Warner Bros. Signs Deal For AI-Driven Film Management System (hollywoodreporter.com) 39
Warner Bros. is has made a pact with Cinelytic to use its AI-driven project management system that was launched last year. From The Hollywood Reporter: Under the new deal, Warners will leverage the system's comprehensive data and predictive analytics to guide decision-making at the greenlight stage. The integrated online platform can assess the value of a star in any territory and how much a film is expected to make in theaters and on other ancillary streams. Founded four years ago by Tobias Queisser, Cinelytic has been building and beta testing the platform for three years. In 2018, the company raised $2.25 million from T&B Media Global and signed deals with Ingenious Media (Wind River) and Productivity Media (The Little Hours). STX, which endured a number of flops in 2019, including Playmobil and Uglydolls, became a Cinelytic client in September.
While the platform won't necessarily predict what will be the next $1 billion surprise, like Warners' hit Joker, it will reduce the amount of time executives spend on low-value, repetitive tasks and instead give them better dollar-figure parameters for packaging, marketing and distribution decisions, including release dates. The platform is particularly helpful in the festival setting, where studios get caught in bidding wars and plunk down massive sums after only hours of assessment. "The system can calculate in seconds what used to take days to assess by a human when it comes to general film package evaluation or a star's worth," says Queisser. "Artificial intelligence sounds scary. But right now, an AI cannot make any creative decisions. What it is good at is crunching numbers and breaking down huge data sets and showing patterns that would not be visible to humans. But for creative decision-making, you still need experience and gut instinct."
While the platform won't necessarily predict what will be the next $1 billion surprise, like Warners' hit Joker, it will reduce the amount of time executives spend on low-value, repetitive tasks and instead give them better dollar-figure parameters for packaging, marketing and distribution decisions, including release dates. The platform is particularly helpful in the festival setting, where studios get caught in bidding wars and plunk down massive sums after only hours of assessment. "The system can calculate in seconds what used to take days to assess by a human when it comes to general film package evaluation or a star's worth," says Queisser. "Artificial intelligence sounds scary. But right now, an AI cannot make any creative decisions. What it is good at is crunching numbers and breaking down huge data sets and showing patterns that would not be visible to humans. But for creative decision-making, you still need experience and gut instinct."
Duh, no blockchain so what are we talking about? (Score:4, Funny)
It can't be much if it doesn't have a blockchain.
Sequel generator? (Score:5, Insightful)
Thought they had a fully functioning one of those.
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Thought they had a fully functioning one of those.
No mod points yet but spot on! Just wonder when they will do a sequel to Dr Strangelove it seems to be a good time for someone to take a crack at that little gem. Or perhaps in a greener state of grace a sequel to "A River Runs Through it" only entitled "Our River in Requiem"
I know that the statement I just made is a downer, but AI determining the choices made for film material might just surprise the hell out of the studio execs. But to be more realistic we will start seeing even more "First Blood" like r
Hindcast (Score:2)
I wonder if they will bother to feed it information about past blockbusters, directors, and actors to see if it would recommend them again.
Apparently the original Star Wars was given very little chance of success by studio executives.
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Thought they had a fully functioning one of those.
I'm pretty sure they do. It seems to be lacking the "intelligence" half, although "artificial" is going strong.
What decsion making? (Score:5, Insightful)
That is true, but what are the odds that the movie studios are going to use said experience and gut-instinct when greenlighting new projects? It's not like they do it even today, without any AI tools, and instead prefers to go with sequels and superhero movies.
Re:What decsion making? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What decsion making? (Score:4, Insightful)
This will lead to even less interesting stuff coming out. If that's even possible.
Re: What decsion making? (Score:2)
Hell, even the new set of Star Wars movies Disney is supposedly working in are nothing more than superhero movies.
Seriously, supposedly the movies are going to revolve around a group of jedi, all with different powers/levels of power, going around the galaxy fighting bad guys. It's nothing more than Star Wars Avengers.
Or do what every other studio does (Score:3)
Not micromanage their film directors from the C suite.
The Race to the Bottom (Score:5, Insightful)
Netflix... etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
Their motive is NOT to pick what you like, but what you'll tolerate-- they got rid of reviews in sneaky ways at each phase; to the point where it's an up/down vote that isn't useful as input for their AI in the 1st place. You may not like something but you can bet they will measure how much time you put into it... you watched it or most of it and that is probably more important what your rating was.
Now if they really wanted to help you find the best content; they'd profile you, that is, instead of AI predicting you or groups, they'd use the AI like a dating service and match you with people of the same taste. There is no prediction there except in grouping people; the suggestions would be based upon what others like you responded to things you haven't seen yet. Very much like a Torrent download; replace download blocks with shows. The trick is in building the group torrents (but view history can do that pretty well for matching without any AI... no, this isn't people who buy X also buy Y. this is people with very similar history to you. )
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Soon it will all be children's movies. Good attendance and food/drink sales. And zombie and horror movies for the 18-30 age range. The Irishman shows that that particular type of film/audience is pretty much coming to an end (and a very good one at that).
If the quality of the kid's movies are like Inside Out I'm fine with that.
But it won't be...
Numbers driven movie making (Score:4, Insightful)
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I indeed aint seen nothin yet. In fact I do not pay to watch any of the Hollywood garbage made for current release and have not for two decades. But this of course is because I am a wierdo. I am one of those liberal elites that Trump fans love to hate. Lowest common denominator entertainment always has been dodgy and always will be dodgy. Given that we live in the age of the internet there is a suprising lack of a long tail in the entertainment business. The crowd is not always right so the problem must lie
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It feels like Netflix and Amazon are doing this already.
So many of there original programs appear like they have done some kind of algorithmic min-max on the film's basic qualities (script, location, props/sets, casting) yet the actual content is garbage and it's almost hard to figure out why.
The last season of Goliath is a great example -- the cast had Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Quaid, Amy Brenneman, Beau Bridges, William Hurt, and more, yet the entire season seemed to take place on about 3 sets when they
Obligatory Idiocracy reference (Score:3)
I, for one, look forward to Ow! My Balls! The Sequel!
No more surprises (Score:2, Interesting)
Until recently, movie making has been an art. Then that book came out, Save The Cat I think it was called, that explained exactly how to write a hit movie. It told you what to do, down to the minute things should happen, and in what order. It is now a textbook in Hollywood.
At least we'll still have classic cinema. But new movies will just get worse and worse. And we thought they were formulaic now. This is going to absolutely McDonalds-ize Hollywood. Oh well, I suppose it's good that we stop watching
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Knowing that changed the way I see movies, and not for the better.
[ANON: Mod Points]
In English (Score:2)
"The system can calculate in seconds what used to take days to assess by a human when it comes to general film package evaluation or a star's worth,"
It can predict the past.
Elf (Score:1)
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Perhaps the AI will be intelligent enough to stop Hollywood giving Will Ferrell roles. Long overdue. :-)
Please no. I'm still hoping for Will Ferrell to put on 30lbs and star in the biopic of Ben Roethlisberger.
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Thought I was the only one who thought he was the least funny person on the planet.
Most of Hollywood should be nervous (Score:2)
"Artificial intelligence sounds scary. But right now, an AI cannot make any creative decisions. What it is good at is crunching numbers ..."
Nobody in Hollywood has made "creative" decisive in decades. I can't imagine it takes much RAM to make the non-decisions resulting in the shit that flows from the major studios.
AI? Really? (Score:2)
I'll bet it's nothing more than linear regression.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
What this needs.... (Score:2)
...is an Opposition team composed of humans. Compare the two reports, flip a coin or we may miss out on something that captures the zeitgeist and becomes a great thing.
huh, haven't they heard the old adage? (Score:2)
Who needs a piano player, when you have a player piano?
I could program this one (Score:2)
1) Is it a remake of an older movie? If yes, approve. If no, don't approve.
2) Is it a sequel of a previous film? If yes, approve. If no, don't approve.
3) Is it new but Tom Cruise is in it? If yes, approve. If no, don't approve unless maybe another big star is in it.
I assume the AI's trained on elevator pitches? (Score:2)
Right, and the reason that Hollywood puts out such crap is that they make decisions on how to spend $100M or more on the basis of 25 words or less in an elevator?
I mean, the only way to train an AI like this is using people who do this now for a living... meaning managers.
You *really* like your manager? Really?
I once worked for the Scummy Mortgage Co. in Austin. Collections rolled out a new interface. The people who worked there used paper and pencil to collect all information, and only used the terminal (t
Hope it tells them to dump the current DCCU (Score:2)
These are not low paying jobs (Score:2)
Futurama Did It (Score:1)
Warner (Score:1)