CES 2025 kicked off appropriately with a high-powered panel on AI’s impact in entertainment. Under the expert moderation of our friend, and former president of the Hollywood Professional Association, Seth Hallen, three of the industry’s most senior leaders spoke candidly about what the technology means to the industry: Samira Panah Bakhtiar (GM of Media and Entertainment, Games, and Sports at Amazon Web Services), Academy Award-winner Ed Ulbrich (Chief Content Officer and President of Production at Metaphysic), and Richard Kerris (GM of Media and Entertainment at Nvidia). Continue reading CES: Industry Leaders Highlight Transformative Potential of AI

Artist-led generative AI film and animation studio Asteria has joined with AI research startup Moonvalley to create Marey, “the entertainment industry’s first clean foundational AI model.” Trained exclusively on “ethically sourced data” owned by Asteria, Marey is named after the French physiologist who helped put the “motion” in motion pictures, Étienne-Jules Marey. Asteria says Marey is being trained for a 2025 debut targeting major Hollywood productions with a pitch that says it has not and will not rely on scraped data, something Big Tech competitors have taken heat on. Continue reading Asteria and Moonvalley Team Up on Ethical AI for Hollywood

James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment has debuted a new unit, Lightstorm Vision, which launches with a deal that sees Meta Quest become its exclusive mixed reality platform. The multiyear deal will see the Hollywood heavyweight partnering with Meta Platforms “to scale the creation of world-class 3D entertainment experiences spanning live sports and concerts, feature films, and TV series featuring big-name IP on Meta Quest,” Meta announced. In addition to producing original content for the Meta Quest, Lightstorm Vision will use its tech to help third parties create new programming and potentially conform existing work through MR conversion. Continue reading Cameron’s Lightstorm Vision Partners with Meta to Advance MR

Promise is a new entertainment studio launched around the potential of generative AI. The Los Angeles-based startup is developing a multiyear slate of films, TV shows and media in “new formats.” With funding led by Peter Chernin’s North Road Company and Andreessen Horowitz, Promise vows to set “a new standard for high-quality storytelling enabled by AI.” The firm is also working on new tools to optimize the generative workflow. The first product, MUSE, “integrates the latest GenAI technology throughout the creative process in a streamlined, collaborative, and secure production environment.” Continue reading Promise Is an Entertainment Studio Built Around Generative AI

Los Angeles-based production company Pressman Film is turning to crowdfunding to finance its latest slate. The indie studio behind films including “American Psycho,” “Wall Street” and “The Crow” is targeting $1.5 million in the first tranche, hosted by investment firm Republic. As the movie industry continues to regain its footing following the impact of COVID-19 and the Hollywood strikes, companies continue to seek innovative ways to move forward. “Get in on the ground floor of the filmmaking process, get exclusive insider perks, and share in the returns,” explains Republic’s website. Minimum buy-in is $200. Continue reading Pressman Film Joins Republic on Crowdfunding Capital Raise

TikTok has published an internal research study indicating the movie viewing habits of its users, and how advertisers can use the TikTok Spotlight movie marketing tool released last month. The promotional vehicle was designed to help TikTok users discover films, as well as influence their viewing choices and drive audiences to theaters. TikTok’s research found that 47 percent of TikTok users say that while on TikTok they discovered a new movie coming to theaters, and were “inspired to take action, including 36 percent purchasing a ticket,” which they can facilitate in-app through Spotlight. Continue reading Film Promotion Tool TikTok Spotlight Shares Audience Insight

The Motion Picture Association is stepping up its anti-piracy efforts to counter the increasingly sophisticated operations of global intellectual property thieves. The gauntlet was laid down by MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin in an address at CinemaCon 2024, where he said the offenders “aren’t teenagers playing an elaborate prank,” but are “real-life mobsters, organized crime syndicates,” responsible for the loss of more than $1 billion at the domestic box office. Rivkin — formerly U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for economic and business affairs — said he will “work with Congress to enact judicial site-blocking legislation here in the United States.” Continue reading MPA Plans to Enlist Congress in Its Fight Against Movie Piracy

YouTube is following in Netflix’s footsteps as the latest streamer to expand into games. YouTube Premium subscribers on mobile and desktops will be able to access a suite of games it has branded “Playables.” A total of 37 mini-games can be found using the Explore tab for those who opt-in. Titles include “Angry Birds Showdown,” “Daily Solitaire,” “Brain Out,” and “Daily Crossword.” The streaming games don’t need to be downloaded or installed, but can be played directly from YouTube’s servers. YouTube says the games will initially be available through March 28, making the effort seem somewhat experimental. Continue reading YouTube Experiments with Streaming Video Game Playables

SMPTE’s 2023 Media Technology Summit is coming to Hollywood, October 16-19 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in the Ovation Hollywood entertainment complex at Hollywood & Highland. According to SMPTE’s event site, “the greatest minds in the film technology industry will gather together to provide solutions to industry issues, give presentations on new technologies, and reconnect with their peers.” The Media Technology Summit is the only industry event featuring peer-reviewed technical content. In addition to the presentation of technical papers, the event will feature a keynote from Digital Domain CTO Hanno Basse and a series of compelling panel discussions. Continue reading SMPTE Media Technology Summit Scheduled for Next Week

Seattle-area startup Irreverent Labs has shifted its focus from blockchain-based video games and NFTs to artificial intelligence. Specifically, it wants to build foundation models for text-to-video generation and related content creation tools. Text-to-video is being explored by several companies but is still in development. Samsung Next was intrigued enough with the proposition to invest an undisclosed sum in Irreverent. While there are several apps that output cartoonish results, ambitious efforts are limited. Animations that aim for photorealism, such as Meta’s Make-a-Video and Runway’s Gen-2, can output only four or five seconds of video at a time. Continue reading Samsung Next Invests in Irreverent Labs’ Text-to-Video Tech

The old saying “everybody’s in showbiz” has never been more true than in the creator economy. HubSpot’s 2022 “State of Consumer Trends” survey found that 30 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds identify as content creators, while 40 percent among those 25 to 34 also consider themselves creators. The newly formed Creators Guild of America (CGA) aims to give them a voice and a sense of community. The non-profit bills itself as a “professional services organization” that will provide educational and networking events with brands and studios and act as a watchdog on important issues like fair pay. Continue reading Creators Guild to Serve as Professional Services Organization

Films shot using the 3D world-building tool Mona will compete in what is being billed as “the world’s first metaverse short film festival.” Running September 26-29, the Mona Shorts Fest will take place in the immersive environment app that CEO Justin Melillo has coined “the Monaverse.” “With an entire film studio at your fingertips through Mona’s SDK and in-world experience, imagine what story you could tell,” the festival’s website suggests. Last summer, the company announced more than $14 million in Series A funds after “thousands of creators” used the platform to build experiences for Web3. Continue reading Films Shot ‘In-World’ at Mona Get Their Own Shorts Festival

Massachusetts-based editing software and services company Avid Technology has entered into an agreement with an affiliate of private equity firm STG for an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.4 billion, including Avid’s net debt. Unanimously approved by Avid’s board of directors, the deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2023. Upon completion, Avid will become a privately-held company and its stock will no longer be traded on the Nasdaq exchange. The transaction, which will be financed through equity and debt financing, is subject to Avid stockholder and regulatory approvals. Continue reading Private Equity Firm STG Plans to Acquire Avid for $1.4 Billion

The Entertainment Technology Center@USC has released the third installment of its case study, “Fathead: Virtual Production & Beyond.” Section 3 of the four-part white paper is “State of the Industry: Beyond Trends,” which discusses “where we’re at, and where we’re going” and features compelling interviews with thought leaders from companies including The Third Floor, Stargate Studios, Orbital Virtual Studios, Vū Technologies, Lux Machina, nDisplay, Epic Games and Unity Technologies. Click here to access Section 3 and we’ll post announcements when the final section — “Fathead: A Proof-of-Concept Short Film” — becomes available. Continue reading ETC Releases Section 3 of Its Virtual Production White Paper

Epic Games is releasing MetaHuman Animator, which lets developers create nuanced facial animation by capturing an actor’s performance using an iPhone or stereo head-mounted camera system and a PC. The system eliminates the need for manual touch-ups, according to Epic, capturing “every subtle expression, look, and emotion” and replicating it onto a digital character for a faster performance capture workflow that allows more creative control. The new feature set uses a 4D solver to combine video and depth data with a MetaHuman representation of the performer. The animation is produced locally using GPU hardware, providing final results in “minutes.” Continue reading New Tool from Epic Simplifies High-Fidelity Facial Animation