Howdy Storytellers 🤠,
The age of the blockbuster film is dead. In its wake something new is coming. And YOU might just be the one to create it.
Today I’m going to share with you why industrialized creativity is dying and the weird, fun, and ultimately, inspiring future that is coming to life right now.
Everyone likes to talk about the crisis happening in Hollywood. How there’s less days of in-person production (most of it has now been moved off shore) and less jobs than ever.
This misses the real point.
Hollywood has lost the plot. And in turn, all of humanity has.
The real crisis in Hollywood was never lost revenue, lost jobs, or even lost days of production.
It’s the fact that the story Hollywood is selling the masses is broken. It’s been a slow tearing at the seams for decades. The internet then blew it open.
Now… with AI… the entire story is being destroyed right in front of our eyes.
What’s next isn’t just about the next frontier of film and television. It’s about redefining what it means to be human in the age of AI. There’s been no more pivotal time to answer that question than right now.
And by the end of this article, instead of answering that question for you, I want to give YOU all the tools to help answer that for others. After all… Storytellers Rule the World and the world has never needed storytellers more than now.
But first, Movie Machine 2.0 is coming in the next few weeks. I’m diving in this week to use it myself. Can’t wait to share it with you all soon and after the insane amounts of hard work Sashv and the engineering team have poured into it 😊. To set your expectations upfront:
It is a meaningful improvement over Movie Machine 1.0 with a much easier to use interface, better and more consistent start frames, and more powerful video generation.
We’ve invested tons of hard work in freeing you from the “cognitive grunt work” that has previously come with AI filmmaking. Instead of trying to find the perfect prompt, how do we help free up more of your time to focus on the story? Instead of needing to learn a new tool, how do we make this simple to digest and understand so you can dive right in and start being creative?
With all of this said, Movie Machine 2.0 still has a long way to go. You won’t hear me shouting from the rooftops that you can make Hollywood quality films with AI just yet. The voice quality still needs more work, the videos can be remarkable in some shots – but we still want to give you more granular control of the generations. Animation is really really good, photorealistic is getting there but still sometimes dips back down into the uncanny valley.
We’re more excited than ever on where all of this is going. Just to see the improvements in a span of a half a year is mind blowing and we’re doubling down on our vision to help writers bring their books, scripts, and stories to life and make a living doing it.
After all, this revolution was never about obsessing over production quality, AI VFX, and cinematic shots. Yes, the sex appeal is there with all of that. I desperately await the day in which AI filmmaking can truly rival Hollywood in quality (again it’s getting closer each month, you’ll see soon with Movie Machine 2.0) and is easy for anyone to achieve (less time mucking around with the models and more time having fun!).
But that’s never what viewers wanted.
Viewers just want a freaking good story.
They are begging for it.
And it’s our job to obsess over that.
The Death of Industrialized Creativity
What happens when creativity gets abstracted to a balance sheet?
This might be the core question that late-stage capitalism asks of humanity: what happens when your soul gets abstracted to a balance sheet?
I think we know the answer. We all feel it.
Stories lack true depth. They just don’t click. No amount of A-list actors and car chase scenes make you care about a story that doesn’t feel relatable to you.
Increasingly, audiences have been spending time on social media, connecting with digital creators directly in the creator economy, and even watch YouTube directly on their Smart TVs (which YouTube now accounts for 13%+ of TV watch time in the U.S.).
But why did the Hollywood story stop resonating? Well, it stopped being true.
Think about the fundamental western story:
Someone has a flaw and a big challenge to conquer —> works really hard and struggles a lot —> eventually achieves something big that changes their life for the better and the lives of the people around them
This story has broken down.
For decades it hasn’t been true. Growing inequality with leverage brought by automation and globalization. The devaluing of physical labor with the decline of factory work and and now cognitive labor with the rise of AI.
The “American Dream” of if you work hard and honest you will live a better life in the future and your children will too – is dead for most.
And with the American Dream dead the Hollywood Dream is too.
Go to school, get a degree, get a good job, get a nice suburban home, and have a nice, happy family. If you’re reading this, you grew up in this world (or at least were told you did). And if you’re reading this, you also know this is not the world we live in any longer. And nothing we do is going to bring it back.
In a time when the promises of the industrial revolution have failed us, the notion of industrialized creativity is also failing us.
If the meta-story of America, the same meta-story that underpins Hollywood and the western world is failing – then what is the use of Hollywood anymore? Why do we need to live in a world where we all watch the same movies and shows and blockbuster hits make billions of dollars?
The answer is we don’t. The problem is the balance sheet necessitates we do.
Production budgets that can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The only way to keep the machine alive is to feed it with eyeballs… all of the eyeballs.
But the eyeballs are glazed over. In fact, they are looking at another, much smaller screen. And instead of a few new movies each week, they are drowned with endless content to choose from, catered to their own tastes and desires.
By even pretending that the old system works is just farcical.
Most of us know this.
Instead we have descended into something far more dangerous.
A sort of creative nihilism. We half heartedly hold out hope that the gatekeepers will save us while slowly letting our passion wither away with each passing day.
Quietly, we know the odds of us ever having a hit movie are close to zero. We want to be the exception, but we know we probably won’t.
And anything less than a hit?
Meaningless in the eyes of Hollywood. It gets chewed up by the machine of industrialized creativity and spit out.
So you sit there. Thinking. Dreaming. Wishing.
But not believing, maybe even feeling empty – creatively deprived.
This nihilistic attitude is pervasive throughout all society and areas of creativity (I’ve written about Publishing Nihilism before here).
It’s time we stop it.
There’s a better way forward – one where instead of dread we place hope in the future. And not because some far off producer will rain money on us (although if anyone does want to do that I am not complaining 😂).
We can create a better film industry. One instead of industrialized creativity, we embrace sovereign creativity.
How much more would you allow yourself to write, to create, and to produce if you knew it could/would matter to someone else?
Sovereign creativity: where you can create and share without permission (this is what the Movie Machine and Creatorwood Streaming Platform give you in tandem).
So what if instead of one big Hollywood dream and monolithic pop culture, we had a world where thousands of niche, micro-cultures could exist, all based around different stories and ways of living that give us all meaning?
The Rise of the Meaning Economy
Recently I spoke at Soulscape, an AI filmmaking conference in San Francisco.
Try to spot which one on stage is me 👇 (hint: I’m wearing cowboy boots).
There was lots of talk at the conference about agentic systems making movies for creators – and in general more and more people are excited about video models that can generate 1-2+ hours of video in one shot.
Technically this is really cool.
But… why would anyone want that?
The fun part of AI filmmaking is being involved in the story creation process, not just handing it off to a machine to do ALL the work for you.
Without that work the process loses a lot of it’s meaning, and hence enjoyment.
Wait, I know what many of you are thinking.
I’m the co-founder of an AI filmmaking company on a mission to help people make beautiful films way cheaper and way faster, often times with only one human involved in the entire process, all using AI.
But that’s the thing. For 99%+ of the films made using the Movie Machine, AI is what makes it possible. With the industrial production process you needed tons of capital and approval from a gatekeeper to have your story brought to life.
In the world of Creatorwood you just need your laptop, story, and a passion. It still takes hard work! But that’s the point. You make your movie, the AI just does the heavy lifting to make it possible for you to do so from the comfort of your couch.
What this means is:
You get to control the look and sound of all of your characters, locations, and props
You decide what shots to produce, which ones to change, and can adjust the AI adaptation of your story to be exactly what you want
You can edit every start frame in your film, down to the specific placement of objects in each shot + camera angles (we are working hard to make this even easier in Movie Machine 2.0!)
You can edit your film right inside of the Movie Machine customizing, the music, sound effects and more
And if you want to work with professionals who can actually turn your book or script into a film with AI for you, you can hire an AI filmmaker who can use the Movie Machine to bring your story to life. You can schedule a FREE consultation call with our team to learn more HERE.
The point is – as a storyteller you get to have the most fun and experience the most meaning possible when you get the chance to control as much of the process as possible – all while using technology to maximize your opportunities and potential.
The beautiful part?
The stories you create can give that SAME meaning to viewers.
Instead of one big pop culture narrative to choose from that has already left most behind, viewers will be able to choose from endless stories that give them hope in their own future.
Do I know what those stories will be? No.
But I do know that you all will be the ones to create them.
This is why the world needs millions of movies and shows – millions of stories brought to life that viewers can immerse themselves in and find meaning.
In the long run, despite there being less days of in-person production in Los Angeles, I’m hopeful there will be more creative opportunity than ever.
After all, as we shift into a post-labor economy, what activities will we choose to partake in that still bring us meaning, fulfillment, and joy? My guess is that many of us will choose to create stories.
And even more of us, will spend our time experiencing stories created by others.
It’s why Storytellers Rule the World. Without a story to believe and remind us that we matter and that life is worth living – the world becomes a very dark place.
So the Hollywood Dream may be dead. But it’s a good thing. Because your storytelling dreams are more alive than ever – and they will bring light to the whole world.
The old world shifting so radically into the new can feel overwhelming and scary at times. I’ll tell you why it excites me though.
The story of industrialized meaning, materialism, and creativity never worked for most of us. And even for the many it worked for – can we really not imagine a better way to live and find meaning?
I know we can. And this is our opportunity to do it.
The stories we love bring together people with shared passions and ideas – creating friendships, giving us belonging, and sharing with us a way to live our lives and think about the world that may just form the bedrock of our being.
We are all involved in important work. The most important work.
So maybe your AI film won’t make $1 billion and top the box office. Maybe it won’t make $1 million, or $100,000 or even $1,000. But if what you are creating has the chance to give someone else meaning and joy – even one person, it’s worth it.
In a world deep in a crisis of meaning and joy – giving someone a moment where they feel heard is priceless.
Exhale. Everything is great. You don’t need to top the charts or win an Oscar to have an incredible movie. That narrative is one they want you to believe – and for 90%+ of us it just stops us from creating.
The truth is it was never about the Oscars or box office.
It’s about creating something that lights you up inside and maybe, just maybe, will do the same for everyone else 💚.
I’m back to writing articles (ideally on a weekly basis) to help you all see storytelling and film differently – and achieve your dreams doing this wild thing we call AI filmmaking.
Next week I’ll be writing all about why the economics of Hollywood are broken and how you can create a profitable film business with just 1,000 true fans. If scaling our audience and eyeballs isn’t the only answer, we need a business model that incentives depth over engagement.
That’s what we will be exploring next time together.
In the meantime, I’ll be sharing more Movie Machine updates soon.
And as always, don’t forget…
Storytellers Rule the World,
Michael and the Creatorwood Team
P.S. If you are looking to take the technical work of AI filmmaking off your hands and just focus on making a great story, then you cmay love working with Creatorwood’s VIP Production Service.
You work with a trained AI director and they produce and edit your entire film with the Movie Machine for just $250/per finished minute (on average this process would take you 10+ hours per minute and cost $80-$120 in AI compute).
For a limited-time, we are offering a discounted rate of $200 per finished minute for folks who pre-order their production slot (we have just 100 slots available starting July 1st – we only have so many trained AI filmmakers 😊).
If you’re interested in working with us to bring your story to life as an AI movie, show, proof-of-concept, or even a trailer you can schedule a free consultation call HERE.