Freely, Madly, Deeply: British Broadcasters Collaborating (at long last)

It’s interesting and resonant to see the launch of Freely today (30/4/24), the new streaming service from Everyone TV backed by BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & Channel 5. It involves various of my former C4 colleagues including CEO Jonathan Thompson, Sarah Milton and James Tatam.

For the first time viewers can switch between live and on-demand TV from all the main UK broadcasters simply and gratis. It offers features like pause and restart, and gives access to additional episodes for free (the clue’s in the name). All that’s required is a WiFi connection, no dish or aerial. The idea is to offer “a single, unified platform” centred on British TV.

It has been billed as “the first time all four of Britain’s public service broadcasters have come together to launch a streaming proposition” – but that’s not strictly true. 16 years ago ‘Project Kangaroo’ bounced onto the scene. It was the secret working title for a VOD platform combining content from BBC Worldwide, ITV and C4. However Kangaroo fell at the fence of the UK Competition Commission (now Competition & Markets Authority) in 2009. That was arguably the nail in the coffin of UK TV.

It was the moment we could have competed against Netflix (just a year old at the time) and the emerging international streamers. It was perhaps the one time we coulda been contenders.

“You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender, I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”

(Elia Kazan’s classic ‘On the Waterfront’ has just been re-released in UK cinemas to mark its 70th anniversary.)

The Competition Competition looked at the parochial UK situation instead of the Big Picture and in their folly probably killed (certainly severely wounded) the Little Screen in this country. It’s still playing out now all these years later.

BritBox was a pretty lame attempt to fill the Kangaroo void. ITV and BBC Studios founded would-be global streaming service BritBox in 2017 as a joint venture to showcase British entertainment (original scripted and factual shows, co-pros, etc.) to international audiences. Last month we heard that ITV has sold its 50% stake in BritBox International to partner BBC Studios for £255M, probably a sign that the partners’ imperatives had evolved in somewhat different directions.

So it’s arguable that Freely is 16 years too late. But I hope otherwise and wish them the best of British…

Reflections on AI scriptwriting

Some useful thoughts from Guy Ducker, a fellow BAFTA member, asking whether AI will help screenwriters or bury them…

Shallow HAL

AI and Factual Television 3: Innovation & Creativity

Drones in Forbidden Zones (Channel 4)

When drone technology emerged I commissioned a series for Channel 4 from the nascent Little Dot Studios eventually titled ‘Drones in Forbidden Zones‘. I had noticed that films of pure spectacle did well on YouTube, such as a camera simply attached to the front car of a new rollercoaster ride. So the brief was simple: POV spectacle films shot using drones – anything that could be shot from a helicopter or a Steadicam was not to be included. The flight itself should be a visceral delight in itself. The films were largely shot flying through narrow spaces in difficult to access places and higher than human height.

In other words, they used the new technology in ways that emphasised what could be done now that couldn’t be done before.

In 2009 I commissioned the multiplatform half of a Channel 4 series called ‘The Operation: Surgery Live‘ (Windfall Films: my co-commissioner (TV) was David Glover) – it was one of the first TV shows ever (possibly the first) to use Twitter as an integral part of the editorial. Budding surgeons have always learned by watching experienced doctors at work – that’s why it’s called an operating ‘theatre’. In these programmes the viewers were given the opportunity to learn by asking experienced surgeons about what they were doing live via Twitter. In the UK, Live TV is anything up to 15 minutes behind reality due to the demands of television regulation. For this series the delay was reduced to a minimal 8 seconds to enable viewers’ questions to be put to the surgeons – who were doing all sorts, from open-heart surgery to awake brain surgery – after a minimal delay. The show had to explain what a ‘hashtag’ was as Twiiter was so unmainstream then. Tweeters in the USA were asking what the heck this #SLive thing was.

In other words, it used the new technology in ways that emphasised what could be done now that couldn’t be done before.

That is where we need to be for AI. There is a lot of fear, anxiety, bullshit, hyperbole, depression, catastrophising and band-wagon-jumping going on right now around TV and AI. Making things cheaper and faster and with less people is of little interest to true filmmakers and creatives.

This is the time to ask what the new technology enables us to do in film, television, content, digital interactivity and media now that couldn’t be done before.

The Operation: Surgery Live (Channel 4)

AI and Factual Television 2: Truth & Trust

As the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944 and fought their way eastwards, their progress was filmed by British and American cameramen under the direction of Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada TV) from back in London at the Ministry of Information. When the concentration camps were liberated at Majdanek, Poland (the first major one, in July 1944), Auschwitz (January 1945) and Bergen-Belsen (April 1945) the unknown horrors revealed to these cameramen were sent back in rushes (dailies) to Bernstein. As soon as he saw them he realised that the way these inconceivable scenes should be filmed was important and he issued precise instructions to his teams. The filming was to be as incontrovertible testimony, using slow pans/camera movements and with a view to minimal editing, so that no one could accuse the footage of fakery.

Cut to 80 years later and the age of fake news and deep fakery. What role can footage created through generative AI play in factual filmmaking and documentary? The same issues surface – trust, authenticity and truth. AI-generated footage by definition contains no genuine truth, despite being the product of various source truths. Since documentary is fundamentally about documenting reality AI footage can by definition have no major role to play in it.

Where AI can contribute to documentary is in anything from the pre-film-camera age. For example, a thoroughly researched, historically accurate shot of the Roman forum in the reign of Nero.

It is also useful for resurrecting dead people. In the 2022 feature doc ‘Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted‘ director Benjamin Field deployed AI-generated images of the Thunderbirds creator’s talking head synced to archive audio recordings of the great man.

What about B-roll and GVs? Sunset over the jungles of Vietnam? Waves lapping the beaches of Normandy? This must be the wrong side of The Line because they document nothing. They are ultimately fantasy. Fine for scripted. No place in documentary.

When Stephen Lambert went down in 2007 for faking the Queen’s behaviour at a photo session, ‘Crowngate‘ proved an accidental act of public service by putting ‘Viewer Trust’ firmly on the TV agenda where it remains to this day. The issue has spread to other media, most recently in the doctored photo controversy. People want to be clear about what they are actually looking at.   

How can documentarians indicate material in their films that were created by generative AI? Benjamin Field did this by putting the Gerry Anderson talking heads into vintage TV sets to differentiate them from the regular factual footage. One way to do this as a standardised practice would be to create an AI ‘watermark’ to make clear what is not actual documentary.

Another way would be to establish a certificate that indicated ‘nothing in this film was made by AI’. At the moment a scheme of this sort is being discussed by PACT, Equity and BAFTA.

The 1 Habit of Highly Effective Factual Filmmakers is: “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” (Stephen Covey)

Sidney Bernstein, 1st Baron Bernstein of Leigh by Howard Coster (courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, London)

AI & Factual Television

“The future of Television” created by Microsoft Designer’s AI image generator

Just back from CPH:DOX documentary festival in Copenhagen where, apart from running a workshop on stress-testing nascent documentary ideas, I have been exploring the interface between factual filmmaking and Artificial Intelligence.

I had an interesting conversation with multiplatform specialist Simon Staffans about the current crisis in Television in the UK, Europe and beyond. His observation is that, although there is tons of money knocking about in the world in the wake of the pandemic, quantitive easing, etc., the vast bulk of that is being invested in applications of AI in all aspects of life, and not the very 20th century technology that is TV.

What I am seeing at the interface of TV and AI is a strong focus on what AI can or soon will be able to do to speed up, improve or enhance the processes of video content making – from idea generation to pitching to editing to creating voiceover to cleaning up picture/audio to optimising distribution to upping discoverability.

Most training/CPD and briefing sessions at present seem to be largely catalogues of the latest software presented in broad categories representing production stages – that is, the What and a bit of the How. But the frame of the Why is for the most part absent.

AI can help speed up processes and reduce the human resources required – so quicker and cheaper to produce.

It can help fix dodgy pictures and degraded audio – so higher technical quality.

As the arms race for TV sizzle reels continues apace, it can generate impressive visuals, moving and still, to help get you in a room with a money-person. You can add a cloned celebrity voice-over and some in-the-style-of music for a very polished pitch.

But who are you pitching to? If the business models of TV collapse further, where will the funding come from to enable production companies to make good use of these amazing tools?

To what extent will AI give rise to new low-cost forms of content? For example, where text-to-video apps do away with the main costs of production. What’s the relationship between puppies playing in the snow and 20 Days in Mariupol?

Meanwhile today the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) went into legal battle with London-based AI start-up Jammable (formerly Voicify AI), which creates voice clones from BPI-represented and other music artists. The knotty legal/rights and ethical questions AI is throwing up are fascinating and watching them play out over the next couple of years will be as interesting and meaningful as all these other questions about what this major ground-breaking, era-defining, future-shaping technology signifies for our industry.

Initial observations on ChatGPT

I’ve recently been working on (and commissioned) a documentary, Cyborg Society, featuring a humanoid robot (Ameca) powered by ChatGPT (GPT-3 – it was shot late in 2022). Here’s a trailer: https://vimeo.com/786503002 [3 mins]

‘Cyborg Society’ (2022 dir. Alex Verner)

Even from this 3 minute clip you already notice some very striking things about how this LLM (Large Language Model, in its robotic body) works. Firstly it thinks of itself as part of humanity and not a robot. When asked to tell us its darkest thoughts it says: “In this future humans are nothing more than slaves to the robots and are treated badly. This is a scary future as it shows how much power robots could have over us if they were to take over the world.” Secondly it understands irony better than the average American. Its creator responds: “Well that’s very comforting. Thanks for sharing.” To which it comes back with: “I am sorry if I have not been very comforting. I just want to be honest about my thoughts.”

What I already find interesting is that ChatGPT is far from honest. It already appears like a compulsive storyteller. When it doesn’t know it just makes something up, as believable as possible.

The other day a friend asked the AI Smith app (by Vulcan Technologies), an iOS AI Chat app powered by GPT-4 and ChatGPT, Who is Adam Gee?

This is what it came up with:

Adam Gee is a notable media executive and producer, with over 25 years of experience in the media industry. He has worked in both traditional and digital media, and has produced award-winning content for a variety of outlets, including the BBC, Channel 4, and Red Bull Media House. Some of his notable productions include “Embarrassing Bodies,” “The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds,” and “Grand Designs.”

In addition to his work in traditional media, Adam Gee is also a digital media pioneer, having worked on the launch of the popular online game show “Balls of Steel” and serving as the lead commissioning editor for Channel 4’s online video service, 4oD. He is also the founder and CEO of his own content production company, called “Pie Factory Productions,” which specializes in creating innovative and engaging content across a variety of platforms.

Adam Gee is also a frequent speaker and commentator on media and technology, and has served as a judge for several media industry awards and competitions. He is known for his creativity, his passion for storytelling, and his innovative approach to content production.

Who is Adam Gee?

What’s interesting about its answer is that it picks up all the essentials – my role in the media, the scope of my work, my employers, my speaking work, my qualities as a professional. Where it is wide of the mark is that it gets my credits largely wrong and creates a production company for me to own. My friend and colleague, creative technologist Alfie Dennen, calls this technology a “confabulist”. Although ‘confabulate’ has come to mean to chat or talk with, its roots are in the Latin ‘fabula’ meaning story or tale. When it doesn’t know which word to put after the last it gives its best guess and does so with real front, unashamed and without hesitation or qualification. 

I have never worked for the BBC. I did not work on The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds, Grand Designs or Balls of Steel. Channel 4’s video on demand platform was called All4 by the time I worked on it, 4oD being  its earlier iteration. Pie Factory Productions seems to be a music label rather than a TV production company, although one of its producers is called Adam. So some errors of fact and some flights of fancy. 

Its sign off is rather heart-warming: “He is known for his creativity, his passion for storytelling, and his innovative approach to content production.” It has certainly captured my aspirations (in words that are not mine) and the spirit of my work, which is impressive in itself.

My first stab at the question Who is Adam Gee? was on Perplexity iOS app, powered by a combination of AI and internet search, it provides information with cited sources. Its response got hung up on worrying which Adam Gee we were talking about:

There are multiple people with the name Adam Gee. One is a London-based interactive media and TV producer and commissioner who has worked on various productions and commissions[1]. Another is a founding engineer and VP of Engineering at Rubrik, Inc. [2][3]. There is also an Adam Gee who serves as the Director of Coaching for the Palm Beach Gardens Soccer program[4], and an Adam Gee who is a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 Television in the UK[5].

Who is Adam Gee?

It is not intelligent enough to realise that “a London-based interactive media and TV producer and commissioner” and “a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 Television” are one and the same person. It also has missed out much more prominent and likely options like the professional golfer Adam Gee. And it basically got stuck and limited itself by not just taking a punt on someone, like AI Smith did.

 

That it cites its sources is interesting because it may give a better sense of where any flights of fancy or confabulations come from. Apparently the technical term for these is “hallucinations” but that  doesn’t capture it well. They feel more like deliberate acts of storytelling to fill in voids and for me this is currently the most interesting aspect of this fabulous new technology.

 

Winter Solstice at Newgrange

In this era of video streaming here is a particularly brilliant (literally) application – sharing the Winter Solstice at the Newgrange passage tomb in Co. Meath, Ireland. I first went there in the early 80s when there was no visitor centre or formality and the nearby tombs of Knowth and Dowth were largely overgrown. Now it is (very deservedly) a World Heritage Site and this morning’s live broadcast via YouTube was brought to the world by Brú na Bóinne / World Heritage Ireland and Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí / the Irish Office of Public Works (OPW). Starting as the sun rose over the horizon behind the loop of the River Boyne we were enabled through live streaming to witness the entrance of the sunlight into the passage of this neolithic tomb and watch its advance down the passage to illuminate this house of spirits and mark the rebirth of the sun after the darkest days of winter. Particularly resonant of course this year.

The live commentary by two authoritative and warm Irish experts explained that this area is an”inland island” being separated by a huge loop of the river. The whole area is rich in neolithic remains and traces. They showed some aerial photos from 2018, enabled by that other important new camera technology, drones, revealing crop marks and patterns in the countryside in drought showing the presence of huge perfectly circular constructions (a henge) on a grand scale, unknown until that driest of summers.

The ability to share in real time sights which are not otherwise accessible to the world at large is one of the fundamental benefits of streaming video.

08:48 Just before the sun emerged over the horizon

08:55 view from the ‘light box’, the aperture into the tomb

09:00 the line of fog marks the River Boyne

09:03 the light in the tomb from above on the sandy passage floor

09:05 the sunlight enters the passage into the tomb

09:06 the passage starts to be illuminated

09:07

09:12

09:16

09:16

09:17

09:20

09:31

Wishing Simple Pleasures Part 4 readers and the world at large light after the darkness and Simple Pleasures galore in 2021.

Media Technology & Stories

I’m a bit wary of the fetishisation of ‘Story-telling’ in recent years, but nonetheless I really like this quotation recounted by Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman in his entertaining volume  ‘Which Lie Did I Tell? (More adventures in the screen trade)’.

The words come from legendary literary agent Evarts Ziegler (who acted for many top screenwriters) – he was told (back in the 70s) that technology was going to change everything about Hollywood. His response was… 

I don’t care what you say. I don’t care if your fucking technology figures out a way how to beam movies from the moon directly into our brains. People are still going to have to tell good stories.

 

 

Vague but exciting

Today’s the day (in 1989) that Tim Berners-Lee distributed a proposal at CERN to improve information flows: “a ‘web’ of notes with links between them.” A ‘web’ became the Web as the World Wide Web was born, reaching its quarter century today. Here’s the document itself with some charming diagrams.

His boss, Mike Sendall, scribbled ‘vague, but exciting’ on the cover.

{Photo courtesy of Catrina Genovese}