Will you ever work in This Town again? – SCRIPTWRITING AND A.I.

The protagonists of ‘This Town’

This week saw the release of writer Stephen Knight’s (Peaky Blinders, SAS Rogue Heroes) latest drama, ‘This Town‘ on BBC1/iPlayer. The title I assume is derived from The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’  (1981, the year the story is set – it opens with the Handsworth riots). It may be a touch of nostalgia for that era of music that made me so receptive to the drama but I thoroughly enjoyed it, felt it had substance, and found it moving and energising.

Also this week a UK-based scriptwriter called Guy Ducker posted a thoughtful item on LinkedIn about the potential impact of AI on screenwriting. After testing ChatGPT 4.0 for various aspects of scriptwriting – from generating ideas to writing scenes – he shared his broader thoughts. His conclusion from the testing was “right now, the best it’s going to give you without a lot of help is a third-rate script for a Ron Howard movie” (which prompted a chuckle). Beyond the product test he felt that not only does it have no soul so far, it has no personality either. He punctuated his piece with a caustically amusing scene from Michael Tolkin & Robert Altman’s ‘The Player’ which spotlights the algorithmic nature of old school movie development by demonstrating the formulaic conversion of true/news stories to movie pitches. His conclusion: “AI-generated stories feel so empty because they are: no experience or emotion is being communicated, because the storyteller has none to offer.”

‘This Town’ would be extremely hard, if not impossible, for AI to write because it is driven by an intense personal sense of nostalgia for coming of age in a specific place at a particular time. It has scenes which are visually (rather than verbally) driven, especially the scenes of the Two Tone-like band (Fuck the Factory) coming together. If Stephen Knight was writing the prompts, perhaps AI could be his machine co-writer – but what would be the point? It would be easier for a writer of his calibre just to write it.

The important perspective to keep in mind is that AI applications like ChatGPT are simply tools. They help you fill the white of the blank sheet. They get the ball rolling. They can help prompt better and more original ideas – from your human brain and spirit. Looking for such tools to write ‘Citizen Kane’ or ‘Manchester by the Sea’ or ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is missing the point. It’s a matter of thinking Pen not Manuscript.   

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)

Mercedes Driver

Mercedes Gleitze. Not a new model of German automobile. You’ve probably never heard the name. She (she’s a she, not an it) was the first British woman to swim the English Channel and an all-round remarkable person.

The same can be said of Elliott Hasler. Last night saw (at the fabulous [and at risk] Curzon Mayfair) the premiere of his debut feature film, the unusually titled ‘Vindication Swim’, which he wrote at the age of 18 after reading a newspaper article about Mercedes, who was born in Brighton, as was Elliott.

It took him over three years to shoot the film which is highly ambitious being a period drama (set in the 20s) and involving extensive shooting on the open sea. Whenever the Channel off Brighton was reasonably calm and the weather OK he had to scramble his cast and crew, including his lead actress Kirsten Callaghan (making a knock-out debut), old-school character actor John Locke (who recently appeared in the brilliant ’Poor Things’) and Victoria Summer (‘Saving Mr Banks’ as Julie Andrews). Kirsten, as totally committed as all the cast and crew, did all the sea swimming herself. They come across as a family engendered by Elliott.

Elliott called in no end of favours. Period vehicles and horse-drawn carts for the street scenes. Background artists from local am-dram groups from Rottingdean to Worthing. Huge attention to detail, extending to making this one of the lowest carbon footprint feature films of all time.

Through sheer dint of will this low-budget independent British movie is now getting a good release of over 300 UK showings and Elliott and his team are setting off on a month of post-screening Q&As all round the country. Picnik Entertainment have come in firmly behind the now 23-year-old’s stand-out calling card, amplifying the huge talent of ‘Vindication Swim’ ‘s prime mover.

The cherry on the cake of last night’s premiere was the presence of Ronnie Wood. No moss will gather on this young rolling stone – Elliott is now working on his follow-up feature, also South coast based (with Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’ at its heart).

Mercedes Gleitze (who was finally honoured in 2022 with a blue plaque in her native city) attempted the cross-Channel swim seven times before finally securing that swimming first on 7th October 1927. Persistence, resilience, vision, inspiration from a committed parent (in Mercedes’ case her German-born father, in Elliott’s his accountant father as producer who no doubt stretched the sub-£400K budget to its limit – Simon, Elliott & I first met in Brighton in January 2023 and they made an immediately charming duo), boldness, humility, winning the loyalty of a rock-solid team – the maker of this remarkable film and its subject share many outstanding qualities. Mercedes’ name is now becoming more known. Elliott’s, without a shadow of a doubt, will soon be.

Photo: Stewart Weir

Premiere at Curzon Mayfair 28/2/24

Elliott Hasler, Kirsten Callaghan, Victoria Summer, John Locke

124 Freshfield Road, Brighton

Protest and Progress and Paramount

Photo: Misan Harriman

Our latest Doc Hearts feature documentary with Oscar nominee Misan Harriman has now started shooting – ‘Protest and Progress’ – for Paramount+.

Directed by Doc Hearts founder Andy Mundy-Castle in the wake of his lauded ‘White Nanny, Black Child’.

It couldn’t be more timely…

The 44th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards

The ‘For people in trouble’ team :: Adam Gee, Giannina Rodriguez Rico, Sam Brain, Alex Lawther

 

The 44^th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards last night was a refreshing event, friendly and unpretentious, but also distinguished by the wise decisions its voters made. Not least by voting ‘The Zone of Interest’ Film of the Year and Jonathan Glazer Director of the Year, ahead of the likes of Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan and Yorgos Lanthimos. I mentioned in a recent post that the movie is “by a country mile the best movie of the year”, in a really vintage year which saw people coming back to the cinema in big numbers for films of substance. It is released in the UK this week.

I had the pleasure of having a conversation with Jonathan Glazer in the bar after the ceremony and wishing him all the best at the BAFTAs and Oscars (as well as discussing the Auschwitz-related documentary I am currently working on). I also had a chat with Mica Levi who composed the extraordinary music in the film. Mica and Johnnie Burn (Sound) won the award for Technical Achievement, a category which puts everything from Visual FX to Casting in one pot. Their achievement was the subject of my recent post ‘Let’s Hear It for Audio’.

Whether the timing of the LCC Film Awards, the week the final round of BAFTA voting closes and in the run-up to the Oscars on 10^th March, means they will predict the winners or even influence them is difficult to say, but hopefully they will as the winners were spot on – from Emma Stone as Actress of the Year for her brilliant portrayal in ‘Poor Things’ to the important ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ as Documentary of the Year. I was lucky enough to meet its modest director Mstyslav Chernov in the drinks before the ceremony and said I was certain his brave film would triumph.

It was enjoyable to meet with critics known to me and not. I was telling Mark Kermode, the entertaining MC for the evening (who I have known since we were teenagers and who shares my deep love of music), about the documentary I currently have in the edit about protest songs and mentioned that we had used a Nina Simone song to explore issues around Black Lives Matter – he started fishing around under his dress shirt and pulled out a small silver pendant. “Funny you should mention her because this is her chewing gum, taken from the bottom of her piano by Warren Ellis and cast in silver by him – there are only 25 of these in existence.”

Warren, Nick Cave’s genius musical partner, wrote an excellent book about it, ‘Nina Simone’s Gum’, which highlights how seemingly insignificant objects can form beautiful connections between people. There were many warm connections made at the event, very well put together by Chair Rich Cline and his bijou team. The Guardian’s Pete Bradshaw introduced me to Paul Mescal. I was delighted to have chats with the likes of the lovely Andrew Scott (who won Actor of the Year – bizarrely overlooked by BAFTA’s Best Actor category as ‘The Zone of Interest’ was in Best Film), Molly Manning Walker (winner of The Philip French Award for Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker for her film ‘How To Have Sex’, which is just opening in the USA) and photographer/filmmaker Misan Harriman (Chair of London’s South Bank Centre) who collected the inaugural Derek Malcolm Award for Innovation on behalf of the brilliant Colman Domingo and with whom I will be working this year on a great documentary film project.

 

Paul Mescal & Andrew Scott

Jonathan Glazer & his wife Rachel Penfold

Misan Harriman & Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers)

The row in front of Barbie and behind The Zone of Interest

Mark Kermode and Pete Bradshaw

Let’s Hear It for Audio

With the announcement of the BAFTA Best Film nominations last Thursday as always there was a notable omission. Jonathan Glazer’s ‘The Zone of Interest‘ is by a country mile the best movie of the year, in what is a pretty strong year. It carries a credit to my late Film4 colleague Sue Bruce-Smith, who sadly passed away way too young early in 2020, indicating how long it’s been in the making (Glazer optioned the not-yet-published, eponymous Martin Amis source novel in 2014). That decade of development resulted in a highly original, brilliantly crafted, important film.

I’m currently working on an Auschwitz documentary with journalist Martin Bright with a not dissimilar story so was intrigued to see how Glazer dealt with the two spaces – the Commandant’s house and the concentration camp next door. What is most striking about the film is how it puts so much emphasis on the audio of this premium audio-visual medium and portrays the death camp primarily through sound, enabling the director to convey both spaces simultaneously.

From the moment at the start of the film when Commandant Höss returns from a bucolic picnic to his family home adjacent to the camp a low rumbling subtly enters the soundtrack, the sound of the furnaces on the other side of the wall efficiently burning up bodies round the clock. As the film goes on, life on the domestic side of the wall with its pretty flower garden and idyllic countryside is punctuated by gun shots, ferocious barking, occasional screams and every so often a steam train pulling in (loaded with we know what). Gradually these hellish sounds render the inhabitants of the domestic space soul-sick, from the young son to the Commandant himself, who pukes on the stairs he eventually descends into the blackness of eternal damnation.

Before any pictures, the movie opens with a (long) couple of minutes of music over a dark grey screen – or rather ‘music’ as it is more like composed noises, deeply disturbing. The film ends in similar style, with distorted choral voices cutting through diabolical noises. The music composition and sound design are defining and brilliant, indicating why the picture picked up both the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and the Soundtrack Award.

Audio is often overlooked or underused in film, TV and audio-visual media. When we made ‘MindGym‘, winner of the first ever BAFTA for Interactive Entertainment, “brilliant sound” was one of the key principles we kept on a sticky note on the office wall throughout production. In ‘Screen International’ Glazer described the movie’s audio as “the other film” – “arguably, the film”.

Johnnie Burn and Audio Mixer Tarn Willers have been nominated for the Best Sound BAFTA. A remarkable Sound Designer, Burn compiled an extensive list of pertinent events at the death camp alongside witness testimonies, from which to draw realistic sounds for an authentic sound library deployed on the film. They used a detailed map of Auschwitz to calculate the distance and reverberation of the sounds.

‘The Zone of Interest’ is in some cinemas now but is officially released in the UK on 2nd February (and on 9th February in Poland where it was shot, primarily at Auschwitz). Not to be missed.

Sandra Hüller (Hedwig Höss) – Jonathan Glazer (Director) – Christian Friedel (Rudolf Höss) at Cannes

Live Hard

Christmas starts here as we move into December. Last night ‘Die Hard’ (1988) played at the fabulous art deco Rex Cinema (1938) in Berkhamsted (Hertfordshire, England). 

The best line is the incongruous…

“Hi Honey”

said by a bloodied, battered John McClane (Bruce Willis) as he sees his hostage wife towards the climax of the film. Comic, ironic understatement at its best.

And yes, it is a Christmas film.

Forever Young: Gilbert & George

15/5/23 & 24/5/23

We are currently shooting a documentary featuring the artist(s) Gilbert & George. Today (25th May) we are filming them among their latest collection of pictures, ‘The Corpsing Pictures’, on display at the White Cube Gallery in St James’s, London. ‘Corpsing’ refers both to mortal bodies and to the theatrical/music hall term for forgetting your lines or getting the giggles. At 79 and 81 bodily decay and mortality are on their minds for sure. Their sense of performance and theatricality though remain undiminished, as is their sense of humour.

[Image courtesy of Mike Christie]

They showed up, as ever, in impeccably tailored suits, George’s with a suave double pocket on one side. When we were chatting later they surprised me by revealing the suits were the work not of some Savile Row-type tailor up West but by a bargain of a Greek suitmaker nearer their East End lair in Fournier Street, Spitalfields, london E1. We talked a little about my grandfather’s clothes factory round the corner from their studio in the 60s/70s which first brought me to their manor as a child. It is the art deco building at the junction of Hanbury Street & Commercial Street, opposite their local The Golden Heart (called Jimco back then, now returned to clothing-related purposes as All Saints, after a low spell as a spice warehouse).   

Writer Michael Bracewell under the direction of Mike Christie and in association with journalist Michael Collins carried out a fascinating interview with the duo. The highlight for me was when they were talking about their break-through performance piece or “singing sculpture” featuring the music hall song ‘Underneath the Arches’ from 1968. They spoke about how the people living on the streets of the East End and elsewhere in London at the time included many damaged by the First and particularly the Second World War, and how resonant this damaged humanity was for their evolving art. When I was at school I had a teacher called The Major with an old-school moustache (Major Blatchley-Hannah). I didn’t realise until much later how close  World War Two was to my era. Now I have a strong sense of all these silent, PTSD-damaged men among whom I must have been growing up. G&G’s words reminded me of the grotesque world of another GG, Georg Grosz.

A distinctive way of displaying a Gilbert & George at Palazzo Butera

My first exchange with G&G was about a gallery they had just returned from visiting in Palermo, Sicily, the Palazzo Butera, astounding home of the collection of Francesca & Massimo Valsecchi (beneficiaries of an automobile fortune I vaguedly remember).  It includes a half dozen excellent 80s works by Gilbert & George. They were very enthusiastic about the place. I told them I was visiting Palermo soon (for the first time) and would take up their recommendation. I am now sitting finishing this post on the terrace of that palazzo having had my mind blown by an astonishing collection & building, graced by the unique colour sense of Gilbert & George which constantly drops my jaw. I had to order some tiramisu & Italian coffee from the lovely cafe to steady myself.

Back on the shoot, towards the end we went upstairs to the buyers’ room of White Cube. By chance they had a Gilbert & George from the 70s. I guess they hadn’t seen that particular work for a good while so it was interesting to watch them reacting to that old friend. It featured black & white images of the East End (Commercial Road) looking rather bleak. And in red the letters VD. I observed to Gilbert that most young people would have no idea of the meaning of those letters any more as STI then STD took over since then as the official acronyms.

The pair were charming and warm, and became increasingly energised by the filming. I saw their Hayward show back in 1986 and have been aware of their work ever since but from first starting this film I have been totally won over by their work – I find it unique, satisfying & energising (especially their colour palette), and ever youthful.

Spit heads (1997)

Depression (1980)

The top floor

SMART – The London International Smartphone Film Festival

The launch of SMART – the London International Smartphone Film Festival – set up by Adam Gee & Victoria Mapplebeck was covered in this week’s Observer in a piece by Arts & Media Correspondent Vanessa Thorpe:

 

The full article is here