C. Scott Blevins

AI tools for creativity and productivity
30M+ in two prior brands.
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[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@dylan2045ad @AlexFinn I wonder if they had enough time to do it.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@AlexFinn I miss it so much.

When it feels too good to be true...

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@FunkySoulRemix But they do do reshoots! 🫡

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

Whether big budget or no budget, traditional production or AI, a great story, told well, is still fundamental.

[frostzy @lmkifiwin]

a horror movie made for $750,000 is about to become one of the most profitable films ever made.

Obsession - shot in 20 days in Alabama by a 26-year-old YouTuber with no stars in the cast - is now eyeing a $250 million+ box office finish. that's a return north of 300 times its budget. it's already the highest-grossing release in Focus Features history.

now look at what the industry spent that same money on:
- Joker: Folie a Deux - ~$200 million budget. a punchline.
- Mickey 17 - ~$118 million. forgotten in a month.
- The Mandalorian & Grogu - $165 million, 7 years, the entire Lucasfilm machine. it's currently losing the weekday box office to... Obsession.

Hollywood keeps insisting you need $200 million, a pre-sold IP, and a marketing budget the size of a small country to make a hit. then a guy with a camera, a wish-granting toy, and three weeks in Alabama outearned all of them on a rounding error of their catering bill.

the most profitable movie of the year cost less than a single second of screen time in the average blockbuster. turns out audiences never wanted the budget. they wanted a good movie.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@FunkySoulRemix Agreed! Glad we found a places to agree! I’m sure we’d find we are aligned in a lot of areas. I’m all about finding common ground 👍🏻

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

I agree that constraints are a part of art and even help define it. And there are plenty of constraints, way more constraints than I'd like, when using this medium to make something. Thus far, similar to anything I've made in the analog realm, I see all the compromises when I look back at something. Sometimes those compromises landed me somewhere I wasn't expecting, but many times they just irk me because I could not overcome them.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@FunkySoulRemix "limitations create masterpieces" 💯

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@FunkySoulRemix Totally. Having the vision is different from communicating the vision. And communicating the vision is different from making it happen in real life.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@FunkySoulRemix @EloDibor @cris_rys7 Look, I agree. Humans are not machines. AI has no consciousness and never will, in my opinion. I'm more analogizing than anything else. It's an imperfect analogy. But useful if held loosely.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

Look, here we agree. AI "actors" are no threat to humans emoting on screen!

But as we speak, there are thousands of uses emerging for how to use this efficiently in real filmmaking.

And I do not believe for one second that AI-generated characters will replace real actors. But I do believe they have a place. That’s the gap for me: when someone wants to put something on screen, and there’s no viable way to do it by hiring real actors, there is a gap. In that gap, AI productions can fill the space as opposed to something never being produced at all.

I kind of look at it as life-like animation. Not real. But a medium to tell a story in. Not a replacement for traditional acting in any way.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

I have to push back on this. I 100% agree that so far, I haven't seen AI come up with any kind of vision. But if a person has a vision, it does take technical thought and skill to translate that into the language to convey that vision in the mind.

I mean, when a cinematographer is thinking about a shot and has to communicate it to the lighting and film crew, it really is a similar process. You have to think through the shot and break that down into technical terms.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

Yes, definitely. There's no understanding. It's pattern matching. But people do. So it's very useful!

I haven't fully formed my opinion on the fact that it's been trained on anything and everything. I mean, humans are kind of like that too. We are influenced by everything we've seen. So in one sense, you can't be completely original, even as a human being. But I get intellectual property aspect. But the cat's kind of out of the bag now.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

Your right. Different tools. But not completely different.

Using an AI to generate an image well (in my opinion) requires that the composition be exactly defined. The focal length be technically specified. The lighting be technically specified. Camera position. Camera moves. The film stock be called out. Every single parameter that a cinematographer thinks out before setting up a scene with the lighting and the camera can also be dialed in when creating a generated image. And should be if you want to control the "shot."

"ARRI Alexa 35, spherical 35mm prime lens, 35mm focal length, T2.8, low tracking shot from 30 inches above ground, camera positioned 12 feet in front of subject, slow dolly backward as she walks toward lens. Wide cinematic composition, subject centered but small in frame, towering oversized botanicals forming natural leading lines, golden-hour backlight, shallow atmospheric haze, soft rim light, deep foreground parallax, natural motion blur, premium commercial color grade, 16:9."

...will give you a completely different result compared with...

"Make a beautiful magical scene of a woman walking through plants, cinematic, dreamy, amazing lighting, super detailed, realistic, beautiful, award winning, blah, blah"

Just as a stupid example.

I'm sensitive and sympathetic to those having an adverse reaction to these new tools. I'm just not dogmatic about it personally. And it is a lot of fun to be able to have a vision and realize that vision in the form of an image, without having to have a budget to get something on the screen.

It's not a replacement for filmmaking. It's just another tool, and it could be used well, and of course it can be used poorly. My opinion.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

I totally agree. AI cannot tell a story for shit.

You're missing the point of the tools, if that's what you think.

And I've got some sad news for you, but the best filmmakers are in fact embracing AI. James Cameron and Martin Scorsese are just a couple of film-making pioneers that are actively embracing it.

I'm not here to argue. You can shit all over people all you want. People who shit on other people's hard work says all that needs to be said about their character.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@FunkySoulRemix People like Martin Scorsese and James Cameron? Those hacks?

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

I made this Under Armour spec ad. About putting in the work that no one sees.

This was pre-Seedance. Made with: NanaBananaPro, Kling 3.0 · Artlist · Photoshop/Premiere Pro (Adobe) · Topaz Labs · Eleven Labs

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

There was a time, when photography first came on the scene, that everyone screamed, “that’s not art!” now you defend a technology that was roundly rejected at the time.

You can see the same bitter hatred through through history of the advancements of many tools commonplace in the creative process today. Digital photography, CGI, just to name a couple.

AI is just the current thing people are having a fit over.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@EloDibor @FunkySoulRemix @cris_rys7 In this case, apparently anything that is labeled AI. With no regard to craft or quality.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@FunkySoulRemix @cris_rys7 That’s like your opinion, man.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

Fareed succinctly sums up the California’s core problems.

[Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 @JasonJournoDC]

💥NEW: CNN’s Fareed Zakaria *DELIVERS BRUTAL TAKEDOWN* of California’s “FAILING MODEL OF GOVERNANCE”💥

“The frustration is real and JUSTIFIED… it is a case study in how a rich society can spend more and more — while producing less and less of what its ordinary citizens need.”

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

@trikcode But like anything else, building the systems that do the work takes learning, thinking and time. So it’s not like turning on a switch by any means. But if you do the upfront work and get the right systems into place it absolutely is a game changer.

[C. Scott Blevins @CScottBlevins]

There are a lot of people who own businesses who are saving money using AI. Bookkeeping, marketing asset creation, back office admin of all kinds, marketing copy and research - many such things I used to outsource, now done quicker and 95% cheaper in house thanks to AI powered workflows.