Can Hollywood, Which Once Resisted AI, Embrace Sora?
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The AI-generated video model Sora has only been around for a month, and its creator OpenAI is already planning to introduce it to Hollywood, proposing its application in film production. In recent weeks, OpenAI has been actively engaging with executives from various film studios and media companies in Los Angeles.
In mid-February, during the announcement of Sora, some professionals in the film industry were granted early access to the model. By the end of February, OpenAI's COO Brad Lightcap led a team to hold preliminary discussions with Hollywood figures, showcasing Sora's capabilities. A few days later, during the Oscars, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman attended multiple parties in Los Angeles over a weekend.
A month later, early testers of Sora from the film industry began sharing their results, including directors and actors, with the outcomes described as nothing short of 'stunning.' To expand the adoption of Sora, OpenAI has chosen a different strategy than it did with the launch of ChatGPT—targeting the business sector first. From a commercial perspective, this makes sense. However, for Sora to become a significant part of the film production industry, OpenAI must navigate more than just the approval of studio executives. It's worth noting that Hollywood took a strong stand against AI last year.
So far, Sora remains unavailable to the public, but OpenAI has introduced it to Hollywood, the globally renowned hub of the film industry. Professionals in film, music, and advertising who gained early access to Sora have recently released test videos created with the tool.
Among these, the short inspirational film Balloon Man, the first project involving Sora, has garnered significant attention. The video showcases remarkable smoothness in both the细腻的画面细节 and camera movements. Details like human汗毛, visible veins, and even the realistic depiction of footsteps on grass are strikingly lifelike. Additionally, Sora generated subtitles and voiceovers for the video. Sora participates in creating the video 'Balloon Man'.
The creators of this short film come from a three-person team. Directors Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg's animated short film 'Noah' received nominations and awards at several renowned international film festivals between 2013 and 2014. Actress Sidney Leeder, who starred in the Netflix series 'iZombie,' is also a producer.
This professional team speaks highly of Sora's capabilities. 'Now, we have the ability to expand stories we once thought were impossible,' explained director Walter. 'What truly excites us is its ability to create something completely surreal—this is a new era of abstract expressionism.' Using Sora to craft surreal creations, creators Don and Walter had the same idea. He utilized Sora to produce unusual animal characters: deer-headed birds, sharks with octopus legs, and pigs that can fly.
Don is an augmented reality content creator, and designing surreal hybrid creatures has always been a central theme in his creative process. "Now it's easier to prototype and then fully construct these 3D characters and place them in spatial computing," he said. He believes that Sora has the advantage of breaking conventional physical laws or traditional thinking patterns in creation.
The creative content production company Native Foreign used Sora to produce a series of video clips featuring "original concepts that were shelved or indefinitely paused due to budget and resource constraints." Nik Kleverov, Creative Director at Native Foreign, said, "I've already seen how it (Sora) will change the way I handle agency work and personal projects."
It's worth noting that since Sora's release, people wanting to evaluate its capabilities could only watch official videos or tag OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman on Twitter to request test results. However, this "second-hand" testing method still fails to convincingly demonstrate Sora's true capabilities. Now, third-party professionals have shared their firsthand experiences.
After watching these Sora-produced videos with professional involvement, netizens were once again "completely shocked," with some creating memes: "SORAWOOD is here!" Netizens Create Meme 'SORAWOOD'
OpenAI is first introducing Sora to the film production industry, which is quite different from its strategy of directly releasing ChatGPT to the general public. This approach of targeting businesses before consumers may be related to Sora's commercialization.
Compared to AI-generated text, video generation involves higher costs, both in terms of time and computational resources. Cheng Cheng, a Master's graduate in Software Engineering from Tsinghua University, made calculations on Zhihu. He preliminarily estimated that the cost for Sora to generate a 1-minute video is 1,500 times that of GPT-4 generating 1,000 tokens. "Based on GPT-4's pricing of $0.06 per 1,000 tokens, it's speculated that Sora would charge $90 for a 1-minute video." Additionally, the time required for Sora to generate a 1-minute video would be substantial: "Using 8 x A800 GPUs, it would take over 3 hours (though this could be accelerated with multiple A800 machines); with 8 x H800 GPUs, it would take about half an hour."
The high cost of video generation technology likely makes it difficult for the average consumer to afford, making commercial applications to B2B clients with specific needs a more viable path for financial returns. OpenAI's COO Brad Lightcap and his team showcasing Sora to Hollywood was a targeted move.
However, whether Sora can successfully break into Hollywood is another story altogether. It is well known that Hollywood's success is the success of film industrialization. A mature production model, technical processes, and a professional team working in collaboration have together created this globally renowned film and television factory. The final products must also pass the market test of box office performance.
Now, as AI seeks to enter Hollywood, the extent to which it will be used in each stage and the results it will yield remain unknown. While the outcomes are yet to be seen, conflicts between humans and AI have already erupted.
Last year, when text-generating AI like ChatGPT became popular worldwide, Hollywood screenwriters went on strike. Waving the banner of 'anti-AI,' the screenwriters vented their frustrations about 'low pay and heavy workloads' over the years. With AI, which lacks human sensibility, threatening to take over creative 'jobs,' the screenwriters decided to 'smash the pot' first. In May 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA), representing 11,000 screenwriters, broke off negotiations with Hollywood studio executives, officially declaring a strike.
The writers' strike later evolved into a broader Hollywood actors' strike in solidarity with the writers. In July 2023, 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) received an email: the union was about to launch a major strike. On July 14, the strike order officially took effect, requiring all SAG members to suspend performances, singing, interviews, and other related work.
As a result, during the London premiere of Oppenheimer, lead actors Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. immediately complied with the email's directive and left the event. Later, during the promotional period for Barbie, some of the main cast members were also absent. At the time, productions such as Deadpool 3, Venom 3, and the currently popular Netflix adaptation of The Three-Body Problem were also affected. Thus, Hollywood, with its highly developed film industrialization, witnessed its first resistance from professionals against AI.
Opposition to AI isn't limited to screenwriters; audiences also find current AI production capabilities hard to accept. The Marvel movie Secret Invasion used AI to create its opening sequence, prompting sharp criticism from netizens: "This is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen." The reason? While the final product appeared stunning at first glance, the visuals couldn't withstand closer scrutiny, lacking the artistic flair of Marvel's earlier hand-drawn creations.
Some film fans criticized Marvel's "all-tech" adaptations as "lacking sincerity," citing the recently released The Boy and the Heron (adapted from Hayao Miyazaki's work) as a positive example. This seven-year, entirely hand-drawn production by Studio Ghibli just won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. AI presents a double-edged sword—while it may be perceived as a threat by workers, it offers significant advantages to film company executives. In today's struggling film industry, AI's ability to cut costs and boost efficiency is particularly welcomed by business owners.
Media reports indicate that due to the emergence of AI-generated video tools, filmmaker Tyler Perry has canceled a four-year, $800 million expansion plan for his film studio. This project, spanning 330 acres and including 12 soundstages, may be shelved because of AI's production capabilities.
It is foreseeable that as an AI tool, Sora's entry into Hollywood will also face resistance and acceptance debates among different industry professionals. As for how deeply it can integrate into the film production process, that will depend on how much more superior its production capabilities are compared to traditional methods. From the current production results, Sora performs exceptionally well in creating surreal visuals, greatly aiding creative inspiration and realization. However, in terms of simulating reality, Sora's understanding of the physical world still has shortcomings, which even OpenAI has to acknowledge. Another issue is that Sora's ability and effectiveness in generating long videos still need practical testing, as it requires more powerful computing resources at a significant cost.
Breaking into Hollywood, Sora still has a long way to go.