philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Why Silicon Beach didn’t live up to the hype as an L.A. tech powerhouse

... Investor Brandon Hoffman, whose group Emerging LA hosts local tech events, quipped that a tagline might be “Generative Hollywood.” ...

See the full story here; https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-05-20/silicon-beach-la-snap-google-youtube-playa-vista-tech-investment-venture-capital

ETC’s “Europa” Tests the Limits of On-Set Virtual Production

• USC’s Entertainment Technology Center goes behind the scenes of its latest proof-of-concept project, sci-fi short “Europa,” at the 2024 NAB Show.
• Written and directed by USC film graduate Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal, “Europa” was shot by director of photography Erik “Wolfie” Wolford.
• As the third ETC project to focus on virtual production, “Europa” tested the application of metadata and remote collaboration while using the new virtual production stage at Sony Pictures.
• Sony’s advanced visualization facility Torchlight also played a major role in developing the final look of the film.

See the full article here: https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/nabshow-etc-europa-virtual-production

USC SCA event: AI, CREATIVITY AND THE FUTURE OF FILMUSC SCA

This was a pretty good USC group presentation and panel discussion

DAVE CLARK, Writer, Director

HENRY JENKINS, USC Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts

TOBIAS QUEISSER, Co-Founder and CEO of Cinelytic

HOWARD A. RODMAN, Screenwriter, Novelist, SCA Professor

RACHEL JOY VICTOR, Co-Founder of FBRC.AI

Moderated by SCA Alumnus JON DUDKOWSKI, A.C.E., Director/Editor on "Star Trek: Discovery"

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmcCbSwap9A

AI In Hollywood Draws Heavy Crowd For New Kind Of Filmmaking

... Kaye said she has used AI tools to create social-media content and music videos, including one for an improvisational rapper whose lyrics about a man eating a pineapple would have been challenging to illustrate in video otherwise. With the writer and actor strikes behind them, Kaye said more and more Hollywood professionals are exploring AI’s possibilities.

“There's optimistic hesitance,” said Adobe’s director of product marketing for pro video & film Meagan Keane, a former filmmaker. “Coming out of the strikes especially, it’s important for all creative disciplines to be aware (of what AI can do). But really, creatives are hungry to be creative. When we really dig in (with professionals), there’s a lot of optimism about how much they can create.” ...

...entertainment and media have seen an avalanche of specialized programs in recent months, many of which are being rapidly updated and repeatedly improved, said keynote speaker Renard Jenkins,president and CEO of I2A2 Technologies, Labs and Studios. Jenkins is a former Warner Bros. and PBS executive, and president of technology standards body Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. ...

The industry is now, one attendee said, in the third stage of its AI era, figuring out how to make all those programs work together to create real shows. Creators have plenty of choices, as Jenkins and others detailed.

“(Viggle 2.0) came out a few months ago, and is kind of changing the game in creating still images,” said Jenkins. ...

“What I found to be incredibly lonely about the process is that I couldn't involve actors,” Slade said. “I spent years and years and years (as a director) explaining to people what I want. I'm getting what I want. It looks like my work. But I really want actors to be involved.” ...

ChatGPT and other text-focused AI tools can quickly generate scenes, software code, dialog, even prompts for text-to-video and other kinds of software. That could doom the mid-career jobs in writers rooms across Hollywood, making it difficult to train the next generation of showrunners, said the writer, who declined to give her name. ...

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom/2024/05/17/ai-in-hollywood-draws-heavy-crowd-for-new-kind-of-filmmaking

When Online Content Disappears

38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are no longer accessible a decade later

...

• 23% of news webpages contain at least one broken link, as do 21% of webpages from government sites. News sites with a high level of site traffic and those with less are about equally likely to contain broken links. Local-level government webpages (those belonging to city governments) are especially likely to have broken links.
• 54% of Wikipedia pages contain at least one link in their “References” section that points to a page that no longer exists.

See the full story here: https://www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/2024/05/17/when-online-content-disappears/

CAA Inks Deal With AI Company Veritone To Store Talent’s Digital Assets

In a sign of the times, Creative Artists Agency has inked a deal with an artificial intelligence company to store clients’ digital assets.

CAA and Veritone announced their partnership on Tuesday, leading to the creation of the “CAAVault” — a synthetic media vault that will store all intellectual property related to all CAA talent’s name, image and likeness. This includes digital scans and voice recordings.

According to Veritone, talent will retain access to their digital assets via a “personal vault,” which will allow them to share their assets as they see fit.  ...

See the full story here: https://deadline.com/2024/05/caa-deal-ai-company-veritone-store-digital-assets-1235914471/

AI Challenger Mistral Set to Nearly Triple Valuation to $6 Billion in Six Months

... Mistral is also, along with Meta Platforms, one of the biggest supporters of open-source generative AI tools, giving away powerful versions of generative AI software for other companies to use and repurpose for free. Mistral’s goal is to seed an ecosystem of users for its tools. Mistral put out its latest open-source model last month. ...

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/french-ai-startup-taking-on-silicon-valley-is-set-to-stuff-its-war-chest-4071522a#

New Leadership Structure Formed at Sony Interactive Entertainment

...

Sony Group Corporation and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), the company behind PlayStation, today announced the new leadership structure of SIE. Effective June 1, 2024, Hideaki Nishino will be appointed CEO of SIE’s Platform Business Group, and Hermen Hulst will be appointed CEO of SIE’s Studio Business Group. Hiroki Totoki, who has been serving as interim CEO of SIE, will serve as Chairman of SIE in addition to his role as President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation. Nishino and Hulst will report to Totoki and intend to collaborate closely to strengthen each core business while maximizing synergies at SIE.

"Sony Interactive Entertainment is a dynamic and growing business that delivers incredible entertainment experiences through the connection of content and technology. These two leaders will have clear responsibilities and will manage strategic direction to ensure the focus remains on deepening engagement with existing PlayStation users and expanding experiences to new audiences," said Hiroki Totoki, Interim CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment, President, COO and CFO, Sony Group Corporation.

...

See the full story here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/leadership-structure-formed-sony-interactive-230400907.html

Meow Wolf announces its Los Angeles venue

... Meow Wolf Los Angeles will be located in a portion of what is currently the Cinemark complex at Howard Hughes L.A. The rest of the multiplex is expected to remain open to moviegoers, according to a spokesperson for the Santa Fe, N.M.-based Meow Wolf. ...

In an interview with The Times, Meow Wolf artists said the Howard Hughes location will play into the space’s theatrical roots. The goal is to turn our city’s most ritualistic experience — that is, the act of going to the movies — into an interactive, art-driven wonderland. ...

Like past Meow Wolf exhibitions, a significant number of installations will come from the local art community. Meow Wolf curator Han Santana-Sayles, 31, a Murrieta native who now resides in Pasadena, will lead the outreach into L.A.’s art world, a process that is in its infancy. A Meow Wolf space is a mix of elaborately designed environments and commissioned works from artists who reside in the host city...

www.latimes.com/travel/story/2024-05-13/meow-wolf-los-angeles-location-2026

AI cameras tested in Cannes ahead of Olympics

... Local authorities say they are using 17 experimental cameras equipped with AI technology that are supposed to "identify events or behaviours deemed suspicious" and help detect abandoned packages, weapons and people in distress.

The Cannes town hall has been asking to implement them since 2019 but has only been given permission thanks to changes in surveillance laws introduced for the Olympics that kick off in Paris in July, according to Mayor David Lisnard.  ...

See the full story here: https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/ai-cameras-tested-in-cannes-ahead-of-olympics-720486