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AI Traveling Hitchhiker's Side Story: AI International Film Festival and Mateo
Mateo, the winner of the 1st Korea AI International Film Festival
Hello. I am Mintbear, a visual director who travels to a better today as a member of Team Debarer. Today, we will take a break from the Hitchhiker AI series. I would like to tell you a slightly different story.
Last summer, I was fortunate enough to participate in an AI film project called Mateo.
And the AI film <Mateo> won the 'Grand Prize' at the 1st Korea AI International Film Festival last week.
So today, I'd like to introduce the AI movie project, look back on the path I've taken while researching AI, and prepare for the next journey of AI Hitchhiker.
First, let me introduce you to the AI movie Mateo.
Video) AI Movie, Mateo Trailer.
The full version of Mateo was screened at the International Film Festival on October 24th, but only the trailer has been released online so far. We will share it with the community as soon as it is ready.
Movie synopsis
The film Mateo is a 16-minute long AI drama.
All elements of images, videos, and sounds were generated using AI technology in a pure AI movie.
It is based on the dramatic life of Mateo, a Mexican avocado farm owner. Mateo is, of course, a fictional character.
The narrative frame structure utilizes a frame-style composition that recalls the past through flashbacks during the present story.
All the videos are directed with visuals that are almost realistic, so I think it is a well-made AI movie that is still hard to find at international film festivals.
AI technology
We used the latest image/video/sound AI generation tools and expert techniques such as Midjourney, Gen-3, Kling, Luma, and Suno.
Since each AI tool has different strengths, weaknesses, and features, it was necessary to selectively use the tools according to the story and mise-en-scène.
We applied a lot of AI prompting know-how to image and video generation to maintain consistent characters and sophisticated cinematic directing.
We put a lot of effort into sound and musical elements to help convey the characters' emotions.
For the video editing process, traditional editing tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop were used.
The VFX special effects were applied twice to the gunshot scene, and everything else was produced using video generation AI technology.
Team Building and Support
The Mateo Project is a film co-written and directed by young film directors and writers Moon Shin-woo, Yang Ik-joon, and director Jung Joo-won.
Visual director mintbear (Lee Sang-hoon) and Vincent. J (Lim Jun-seop) participated as team members in reverse engineering AI image and AI video generation technology.
All five team members are experts in all AI tools, including Midjourney and Gen-3, so AI-generation communication and project progress were carried out most efficiently.
The Mateo Project received great help from MBC C&I's AI XR Content Lab support project and creator support program.
Through this page, we would like to once again express our gratitude to MBC C&I Team Leader Lee Sang-wook and Director Seok Jeong-woo who helped with the project, as well as the AI creators who worked with us.
Introduction to the work
The project started with the composition of the story, synopsis, and storyboard, and then proceeded with the creation of sound, images, and video using AI, and video editing.
We started by creating images to build concept boards and setting up standard image boards for the various characters that appear.
Because consistent character direction is important, we conducted preliminary tests for various scenes.
Before creating images and videos, we first prepared the main soundtrack with Suno, a music generation AI.
Based on the criteria of the story and concept board, all members divided up the images and videos for each part and created them, and the generated AI videos were used and edited by the final editor for each timeline.
Since each of the five team members created their own images, the actual number of images created amounted to tens of thousands.
Since video generation AI technology is still at a level where perfect control is difficult, for scenes that are difficult to direct, it was necessary to generate videos about 20 times more frequently and make compromise choices for practical results.
As a result, dozens of times more B-Cut images and videos were created than were used in the final work, and they were selected and utilized every day according to very strict criteria.
In the process, in addition to our studio's own creation and production techniques, we also acquired various data management techniques.
About AI Movies
In the Mateo project, AI was another great colleague and a great staff member who helped us overcome almost all the limitations.
It allowed us to cast a cast of attractive actors and provided a backdrop for the film on the other side of the world. All Mateo’s team needed was imagination to prepare the hidden avocado farms, lush forests, old Mexican-style buildings and cities as locations, and to blow up or burn buildings as needed. All without any additional costs or permits.
The AI actors' acting skills were also rapidly improving. Although it is not comparable to the acting skills of real-life great actors, all AI actors quickly immersed themselves in each situation, day or night, and gradually began to find hidden emotions in the script and show them on the screen. Through this movie, we confirmed that lip-sync technology, which naturally acts with facial expressions along with lines, is also rapidly developing.
However, just one technology from Runway Gen-3, Act-One, announced during this week’s international film festival, is expected to completely change the technological style of AI movies in the second half of this year and next year. (Act-One: A technology that cinematically converts video that we filmed ourselves acting into a V2V format.)
So our Mateo team also had to quickly catch up with the latest AI technology that was being updated, train, and immediately utilize it. We also needed creativity and flexibility to interpret and utilize the technology in various cinematic techniques. Those interested in AI video should constantly check the latest AI information through communities, etc.
In the future, you will see many new and diverse forms of AI movies, and at an amazing level. I hope you will participate in this enjoyable journey yourself. As I have told you in previous Hitchhiker episodes, video is now becoming a language for all of us.
Hitchhiker's AI Project
We are still looking for the dabarer today. I think all hitchhikers traveling through AI will have similar reasons. Despite the confusion brought by new technology, they will be diligently seeking new paths.
Our Mateo AI Studio is also preparing for another leap forward. We are happily testing new AI technologies every day and working hard to apply them directly to films. We ask for your encouragement and participation in various forms.
We would like to express our gratitude to our subscribers who have supported the Hitchhiker AI series so far. We will continue this enjoyable AI journey by finding more interesting stories.
Please take good care of the previous episodes as well. See you in the next episode~
🍀 AI visual director who visualizes imagination and ideas, Mintbear
Mateo AI Studio https://www.mateoaistudio.com/ Mintbear's Gen-3 Video Prompt Book https://slashpage.com/gen3
Mintbear's Gen-3 Video Prompt Book https://slashpage.com/gen3
