The Sparkler Episode And Chaos

Craig 0:03

You're listening to Basket Traffic. Hi, and welcome back, everyone, to History versus Hollywood by Basket Traffic. I'm Craig.

Susie 0:18

I'm Susie.

Shawn 0:19

And I am Sean. And we're back. We have no idea where we're going with this one. Because I was told to be here at four o'clock to set up the puppet show behind me here. The sound puppet show. This is ready to set up this huge blanket thing to, I guess, to reduce the bounce in the room. And um I come in and it's already set up, and then I I and then I see him under the washing machine, laying on the floor, and I'm like, why did you call me over or am I here to help you fix the dryer?

Susie 0:58

Because I don't even finish until four. Yeah. So I cannot get here.

Craig 1:02

Yeah, I think he was lonely. Well, I thought I needed help setting up the puppet show.

Shawn 1:06

After I woke him up, he was on the floor sleeping. After I woke him up, we got down to business. And I'm like, why are we doing this podcast? We had a very successful season. And last week, in my head, was the finale. You know, it was the big finale, and it's like we blew up all the fireworks in the box, right? Like, it's like you have, is it handle or is it gigosky? You have that music playing, like, and we're blowing off all the fireworks. Yeah. And then Craig says, wait a minute, there's one more thing in the box. It's a sparkler. Let me wave it around. And that's what this episode is. Yeah. Look at the sparkler. Sean doesn't want to be here. Look at this. Um, I mean, I almost got killed on the way over here because, you know, they moved the driver's licensing office, you know, probably about a year ago, right? And so I don't know if you've noticed. Craig probably doesn't know anything about the neighborhood here. He doesn't pay attention to this, uh, except that his grass has been dug up by raccoons. That's about it. We'll get into that. We'll get into that later. But but uh they moved the driver's licensing office. So uh all of the kids are taking their driver's tests at like these neighborhoods. Oh, I know. Right? All the all so they're taking their tests and they're learning. They're taking their actual driving school.

Craig 2:32

Don't we know it? Every car that passes here is a driver's school.

Shawn 2:37

Yeah, exactly. So yeah, so I I was almost killed

September Nostalgia And New Drivers

Shawn 2:40

crossing the street on the way here. Uh, so I hope that kid fails his test. No kidding. And but yes, we're here and summer is over and we're back, and it's September. And I'm trying to figure out if it's better that it's sunny when you're a kid and you're going back to school, or if it's better if it's just miserable and raining out when you're a kid and you're going back to school. Because I get really nostalgic at this time of the year. I start thinking about my school days and you know, and and what that was like to go back to school. And you know what I mean? And and so I was because it's been beautiful here. Yeah it's been gorgeous. And I'm thinking, oh, are the kids sitting in school going?

Susie 3:18

It's too hot, not as hot as usual. It's I I love September.

Shawn 3:22

September is just perfect.

Susie 3:23

Uh uh not hot is good for kids going back to school. Yeah, in my opinion. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Craig 3:29

So yeah, so not hot. Not hot, like sunny, but it's you know, well, there's no air conditioning in the system that we work, so it's you know, you you can't have a hot, otherwise it just melts the brains and not nothing's happening. But you're right.

Craig’s Calf Tear And Storm Sprint

Craig 3:42

Yeah.

Shawn 3:42

So and then I come in and and I see the crutches and I see the whatever that thing is, the knee over. It's called the knee, new oh knee rover. Yeah, sorry, the knee rover. Yeah, so you hurt yourself.

Craig 3:53

Yeah, yeah. I I tore my calf muscle.

Shawn 3:56

And this went on for this has been kind of percolating for a while because when we a few months back, you were limping.

Craig 4:03

Yeah, three, four months ago. I can't even remember what it was. Uh, I pulled part of my calf muscle. I should have gone to the hospital.

Shawn 4:09

I did June 14th.

Craig 4:10

Yeah.

Shawn 4:11

Animal farm. That's how I remember it all. Yeah, I was gonna say Susie remembers. Does he have a little bell that he rings? Susie!

Craig 4:20

Oh and uh I didn't do anything about it, I just hobbled and it got better. And then during this summer, I was August 22nd. Oh, Jesus.

Susie 4:31

Oh no, sorry, August, uh, August 13th.

Craig 4:34

Coming out of the lake, just walking up a little rocky outcrop, and I wasn't doing anything. Just just my own weight and no weird turns, and then dink and then that hurt. And then uh the 22nd, 22nd, we were at Blue Rodeo at the PE the day before Bobby Bruce, nearly Neil was playing.

Shawn 4:55

Mobile Freedom Mobile Arch. Well, you shouldn't be participating in a rodeo if you've hurt yourself, you know.

Craig 5:00

And so Blue Rodeo is playing a great Canadian band from Ontario that started night. Love Blue Rodeo before, I think it was. Love them. And uh so we were listening and everything was great. The day was great, the grass was dry because it was sunny, sunny, and then we had that crazy thunderstorm.

Shawn 5:16

Yeah, what a night. I won't forget that. You were working? I was downtown and it was intense. It was. I mean, I don't think I've ever remember.

Craig 5:25

Well, have you ever been at the PE when it shut down completely because of weather? I've never been to the PE. Shut up. You performed at the PE.

Shawn 5:33

I worked there for eight years, but I have actually never been there. Uh yes, many times we got sent home early and it was the best days of our lives. Yeah, I bet.

Susie 5:43

Yeah, it's like a snow day for us.

Shawn 5:45

Yeah, grab those mini donuts and get the fuck out of here.

Craig 5:48

Yeah. So right when that storm happened, uh, we just immediately needed to get out of that ring because it was pouring. And I bolted. We all bolted, and that's when I snapped, you know, tore the rest of my calf muscle.

Shawn 5:59

Do you think it's God punishing you for being so hard on the um the Odyssey movie?

Craig 6:05

You think Nolan's getting his revenge?

Shawn 6:07

Sorry, let me re-re rephrase that. Do you think it's Zeus being um punishing you for being so hard on the Odyssey movie?

Craig 6:13

That Odyssey uh has resonated. I I know you want to talk about a little bit.

Shawn 6:17

I mean Well, no, I just I'm I'm glad that your negative reviews had no effect on it. It is it is a juggernaut. It is, it is just it's continuing to continue to break every single record. I know.

Susie 6:31

Most people that I've talked to have said, I gotta go back and see it again. Like I I saw it and then I, you know, and then I thought about all these things. It's a phenomenal, Erica.

Craig 6:43

Like, yeah, no, it's it's good. I mean, it's okay. It's classic Nolan in terms of his ability to direct and be technical and frame and and all those things and not use CGI. Fucking great. I just you know had an issue with uh some of the Homer uh interpretations. That's all. Uh-huh. Yeah.

Shawn 7:01

Yeah. So God did punish you, and uh God is good. Uh there

Why AI Film Is A Big Deal

Shawn 7:06

you go.

Craig 7:06

Oh boy. Uh today there's a few things that I want to talk about. One of them is AI.

Shawn 7:13

Dryer maintenance. Dryer maintenance.

Craig 7:15

Actually, it's the washing machine.

Shawn 7:16

Oh, sorry, washer maintenance.

Craig 7:18

I'm just trying to level the damn thing because every time we, you know, have towels, it just bounces all over the place.

Shawn 7:22

Just give it a good kick. That's what I do. Pain the ass. Kind of like the fawns. Yeah.

Craig 7:26

So AI. Just so you know, instead of Craig, Craig's AI bot is here. And instead of Susie, Susie's AI bot is here. Let's see if Sean can tell the difference.

Shawn 7:40

I prefer it, actually. This is uh this is great. I thought you had more personality today.

Craig 7:48

So I I gave Sean a little bit of a homework. I w I wanted to do this topic a little bit about the degree to which AI is kind of now infiltrating into uh film and cinema. And I sent you a movie called Devil's Grind. No, no, Hell's Grind.

Shawn 8:04

Oh, hell see, I don't even remember the name. Well, it's they all sound like video games to me. Yeah. Like the names. I I you know it's funny because you did send it to me and I couldn't remember the name for like every time I would go, it would be like Hell's Bend. Hell, hell, hell's it sounds like a ski run. Sounds like a ski run. That's what I kept thinking.

Craig 8:22

It's about an hour, hour and a half long.

Shawn 8:24

Yeah. And it's by a company and uh uh uh Higg Higgsfield.

Craig 8:28

Yeah, AI Higgs fields field out of San Francisco.

Shawn 8:31

It's it's a startup.

Craig 8:32

Well, it's interesting, its headquarters are based in San Francisco, presumably for legal reasons and et cetera, but it's actually based in Kazakhstan. Most of its employees are Kazakhstanians or Kazakhs, Kazakhs. Anyway, uh that I think 90% of them are.

Shawn 8:50

Not the ones that are on the on on YouTube though, because they I just watched uh a uh a video, it's almost a directing video where they uh are explaining the process of how they put this together.

Craig 9:02

The company is is designed for you, me, filmmakers, and yeah, it's a teaching tool. Yeah, and it's a production tool. So you can actually create fully generated AI movies. Right. You know, when you look at the tools involved, it's I have to say it's a little bit impressive. Now, first of all, maybe we should we just start off talking about the movie itself, Hell's Grind. So uh lay it on me, um Sean. Sean. Yeah.

Shawn 9:29

Sorry, the AI bot over here is is forgetting my name. It's been a while, what, three weeks? So I, you know, can you imagine what would happen if we ended the season and like didn't come back here for a couple of months, which was the plan and my contract, I shouldn't even be here. And then he's phoning me up, telling me I gotta watch this AI movie, which I'm like, I've got a very long list of things I want to watch. This is not one of them. Oh,

Hell’s Grind Looks Great Feels Hollow

Shawn 9:55

but I did I did watch it and first full featured yeah, a AI movie.

Craig 10:00

AI movie.

Shawn 10:00

Now, first of all, it cost $500,000 to make, which is pretty impressive. I mean, this is what Hollywood does not want to hear. Yeah. And they made it in 14 days.

Susie 10:09

Oh my god.

Shawn 10:10

So, you know, that's really cool. I did I enjoy it? Yeah, I enjoyed it. So I thought that the the premise and all of that was very sort of ridiculous. The writing and everything. I mean, you know, I was in and out of this story. It didn't hold me. I it did feel like I was kind of watching a video game for the most part. Yeah, just agree.

Susie 10:30

It's it's not the kind of movie that I would have chosen to watch anyway.

Shawn 10:34

I'm sure teenagers, you know, younger people, once again, you're asking the wrong demographic here. Yeah. I'm sure that younger people might really, really enjoy this. I thought there were some some great scenes in it. I mean, there's a Tibetan, they go to a Tibetan temple, and and that was spectacular. What we got to take away from this, or what I took away from this, is how amazing it looked. Like the technology looks. That's really why we're watching this, right? Particularly when they're the scenes with the their kids when they're the children. There's these scenes where the the main characters are having flashbacks to them. They're they're orphans that become bank robbers. I'm not gonna get into the whole plot because the plot's quite ridiculous.

Craig 11:16

But it's a bit cliche.

Shawn 11:18

They're they're in an orphanage, they all bond in this orphanage, then they become criminals like bank robbers or something.

Craig 11:24

Kind of like the the hero critical.

Shawn 11:25

They're Robin Hood types, you know, and all this kind of stuff. We've seen this before. It's it's a it's a bunch of other movies put together, and and so it's not not anything mind-blowing or impressive to me. But the technology, that's why we're watching it. And I was gonna say, particularly the scenes when they're children, you can't tell that those aren't real people. You know, like you're like, wow.

Susie 11:46

And most of the time you couldn't, even when they were whatever, mid-teens or early twenties, whatever they were, it was difficult to tell that they weren't real. But then there was a couple of little like weird shimmery glitches. But you were saying that that might be a YouTube issue.

Craig 12:02

Yeah, I couldn't tell. I I do know that some AI film has that problem, a little bit of you know, stuttering or or shaking. And there are artifacts that are still there. But here's the thing. Let's let's just back up quickly here. For those people who are listening and have never heard of this, and I bet most of most of them haven't.

Shawn 12:20

I hadn't heard of it before you brought it to my mind.

Craig 12:22

So it's a movie that is if you type in Hellgrind on YouTube, it will pop up. It will give you this weird version that's being not blocked.

Shawn 12:30

Um well, they blurred some of it. Yeah, it's uh ridiculous. Yeah, like the weirdest.

Craig 12:35

The weirdest.

Susie 12:36

Yeah, in some places they did in other places in his arm and they blurred it so you couldn't see. Yeah.

Craig 12:41

And I didn't know if that was Higgs AI Higgs field doing that, or but anyway, you can go and watch the unfiltered or whatever unedited. Unedited, unedited, censored, unedited, yeah, version of it on their website. If you're interested, I just recommend you go checking it out. It's super easy. It's you don't have to pay anything. Like Sean said, it's a story about these young kind of teenagers who grow up and end up being kind of likable criminals, I guess. It has this kind of MCU universe world to it. They find this crystal that has powers, they they end up getting empowered by it, and then they end up meeting this kind of nemesis from another world. I want to talk about that a little bit, the creature. But ultimately, it's the same storyline.

Shawn 13:23

Um they definitely put the Avengers, Mortal Kombat, and the Fantastic Four algorithms into that AI. Total mashup. Yeah.

Craig 13:31

And and the, you know, it's interesting without giving it away, but uh the woman who is like the supposed to be this kind of multi-billionaire power thing who Nicole Kidman and Scarlett Johansson mixed together.

Susie 13:45

And I said, with a little hint of Gillian Anderson in the middle. Definitely.

Shawn 13:48

Oh, I saw I saw Kidman right away. No, kidding. I saw Charlie's Theron. Scarlett Johansson.

Craig 13:54

We both, yeah, he I said uh Charlize Theron and Johansson.

Shawn 13:58

So so isn't that the weirdest part about all this? That's what I kept thinking. Yeah, was that they've taken this avatar that's kind of a mixture of all of these actresses, and it's like, there, that's the perfect person, right?

Craig 14:10

Yeah, yeah. The main protagonist is a man named Ro Roko Rocco, and I thought his CGI was the best. Like he was the most real looking. Um, and he basically the storyline is that his lifelong girlfriend uh gets captured and sent to this other world, and he is now possessed and driven by love to you know retrieve her. And that's what this whole thing is about. And it ends with a fight scene where you have this creature who speaks Japanese. Yeah, I actually really like that. I I don't know what worked for me in some weird way. His face was creepy as fuck, and his whole body shape was creepy, but uh it worked and it was alluring and and and interesting to me. And then that fight scene at the end, and I actually wanted to do a little bit of a deeper dive on how they did that.

How Prompts Replace Storyboards

Craig 15:00

What I found out, you know, storyboarding? You obviously know what storyboarding is. Sean, you want to explain that? Like what is film storyboarding? I learned just recently that uh it started with Walt Disney in the 1990s.

Shawn 15:12

Yeah, well, they they actually anime well, they they have drawings and they draw the scene, you know, per scene, and they you know where it's gonna cut to, and and basically they draw the scene and they put it up.

Craig 15:24

Yeah, so they have uh all these images they put on.

Shawn 15:27

They used to bring in artists and those are collectibles now, all of those storyboards.

Craig 15:31

I bet they are, and probably worth quite a bit of money. Yeah, um, but so so that storyboarding that which began with in the Walt Disney Studios in the 30s, then spread out into the whole industry. And you know, everyone started doing storyboarding because it makes sense. You can efficiently, before you start doing the production, have an image, drawings, whatever they may be. You know where you're gonna set your cameras up, how it's gonna look, where you're gonna cut to, which you're why that I brought that up is because when I was looking at the AI Higgs field software or the the YouTube videos about how they work, you know, I I had this impression when that when you're watching an AI generated thing, you're in a sense R saying to Claude or Chat GPT or whatever, but they use Claude and then you say, This scene, do this.

Shawn 16:16

Prompts. They give it prompts.

Craig 16:18

They give it prompts. But what I learned is that there's a lot more that goes into it than I realized. Maybe it's because of this the status of AI at this point, but you have to actually be very specific and you have to be very numerical in terms of kind of distance, you know, talk about camera angles and camera distance and all these things. What's interesting is a storyboard, the traditional one where you do the drawing, you've got one image. Well, it's a sense the same thing here in this kind of AI generated world where you can say you type in the scene and then it will generate four different scenes. And then you go, uh not that's weird, that doesn't work. Oh, but this one really does. And then what you do is you take that one and then you're like, okay, this is really good, but wait a minute, like for example, one of the main antagonists, I don't even remember his name, but you know, the freaky looking guy who spoke Japanese, yeah, he had an arm, but his arm turned turned into like a sword bone kind of thing. And uh tusk almost like and they were saying, like, for example, when it rendered the image or the the footage, if you want to call it that, it kind of screwed it up. But what then you do is you go back to the code and then you kind of like give it specifically Morse instructions to fix that. But beyond that, even then, uh AI doesn't necessarily generate the image of like the soldiers or whatever that they want. So what they do is they actually create the image so they get continuity. So there is an element of creativity or or development in the background. And so I was a little bit surprised by how much goes into that and uh and and intrigued. And I have to say, I thought you were gonna pan this in terms of the story itself. I think it does deserve some panning. Yeah. Although I was a little bit emotionally connected to the way they uh storylined in order for him to retrieve his girlfriend, there was a cost. You know, it's not the most groundbreaking, but you don't see that as much in movies. Yeah, and the cost was his friends who had been lifetime friends had to die.

Shawn 18:19

Yeah, I see. I didn't like that. I thought that was was was not well executed.

Craig 18:24

Interesting. You didn't like the idea, like the philosophical scenario, or you didn't like the execution?

Shawn 18:29

I just thought it it was um it didn't make sense that they would go that whole journey with this group, and then all of a sudden it just falls apart. And he goes, Well, sorry guys, yeah. Uh it just didn't, I I didn't buy it.

Craig 18:45

They didn't explain exactly why that had to be the way.

Shawn 18:48

And all you know, and and look to be honest, I wasn't invested, so I didn't really care. Like, but it didn't make any sense to me. It was not like I said at the beginning, I thought the plot was nonsensical, but then I go, Well, it's like kind of like a video game, so yeah, uh, it doesn't matter. See, that's the thing. Yeah, but anyway, the stakes aren't as high for me with an AI generated thing.

Craig 19:08

Here's the thing. I went back, there is a movie that was produced two years earlier in 2024 that was also fully AI'd, and it is utterly fucking terrible. Uh the graphics are just I mean, I actually want to play it for you. There is a trailer, it's called Next Stop Paris. And um I mean, what's your stuff? Take a look at this, Susie. You can see that this is hoping it's a new start. This just looks like AI slop, right?

Trailer 19:37

Maybe you're the dark, mysterious kind of man who never shows his vulnerability.

Craig 19:43

And it's yeah, first of all, just a terrible story. Yeah. But that was two years ago. And if you compare this to what we just watched in Hells Grind, the quality is fundamentally better. Yeah. And I thought to myself, I'm afraid to know what two years down the road looks like.

Shawn 20:03

Well, every that's what everybody's talking about. That's why this is such a big topic. I mean, the advancement of this technology is incredibly fast and sophisticated. And that's why the industry is going, okay, well, how are we going to use this? As a tool, it's amazing. Um, but I was thinking the whole time watching that, and I keep saying it's like a video game, or I mean, fantasy and action is the perfect avenue for that tool. It is. But how would you feel if like they did like a drama, like uh uh a Meryl Streep, let's just call it Meryl Streep type drama that was fully CG or sorry, fully AI. Yeah. And that would be interesting.

Susie 20:44

Yeah.

Shawn 20:44

Now, what would the conversation be if, you know, they or a comedy or a that's what I'm interested in?

Craig 20:50

Well, yeah, and I think on that point, it's like, you know, when we look at uh, well, speaking of comedy or or rom coms like Tom Hanks and uh you know Sleepless in Seattle, you you you already know who these actors are beforehand, and you're going to the movie because of these actors, you already have this affinity or connection to them. But what is stopping AI from generating its own unique character?

Shawn 21:15

Like and then really like a like uh what's her name? They've got their own avatar now. Yes. Uh we look her out. It's Till Till Tilly.

Craig 21:23

AI actor.

Shawn 21:23

I think it's Tilly. Tilly, like Tilly Norwood. Tilly Norwood.

Craig 21:27

Oh, yeah.

Shawn 21:28

They they're they're promoting this avatar

AI Actors And The Uncanny Future

Shawn 21:30

as like this, you know, the next big incoming actor. Yeah. Uh Tilly Norwood.

Craig 21:34

Yeah, and that's see, that's creepy though. And yet I just don't see what's stopping happening. She is hot. Yeah, yeah. Well, they of course. I mean, they're not gonna perfect. Yeah, yeah. But that that's the thing, because I was thinking to myself, if they are, because that's what happened when I was watching this movie Hells Grind, like I'm going, oh my god, this is there's everything about this is artificial and synthetic, synthetic, not even synthetic, just artificial. Well, I could see how if this is done properly you can actually connect emotionally to this.

Shawn 22:05

And some people did some people did connect emotionally to this film I I could see online that some people liked it that way. Yeah um I know that that their next project involves actual people that have sold their likeness to them. Uh one of them is Rampage Jackson I want to say UFC fighter. Uh huh so his avatar will be in a film. So they were saying hey if you want to have an actor in like say Call of Duty right the um video big huge video game now they will be putting actors into these video games.

Craig 22:37

Oh my God I didn't even think about that angle. I mean here you can have a situation where you could have a certain individual who may look up the uh be the perfect part by the looks but if they can't act it doesn't like Galgot. Oops did I say how that she was a terrible actress I mean she's accused of being a terrible actress.

Shawn 22:54

Okay.

Craig 22:54

Your opinion yeah I not my opinion have said that Gal Godot is a terrible actress.

Susie 23:01

Not Gal Gadot.

Craig 23:02

What is it?

Susie 23:03

Gadot

Craig 23:04

is it Godot?

Susie 23:04

Gal Gado.

Shawn 23:05

You should learn how to pronounce your name before you slam her.

Susie 23:08

Yeah.

Craig 23:08

I'm not slamming. This is what people online are saying. I worry about people who are you know butting actors or actresses like because now AI can go, oh, I really like that person's image. I'm gonna create an avatar or an image and likeness and create a whole person around this and I can make them act in any way I want. And then there goes that person who's you know is a you know who has a love for this world and wants to be a part of it but they're being see I'm not worried at all because it is soulless and I'm not taking anything away from the people that that put their time into that project.

Shawn 23:43

I mean good for you it's an art form in its own sense so I'm not here to you know judge art because art is you know subjective right but I'm not worried about that. I mean because acting is acting you watching that movie I never once thought to myself you know oh God look out uh Merrill you know like like there it's just just completely different to me.

Susie 24:07

I I hear you I you know but it would be interesting to see a dramatic a drama yeah and to see what if they can do that or not do that.

Shawn 24:14

But the Isn't there a little part of you though Su's watching that going well I can't invest myself in it because I know it's not real. Yeah you know what I mean? Yeah now if they want to fool you and not tell you that it's AI then I get it right and you're going oh I I will say one thing after did you after you turned that movie off and went back to something else were you going oh is this AI or is this real? Because I had that the whole night fucking funny the whole night I kept looking at I was watching something I can't remember what it was and I was going oh this could be AI maybe like but it wasn't it was real so that's the technology right like I started fucking hallucinating like AI and started thinking that am I what am I looking at my own house is like okay well I didn't go that far like what meds are you on for this uh knee thing or this seriously though there was like moments where I'm like dreaming in AI like wondering it it did trip me out though because that that that's the only thing I worry about when you say you know you're worried is is that the not being able to tell things yeah like going you know what is everything at one point going to be like the matrix and I'm not gonna know exactly right like that's are we heading that down that road where like right now we have to say this is AI or this is you know what I mean?

Susie 25:31

Like but they might not have to I don't later I I don't think I'll be around to worry about it to be honest.

Craig 25:36

Well maybe maybe not I mean the pace at which this is progressing is extraordinary. Yeah. Now I do know that for example in in the if we go back to that movie Hell's Grind, the fight scene near the end you know they they did say that they had to have the background kind of this fog white kind of fog because AI can't render all of the complexities in the background. Now so that probably would be true in a in a certain future where that will will be addressed.

Susie 26:07

They get they'll get there.

Craig 26:08

You know it was based in Seoul Korea seemed to be and yet they were funny because there were scenes that looked exactly like the Pacific Northwest right you know that that classic rainforest environment you know you see a lot of movies a lot of movies are are filmed here in Vancouver you see your own city in it a lot and so it went from like Seoul Korea to Pacific Northwest and again I don't know if that was a detail that they just didn't care about or whatever didn't notice but I was really struck by the clarity and detail the fine detail even the way the skateboards rolled over the grates you could see that the skateboards didn't actually bump the wheels didn't bump on the grates there was that was artificial but the level of detail on that grate on the sidewalk was just really impressive.

Shawn 26:55

You see this is my thing here though who are we complimenting when we say that are we complimenting the the program are we complimenting the person that sat there and typed in the prompts are we are it's not like animation where somebody is is sitting there for months and months and drawing and painting or or it's coming from a a person are we complimenting the guy sitting in the chair that's putting in the the typing the prompt and going make it look like this make it sound like that write a song that sounds like Moody and sounds like the cure. And this is like like so what what am I what am I complimenting?

Craig 27:33

I I great question I totally understand that. So I think there's there's this going to be this natural struggle you're gonna have I don't want to call the purists who want to do it old school but there's going to be that element because I think there's going to probably be at least for a while a certain number of people who want they want to see they want to know that's real. They they want to see real shit real people real things. However economies always drive everything and you know like for example the Odyssey I I can't remember do you know how much it costs it's probably hundreds of millions 200 million dollars or something yeah something or that or like you said some of these the costs are going down. I mean there's a full featured movie that I was just made for I don't know eight thousand dollars is a new Iranian film that's coming out you can see elements of Iran and what AI can do is pull you know the world wide web take all the images and photos that it has access to and then recreate images.

Shawn 28:31

And like you said, who are you appreciating it it's this computer algorithm you can't appreciate a computer algorithm well what about what about Obsession too I mean it's like the biggest movie of the year besides the Odyssey and Spider-Man I get it but it cost nothing to make and it's the biggest word of mouth movie you know in a long time and that's artistic somebody wrote that and shot that and you know actually you know the true pure art form like I said I don't want to put down genres because I you know who am I to do that but it's just I mean yeah I think the more interesting movie is not this one. I think the biggest film that we should really be looking at is really called Artificial

Where Hollywood Heads Next

Shawn 29:21

You don't know about it. I got him are you talking about Artificial coming out at Christmas I'm gonna let you watch the trailer right now. Oh Luca Guadanino is the director uh he did Challengers and he did queer he did after the hunt and this is starring Andrew Garfield which is ironic because he was also in the social network and that is what this movie reminds me of artificial is going to be it's it's the it's the open IA story. Oh AI story open AI AI story.

Trailer 29:57

Uh it's about Sam Altman what is the image of the future that you see we've created a machine that will solve the world's problems we don't teach it it teaches itself we're gonna call it chat GPT we open indoors products together the future's inevitable countries will follow industries we do love our dystopian futures and we're the shepherd people in sounds good I'm so excited to see it.

Shawn 31:02

Yeah the visuals are not as important I know that we're just an audio podcast but just listening to that that's just enough you need to know yeah so this is the Sam Altman uh story about him being hired and fired and then rehired and uh oh I think that was 2023 or four that all went down um but it is it's a movie that got made and then dropped by the studio and then picked up again because of I guess because maybe it's controversial I don't know we haven't seen it it comes out at Christmas but it's very ironic to me that that you know Andrew Garfield who was of course in the social network which has its own sequel coming out in October which we'll talk about then he is also in this so and it's got a real social network vibe right it's got this this kind of you know like you said dystopian kind of you know thing happening but this is going to be a big film obviously so looks good it's really good it it you know that the cast is amazing that I Craig I don't see you saw some of the names that pop up there but and you've got um you know uh some really good actors uh coming like young actors that are coming up you got Philip Seymour Hoffman and that I think it's Robbie Hoffman and and and all of that in there so it's gonna be it's gonna be exciting to see that one but it's exactly what we're talking about.

Craig 32:19

Yeah Cooper Hoffman.

Shawn 32:20

Yeah that's it Cooper Hoffman I'm sorry not Robbie Hoffman.

Craig 32:23

I think what uh this means though is that we're gonna see this kind of like confluence of these two things you know as as more AI is put out there because of economies you know that what's gonna happen is that as more and as the AI gets more and more sophisticated we're gonna see a lot of slop. I mean there's no doubt people are going to complain about that. And that probably will then push you know more of the kind of real film world to do real stuff.

Shawn 32:46

It's the same thing with with CGI right when when CGI came out everybody started using it and now you go back and look at all the movies that in it they they look horrible.

Craig 32:55

Like most of them yeah I have to say though I do wonder if you're a studio and you're going well you know what um to use it as a tool I get it. Yeah why we spend $100 million on I get it but not not the whole movie but I can get using it as a tool right like Hollywood and unions and all of these kind of like uh you know um stakeholders kind of delaying progress and the process and causing costs you know increasing costs I I can see why studios would you know push heavily for this AI thing. It is um interesting philosophical situation that we find ourselves in. Yeah it is and we will be probably discussing it uh at length uh as we go along that's exactly right that's why I wanted to do this episode and that's why you know you made fun of me you know thinking that Aussie should have been our last episode but I still think that yeah and and I think you'll agree last one sparkler I think you'll agree after you listen to this but uh you fucker yeah but but at the end of the day what I wanted to do I went on just started talking about this I wanted to create a conversation around this because we like you said we're gonna this is not the last of it we're gonna start seeing it more and more because I think what will happen is you know we talk about kind of real footage with CGI being incorporated into a scene in the background or whatever it is right and it's it's being really transformative. I mean the fact that you can go um I need like three aircraft carriers in the background for this kind of flight scene but I don't have access to three aircraft carriers you know if it's good CGI can just incorporate that stuff it's kind of you know the big sweeping scenes kind of thing it wouldn't surprise me if we've got real film and now AI doing that augmenting like CGI and AI that's it will I was gonna say it will be the same.

Shawn 34:37

I was gonna say the the interesting thing and we talked about this with Val Kilmer is having real actors with AI actors or avatars not actors going to be on our season and will they do it first of all I mean they have done it in this Val Kilmer film coming out somebody's obviously in a scene with somebody that's not there. So that's more interesting to me. Yeah where is that going to go and aren't people going to accept that and I can understand putting aircraft carriers in it's just cheaper. Yeah you know but it's it's a person that you're acting with right that's not real. So that would be interesting to me. Fake people still an unknown release date for that yeah I'm wondering if that's getting some kind of you know pushback or something you know because I think it was supposed to come out now. I think it was September. But so I don't know maybe they're they're trying to find you know a better release date for that we didn't really get into the grind thing or whatever it's called Hell's grind. Yes because it didn't really stay with me. Like I watched it but I don't really remember most of it. Like I do remember the Tibetan temple scene um because that really like cinematically stood out to me like like it looked really good and it was like I was like oh this is cool. You know really you know is amazing and you can see why that would be so beneficial AI to that because you can't find that no you can't you could you can't build a set like that. That was amazing. Yeah you know so that's why and it also reminded me of like of a Tomb Raider video game or something that that scene right that's why I keep going back to the video game thing. I was like oh this is kind of like a big video game but yeah it didn't really stay with me but that's probably because I do find it sort of soulless. Like because it's not happening for real. Yeah. And so that's my question is how far even if you it's cheaper or it's easier or it's quicker to do they did it in 14 days why yeah why if I'm not gonna gonna get something out of it.

Craig 36:46

I hear you it's a great question. And yet here we are uh the momentum is just growing like for example you know as we speak in this month September of 2026 Apple is releasing a whole slew of new desktops which are built around the purpose of AI. And the whole idea Apple strategy is to actually build highly powered units uh and very efficient units computers where you can actually have local AI agents built onto your computer and develop them locally so they're actually not you're not having to use the cloud and like which I think like Nvidia and others so when you say agents you mean like an avatar?

Shawn 37:27

Well I think like a per a a simulated person?

Craig 37:31

No when you helping you? No like an uh in a sense an AI agent would be a specialized AI you know bot or algorithm designed for whatever specific purpose in this case it would be like film production or if you're needing one that deals with legal stuff you know so that's that's what's happening is you get the it's not this we're not seeing that generalized AI creation that does everything. Uh you're you're seeing it's specifically tailored to now being AI agent AI agents being developed to have specialties. And so you now have Apple who's going all well let's create the units that we can sell I mean apparently like Nvidia speaking of NVIDIA has prepped or planned to buy tens of thousands of these new Apple units that have been designed around AI. And so now you can also for this for this month have your own and start building them and developing them all locally.

Shawn 38:24

So it's just this is just the beginning the funny thing for to me too is that a lot of these big celebrities own AI companies or have stock in AI is that right well Ben Affleck sold his AI company for 600 million dollars or something. Wow and it's the South Park guys own it own a uh an AI company as well right uh I can't remember can't remember any of these names but but but they all own these these companies that are making these things interesting you know where we're heading right oh we're heading to Blade Runner. We're heading to somebody's gonna marry their AI you know you know we got the AI porn the AI I know right so somebody we're heading to Blade Runner where where we're not gonna know if the if the girl I'm dating is is a is AI or if she's real or not real or it was a movie that popped in my head when I was watching this movie.

Craig 39:14

I was like damn this is happening.

Shawn 39:17

Right? Where they it's the classic scene off the top where he goes to interview her and they're sitting at the table and he's giving her this this test to see if she's human or or she's you know a synthetic as they called them. Yeah. And and you know he goes through 600 questions and he he can't figure it out right until the 600 question or something or yeah. Anyways.

Craig 39:37

Well we

Hiatus Plans And Next Movie

Craig 39:38

were going to do Blade Runner we never did uh we still have that as an option but uh just so for the people who are listening uh we're gonna take a a hiatus for five weeks so in we're supposed to be taking it right now and well it's uh a this is a bonus yeah but Craig couldn't let go couldn't let go I wouldn't even call it a hiatus because this is basically what our output for the past three times anyway.

Shawn 40:00

Yeah so it's I know I was thinking that too there's not really gonna be a delay there's no break because like this is how long we take because the next one's gonna be kind of the normal time we do it. But let's just pretend can we pretend that we're taking a break.

Craig 40:14

And the movie we're gonna we're gonna talk about next uh is called Social Reckoning and it's coming out mid-October sometime.

Shawn 40:22

And that's why it kind of tied into the to the to the artificial which I was saying because it's the sequel to the social network. It is directed by David Venture which uh I mean I love David Fenture films so I'm excited about that aspect and it's got a a great cast too uh there's a lot of great actors in it we won't get into it right now but um well Sean I hope you have a good break and I hope you relax and come refresh I'm gonna take that knee rover home with me so I don't get killed on the way home.

Susie 40:47

Quick step home.

Craig 40:48

Hey thanks for coming appreciate it.

Shawn 40:51

Yeah thanks uh I don't know if if I'm saying goodbye to the real you or the artificial you but uh it was great hanging yeah the other two are in Jamaica right now yeah on a beach right on a beach yeah I get it anyway until next time until next time see ya move your basket