyright challenges that have yet to be resolved?

I'm not a legal expert, and there are many lingering grey areas right now around this topic. This is why our AI film festival is dedicating a panel to discussing ethics and copyright as it pertains to AI filmmaking.
As I understand it, you still have to stick to the basic rules of copyright infringement, modifying creations in good faith for the new medium, and along with the help of our lawyers at Latham & Watkins, we are trying to implement these rules for the AI film festival.
The various AI software use an amalgamation of everything out there on the internet to produce new output, which some would consider makes every output from AI software unoriginal and illegal. I think we can take one step back from that view, considering that creatives (like me) put thousands of hours and make millions of original decisions in their AI art and films, even with the help of AI software. That, in my opinion, should make it a new work.

Do you imagine creating a distribution platform for your AI films?

I have already created a distribution channel for AI films called Best AI Films. You can visit www.bestaifilms.com to find a curated and categorized collection of AI films from across the globe. I think legacy media and traditional platforms that don't start to support and accept AI films as a new medium are going to be left behind.

I thought your insistence that the festival submissions be written by humans was interesting considering that you want to be sure the filmmaking itself is primarily made with AI. Why do you still want to see the human mind writing the story?

I love that AI films are a combination of human thoughts and AI visualizations, so I think there should always be human authorship leading the storytelling, as opposed to having a story written by Chat GPT. Being a writer myself, I value humanistic authorship and want to keep that human touch very much alive in all the entries.
I know that there will be blowback against this rule for submissions, people insisting Chat GPT can write something as original and creative as a human. To them, I say, this is our festival, and these are our rules.

Are there aesthetic attributes that are unique to the AI film medium?

I think there definitely will be aesthetic attributes that are unique to the AI film medium in the same way that we can do things with 3D printers that we can't do by hand.
I think the thing that really excited me the most was the cinematic look and lighting that were applied to my story ideas and that I could then manipulate and alter in so many different ways. Really in an infinite amount of ways, so that the final output is exactly what I see in my mind when I wrote the scene. In order to achieve this in live action, I would need an expert cinematographer, an expert gaffer, and the right lighting conditions. All of those things cost money and require the right talent and timing, but achieving this in AI is very doable.

Will you go back to traditional filmmaking?

I would very much still like to work in traditional filmmaking if I have the opportunity, but I am excited about what I'm able to do with AI and I foresee that most of my future projects will be made with AI.
At the same time though, every single image I generate and then animate for this film that spawned from original ideas in my head that involved millions of decisions... I never try to take for granted any of those outputs and the amazing power of this technology to realize our dreams. I think it's good to take in each of these creations and marvel at the fact that a human brain combined with artificial intelligence was able to create them.

Matisse Tolin will speak at Unchained.Art on Friday, Nov 22nd, 5 - 7 pm, The event is free, and we ask that you RSVP.

Eventbrite (RSVP) Art & Film in the Age of AI - a-talk with Matisse Tolin

For more information on the Austin AI Film Festival go to: austinaifilmfest.com

To watch AI Films: www.bestaifilms.com

For exhibition details: go to:AIplusArt.com or Unchained.Art Gallery

AI + Art = Connections