Video Storytelling Is Permissionless
An Irish filmmaker caused an international incident, and what it taught us about the future of video storytelling.
On February 10th, Irish director Ruairi Robinson tweeted a video of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting. The video looks like a teaser for a new movie, but Ruairi didn't film it. He made this video by "typing 2 lines and pressing a button."
As of this writing, this video has 3.3 million views. It may have started an international incident. Ruairi made this video and others1 with Bytedance's latest video generation model, Seedance 2.0.
Rhett Rheese, screenwriter of the Deadpool trilogy, quote tweeted a Ruairi-generated Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fight sequence lamenting "I hate to say it. It's likely over for us."2
Whether it's over for filmmakers or not, Seedance 2.0 is unquestionably impressive. I spoke to a filmmaker yesterday with early access and his eyes lit up on the mention of Bytedance's new model. It is his daily driver.
Nevertheless, an Irish filmmaker made a Hollywood-worthy scene with Hollywood's most famous actors without Hollywood. Paramount Skydance and Disney sent cease-and-desist letters to Bytedance3. SAG-AFTRA, the actor's union, condemned the "blatant infringement enabled by Bytedance's new AI video model Seedance 2.0."4 CBS News used Ruairi's video in their report on the Hollywood backlash.5
Bytedance has since delayed the public launch of Seedance 2.0 indefinitely.
The unfortunate truth for Hollywood, and a fortunate truth for the world, is that "you cannot litigate away mathematics."6 Seedance 2.0 is now the worst model Bytedance will ever make. Its researchers know how to make a model that generates Hollywood-quality scenes, and they know what data to train it on to generate Hollywood actors. It is only a matter of time before open-source catches up (and then it is really impossible to litigate away).
What I suspect will happen (and this situation is the bull case for Hollywood) is that more studios will reach agreements with model providers similar to the one OpenAI and Disney came to wherein the model provider can train on and generate Hollywood likenesses.7
Yet this conversation about copyright infringement, as necessary as it is, obfuscates the reality that Seedance 2.0 made all too clear. Video storytelling is permissionless now. A fourteen year old with an internet connection can make a Hollywood-quality film with $50 of compute. There are stories that we can tell now with video that we could not before. The combination of these two facts signals a new golden era for creativity. The fact that it is being heralded as the opposite makes the opportunity even greater. As Rhett himself recognized, if someone comes along who "possesses Christopher Nolan's talent and taste (and someone like that will rapidly come along), it will be tremendous."8 As the cost to production goes to zero, "story will reign supreme."9
Acting will not die. Screenwriting will not die. Directing will not die. But millions more people will be actors, screenwriters, and directors, and they will tell millions of stories we have never heard before.
