Meta’s Working with Hollywood Filmmakers to Develop its Text-to-Video Tool

Here’s one for the “Hollywood is in trouble” crowd, who proclaim the death of cinema every time a new generative AI tool for video is released.

According to Variety, Meta is now working with several Hollywood filmmakers to help develop its new “Movie Gen” AI tool, which will enable users to create short, HD video clips (currently up to 16 seconds in length) based on text prompts.

Meta previewed Movie Gen earlier this month, and it will soon enable users to not only create whole video clips from prompts, but it’ll also facilitate the editing and updating of your existing video clips.

Which has the potential to simplify video editing, with potentially compelling results. Though even then, some of the faces in that above clip will haunt your dreams if you look too close.

But it will get better, and Movie Gen will eventually be able to generate crisp, clear videos, based on simple commands. Which, logically, is of interest to movie makers, and Meta’s now apparently working with Blumhouse and actor/director Casey Affleck, among others, on the next phase of the tool.

As reported by Variety:

“For the pilot, Blumhouse selected a group of filmmakers to test out the technology and use Movie Gen’s AI-generated video clips as part of larger pieces: actor and director Casey Affleck; Aneesh Chaganty; and the Spurlock Sisters, who are participants in Blumhouse’s first annual Screamwriting Fellowship.”

So yes, generative AI is making its way into Hollywood, though at present, it’s mostly set to be used as an experimental companion, as opposed to a replacement for human filmmakers and special effects experts.

As per Meta:

“We heard that filmmakers see potential for Movie Gen as a collaborator and thought partner, with its unexpected response to text prompts inspiring new ideas.”

So when you’re brainstorming ideas, or thinking over specific shots, Movie Gen could provide new inspiration, which may help to guide your creative vision. In that sense, there could be a heap of potential in the tool, but again, like all the current wave of gen AI tools, it is supplemental, and not a whole new way for anybody to take on the movie studios.

Because like all such pursuits, undertaking a major creative work is not so easy. I’ve made this note several times, but the most significant part of any film or project’s development is in the writing, and first creating a compelling script that’ll hook your audience.

Generative AI can’t do that, so for all of its capacity to create Disney-like animation or realistic-looking effects, it’ll be nothing without the backbone of a great, human-centered screenplay.

Pixar’s writing team spends years developing a story before the first frame is animated, and it’s this aspect that many are overlooking in their optimistic assessment of AI. Sure, it’ll open up opportunity, and there’s a lot of potential in using such tools to help build your vision. But till AI can generate compelling narratives, I don’t think Hollywood is in as much trouble as some suspect.

But it is interesting to see Meta working with Hollywood filmmakers on the next stage of Movie Gen, which should help to improve the tool.

Meta says that Movie Gen will be available to the public in 2025.