Category Archives: The Mediascape

Generated Video and Emotions

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Haydn Rushworth has just released COMPARED: 10 AI Emotions – Minimax / Hailuo.ai 12V-01-live vs KLING, VIDU, Runway.

He compares Minimax with Runway, Vidu and Kling.

His conclusions?

Runway was the most sedate whereas Kling was all over the place. Vidu was good, but Minimax was his favourite.

Tao Prompts also compares Sora, Kling, Minimax and Runway.

He concludes that Runway doesn’t tend to add much emotion at all.

My take: it appears that Minimax may be the best platform to generate video from images at the close of 2024. What will 2025 bring us?

How to Create Consistent AI Characters

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Caleb Ward of Curious Refuge has released 2024’s best summary of how to Create Consistent Realistic Characters Using AI.

He suggests using Fal.AI to train a custom LoRA ( fal.ai/models/fal-ai/flux-lora-fast-training ) with at least 10 images of the subject. Then use this model to generate images ( fal.ai/models/fal-ai/flux-lora ) and increase their resolution using an up-res tool. Finally, you can now move on to animating them.

CyberJungle, the Youtube channel of Hamburg-based Senior IT Product Manager Cihan Unur, also posted How to Create Consistent Characters Using Kling AI.

He details how to train a LoRA on Kling using at least eleven videos of your character. Admittedly, this pipeline is a little more involved. He also suggests FreePik as another option.

My take: basically, if you can imagine it, you can now create it.

The Horror Movie Report just released!

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Stephen Follows has just released The Horror Movie Report, the most comprehensive case study of the horror genre ever, with data from over 27,000 films.

The report is offered in English and Spanish and comes in two editions:

  • Film Fan Edition is aimed at general audiences. (£24.99)
  • Film Professional Edition is designed for those in the film industry and includes extra insights on profitability, and budgets, and comes with all the data as spreadsheets. (£79.99)

At over 400 pages, the report contains chapters on:

  1. Horror Audiences
  2. Subgenres
  3. Script Origins
  4. Cast
  5. Crew
  6. Budgets
  7. Financials
  8. Box Office
  9. Profitability
  10. Other Income
  11. Film Festivals
  12. Post Production
  13. Posters and Marketing
  14. Objectionable Content
  15. Cultural Impact

Stephen is a leading film industry analyst known for his extensive research on film statistics; I’ve quoted his posts many times.

See the sample pages.

My take: Peter, this would make a great holiday gift for someone who aspires to produce a profitable film, no matter what the genre. The Professional Edition even comes with downloadable Excel files. Excel files!

1.4% is just not good enough

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Continuing with analysis of Telefilm Canada’s 2023-2024 Annual Report, the box-office ticket sales reported for Canadian independent films is misleading.

From page 19:

“Canadian films earned $29.3 million in ticket sales, with a 14% market share for independent films.”

What’s misleading is that this groups both French and English-language films together, and it doesn’t use the full box office as the denominator to determine the percentage.

From the CMPA‘s Profile 2023, on page 90, Exhibit 10-6 Box office revenue and market share at theatres in Canada, by language market breaks down the cash and percentages to:

Language Box Office Percentage
English $10.6 M 1.4%
French $18.7 M 17.5%
Total $29.3 M 3.3%

Note that this assumes a total box office of $889.4 M.

My take: another way of looking at this is that for every hour of film projected in Canadian cinemas in 2023, only two minutes were Canadian — only 84 seconds outside of Quebec. That’s just not good enough.

Attend platform will allow filmmakers to connect directly to cinemas

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Jeremy Kay reports on Screen Daily that Former top exhibition sector lobbyists unveil digital marketplace to boost theatrical supply.

“The Attend platform will champion mid-range films that have largely disappeared from cinemas, as well as international films seeking release in North America, and films that typically receive limited theatrical release and could reach broader audiences through data-driven theatre selection, scheduling and marketing.”

Some features:

  • Filmmakers will be able to upload details and materials of their films directly
  • Exhibitors will be able to search the database
  • The platform will recommend films to exhibitors based on the preferences of their theatres and audiences
  • The platform will facilitate the logistics of projecting films in cinemas.

The Attend platform is being developed by The Fithian Group of John Fithian, Jackie Brenneman and Patrick Corcoran.

Dozens of filmmakers support the concept, including Ted Hope and Steven Soderbergh.

Read an in-depth interview with The Fithian Group for more.

My take: this solves the “supply to theatres” issue, by cutting out distributors. I’d love to see some Canadian cinemas join — not that I have anything against Canadian distributors — it’s just that Canadian filmmakers have historically been shut out of Canadian cinemas by American distributors. How ironic that this American initiative might solve that for us.

Calls for an indie film marketplace and discoverability

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Brian Welk reports on IndieWire that Study Reveals Untapped Market of 40 Million People Who Will Pay for Indie Films on Streaming.

He sets the context with:

“After a decade of massive growth, the indie film industry hit its peak in 2017 with just over 200 independent films in theatrical release. That’s also when streaming began to make itself known in a very big way, and the number of indie films in theaters began to plummet.

Netflix and the like spent a few years gobbling up indie movies out of festivals, but that’s dramatically slowed since 2021. Viewership for indies on streaming dipped from 30M in 2020 to just 18M by 2022. Indie films — and the audience for them — are being left behind.“

Former Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam led the “US Independent Film Audience & Landscape Study” a 118-page report available at indiefilmlandscape.org and believes there’s a massive audience waiting for indie movies because the biggest challenge facing independent films is finding them.

Her key recommendations for the indie film sector are:

  1. Combat market fragmentation with a new, consolidated streaming destination
  2. Invest in Theatrical Exhibition: Build data and marketing capacity at Festivals and Independent Cinemas
  3. Invest in 21st Century Streaming Public Media and Include Scripted Films on PBS
  4. Leverage Free, Mass Market Platforms: Build a field-wide vertical on a mass-market free streaming platform
  5. Expand and Engage Audiences of Color
  6. Thoughtfully enlist Brands and Philanthropy to Fund Production and Marketing
  7. Innovate on Sector-Wide Marketing
  8. Deepen and Enrich Engagement with Younger Audiences and Fan Communities
  9. Conduct More Research and Share Data Across the Field
  10. Build a Trade Organization to Facilitate Field-Wide Research, Innovation, Public Policy Advocacy

Read the full report.

My take: an indie film marketplace and discoverability. Yes, the two things every indie filmmaker wishes for. I know I’ve been searching for the last twenty years however it’s almost impossible to accomplish in this digital age, which is maddening because digitization was supposed to level the playing field — but what happened was that everyone made their own field. “Build it and they will come” is almost never true now.

Telefilm 2023-2024 Annual Report: Talent Fund analysis

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Telefilm Canada has released its 2023-2024 Annual Report. Over the next weeks, I’ll dig deeper. This week: the Talent Fund.

Telefilm links the Talent Fund with Talent to Watch, its first feature program. They report:

  • “Through the generosity of its donors and partners from across Canada, the Talent Fund raised $270,600.”
  • The Talent Fund invested $300,000 towards the $3,600,000 invested in 18 first features in 2023.
  • “In total, the Fund financed 7% of the Talent to Watch program in 2023-2024.”
  • “The Talent Fund has a balance of close to $50,000.”

You can read the full annual report here.

My take: as a Certified Independent Production Fund, the majority of the Talent Fund‘s past funding came from “CRTC tangible benefits” from major Canadian media companies and other media funds; private donations continue to be minimal and fund perhaps two documentaries a year, or one+ narrative feature films. The allocation of some of the new online streaming tax to the Talent Fund will be critical for its continued existence. See The Path Forward.

Drama is not selling

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Naman Ramachandran reports on Variety that Sales Agents Shift Away From Drama Films Amid Market Challenges: ‘It’s Led Us to Diversify Our Slate’.

“The global appetite for drama films has significantly diminished, according to a panel of international sales agents at the BFI London Film Festival.”

He quotes Sophie Green, head of acquisitions and development at Bankside Films, as saying: “The big sort of takeaway at the moment from the market is anything but drama. That really is kind of like double underlined everywhere that we go.”

Drama has become increasingly difficult to finance and sell, leading to a shift toward genre films and comedies.

My take: the pendulum swings this way and then that way. Dramas will be back, but perhaps they demand too much empathy from audiences just right now.

The numbers behind Telefilm’s Talent to Watch 2024-25 projects

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Telefilm Canada has selected 17 Talent to Watch projects to share $3.45 million from 150 submissions.

It’s quite revealing to look at the numbers in detail.

Let’s start with Genre.

Documentary 8
Drama 4
Science Fiction/Fantasy 3
Drama-Comedy 1
Thriller 1

Province?

Quebec 7
Ontario 7
British Columbia 1
Alberta 1
Manitoba 1

Let’s look at Language next.

English 9
French 3
English/Sudanese Arabic 1
Portuguese (Azorean dialect)/French/English 1
French/English/Algonquin 1
French/English 1
French/Creole 1

And let’s finish up with Stream.

Filmmaker Apply-Direct 11
Industry Partner 3
Festival 2
Indigenous 1

In addition, if Gender is assumed from names and excluding Executive Producers:

Female approx. 25
Male approx. 15

Some observations:

  • The number of submissions rose almost 20% from last year.
  • Non-fiction continues to be almost as successful as Fiction.
  • Almost all of the successful projects are from Quebec and Ontario.
  • Almost one third of the successful projects include world languages in addition to English and/or French.
  • The vast majority of successful projects continue to be Filmmaker Apply-Direct.
  • Less than 20% of the successful projects are from Industry Partners.
  • Women far outnumber men and other expressions of gender.
  • No projects are selected from Atlantic Canada.

The cynical might posit that Telefilm’s Talent to Watch program continues to compensate for the broader industry.

My take: this is the third year that filmmakers could apply directly and Telefilm has rewarded them well! Therefore, if you can apply direct, bypass your local industry partner, for odds of approximately one in nine.

FaceFusion 3: the best free face swapper

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Tim of Theoretically Media has a great review of FaceFusion 3.0.0 on YouTube:

In it he discusses:

  1. How to install FaceFusion 3 using Pinokio
  2. How to face swap for video
  3. The limitations of FaceFusion
  4. Face swapping with AI-generated characters
  5. Lipsync
  6. Expression controls
  7. Aging controls

A huge bonus to this pipeline is face_editor. See 14:02 for tools to alter the many elements on faces, such as smiles, frowns and eye lines. Even age.

My take: we are way beyond deep fakes now. The ability to change expression is extremely powerful! Every performance can be altered.