The charming film places the "art" in artificial intelligence

What happens when you mix an AI image generator, an 98-year-old woman called Lillian, and Harry Potter? The result is 'HAIRY POUTER is a film of a shorter length by Chris Carboni, a director who blends increasingly fun AI-generated images and a commentary on the classic novel written by a funny nonagenarian.

"Lillian is my maternal grandmother," says Chris. "She and I have always had a close relationship and I've been recording her giving reviews for probably 10 years."

When AI images generators first began to take over the internet around mid-2022, Chris saw the stars align into a new project which could make use of his many hours of recording and aid in understanding his relationship with this emerging technology. "I was surrounded by doubts about these machinesthat I wanted to explore] and was searching for an opportunity about them," explains Chris. "At the moment I was talking with my grandmother who just finished reading Harry Potter which I had purchased for her as a birthday gift."

From there, the film was put together in a flash using a quick crew of "my grandmother along with my wife and me, as well as our sound designer and composer and the entire team" - and the rest of it is (futuristic) time. The capabilities of AI are constantly evolving at a the speed of light We caught up with Chris Carboni to talk all things AI and art.

The image in this video is incredible. What were you using to get the results?

Chris: So we used MidJourney as it was in its first version. The first step was to enter the words of Lillian's without editing and checking what the program could produce based on just the quotes in the interview. We loved the artistic style it had come up with after just a few cycles of making new images. Thus, I wrote down some hallmarks of the artistic direction that was based on this image that it had produced.

I believe the first photo that we were shown was Ron wearing his long, wavy hair. It was amazing. I think it was sort of shoulders up, and it was clear that he didn't wear a shirt. The guy looked as if he was a kind of beach-god. When we got the opportunity to capture Harry and Ron in a group, the camera posed they were almost hugging and we thought, "Oh, this is wonderful."

The AI was allowed to come up with these interesting interpretations, and when we came across one we loved, we guided it to go along with that particular thread to ensure that it will always be entertaining and simple to follow.

How was it to apply AI to this very human-centric story?

Chris Chris I created this film I was a bit of anxiety [about AI]. However, I definitely enjoyed working with it for this film. I think that was an excellent use-case for this project since using AI was fundamental to the overall story.

This is what made it enjoyable, fascinating and memorable. It was kind of about the awkward but delightful relationship between AI and humans. It wasn't a project where we chose to not invest in an illustrator and tried to employ artificial intelligence instead. This was a project in which the use of artificial Intelligence was the basis of storytelling.

What do you think about AI entering the creative space?

Chris Chris: There's definitely something intriguing about this, but it's certainly become more difficult since the generators have become so widespread. They've been fully unleashed and extended to every one of these use cases. The subject has become a lot more difficult than I felt like it once was with regard to my personal perception and understanding of the subject.

It seems that anyone working in the creative field will have to determine the implications of this to their job, and adjust to the fact the fact that things will likely alter. Along with this change, will be opportunities for doing amazing innovative things. But also the automation of a lot of the work we artists admire. That makes me unhappy, if I'm sincere. I worry about art being reduced in value and becoming more expensive than it is already.

Would you use this technology for your job in the future?

Chris: Well I am a huge fan of making use of AI to enhance my emails and as a sort of personal assistant capable of answering questions, explaining complex ideas and completing repetitive jobs. In terms of creative work however, I'm not sure I understand. I don't intend to use the process in a manner which would substitute human talent in my team. I believe that the results aren't as great.

So much of the work we do comes from collaborating with others. An entire project that is created from start to finish with AI relies on the inputs coming from a person's mind. In some cases that might be great however, more often than not, productions benefit from a team of specialists that work in tandem, each one bringing their unique knowledge and creative insights into the mix.

Some of the most interesting uses I see are for generating early ideas and kickstarting creativity. Perhaps for raising funds for an idea and displaying the initial concepts in order to help get something off the starting point. For animation, however it is essential to have complete control over the minutiae of the scene to produce and creative reasons. This level of control is probably coming however, it's not that far off.