The humans behind “Air Head”

In the very near future, you will be able to put together a Generative AI video like this wonderful “Air Head” short film.


This was released by OpenAI last week as a showcase of the upcoming text-to-video Sora platform. The description on the OpenAI site:

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Based in Toronto, shy kids are a multimedia production company who utilized Sora for their short film about a balloon man. “We now have the ability to expand on stories we once thought impossible,” shares the trio made up of Walter Woodman, Sidney Leeder and Patrick Cederberg. Walter, who directed Air Head, remarks that “as great as Sora is at generating things that appear real, what excites us is its ability to make things that are totally surreal. A new era of abstract expressionism.” Speaking to the wider industry, “people from all over the world with stories ready to burst out of their chests finally have the opportunity to show the world what’s inside.”
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Despite its jaw-dropping AI-generated visuals, the video is very much a human endeavour. The team had to conceptualize the idea, type in the prompts, write the script, do the voice-over and edit the video.

This means that more than ever, humans need to get good at the skills of creative thinking, writing, visual design, speaking, idea pitching and video-editing. (Disclaimer: I teach most of this skills for a living, ahem!)

Only then will they wield Gen AI technologies well, and pull away from all the generic AI content that the masses are happily creating.

Original LinkedIn post