Filmmakers Compete to Make AI Shorts

Technologists Todd Terrazas, Max Einhorn, Mike Gioia and Ian Eck have posed a challenge to nine up-and-coming filmmakers: create short films using generative AI in only 48 hours. The Cinema Synthetica filmmaking competition is the first of its kind, founded in hopes of demonstrating the potential of AI tools to influence the future of filmmaking.

The completion is part of the AI on the Lot conference, a one-day summit to be held next week in downtown Los Angeles where Hollywood creatives can collaborate with those at the forefront of artificial intelligence. The nine Cinema Synthetica participants were carefully selected for the challenge and then divided into teams of three. After two full days of work, the films will be presented at AI on the Lot on May 16 to a panel of judges that will include such industry insiders as Einhorn, Jeff Clanagan, Kathleen McCaffrey, Momo Wang, Rachel Joy Victor and Jackee Chang.

The teams will base their shorts on a dialogue-only script written by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter Bernie Su (“Artificial,” “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries”). The films must be between two and five minutes long and produced with a budget of $500.

AI has been a very controversial issue in the entertainment world, competition co-founder Einhorn emphasized that generative AI is a tool to help filmmakers elevate their creative visions.

“Generative AI is set to revolutionize the filmmaking process, not by displacing jobs…