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Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

theguardian.com

31–40 of 74 posts

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#31
post #17

If you haven't been following the current explosion of video gen models, including all the content you see on social media, you should pay attention. I have no doubt in my mind that right now, in August of 2026, given a couple of weeks, an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits, given a good amount of exploration/tinkering to fill the gaps that GenAI cannot cu…

No job is forever. Tomorrow isn’t promised, and automation already did this—albeit more slowly—throughout the second half of the 20th century. Some people watched their jobs disappear and accepted that they’d become obsolete. Plenty of others pivoted. The counterargument today is that we can pivot much faster. I’m typing this on a $2,000 Mac that can run Blender, render scenes, write code, edit video, and access tool…

The really interesting question is: What are we going to do when a technology so quickly and thoroughly displaces the need for human labor, in a society that constantly demands you trade your labor for the right to exist and participate in society?

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#32
post #17

If you haven't been following the current explosion of video gen models, including all the content you see on social media, you should pay attention. I have no doubt in my mind that right now, in August of 2026, given a couple of weeks, an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits, given a good amount of exploration/tinkering to fill the gaps that GenAI cannot cu…

[deleted]

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#33
post #17

If you haven't been following the current explosion of video gen models, including all the content you see on social media, you should pay attention. I have no doubt in my mind that right now, in August of 2026, given a couple of weeks, an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits, given a good amount of exploration/tinkering to fill the gaps that GenAI cannot cu…

> I have no doubt in my mind that right now [...] an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits [...] can crank out a high quality 1h+ feature film with only minor uncanny artifacts. Then why are there no examples of this? There aren't even examples of steps towards it--the half hour film that's nearly production quality, etc.

Very few of these people are doing this on home rigs. That's way too slow for getting any real work done.

I work in this industry. I've dealt with major studios and up-and-coming studios quite extensively. (I was a filmmaker before AI, which helps a lot.)

If your exposure to AI video is ComfyUI, that's the consumer / hobbyist segment and you're missing out on where all the action is actually concentrating.

There are five-ish segments:

- Large studios. They're going slow, but they've already started integrating the tech. They won't tell people they're using it. They outsource to production houses that use it. Some of the biggest studios are moving slowly and want fully air-gapped support that runs on their existing cloud contracts. There are companies moving more intentionally, though. Netflix acquired Affleck's company for broad AI video controllability patents, for instance.

- Up-and-coming new media studios. Check out Gossip Goblin [1], [2], [3]. These folks are getting backing right now and they're growing huge followings from very unique visions and perspectives that feel somewhat counter to Hollywood. Most of the people here are highly professional, understand film language, and do a great job with storytelling. They typically leverage human voice actors and put weeks to months into making single videos.

- Marketing, B2B: people are already using this in ads. See Coca-Cola

- Consumer, UGC, non-creatives: this is the Sora crowd that only knows how to remix popular IP. Some of them graduate into new media exploration, but this follows the 1% rule. This is where most "slop" comes from.

- Porn creators: I've interviewed several folks that are making mid-six figures on "fan" platforms. It's a full-time job and some of them are scaling up to teams.

[1] Pomegranate, one of the best AI films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZhC2TXgcs

[2] Theatrical release: https://variety.com/2026/film/news/gossip-goblin-ai-film-god...

[3] https://www.gossipgoblin.studio/

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#34
post #7

No they are not. They are helping rip off delusional investors who think this will amount to more than slop.

They are only talking about production, productivity, quantity, nothing else. The amount of produced content hasn't been in short supply. There is no talk about consumption. Who is going to consume all this content, _even_ if it somehow turns out good? If it's cheap and easily producible, then it's worthless as consumption item.

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#35
post #17

If you haven't been following the current explosion of video gen models, including all the content you see on social media, you should pay attention. I have no doubt in my mind that right now, in August of 2026, given a couple of weeks, an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits, given a good amount of exploration/tinkering to fill the gaps that GenAI cannot cu…

> I have no doubt in my mind that right now [...] an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits [...] can crank out a high quality 1h+ feature film with only minor uncanny artifacts. Then why are there no examples of this? There aren't even examples of steps towards it--the half hour film that's nearly production quality, etc.

Zack London's recent cyberpunk short "The Patchwright" (21 minutes)[1] feels like a glimpse into the AI feature film future. I like that rather than trying to replicate a traditional film it leans into the maximalist AI aesthetic.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rzl7nUdEs4

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no doubt in my mind that right now [...] an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits [...] can crank out a high quality 1h+ feature film with only minor uncanny artifacts. Then why are there no examples of this? There aren't even examples of steps towards it--the half hour film that's nearly production quality, etc.

Very few of these people are doing this on home rigs. That's way too slow for getting any real work done. I work in this industry. I've dealt with major studios and up-and-coming studios quite extensively. (I was a filmmaker before AI, which helps a lot.) If your exposure to AI video is ComfyUI, that's the consumer / hobbyist segment and you're missing out on where all the action is actually concentrating. There are…

>Pomegranate, one of the best AI films

Editing appears very bad. Do Model have a problem with creating clips with precise cuts?

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#37
post #36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few of these people are doing this on home rigs. That's way too slow for getting any real work done. I work in this industry. I've dealt with major studios and up-and-coming studios quite extensively. (I was a filmmaker before AI, which helps a lot.) If your exposure to AI video is ComfyUI, that's the consumer / hobbyist segment and you're missing out on where all the action is actually concentrating. There are…

>Pomegranate, one of the best AI films Editing appears very bad. Do Model have a problem with creating clips with precise cuts?

The editing is fast paced because video models prior to Seedance 2.5 do best on lengths under 10 seconds and decohere with intention frequently.

A typical "scene" might cost thousands of dollars in generation expenses depending on shot complexity. Directors will shoot the same shot dozens of times if they're not getting what they want, which in a way is not unlike physical production. That's not counting the experimental first passes.

Re: Digging the grave of my skills: Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No job is forever. Tomorrow isn’t promised, and automation already did this—albeit more slowly—throughout the second half of the 20th century. Some people watched their jobs disappear and accepted that they’d become obsolete. Plenty of others pivoted. The counterargument today is that we can pivot much faster. I’m typing this on a $2,000 Mac that can run Blender, render scenes, write code, edit video, and access tool…

The really interesting question is: What are we going to do when a technology so quickly and thoroughly displaces the need for human labor, in a society that constantly demands you trade your labor for the right to exist and participate in society?

I said in another comment. It is not the labor that is being destroyed. It is the destruction of art, of good taste, originality, beauty etc etc. Everything that humans derive joy from, that is being replaced by repetitions of past self. It is the revenge of the LCD of humanity. It will win, and will go insane shortly due lack of real happiness...It is not something that LLMs started or enabled, it is just a catalyst. Much like internet, but a lot worse...
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