Revolutionizing Film Industry with AI — Russell Palmer (CyberFilm AI)
Our conversation with the co-founder and CEO of CyberFilm AI
Listen to the full conversation on Spotify or Apple Podcast:
We are glad to welcome Russell Palmer of CyberFilm AI as our first guest of the interview series. In future newsletters, we’ll feature either groundbreaking entrepreneurs or investors, on their work, their life, and their philosophy of the current market.
We hope it will add more value to our readers by having these exclusive interviews.
The Product
Co-Founders:
Russell Palmer (Product Manager, Microsoft, Samsung, JPMorgan Chase)
Andrew Palmer (Producer, Director, Screenwriter of Synapz Productions)
Funding: Pre-Seed — Jason Calacanis LAUNCH Fund 4
Founded in: 2021
You can sign up for trials at https://writeonsaga.com
CyberFilm AI is enabling the next generation of screenwriters with their platform Saga across the film creation journey. They aim to become a writer’s AI copilot enhancing the creative process while placing humans at the center.
They have received positive reviews from Stewart Lyons, Producer of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
How Machine Learning Can Help Writer Tell a Story
Storytelling can be structured with a three-act structure: the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. Russell said, “The great thing about it is either you or AI can learn to reproduce the structure, especially if … you're someone who wasn't able to go to film school (or) you don't have time to read all those books.”
Like Picasso said, you learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist … Saga will help you master that structure, but then it's up to you when you want to break out of it and do something new and original.
AI is Merely Learning from Prior Data, Can it be Creative?
It’s a perpetual debate whether AI-generated content can be truly creative, given all it is doing is learning from a vast amount of training data and predicting what normally makes the most sense. But society tends to think that creativity is about unleashing the ingenuity derived from the tangible human experience.
From Russell’s view, AI has already demonstrated its creative capabilities:
“People have played Go for 3000 years. You'd think we'd have seen and learned every move possible. And we had the number one expert professional in the world, Lee Sedol, and all the experts watching the game. And then when it made move 37 everyone was baffled: finally, this robot made a mistake. However, this was such a brilliant move that it just fooled everybody and was clearly original. And all the experts agreed it's probably no human has ever made such a creative move.”
The Writers Guild of America Strike—IP Concerns
The Writers Guild of America went on a strike from May 2 to September 27, 2023. One of the focuses was on artificial intelligence’s role as an efficiency-improvement tool rather than a total replacement of human screenwriters.
The following are from the WGA Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) Summary:
AI can’t write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material under the MBA, meaning that AI-generated material can’t be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights.
A writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services, if the company consents and provided that the writer follows applicable company policies, but the company can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services.
Russell addresses the concern on IP rights with an example of using Saga to create content. A significant human input is still required to arrange the AI-generated content for the final output. The process of such input would demonstrate the copyrightability of the content. He believes the content created through their platform will be copyrightable.
In terms of ownership,
“Since day one, (CyberFilm) have given 100% ownership of everything made in (their) app to (their) users, and (CyberFilm) make sure that any APIs or models (they) use also give that.”
Artist at the Core of the Product Experience
There are two common modes:
AI replaces artists for fully automated control
Cyborgs: AI as a personal script doctor and a bounce board for trying new ideas - this is Saga
Russell envisions users primarily driving and crafting their stories, but turning to the app when they need a creative boost, such as an unexpected twist in act three. The idea is that the app will generate unique suggestions that not only surprise the writer but also leave the audience amazed.
One unique functionality is that users can input from any step of the creative process: start from character, plot, beat, or act, and jump around when they get inspiration. And you can generate new ideas with the help of Saga’s backend models at each step of the way, incorporating your inputs across the board.
Potential future opportunities:
Multi-language support.
Providing every movie maker with the equivalent of a VFX studio.
Rapid Fire Questions:
Q: What do you do in your free time?
A: I love playing soccer and watching soccer, English Premier League, skiing, and snowboarding (just got back from Whistler). I still love reading, especially about startups and how they were founded.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge in leading an AI company?
A: People love our idea and the mission, and many people want to work at the intersection of AI and movies. But we need people with experience, with APIs that just came out a few weeks ago. Also finding people who are willing to come to an early-stage startup and work for equity when they could work for top AI companies like OpenAI and Google, has been a challenge.
Q. If you could ask anyone for advice, who would you get advice from?
A: Elon Musk, on how he’s able to run three companies at the same time, unlike the rest of the world.
Q. How was the experience of founding a company with your brother?
A. We grew up watching movies together and making movies together on our dad's camcorder. My brother started a production company and so I'm an executive producer helping to finance and review and get some of his movies made. We have complementary skills but most importantly we work well together, and will never give up on each other.