Decoding AI assessment 1 – video proposal

Assessment 1 – video proposal

I aim to revolve my final explainer video around the topic ‘what does the rise of AI generated art and automation mean for creative industries?’. AI generated art and media is becoming increasingly popular; programs can generate creative illustrations, images, videos, posters and more in a matter of seconds, which can save time and resources. However, will these programs actually replace artistic jobs from humans?

Kalpokienė (2024) suggests that to famous artists who have already established their name in the creative industries, AI and automated art may be less impactful compared to emerging artists who now must compete with computer generated art. This implies that human artists are not necessarily at risk of being replaced entirely, rather AI and automated art are just now more prominent in the industry. However, Kalpokienė (2024) also describes how AI generated art and media can be an “attractive option” to companies who want to produce content that is time and cost efficient. In this case, human artistic jobs can be overlooked in favour of automated art that can be tailored to the exact need of the company and be ready for distribution at “machine speed” (Kalpokien, 2024).

Phillip Maggs, the Director of New Horizons at the design company Superside believes that AI is not will not overtake entry-level design jobs. He states that AI is a “tool” that is not used to “produce all outcomes”, meaning that AI is not a wipeout solution to complete a project. In terms of entry level design jobs, Maggs contends that they must “evolve with the times that we’re in with AI”, and it is not dissimilar to evolutions in the creative industries in the past, such as the rise of digital cameras.

Furthermore, Jean-Baptiste Hironde (2023) from Forbes provides an insightful perspective on the use of AI in creative workplaces; he asserts that creatives who “lack technical expertise” in their field can now use AI and automation to fill in the gaps, which could allow more people to creative work that they previously might have struggled with. Like Maggs, Hironde likens the rise of AI to previous technology uprisings in the past, like the mobile phone industry in the early 2000’s.

After researching various arguments on the topic, it is clear that the question of how AI and automated art and media will impact the creative industries is not black and white. AI has many benefits in the creative industry, but also can potentially put jobs at risk due to its unprecedented speed and skill. My video explainer aims to explore the perspectives and arguments on this issue, including the advantages and disadvantages.

Reference list

Hironde J-B (2023) How AI Is Changing The Future Of Creative Enterprise, Forbes, accessed 7 August 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/03/27/how-ai-is-changing-the-future-of-creative-enterprise/

Kalpokienė J (2024) Law, Human Creativity and Generative Artificial Intelligence: Regulatory Options, Routledge, United Kingdom.

Maggs P and Martin M (27 February 2024) ‘How AI Will Transform Creative Industries: An Interview with Phillip Maggs’, Superside, accessed 6 August 2024. https://www.superside.com/blog/ai-in-creative-industries

Decoding AI post #3

Blog post #3

This week we discussed the phenomenon of dark advertising. This was something completely new to me as I’d never heard this term before, though after learning about them I recognise I may have seen then before. Dark advertisements are not public, they are specifically micro-targeted to their intended audience and then immediately deleted, making it almost impossible for anyone other than the intended viewer to see them (Carah, 2022). Moreover, targeted ads are advertisements shown to a specific audience based on their previous online activity, demographic traits, or even what their online followers/friends are looking at. Targeted ads are different from dark ads because there is a public record and archive of these advertisements, and anyone can view them. Dark ads can advertise products that are unhealthy or potentially harmful such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling and unhealthy foods, which can be particularly dangerous if they are targeted at children (which they commonly are). Dark ads can also target specific demographics, like race or gender, or other personal traits. For example, Carah (2022) explains that “people identified as high-volume alcohol consumers” are more likely to be targeted for alcohol advertisements, which is sinister because that can be detrimental for their mental and physical health.

I can’t personally recall any specific experiences I’ve had with dark advertising – which demonstrates the insidious manipulation tactics they use; they are so secretive and sneaky you may not even realise if you’ve been the target of them. In regards to targeted advertising, I’ve begun to notice and analyse the ads I’m shown on social media more critically. I mostly receive ads for clothing, fashion, makeup/skincare, and food, though these are very broad topics and likely are shown to most people who share the same demographics as me.

A key point that I found insightful was the social role of advertising in society. People make meaning through the institutions in society like schools, university, family, news, sports, media, etc. Ads for such institutions can be used to reinforce values in society and try to persuade people to engage with their product by playing to their principles (Trott et al, 2021). These also must adapt to the evolving times. For example, 60 years ago there were advertisements promoting cigarettes, whereas now we have ads to discourage and warn about the dangers of smoking. Moreover, ads that want to appeal to families would include family values in their promotions like love, happiness, and solidarity. This demonstrates the social and cultural role advertising plays in perpetuating values in society.

 

Carah N, Brownbill A, Dobson A, Robards B, Angus D, Hawker K, Hayden L, and Tan X (7 September 2022), ‘How dark is ‘dark advertising’? We audited Facebook, Google and other platforms to find out’, The Conversation, accessed 8 August 2024, https://theconversation.com/how-dark-is-dark-advertising-we-audited-facebook-google-and-other-platforms-to-find-out-189310

Trott, V, Li, N, Fordyce, R, and Andrejevic, M (2021) ‘Shedding light on “dark” ads’, Continuum (Mount Lawley, W.A.)35(5), 761–774. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2021.1983258

Decoding AI post #2

Blog post #2

After being introduced to the ARC Centre for ADM+S, a project I saw on their website that I found interesting is the Automated Content Regulation (Sexuality Education and Health Information) project. We’ve discussed this topic briefly in class and I hadn’t thought too much about this issue. ADM and AI are often used on social media platforms to regulate inappropriate content. This software is programmed to report content that doesn’t meet community guidelines, yet often posts containing sexual health education and information are flagged and deemed to violate the guidelines. This project involved talks with researchers associated with sexual justice, who spoke about their experiences with sexual health and education information being moderated on social media platforms. I find this topic interesting, as using social media is an effective way to communicate helpful information to young adults, (especially in the area of sexual health that is particularly relevant to them), yet ADM and AI often deem this to be inappropriate. Like we have discussed in class, AI is built by humans and therefore has human biases, so it is interesting to see how humans can train AI to recognise content that is helpful and not deem it as taboo, when humans ourselves are still learning this. Furthermore, this project also discussions on gender identify and nudity. I find this particularly interesting as there are many misogynistic biases regarding social media content regulation. These can include content about breastfeeding, artwork, fashion, and gender equality in general. Women’s bodies are continuously reported on social media, training AI with even more discriminatory biases.

Secondly, the connection between ADM and AI and human discrimination is something that I hadn’t previously considered. Of course, ADM and AI can be discriminatory and biased, because it is developed by humans, yet I hadn’t really thought about it until our class discussions and through the studio learnings. ADM and AI make assumptions based on people’s demographics. For example, an algorithm that assessed insurance risks charged residents from a postcode with a mostly Caucasian popultion 30% less than postcodes where most residents are from minority ethnicities (Mendoza et al, 2020). People may assume that artificial intelligence would be completely neutral with no ’personal’ values or biases, yet it is programmed by humans with human flaws.

 

Mendoza B, Szolllosi M, and Leiman T (2020) ‘Automated decision making and Australian discrimination law’, Computers and Law: Journal for the Australian and New Zealand Societies for Computers and the Law’, accessed on 6 August 2024. https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ANZCompuLawJl/2021/4.html#fn1

ARC Centre for ADM+S. ‘Automated Content Regulation (Sexuality Education and Health Information). https://www.admscentre.org.au/automated-content-regulation-sexuality-education-and-health-information/

Decoding AI, Automating Societies post #1

Blog post #1

Before entering the Decoding AI, Automating Societies studio, my knowledge of AI was (and as I’m still learning, still is) limited. I’ve heard of and used programs like ChatGTP, and seen the new AI functions of social media platforms, like Meta AI on Instagram and Facebook, and My AI on Snapchat. I haven’t really used them that seriously, mostly as a joke to see what will happen. Even though AI has developed so much in the last few years and is now integrated as part of our everyday lives, on our phones, computers, and other technologies, I still tend to associate the idea of artificial intelligence with robots and machinery. As we’ve discussed in the first two classes, this may be due to the media portrayal of AI over many decades. Many films tend to portray the idea of artificial intelligence as a war, humans against the evil robots who want to control the world. Examples include The Terminator and Blade Runner. Or contrastingly, they also can depict friendly robots who help the humans, like WALL-E. Either way, films such as these have ingrained in me to associate AI with machinery and robotics, whereas now days it is more relevant in the form of algorithms and automated decision-making. I hadn’t heard the term automated decision-making (ADM) before, though I had an understanding of what it means. ADM refers to software programs that “sift through massive amounts of data” and make decisions based on these (Sadowski, 2021). It can regard both serious and everyday things; for example, it can decide whether an insurance claim is accepted or rejected, or recommend new songs to you on Spotify based on your previous listening (Sadowski, 2021). Before this studio, I had a general idea of that ADM meant but am looking forward to dissecting it in more detail. I’m hoping to gain more knowledge about the actual workings of AI and ADM through this studio. I tend to be a bit ignorant about these topics; logically I know that AI and ADM have a significant impact on my life, but I’ve never really questioned it before. I am hoping to learn more about these topics so I can learn to question these programs and understand the positives and negatives. I feel as though the workings of AI and ADM are very secretive; even though they have access to personal information and knowledge about us, the functioning of these programs are invisible to the public (known as black boxes). Hopefully with more knowledge and education about AI, we can use it to help improve society instead of perpetuating the ‘humans against robots’ narrative because people don’t know what’s going on.

Sadowski J (30 November 2021) ‘Artificial intelligence has probably already made decisions about you. Here’s why that matters’, ABC News, accessed 6 July 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-30/why-you-should-care-about-artificial-intelligence/100591684

Assessment 5.2 studio reflection

I hope our short film Rogue engaged the audience with the multiple types of comedy we utilised. A key concern of the studio, Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre, was exploring how to creatively think of comedy ‘within and beyond genre, form, and media’. We wanted to explore comedy through mode and genre, as comedy does not just have to be a genre on its own, but can be mixed in to others as well, known as genre hybridisation. We combined an action/spy film with comedy, with films like Johnny English serving as heavy inspiration. Being a genre hybridised film, we didn’t want to just rely on verbals jokes from dialogue, we wanted to have visual and situational comedy to keep the audience entertained. An example of this is when Agent Whyte asks the café goer if he’s seen Agent Wolley and shows a photo of her. Unbeknownst to them, Wolley appears behind the window, sees them, and runs away, while all characters are still in frame. Furthermore, we introduced elements of satire, a mode of comedy, satirising aspects of modern life. We also added aspects of parody but were careful to not turn it into a parody of a spy film. The intention was instead to take conventions of a spy film and add comedy to them, most evident during the stand-off and fight scene at the end. I hope these engaged the audience, especially through our goofy yet loveable main protagonist Agent Whyte.

If we were to keep working on Rogue, there are a few small things that I would tweak. There are a couple of shots that are slightly out of focus and some that had dodgy audio quality (due to the lapel microphone issues). Of course, we were on an extremely tight filming schedule and had no time to re-shoot any of this once we noticed it in post-production; if we had more time to continue working on this film, I would like to re-shoot those scenes to make the editing process smoother. Cleaning up these small technical issues could make the film look and sound more polished and professional. That being said, I think our editing team did a fantastic job to fix the audio quality in some shots that were disastrous to begin with. I would also like to extend the beginning of the film, establishing the time (1964) and setting in more detail. This could be achieved through props or title cards on the screen. Moreover, I would like to have had more aspects of satire – attacking or making fun of a social issue. This was an idea that was discussed in pre-production, to use our film to satirise aspects of modern day life, such as social media, public transport, technology, and other social norms. While we did include satirical elements, such as making fun of ridiculous coffee orders and vaping, I would have liked more of it to emphasise the incongruity of our main character in her new surroundings.

From my studio, Alex, Jazmin, Luciana, Claudia, and Jayden addressed some key ideas of the studio in their short film Operation Superstar. I really enjoyed the dialogue in their film, especially by their two slightly delusional protagonists Harry and Fergus. Writing for comedy is exceptionally challenging and I think this group wrote a great combination of subtle and obvious jokes. Their film addresses many of the theories and ideas explored in the studio, such as satire, incongruity, and absurdity. This film is strangely wholesome, a story about friendship and following your dreams. This also addresses an insight of the studio, which is that comedy doesn’t have to be ‘in your face’ the whole time; this is easily also a coming-of-age type of film, showing how they have incorporated genre hybridisation. Also from my studio, the short film Trip Up by Angus, K, Giorgio, Ben, and Saskia, addresses some key ideas. I loved the camera work in this film that enhanced the chaos experienced by the characters in their trip, as well how ridiculous they look from an outsider’s view. For example, they repeatedly have shots from a low angle just beneath the characters’ chins, which creates such a hilarious look, as the characters appear so disoriented. This demonstrates the use of visual comedy, the idea that not all comedy has to come from dialogue.

From another studio, Visual Blueprint, I believe the short film Three Strikes by Elsa Walsh, Victoria Riyadi, Lloyd Fitzgerald, and Lexie Hakim, portrayed key ideas of their studio amazingly. From the studio descriptions, a main idea of their studio was to focus on the visual aesthetic of a film in order to enhance the narrative. Three Strikes had some beautiful visuals, and I love how the setting of all the characters compliments their personalities. For example, Lady Butterfly is a gorgeous fashionista, and she is first seen in a pink tinted bathroom having a bubble bath. Spi is a nerdy, awkward guy who aims to please, and he is seen in his living room with movie posters on the walls and surrounded by mess on the table. The shots transition smoothly from one location to another, despite the setting often being very different. They have thoughtfully placed the camera in places that are visually pleasing and demonstrate good technical skills. A good example of this is the shot of the Professor opening the letter while leaning against the wall. He’s in the centre of the frame, with one half of the screen being the alleyway surroundings and the other half being the wall. It’s a really cool visual and I can tell they’ve carefully thought about the placement. This film demonstrates some beautiful cinematography and thoughtful visual placement, which I believe is a focus of their studio.

Index post

Reflection posts:

Week 7: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/chloe-stelling/2024/04/25/beyond-a-joke-week-7-major-project-ideas-and-reflection/

Week 8: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/chloe-stelling/2024/05/10/beyond-a-joke-week-8-reflection/

Week 9: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/chloe-stelling/2024/05/17/beyond-a-joke-week-9-reflection/

Week 10: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/chloe-stelling/2024/05/17/beyond-a-joke-week-10-reflection/

Week 11: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/chloe-stelling/2024/05/24/beyond-a-joke-week-11-reflection/

Final reflective essay and film: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/chloe-stelling/2024/06/02/beyond-a-joke-beyond-a-genre-final-reflective-essay-and-film/

Beyond a joke, beyond a genre – final reflective essay and film

 

Final reflective essay

The studio prompt is ‘how can we creatively think of comedy as a mode within (and beyond) genre, form, and media?’. I believe my group’s final production Rogue communicates a range of different ideas from the studio. Firstly, I think we communicated comedy through genre in creative ways. We were very interested in the idea of genre hybridisation, though initially this was a challenging concept to navigate. Dunleavy (2008) describes genre hybridisation as “forms whose blend of conventions can be sources to generic categories which have been historically distant from each other”. Our hybrid of comedy and action are not necessarily historically distant, with films such as Johnny English and Austin Powers serving as large inspirations for us. However, I believe we explore the different conventions and tropes of action/spy films in a unique way, creatively adding in comedy (particularly satirical and situational comedy).

A concept we had to navigate was the difference between genre hybridisation and parody; a parody makes fun of a particular genre whereas genre hybridisation combines the genres together. Toplyn (2014) asserts that to create a successful parody you must study the stylistic and technological elements so you can use these comedically. We had to do this for a spy/action genre, though we had to be careful not to parody the genre the whole time, as we didn’t want that to be the focus of the film. Learning about these modes of comedy (parody, satire, genre hybridisation) and their different distinctions has definitely shifted my idea of comedy over the semester. I used to think about comedy as just one big mode of its own, and hadn’t considered the different sub-types of comedy and their unique conventions.

If I were to keep working on the project, I would enhance the incongruity and absurdity in the film. Audissino (2023) describes the incongruity theory of humour as a norm, an anticipation, or common sense being disrupted, the surprise of which creates the humour. Our original concept was the idea of the main character being out of touch with reality in some way. Whilst we remained true to this concept, I would have liked the absurdity and incongruity of the character in the ‘normal’ world to be more pronounced. I would have also liked the beginning and end which are set in 1964 to be more obvious, perhaps through props, editing, or setting.

In the first three weeks of semester, the class produced individual weekly sketches. I found this was useful to work alone while I adjusted to the class and began learning about the basic theories of comedy. Then in weeks 4-6, we formed different small groups every week to produce more detailed sketches. I was sceptical about this idea to begin with as I had enjoyed working by myself in the first three weeks, however I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I actually enjoyed collaborating with new people each week. It was useful to have more people sharing ideas that we could all help develop, and was interesting to hear others’ creative processes. Through these sketches, I found people who I worked really well with, and we formed a group for the major production.

I found the first couple of brainstorming session for the major production a bit challenging; every member of our group is so creative and have lots of ideas that it was a little difficult to narrow down an exact narrative and comedic style we wanted to explore. Though after we settled on the spy agent and time travel narrative, it was much smoother sailing from there. I had a large contribution to writing the script as that is my strength, and I was pleased with the final script. Filming was long and we shot over a few days. Our group members all had acting roles in the film (with Zoe as our lead protagonist). I’m not too keen on performing so it was daunting yet exciting to step out of my comfort zone. I feel that filming could have been easier if we had done more location scouting in pre-production. However, I enjoyed shooting; it definitely made our group closer, and we were able to collaborate and direct efficiently.

Editing was a long and intense process. I had never been part of a production this big before and didn’t fully realise the huge amount of editing that needed to be done until we got there. Two other members and I spent long days and nights in the edit suites, tediously editing and refining our footage. I didn’t have a large amount of actual ‘hands-on’ editing skills, so my main role was to watch and help inform the choices. I feel as though in this process, some members had to do an enormous amount of more work than others, which was disappointing but made me extremely proud of the editing teams’ colossal effort. I couldn’t be prouder of our final film, and this whole experience has given me plenty of new skills that I can take with me in other productions.

 

References

Audissino, E. (2023), “From Dionysia to Hollywood: An Introduction to Comedy’s Long (and Bumpy) Road” in The Palgrave Handbook of Music in Comedy Cinema, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 8.

Dunleavy T (2008) ‘Hybridity in TV Sitcom: The Case of Comedy Verité’, Flow, Victoria University of Wellington, available from https://www.flowjournal.org/2008/12/hybridity-in-tv-sitcom-the-case-of-comedy-verite%C2%A0%C2%A0trisha-dunleavy%C2%A0%C2%A0victoria-university-of-wellington%C2%A0/

Toplyn, J. (2014), “Parody Sketches” in Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, New York: Twenty Lane Media, pp. 239–261.

Beyond a Joke – week 11 reflection

This week was a massive week for our group (and for most groups I’m sure). We had two huge days of filming on Sunday and Monday. We picked up where we left off from last Wednesday’s shooting on Sunday, having an all-day filming session in the city. We met at Flinders Street station and began filming all over the streets of Melbourne. Most of the footage we were filming on Sunday related to the montage sequence in our film, a sequence of our main character Agent Whyte having just arrived in 2024 from 1964 as she explores all the different aspects of modern society in Melbourne.

Throughout the day, we actually found that we needed/wanted to go off script a bit; some scenes needed to be restructured to fit the settings we had available. No drastic changes were made that affected the overall narrative, just a few pieces here and there that were added or changed. For example, we decided on set that Whyte should arrive in 2024 coming from the inside of a toilet cubicle instead of just appearing in the middle of Flinders Street station. Small elements like this that we accessible to us through our surroundings helped us develop the narrative a bit more than what was in the script. This has also taught me about the astronomical amount of planning that goes into planning a film; hopefully in the future we can do more location scouting ahead of filming so we can anticipate what the settings will be like to film. Whilst this was a big day, I personally had a lot of fun and I hope my group did too.

Furthermore, we had another big filming day on Monday. We were aiming to get the rest of the scenes filmed which was very ambitious of us, considering we didn’t get as much done as we hoped on Sunday, but we surprised ourselves by achieving this. We had almost all of our characters being filmed on this day (not that we have heaps of characters, but we were filming more people than Sunday, and all in different locations across the city). One particular scene that I enjoyed filming was the final fight scene, when Whyte finally confronts Wolley. We were so exhausted by the end of this but were deliriously happy to be finished with filming!

Next, on Wednesday, we began the editing process. This was quite tedious as we had to watch all the clips and select the best ones (I had to leave early so big thank you to the rest of my group for finishing this). Generally, all the clips we had were of good quality, but there were two scenes that had very strange audio that we didn’t pick up on during filming. One of the lapel microphones must have been acting up. I believe we have a temporary solution to this, but it’s something we can discuss and work through next week. Overall, this week entailed an enormous amount of work, time, and effort, but it was totally worth it. I’m beyond proud of my group for everything we have achieved and am keen to enter the next stage of our production Rouge!

Beyond a joke – week 10 reflection

In week 10, Monday’s class was dedicated to every group’s work in progress (WIP) presentations. This was a very daunting and vulnerable experience to share our work with not only the entire class but also two panel members who work professionally in comedy. Both Stayci and Hannah were very helpful and lovely, and their feedback was very valuable. A piece of feedback that seemed prominent to them was that we needed to make the parts of our film that are set in the 60’s more nuanced. We understood this feedback because we found this aspect of our film challenging which is why it was a bit underdeveloped. They also gave us some advice about the actual script, some things needed to be added or changed to help jokes land or to help the narrative make sense. Hannah gave us advice about our characters from an actor’s perspective, which prompted us to think more deeply about our main protagonist and her mindset.

It was also helpful to do a table read of the first two scenes of our script. We’d read it aloud before, but it was a different experience in front of an audience who hadn’t heard it before. It was nice when people laughed at jokes and were interested by the narrative (I hope!). Furthermore, it was also interesting and helpful to listen to other groups present and hear the feedback they received that were sometimes also relevant to my own group. I enjoyed listening to the other groups ideas and narratives, it was interesting to see the various approaches others have taken to the task.

On Wednesday’s class my group and I devoted this time to filming the first two scenes. I’ve never filmed something with so much equipment before, it was a very big task! First, we had to find a perfect place to film the office/meeting room scene. We knew we wanted to be in RMIT’s building 100 but it took a while to find the right location. However, after a kind staff member helped us, we were able to find one. Then came the task of setting up the space and equipment. We had lots to set up and it was a collective effort. I could probably have helped more with this, but I was rehearsing my lines as I had some big chunks of dialogue and I’m by no means an actor, so I was quite nervous! Zoe, Anna, and I who were being filmed on this day all had our spy agent costumes on, which I found quite fun. We did a LOT of takes of these scenes. It was more difficult than I thought but it was also more fun than I thought. After a few hours of filming in different locations, it was time to wrap up. Various members of the group had to leave, so Zoe and I stayed back to transfer the clips onto the hard drive, which I found very tedious because it took ages but of course, necessary.

This week was jam packed with things to do, and I’m extremely proud of my group for achieving what we did. I’m really happy with where we’re at in the project and I’m keen to film more next week.