[AI Impact on Pop Culture]③ "Eerie, Bizarre Expressions Humans Can't Make"... Watching a Zero-Budget AI Movie

Hundreds of Billions Marvel Movies Anyone Can Produce
"100% AI Movie Viewing Possible Within a Year"
Generative AI, Core Technology for Future Film Market?

Editor's NoteThe popular culture industry is actively utilizing AI (artificial intelligence) technology. The advantages include cost reduction and abundant video production. It can also resolve difficulties in filming child actors or animals. On the other hand, as the popular culture industry increasingly uses AI technology, celebrities are more easily exposed to illegal advertisements using deepfakes or voice phishing. How far has AI technology permeated the popular culture industry? We take a look at the current status of AI technology utilization, its development potential, and institutional improvements.

AI Movie 'One More Pumpkin' Scene

"Now it's time for you to go to the afterlife."

"Even if you go, have a meal before you leave."

This is a scene from the AI film 'One More Pumpkin.' An elderly couple running a pumpkin farm in a rural village feeds a strange pumpkin porridge to the grim reaper who appears before them. The story unfolds revealing that the secret to the couple's longevity of over 200 years lies in this pumpkin porridge. The film has a bizarre atmosphere. The narration flows as if telling a traditional folk tale to children. The sound of pumpkin porridge boiling over the fire and the crunching of pumpkin pieces is eerie.

Director Kwon Han-seul, born in 1993 and a graduate of Chung-Ang University’s Film Department, created 'One More Pumpkin' in just five days while moving between a friend's office and a study cafe. Based on the script, Director Kwon used AI to find images. The scenes were created with AI without actors. All processes including outdoor shooting, CG (special effects), and sound were completed using AI programs. If filmed traditionally, it would have cost at least 100 to 200 million KRW, but the production cost was zero. Only labor and electricity costs were incurred. This film recently won the grand prize at the 1st AI International Film Festival held in Dubai. It was praised for the harmonious blend of the bizarre elderly couple’s faces and pumpkin shapes created by AI, along with the horror genre characteristics.

A scene from the AI movie 'Another'

How Much Are AI Films Being Produced?

How much is AI being utilized in film production? The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) established an 'AI Competition Section' for the first time among domestic film festivals this year. This clearly reflects the changing environment in the film industry. Shin Cheol, BIFAN executive committee chairman, explained on the 5th at the festival that the introduction of AI is "an innovation for the future" and that they aim to "bloom opportunities to beat Hollywood films without huge capital."

The finalists for the 'AI Competition Section' titled 'Bucheon Choice: AI Films' include ▲'One More Pumpkin' (Director Kwon Han-seul) ▲'Heavy Snow' (Director Bae Jun-won) ▲'Under the Sign of the Moon' (Director Park Sung-won) ▲'Final Scene' (Director Cha Se-hwan), 'Another' (Director Dave Clark/USA) ▲'Words Told by the Elephant' (Director Grukan Atakan/Turkiye) ▲'Generation' (Director Ricardo Pussetti/UK) ▲'Cycle of Development' (Director Hiroki Yamaguchi/Japan) ▲'Kiss/Crash' (Director Adam Cole/UK) ▲'Latex Kid' (Director Fran Gas/Spain) ▲'The Commotion of the Strange Circus' (Director Ethereal Guel/France-USA), among 15 films. Four of these are Korean films, and the remaining 11 were made by young overseas directors.

Director Hiroki Yamaguchi’s 'Cycle of Development' generated images using Midjourney and converted them into videos using Runway Gen-2. 'Suno' created the sound, and lyrics were added using ChatGPT. Dave Clark’s 'Another' has the highest visual completeness among the entries, utilizing technologies like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. Park Sung-won’s 'Under the Sign of the Moon,' an adaptation of the folk tale 'The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl,' was made using Runway and Firefly for video and Eleven Labs for sound. The script was written with ChatGPT.

Dave Clark advising participants at the Bucheon Film Festival AI workshop held on the 3rd at the Bucheon City Webtoon Center
Photo by Lee Iseul

Director Dave Clark [Photo by BIFAN]

This year, the Bucheon Film Festival held a 3-day, 2-night 'AI Film Production Workshop.' Although 30 people applied, 600 people showed interest, so the number of participants was increased to 60. AI video experts mentored participants using various paid AI tool packages, with most participants being film students in their early to mid-20s and university professors.

At the site, Moon Jae-woo, a lecturer at Jeju Halla University, said, "After making AI videos, the pros and cons are clear. The combination of live-action and AI is an advantage. When making films, VFX (visual effects) usually costs over 50 to 60 billion KRW, but AI can help save costs. Scenes with large numbers of people can also save labor costs if done with AI." He added, "AI did not always find the exact images I wanted, so repeated work was necessary," expressing some regret. He said, "I was vaguely afraid, but after using AI, the role of humans as creators will not disappear. If used as a tool, the possibilities are endless."

Anyone Can Produce Marvel Movies Worth Hundreds of Billions to Trillions KRW

Dave Clark, a pioneer of AI storytelling in film, TV, and advertising, cited cost reduction and expansion of the base as the biggest advantages of 'AI films.' He shared his experience of making storyboards with a Polaroid camera as a child due to financial difficulties and predicted that the imbalance in film production would be resolved. He said, "Large-scale films, once limited to Hollywood elites, can now be made by anyone." He added, "Using AI, films like Marvel's 'Avengers' can be produced at half the usual budget."

Clark focused on the rapid development of AI technology amid the stagnation of the film industry. He said, "XR and VR technologies have gradually developed over the past decade, but generative AI has rapidly emerged at an unprecedented speed," diagnosing it as "opening a new Pandora's box." He predicted, "As AI film production expands, it will be possible to watch 100% AI-generated films within a year."

The Core of AI Film Production is 'Generative AI'

Market and Markets forecast that the global AI market size will grow ninefold from $150.2 billion in 2023 to $1.3452 trillion in 2030. The generative AI market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 32%, reaching $126.5 billion by 2031.

The core of film production is generative AI. AI films can be made using various generative AI programs such as Sora, Gen-2/3, and Suno as tools. Among these, Sora, released by OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is considered a representative generative AI and is currently the most actively used in film production. The art market size for generative AI is also expected to grow from $212 million in 2022 to $5.84 billion in 2032. The proportion of AI-generated content is projected to increase from 1% in 2020 to 10% in 2025.