LBB Publisher – Michmutters

I can’t stop playing with Midjourney. It may signal the end of human creativity or the start of an exciting new era, but here’s me, like a monkey at a typewriter chucking random words into the algorithm for an instant hit of this-shouldn’t-be-as-good- as-it-is art.

For those who don’t know, Midjourney is one of a number of image-generating AI algorithms that can turn written prompts into unworldly pictures, It, along with OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, have been having something of a moment in the last month as people get their hands on them and try to push them to their limits. Craiyon – formerly DALL-E mini – is an older, less refined and very much wobblier platform to try too. It’s worth having a go just to get a feel for what these algorithms can and can’t do – though be warned, the dopamine hit of seeing some silly words turn into something strange, beautiful, terrifying or cool within seconds is quite addictive. A confused dragon playing chess. A happy apple. A rat transcends and perceives the oneness of the universe, pulsing with life. Yes Sir, I can boogie.

Within the LBB editorial team, we’ve been having lots of discussions about the implications of these art-generating algorithms. What are the legal and IP ramifications for those artists whose works are mined and drawn into the data set (on my Midjourney server, Klimt and HR Giger seem to be the most popular artists to replicate but what of more contemporary artists?). Will the industry use this to find unexpected new looks that go beyond the human creative habits and rules – or will we see content pulled directly from the algorithm? How long will it take for the algorithms to iron out the wonky weirdness that can sometimes take the human face way beyond the uncanny valley to a nightmarish, distorted abyss? What are the keys to writing prompts when you are after something very specific? Why does the algorithm seem to struggle when two different objects are requested in the same image?

Unlike other technologies that have shaken up the advertising industry, these image-generating algorithms are relatively accessible and easy to use (DALL-E 2’s waitlist aside). The results are almost instant – and the possibilities, for now, seem limitless. We’ve already seen a couple of brands have a go with campaigns that are definitely playing on the novelty and PR-angle of this new technology – and also a few really intriguing art projects too…

Heinz – ‘AI Ketchup’

Agency: Rethink

The highest profile commercial campaign of the bunch is Rethink’s new Heinz campaign. It’s a follow up to a previous campaign, in which humans were asked to draw a bottle of ketchup and ended up all drawing a bottle of Heinz. This time around, the team asked Dall-E 2 – and the algorithm, like its human predecessors, couldn’t help but create images that looked like Heinz branded bottles (albeit with a funky AI spin). In this case, the AI is used to reinforce and revisit the original idea – but how long will it take before we’re using AIs to generate ideas for boards or pitch images?

10 Iconic Brands

Agency: 10 Days

Creative agency 10 Days decided to get experimental with a project that was all about letting their team get their heads around the possibilities and limitations of the technology. They used Midjourney to create ads for ten iconic brands – and for each brand they created 24 images. As well as being a very timely PR opportunity for the agency, it was a chance to test, produce and consider. Florence Burge spoke to LBB here.

Short Film – ’31 Days’

Animation: Jeremy Higgins

This artsy animated short by art director and designer Jeremy Higgins is a delight and shows how a sequence of similar AI-generated images can serve as frames in a film. The flickering effect ironically gives the animation a very hand-made stop motion style, reminding me of films that use individual oil paintings as frames. It’s a really vivid encapsulation of what it feels like to be sucked into a Midjourney rabbit hole too… I also have to tip my hat to Stefan Sagmeister who shared this film on his Instagram account.

Cosmopolitan – ‘The AI Issue’

For the latest issue of Cosmopolitan, creative Karen X Cheng used Dall-E 2 to create a dramatic and imposing cover – using the prompt: ‘a strong female president astronaut warrior walking on the planet Mars, digital art synthwave’. There’s a deep dive into the creative process that also examines some of the potential ramifications of the technology on the Cosmopolitan website that’s well worth a read.

Video Game – ‘Daydreams’

Studio: T&DA

Why stick to one viral trend when you can combine two? Sydney-based studio T&DA has created a Wordl-inspired game called ‘Daydreams’ in which players are served up with a Midjourney-generated image and challenged to guess the writing prompts. This reverse engineering process might well prove to be handy for copywriters trying to figure out how to write for the algorithms. You can access an invite to the Discord server here.

BT Sport – ‘Believe It’

Here’s a cheeky sixth entry to High Five. This execution is part of a wider summer platform for BT Sport, centered around belief – in this case football pundit Robbie Savage is served up a Dall-E 2 image of striker Aleksander Mitrović lifting the golden boot. Fulham have just been promoted to the Premier League – but though Robbie can see it, he can’t quite believe it.

When Thor: Love and Thunder was announced as shooting in Australia, few industry experts were surprised. The land down under has become a hub for major American productions, with major blockbusters of all stripes flocking to the country (and to New Zealand) rather than Hollywood, New York, or even Atlanta.

While major productions taking place across AUNZ is nothing new – think back to The Lord of the Rings or the Star Wars prequels and Matrix trilogy from the early 2000s – the volume of major productions has definitely increased of late. The consequences for local production have been varied – especially when it comes to commercial creativity.

At this year’s Advertising Week APAC, a panel led by LBB’s Toby Hemming called on Damien Whitney, executive producer at Clockwork Films, and Stephane Renard, executive producer at Media Monks, to parse the good and the bad of this development.

First, the bad. The influence of major productions, Damien explained, has led to a real skill shortage for commercial productions. The allure of major film work (as well as the specialist skills often required) has, on more than one occasion, caused commercial producers real headaches thanks to a lack of availability. Stephane echoed this view, explaining that the chance to show Star Wars as a CV credit could be “irresistible” to special effects talent, regardless of the opportunities offered in the commercial sphere.

There has also been little creative bleed into domestic production in either film or commercial realms. The influx of money has neither allowed more Australian films to be made, nor made a material difference to the creative side of commercial creativity. But this, the panel expressed, was not really an attributable ‘harm’. Damien explained that Australian films have simply always struggled to compete with the scale of American pictures, while creativity itself couldn’t be quantified as something which was measurably “improved” by American money. But what has improved is the industry’s technical skill.

Stephane agreed. He cited multiple instances of directors, VFX artists, or cinematographers who had transferred skills to and fro between commercial and artistic production realms: From major productions, they take the access to new technology (such as LED screen backdrops), while, from commercial productions , they take the freedom to experiment – using both to develop their skills and potential.

Ultimately, both executive producers concluded that this technical upskilling was a major benefit, and remarked with a hint of pride that Australia was “punching above our weight” when it came to global production capacity. The skill shortage was very real, but Damien emphasized that “this is an industry of people”, and drove home that if enough was done to promote homegrown talent, this demand could be met. Stephane agreed, and pointed out that, with the new major production opportunities in Australia, there was more reason than ever to stay – thus countering the “brain drain” production has faced in years past.

The reason, Damien concluded, that this uptick in production had happened was largely a result of tax incentives and good Covid management. “The industry is very good at self managing”, I have explained. In that light, regardless of the challenges that Hollywood poses for Australian production – both artistic and commercial – there is little doubt that the industry is still healthy, and there are reasons to be optimistic about its future.

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