Posted on 08/03/2025 6:06:54 AM PDT by DallasBiff
Yeah I think AI often clears the “not all that bad” bar, which is pretty amazing. And it definitely has potential as a tool for generating raw material that you can take and polish up. It reminds me of how it’s being used in software development now. I was on a project recently and the code guys were using AI in a big way. They weren’t using the AI code directly — they didn’t trust it — but instead were using it to get something on the table to sort of bounce off of.
I don't disagree as songwriting pertains to pop, country, folk, metal, some rock.
But until an AI can produce lyrics on a par with Subterranean Homesick Blues, Desolation Row, Highway 61, All Along the Watchtower... the AI-produced lyrics are just a bunch of wanking for the undiscerning public who will forget it in a week.
Of course, Dylan's chords are nothing to write home about. AI can probably do a reasonable job with the instrumental parts. And as an instrumental musician and sideman, I am glad I'm old enough that arthritis will probably take me out of performing before AI does.
Yep.
However, I do have an idea for bringing “old” Hollywood back, along with stars who really want to be stars.
It would require at least 3-5 years of losses, so it’s an investment. It requires changing culture, which absolutely can be done.
1) Studios should, in agreement with certain actors and directors, make 2-3 movies PER YEAR that are solely “in theater” movies. IMAX if possible, but wherever.
2) These films would be the blockbusters, the “Maverick” the “Avengers” (old series). Really, really big movies. Must-see movies.
3) Here is the challenging part: these movies can never see the light of day outside the theatrical release, no streaming, no DVDs, and then as Disney used to do, bring them back in a couple of years.
4) Select actors/directors agree to do NO television shows, streamers, or anything other than movie parts. If I had my way, I’d give them a bonus to stay off all social media.
5) Once people understand that they cannot see “Dr. Doom” EXCEPT in a theater, the culture will slowly change. Moreover, the more scarce the stars make themselves, the bigger they will become.
6) Here is the real culture change: movie theaters, for these shows, need to make it special. Searchlights, red carpets if possible, but DRESSY. No cutoffs, flip-flops. Absolutely no food or drink in the theater.
TREAT THIS LIKE AN OPERA.
I know you’re laughing, but I think it would work. People do get dressed up and act right for all sorts of things. (When was the last time you heard of a shooting or stabbing at Carnegie Hall or an opera?
In othe words, re-invest the FILMS with a special “need to see” and the VENUE with a sense of something special is happening.
indeed, very interesting article ... will have to see if its premise is born out ... gonna take a lot of 8 second clips to make a feature length film, plus 675 8 second clips wouldn’t make a watchable 1.5 hour film ...
The leftist message is more obvious now because the message is so extreme, and also because the conservative counterpoint is being spread through alternative media, but the Leftist messaging has been there for decades:
Affirmative action
-All men have oppressed women
-Cops, Firemen, and EMTs are first responders instead of you
-Doctors and the medical community are inherently benevolent
-Driving is a privilege. Yet our ancestors didn't have licenses or license plates on horse-drawn carriages
-Feminism
-Gun bans
-Legalized abortion
-My body my choice
-No-fault divorce
-Recreational sex
-Sexualizing minors
-Socialism is good
-Taxes are the price you pay to live in a civilized society and no Stockholm Syndrome
-The Civil War was fought over slavery
-The police will protect you
-The separation of Church and State
-The United States is a democracy and not a republic
-The United States is a racist country
-The United States is the world cop
-The United States was on the right side of the wars we've engaged in
-White fathers are buffoons
-White people are ignorant and racist
-White people have no culture
Some individuals will take the time to extract examples, such as white men are portrayed as stupid in commercials:
https://x.com/StupidWhiteAds
They need to stop trashing the very people they want to buy tickets
I would LOVE to see Hollywood become as ravaged as the corporate media. As the barriers to entry are lowered by technology, these Leftist bastions are being torn apart one by one. Its great to see.
But until an AI can produce lyrics on a par with Subterranean Homesick Blues, Desolation Row, Highway 61, All Along the Watchtower... the AI-produced lyrics are just a bunch of wanking for the undiscerning public who will forget it in a week.
LOL, well we can get new classics like “I glued my balls to my butthole again!”
A person does not even have to be very creative. You could have AI write a story, then have it create a script and then plug it in to create the movie.
Hollywood will cease to exist but content creators will rise up to take their place. In some ways this technology is similar to the invention of the printing press which took the gatekeeper of knowledge away from the Church and put it in the hands of ordinary people.
Yeah I think AI often clears the “not all that bad” bar, which is pretty amazing. And it definitely has potential as a tool for generating raw material that you can take and polish up. It reminds me of how it’s being used in software development now. I was on a project recently and the code guys were using AI in a big way. They weren’t using the AI code directly — they didn’t trust it — but instead were using it to get something on the table to sort of bounce off of.
That’s why I use coding tools for. But what’s really cool about Claude Code is that it can crank out the documentation as to what the code does, that’s valuable if you are maintaining legacy code. And it frees me up from having to do the documentation on my end. I basically just use Claude Code to generate boilerplate stuff, like Data Access layers by giving it the DDL of the database...Boom! done in seconds.
This.
A lot of casual viewers will settle for animated cartoons. Streaming has put this tendency on steroids: formulaic movies, considered as generic "content" for the lowest common denominator global audience, stripped of the particularities that make characters interesting and unpredictable.
Many movies have always been like this, and that's fine for casual escapism. Serious filmmakers -- writers, directors and actors being the core of the enterprise -- have always striven for more. At the risk of sounding pretentious, they want to produce "art," something that touches intangibles. When they succeed -- and most films don't rise to that level -- they produce something of lasting value.
In any given production, the writing, direction or acting may carry the enterprise. In the very best films, all three connect, and something unique is created. The collaboration is important; it's a dialogue among the three key participants (and then the rest of the filmmaking team added into the mix), which then elevates into a dialogue with the viewing audiences. The casual couch potato views may not care; if all they want is low value escapist fare, they can find plenty of it. But do enough people want something better to support the quality end of the market?
It is ultimately the actors who have to breathe life into the characters and script, but they need the writer to provide the raw material and a director who can recognize the assets he has and put them together for best effect.
Let one example suffice. Same play, same script, same song, different direction (one for the movie we've all seen, the second a stage adaptation) and different actresses:
Can AI do this, if not now then in the near future? Probably, if it has been trained on Liza Minelli or Jane Horrocks. But that's a theft of intellectual property, and it means endless repetitions of a Liza Minelli or Jane Horrocks interpretation, which will get boring pretty fast. Can AI contribute something new? Ah, that's the question. Who is feeding the prompts? A purple haired woke freak or a serious person with something to say? Ultimately, AI will probably allow us all to make our own version -- and that means endless projections of ourselves, which is a straight road into endless projections of a fundamentally solipsistic, utterly self-absorbed reflection of ourselves. Oh, goody ... but that seems to be where popular culture is headed: me, me, me, with the universe designed for fantasy wish fulfilment. And that will get boring even faster than watching Liza Minnelli and/or Jane Horrocks in an endless repetitive loop.
The film industry has been exploring this quite explicitly for some time, with films involving AI characters. Two fairly recent examples that I've recommended before are After Yang and "I'm Your Man. Both are excellent. In both movies, the AI character is a model citizen. Can we distinguish good programming from good character? If the illusion is good enough, do we even want to try? "I'm Your Man. raises this point very explicitly. After Yang has perhaps the most subtle Turing test I've ever seen. Neither film tries to dictate a solution; they paint a picture and invite you to think.
I'm still not convinced AI can do this, not without simply stealing the intellectual property produced by real humans.
Hollywood will cease to exist but content creators will rise up to take their place. In some ways this technology is similar to the invention of the printing press which took the gatekeeper of knowledge away from the Church and put it in the hands of ordinary people.
But there still has to be some sort of gatekeeping, if there are millions of these songs and movies out there now to choose from, people won’t have time to sort all that out. Although certain AI tools can be made that can sort through everything and pick the best ones, according to criteria.
Why do we need live football or basketball players to feed the NFL/NBA content firehose? Why don't we just have AI generated avatars of great athletes of the past with some randomizer programming thrown in to spur the betting? Heck, we can even boost their athletic talents to make them better than any live human.
Will audiences settle for that in sports? Or do you actually want to watch live players compete?
One thing I can see happening though is lawyers stepping in and putting out “Cease and Desist”, because the burden will be on the content creators to prove they didn’t use real images in the generation of their content. They can make it very difficult for AI content generators to profit from their work.
Also, I believe there is a law that states anything generated by AI, without evidence of human creativity will be considered to be in the public domain.
I am not a lawyer, so I hope some people more familiar legally will chime in on this.
Why don’t we just have AI generated avatars of great athletes of the past with some randomizer programming thrown in to spur the betting?
Think I’ll create an AI Super Bowl with the Detroit Lions winning it.
“…the actual source material it’s based on..”
Hollywood produces only sequels, remakes, movie versions of comic books or movie versions of old sitcoms.
By slashing the cost of producing a blockbuster, AI will foster competition - allowing “the actual source material” advance itself and access entertainment markets without having to ask Hollywood’s permission.
All movies in the future will be cartoons.
“Wall-to-Wall Mini-Toons, you called them ‘Commercials’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVYArjS-Ee0
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