Last week’s column On the emergence of vertical drama received a cordial text from a friend who has worked in film and TV sound for two decades.
“Blargh. Time to happen, think,” he wrote. “This article made me really see the script in the sky once and for all.”
I reminded him not to shoot the messenger. Really I left My conversation with yun xie Feeling curious, even excited, about what may come next for the format. These may never be developed into masterpieces of stories (a high order when a script must deliver an emotional cliffhanger every 90 seconds), but the business around them is growing. And with that growth, the potential for new companies, new markets and new opportunities, although we cannot see them clearly yet.
And that’s the real problem: We can’t see. The last five years have been a sandstorm at Arrakis-Level-Covid, strikes, AIThe slow collapse of older film and television. It is exhausting to continue moving on without a clear picture of the road forward.
We can take some comfort in the fact that Futurists are also fumbling.
Last week I attended both CAA’s Amplify Conference and Runway’s AI Film Festival. They cater for different target groups, but their underlying messages were the same: the future is coming, we think it is exciting, but still cannot say exactly what it looks like.
“We are now training for jobs that are not yet available,” said Bruce Markoe, IMAX’s manager of Post and Image Catch and speaks at the AI Film Festival in Santa Monica on June 12.
In a relaxed press chat before 10 shorts screened in the wide stage, he and the track founder Cristóbal Valenzuela both admitted that they did not know what is the next. However, they claimed that history suggests that we should remain optimistic.
“People tricked out when Talkies were around,” said Markoe. “The argument was that people will lose their jobs and reality said yes, there were jobs that have changed and … it is (it is) jobs that have to change. We assume that efficiency means lower of everything and … it is actually the opposite. There will be new industries. The thing is really hard to understand these industries. We have never experienced them before.
Valenzuela said he thought “there will be all types of new positions that must be created to work with AI tools that are not today. Is it alike? I can’t say it. But there is definitely a shift that will happen.”
So … the festival suggested in the future?
Kind of?
The shorts were good. Aesthetics have been improved since last year. So have interest: Valenzuela said they received over 6,000 submissions, compared to a few hundred in 2023.
Still, the technology has a way to go. Basic elements in the film language, as character consistency, often come to short. Many films felt like conceptual collage that is looking for the right tools to bring their visions to life.
One highlight was Riccardo Fusetti’s “editorial”, which visualizes the thoughts that compete through a young woman’s mind before answering a question. The concept was sharp, although the chaotic images and Uncanny Valley left it to feel more like a promising rough draft.
Over at CAA’s reinforcement
A similar mood arose at CAA’s Amplify conference at Montage Laguna Beach on June 10.
When he spoke to CAA agent Alex Mebed, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman tracked a familiar pattern: From the printing press to podcast to generative AI, new technology lowers obstacles to entry and opens the door to more creators.
And with that comes aggressive competition, greater disruptions and redistribution of jobs, power and income.
“We have to be open to it,” Suleyman said.
The future is … when?
Right now everyone is open to it. The question is, how much longer do we have to wait?
Perhaps the impatience is misunderstood. Even when vertical drama and AI have their days, A24 opened old-fashioned “materialists” -Celine Song’s original IP, a Rom-Com, shot at 35 mm for Pete’s sake-in weekend to $ 12 million.
This success is as real as, for example, the latest round of studio settlements. In his analysis last weekendLa Times reflected on last year’s mantra, “survive until ’25”, and suggested that it be converted into something ink:
“Available until ’26.”
Enough rhyme
Solid advice, but maybe it’s time to retire the aphorisms. Rhymes does not get the future to arrive faster.
See you next week,
Fashion
✉ Do you have an idea, compliment or complaint?
dana@indiewire.com; (323) 435-7690.
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