Innovation > Innovation
TEAM ONE, Los Angeles / SAATCHI & SAATCHI / 2017
Overview
Credits
CampaignDescription
We set out to create a one-of-a-kind film to provoke audiences around the world—a music video conceived, directed and edited entirely by machines. No one machine could do everything a director does. So to be able to pull it off and create a thought-provoking and controversial piece of work, we assembled a crew of best-in-class AI.
From bits and bytes to artificial brains, these machines worked together to extract the meaning of the song, generate a creative idea, film, direct and edit the music video in time to premiere at the 2016 New Directors’ Showcase.
The film debuted alongside 19 other films by way of a Turing Test on Alan Turing’s birthday. Audiences at the Showcase were asked to guess which film was made by machines. To our delight, the film felt no more or less human than its competitors.
Execution
To be able to achieve this feat, we combined different types of AI to mirror a human film crew.
IBM Watson's Tone Analyzer API broke down the meaning and emotional intent of each line of lyrics.
Microsoft Rinna used that understanding to build a narrative. She answered questions about setting, characters and wardrobe — even the food on set.
Muse EEG headsets and Affectiva Facial Recognition AI measured the emotion behind the singer's performance, and we used that data to cast talent who hit the same emotional cues.
Eight swarming, AI-Powered Prenav drones were used to capture the footage using facial recognition data to determine how to shoot the actors.
We then created a proprietary AI editor who cut footage algorithmically to the beat of the song, based on emotion.
Our visual-effects editor was a custom neural-art AI that applied a style transfer to the end product.
Outcome
We set out to provoke the creative industry by creating a film conceived, directed and edited by machines. And we had to do it with limited production time (six weeks) and budget ($100K).
The film not only melded perfectly with the 19 other films it debuted alongside, but it got people talking to the tune of 514,617,609 mentions. Over 600 articles were written about our experimental film, and, in the end, the project far exceeded our expectations generating a media value of £4,7million. It was even featured in an international broadcast of the BBC’s hit show Click, and continues to gain press attention nearly a year after its debut.
Relevancy
If Lions Innovation is about taking a field trip to the future, artificial intelligence is the rocket fuel that will get us there. No other technology will affect our industry or our world more than A.I. For exactly this reason, we decided to create a provocative piece of film that begins to ask logical, emotional and theoretical questions. Is creativity a uniquely human skill? Can a film made by machines move you? We combined and empowered AI technologies in a way no one had before, allowing them to conceive, direct and edit a film from scratch.
Synopsis
Each year, the New Directors Showcase introduces the best and brightest new talent to an international stage. New directors showcased go on to be some of the most celebrated and successful talents of their generation. Directors Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry have debuted at the event, among countless others.
And each year, the New Directors Showcase kicks off the event in a new and innovative way—from perfectly choreographed drones to bracelets that measure the emotional response of the audience to holographic presenters.
For 2016, we wanted to continue the tradition of creating a groundbreaking spectacle. But we also wanted to provoke the creative industry in a way it had never been provoked before — by asking, simply, if machines could replace us.
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