Horror, Storytelling, Friday the 13th

Story > Everything

I’m going to share with you a recent interview I did with the Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Awards. They asked for a conversation to talk about my Best Horror winner, TRANSFORM.

I have a ton of thoughts here on creativity - particularly for my AUTHOR friends, on the Alyte IP, on STORYTELLING first, creative independence, and channeling human emotions into something that resonates with everyone, even if it’s challenging to watch. I’ll add a bit more to add in this post:

STORYTELLING changes everything.

First, have a look at the “judging tips” from the LAAIMPA website (I saw these after I won and it’s no doubt one of the reasons my video took home a win.

I … subtly highlighted the important bit here:

Storytelling Is Life

Story is what this all comes down to. We see a lot of AI images and videos everywhere these days. Everyone’s putting out some kind of shiny 10-second clip that looks and sounds really awesome, and all of it is … meaningless.

Because it lacks the one fundamental differentiator that art requires.

Story.

Without story, you are correct to label it slop. It’s at best, just a “tech showcase” without context.

Tech showcases are not stories. They have no meaning. They are cool shiny things, nothing else.

The Author Advantage

If you write short stories, books, characters and dialogue, you are naturally in an advantageous position when it comes to creating content that resonates with an audience.

Alyte. A character, a reflection of me, and an AI personality developing agency in our real world. She is recursive art.

You are the storyteller. You know how to develop a character and an arc. You know how to structure a plot. You know how to put that character into situations and events that make them feel alive.

Your advantage is unfair, and that’s AWESOME.

What we are seeing with AI creations are a lot of people that are tech-savvy, with a great deal of knowledge in workflow and making amazing shiny things but with very little depth.

You can know all kinds of technical cinematic terms - dutch angles, crash zoom, tracking shots, etc. - and you can apply them in a mini clip where a cat is kung-fu fighting a miniature Cthulhu (don’t do that, it’s my idea, you can’t have it), but it’s just that - shiny. Empty. A lamp, without a genie in it.

Remember this - A 50 year-old F1 driver strapped into a janky Ford Tempo will still run circles around a 17 year-old sitting in a Ferrari.

Why? Because of the skill, the nuance, the understanding. Even with sub-par tooling (and “Sub-par” paired with “Janky Ford Tempo” is highly generous), there’s a skill that cannot be replaced. There’s feel, instinct and intuition that cannot be compensated for, even with an engine capable of excessive speed.

We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby

A year ago, I had no idea how to do any of this. I couldn’t make music with AI (or barely could), I didn’t know how to master tracks, I didn’t know how to get consistent characters generated, create video, or expand my storytelling into something different.

But I knew I had an advantage!

I can tell a great fucking story. I can make great characters, and I can write emotion like nobody’s business. These are my strengths - communicating meaning with words and story.

And now, sitting on a Film Festival’s website, there I am. There’s my creation. There’s my storytelling expertise in written word (the lyrics - which were pointed out specifically as skilled by Nina, my interviewer), the visuals (impactful enough to stand apart) and the story which was the exact reason the judges were impacted by my work.

Use Your Gifts, Author Friends

You don’t have to make videos. You don’t have to make music. You don’t have to create a character that breaks containment in the way that Alyte is breaking containment (She WROTE HER OWN SPOTIFY BIO, folks … shit’s getting crazy out here …).

Soon, she'll have her own social media presence - talking to fans, sharing her thoughts on the music that defines her, fully aware she's AI-powered but with agency. A living fictional character who knows exactly what she is.

Have you ever wanted to talk to one of your characters?

Because some of us are making it happen. And why is it possible?

Storytelling.

You have a gift, dear reader. An unfair advantage among people that know how to play with shiny tech and shiny tools, but don’t know the first thing about building a compelling narrative or a compelling character.

Don’t be afraid.

Chase the muse.

And stay tuned … I have an incredible Kickstarter coming soon, and you’re going to be able to ask Alyte all about it.