AI Start Up Runway Offering Filmmakers Up To $1 Million If They Use AI Tech To Make Their Movies
A generative AI start up company called Runway, which recently partnered up with Lionsgate, has announced that they will give out grants of up to $1 million to filmmakers working on AI-powered film projects.
This initiative is called The Hundred Film Fund, and it was set up to help produce and fund as many as 100 short films and feature-length movies that use AI technology to tell their stories.
The funding grants will range from $5,000 to $1 million and decisions on applications will typically be made within 14 days of submission. Runway is also is offering up to $2 million in credits to use Runway’s gen-AI system.
To evaluate pitches for the fund, "Runway has assembled an advisory panel of tech and entertainment leaders. Initial advisors are: Jane Rosenthal, film producer and co-founder of Tribeca Festival; Richard Kerris, VP, GM of media and entertainment, Nvidia (which is an investor in Runway); artist, actor, producer and entrepreneur will.i.am (also a Runway investor); Stefan Sonnenfeld, an award-winning film colorist who is co-founder and president of post-production firm Company 3; and Christina Lee Storm, a creative producer who is founder and CEO of Asher XR.”
Runway co-founder and CEO Cris Valenzuela said that the company is “interested in only promoting AI as a new filmmaking tool, for both established and emerging creators. This is not about getting our money back.”
It’s explained that Runway will not take any ownership rights to the intellectual property created under their program. While they won’t distribute the films, they hope to connect those who get involved to buyers.
Valenzuela said: “We’re a software company. Our business is to sell tools. Our success will be rooted in our ability to help storytellers make these films.”
“We believe that the best stories are yet to be told, and that traditional funding mechanisms often overlook these new visions.”
will.i.am, of the Black Eyed Peas, said that with this tech a storyteller “has more time to develop the things you love about film — story and character development. If we’re using AI to do exactly what we did yesterday, that’s a poor use of imagination. The dreamers are going to use AI to tell stories differently.”
As for those in Hollywood that have expressed skepticism or fear about the future of AI in movie making, Valenzuela said: “Technology and cinema have always been intertwined. This, for us, just represents a new evolution of that.”
It will be interesting to see what kind of films come out of this initiative. I’m curious. AI technology is just going to get better and better as time goes on, and while a lot of people are resistant right now, there’s no stopping it, and it will be used a lot more in the process of filmmaking in the future.
Source: Variety