Runway OpenDocs supports nonfiction storytelling with AI - whaaat?
[12:16 Sun,29.October 2023 by blip]
In the area of video, generative AIs are still lagging somewhat - unlike artificially generated photos, which can already look deceptively real, AI videos created via text prompt are usually quickly recognizable as such. Fortunately, one might almost say, because as soon as realistic-looking clips can be calculated, these possibilities will also be used in great numbers - because you can. After all, it's easier to let an AI imagine than to capture real images with a camera.
Whereas typical AI looks are currently seen mainly in music videos, improved AI motion pictures are likely to appear in product videos or advertising in low-price segments, for example. One area in which one would hope for rather few AI images, on the other hand, would be documentaries; after all, credibility is at stake here.
But it is precisely documentary filmmakers that Runway now wants to target with a new OpenDocs support program. The company behind the well-known AI video generator of the same name is offering support both in the form of free tools and cash (up to ,500) for documentary short film projects up to a maximum length of 7 minutes. The prerequisite, of course, is that the films are then at least partially realized with Runway-generated AI videos (it's worth studying the conditions carefully if you're interested).
AI-generated documentaries may at first seem like an inherent contradiction; after all, one expects real images from a documentary. But there have always been animated or drawn documentaries; Waltz with Bashir (2008) was even nominated for an Oscar. Nowadays, there are also a lot of re-staged scenes, which are just as unreal.
In fact, OpenDocs is intended to promote "nonfiction storytelling" via AI, and that's a pretty broad term that's not synonymous with "documentary filmmaking" either. (We had talked with Thomas Schadt about this exciting topic, the Documentary Film in Transition, when his standard work "The Feeling of the Moment" was reissued). AI might well make it possible to tell important stories that would be difficult to image otherwise, for example because the action is in the past, or because filming would be too dangerous.
At the same time, we believe it would be important to ensure that such nonfiction formats are labeled as AI-generated once the images reach a certain level of realism. If the audience gets used to generated AI images in this context, the door is even wider open for abuse.
;)
