REPOST: The Machine Cinema Times - September 5, 2025
... still wondering if robots have celluloid dreams.
Edited by Elizabeth Kealoha. Pod Digest and Images by Ant Neely.
In this issue:
Real Creative “Pick of the Week”
Overheard in… “Basecamp” and “We Love Robots”, for the week August 28- September 3, 2025
Too busy to read?? Listen to the NotebookLM recap!
“GenTalk” from September 3, 2025
Want to See Your Art in the Newsletter? Reach out —we’d love to feature your work.
Real Creative “Pick of the Week”
Each week the Machine Cinema members + the Real Creative team obsess over social feeds in search of the world's best AI creative video, gaming, and music projects. This week one project stuck out:
About this project
Stevie Mac’s “They Are Everywhere, They Are Nowhere” takes viewers into a ghostly subway station where figures appear and disappear like shadows. Using the new keyframe tools in Kling and music made in Udio, the result is eerie and poetic, and this week’s pick of the week.
Connect: Twitter/X
You can find this and over 300 AI filmmakers and their projects over at realcreative.ai which features some familiar faces from the Machine Cinema community.
Overheard - Week of August 21-27, 2025
Our Machine Cinema Community is a firehose of activity and even the most diehard members can feel overwhelmed. This weekly digest brings you hot topics, links and articles shared and discussed in the “Basecamp” and “We Love Robots” channels to make sure you never miss a beat. If you’d like to join the community, this link is your invitation.
Full disclosure, we had our robot friend help us pull all this together and sometimes they are prone to making harmless mistakes.
“Basecamp” Channel: 🔥 HOT TOPICS
A fast, clean catch-up on the most useful ideas, debates, and links from this week’s thread. Save your scroll; here’s what mattered.
👄 Lip-Sync, Dubs & Talking Heads: What’s working now
The crew compared today’s best options for lip-sync and dialogue control across images and video.
Runway Act Two is strong but less scalable if you must record yourself each time.
Heygen Avatar IV = top pick for avatars; Hedra good but “moves too much.”
Higgsfield “Speak” and LivePortrait came up for ComfyUI-style pipelines.
Workflow tips: stage multi-character scenes by explicitly ordering lines (“left speaks, then center…”), add text markup to images to increase success, lock iPhone focus, shoot waist-up with headroom, and clean audio with Adobe Podcast Enhance.
💬 “The real question isn’t ‘is AI art’ but ‘what do you make out of it?’”
🐯 Non-Human Characters Talk Too
Veo 3 reportedly behaves best for non-human characters; some models “add a human mouth” to creatures.
For animated humans, results are improving; note mouth-open reference images to seed better movement.
Paired with Veo 3 dialogue markers, two-character scenes are viable.
🧠 Voice Cloning & Permissions (ElevenLabs)
Practical legal: a member sought estate/rights-holder consent templates and a real human contact at ElevenLabs.
Takeaway: treat consent as a formal deliverable (template + signed authorization) in your doc workflows.
🌍 Faces, Regions & Workarounds
Some tools restrict human faces in parts of Europe. Reports suggest mixed results with VPNs; one workaround mentioned non-EU Google accounts & payment methods.
Ethical note: weigh ToS, local compliance, and your risk posture before proceeding.
⚡ Realtime & New Drops
Realtime video and fresh models are arriving faster than expected.
Krea teased realtime video;
Sync Labs shared new results;
WAN released a new audio→video model (local or on FAL).
Surprise: people expected realtime next year—“not this year.”
🌌 The Toy Story of AI: What Will It Be?
Philosophical debate on what breakthrough project will cement AI storytelling.
Some argued for a fully AI-made blockbuster.
Others believe interactivity and immersion will define the medium.
Comparisons made to Pixar’s Toy Story moment, but many see the next shift as beyond cinema—blending film, games, and live events.
Strategy POV: treat IP as a 360° play; we’re moving from the attention economy to the trust economy.
💬 “The moment an AI movie makes people cry without asking if it’s AI—that’s the silent-to-talkies leap.”
💼 VFX, Jobs, and the AI Explosion
Industry veterans reflected on AI’s role in the job market.
Traditional VFX jobs are shrinking.
But GenAI could create new demand: everyone from car dealerships to local shops will want branded video stories.
Artists who reposition as designers and storytellers (not just asset makers) stand to gain.
🛠 Adobe vs. The New Wave
Debate over Adobe’s dominance in creative software as challengers surge.
Google’s Nano Banana and ByteDance’s CapCut AI suite are direct threats.
Adobe’s integration remains its biggest strength, but cracks are showing.
CapCut’s instant editing + TikTok distribution drew special attention.
💬 “AI editing is coming fast—alongside agentic filmmaking.”
📢 Festivals, Jams & Meetups
Chroma Awards launched $1M in free trials + $175K prizes, with a special Machine Cinema award.
Machine Cinema Jams ran in Lisbon and Brooklyn.
AI Media Festivalhappening in LA this weekend.
🎉 Community Wins: Runway Gen:48 Finalists
Multiple Basecamp members scored big at Runway’s Gen:48 competition.
UNSEEING (People’s Choice finalist).
One:Many and WET also made the cut.
The community mobilized around voting and amplification.
“We Love Robots” Channel: 🔥 HOT TOPICS
Here’s what bubbled up this week: tools worth testing, provenance wars heating up, and a surprisingly lively debate on dating, demographics, and… robot surrogacy. All signal, no fluff.
🤔 Provenance Tools: “What made this shot?”
A member announced a new tool in development that can reverse-engineer a video to identify which AI tools were used in its creation and asked “would this be helpful (to creators)”. Members takes:
Compliance & policy: Studios/streamers are tightening rules around models trained on copyrighted data; archiving/chain-of-custody needs are growing.
Journalism & trust: News orgs, brands, and governments want automated flags for deepfakes and limited-use tools.
Creative R&D: Filmmakers want to reverse-engineer admired work to learn workflows.
💬 “I want a tool that watches any video and doesn’t just tell me the tools and workflows but automatically replicates it for me in my favorite workflow tool.”
📱 Security Watch: “Is this source legit?”
A late-night flurry around Gmail security headlines doubled as a useful media-literacy check:
Cross-verify alarming claims; avoid low-cred clickbait mirrors.
Share alternates (major outlets, original advisories) before resharing to clients/teams.
💬 “Wait—how do we know THIS isn’t a scam? lol.”
🎥 Platform Power Moves: Apple, Google, Nvidia, China
Signals from the macro layer that could reshape creative AI:
Apple x Gemini rumors: Speculation that Google could power a new Siri / AI search experience—and what that means for competitors.
Nvidia’s concentration risk: Two mystery customers = 39% of Q2 revenue—a reminder of platform dependency dynamics.
China’s AI posture: A different strategic stack and governance thesis that could out-optimize in certain domains.
💬 “Google will win everything.” (Spicy take; we’ll see.)
🎙 Lip-Sync & Dubbing: InfiniteTalk gets early kicks-the-tires
The group swapped notes on open-source InfiniteTalk (sparse-frame video dubbing that aligns lips, head, and body with new audio). One member confirmed strong results even on fast, tricky lyrics, while others asked about artifacting and language edge cases.
💥 Tool Perks: Altered.ai free tiers (for now)
Heads-up that Altered Studio appeared to open up “try all levels” access. If you’re experimenting with synthetic voices for previz, temp, or ADR exploration, now’s a good window to evaluate.
🔍 Dating, Demographics, and the Robot Question
Thread of the week: declining birth/marriage rates, culture vs. economics, and whether AI can help with matching—or even surrogacy.
Matchmaking with models: Could we train on long-term relationship outcomes to suggest higher-compatibility introductions?
“Copilot for love”: A personal digital twin / therapist / best-friend that tracks patterns and nudges healthier choices resonated.
Automation & aging: As populations gray, members debated robots as caregivers—and who designs incentives that value caregiving.
💬 “Relationships are marathons… a digital twin that knows your patterns might help, but the work is still human.”
News and Noteworthy
Health AI: 15-second stethoscope
Shared research from a heart charity on an AI-augmented stethoscope that flags multiple cardiac conditions in seconds. For creative producers: this is the kind of human-in-the-loop medical AI story audiences actually root for.
Disaster Viz as Public Service
A striking Mt. Fuji eruption simulation (AI-aided video) sparked discussion about ethical benefit: can vivid, cinematic generative visuals galvanize preparedness without sensationalism?
🔗 LINK DROP- What the Community shared
🧪 Tools & Industry
Think Apple is not doing much? Think again.
AI Creative Tools: State of Play - Justine Moore
Hollywood’s Dirty Little AI Secrets - Producer Patrick
Amazon Prime Video shift to AI focus with VP Albert Cheng appointment
Transcription Tools: Goodtape, Turboscribe, Downsub
AI Filmmaking Assistant: PHANES
🎥 Film & Art Projects
Walk & Jam- by Minh
Get Out of the Cities NOW!!- by Matt O’Brien (Veo3 and Wan 2.2)
Abyssal Rot: Genesis Descent- By BLVCKL!GT
LOVE WORLD- (parody) by ReplicantDC
David Byrne “What Is The Reason For It?”- music video, Austin Steele
High Force - Film by Fiona Yu Bai
📚 Thought Pieces
Tech Leaders embracing “God-like” language now.
What’s in the middle of an “Insanity Bubble”?
China has a different vision for AI.
🌍 Community/Tutorials
Media Lawyer Kelsey Farish discusses AI tools, trends, and regulation- Oct 1.
Machine Cinema “GenTalks” — September 3, 2025
Our GenDojo Community Call is a weekly digital get together to connect on how we are all making our way through this new era for creative industries and AI among other emergent technologies. Each week we invite artists, builders, thought leaders to share their knowledge, their works in progress and their ideas on this emergent space. If you’d like to be added to the recurring invite please DM.
🧠 Meeting Summary
This double-feature GenTalks focused first on John Gaeta (The Matrix, ILMxLAB, Magic Leap, founder of Escape.ai) who introduced his concept of Neo Cinema and the vision behind Escape.ai as a distribution/curation platform for AI-driven and multimodal storytelling.
The second half spotlighted Sylvain Montreuil and Andreas Urbanski, co-founders of Animatics.ai, who demoed their new end-to-end AI filmmaking platform designed to streamline workflows from script → storyboard → animatic → film.
Recording: Watch here
Key Highlights
Part 1 – John Gaeta & Escape.ai
Defined Neo Cinema as the next paradigm: cinema evolving into multimodal, interactive, and AI-powered forms.
Described Escape.ai as a curated platform to solve the distribution bottleneck for new creators—bridging prestige curation and broad audience reach.
Platform highlights:
Spotlight section with rotating themes.
“Ticker” feed of ~150 shorts uploaded weekly (growing in length and quality).
Regular virtual film festivals (next: a curated Halloween Horror Fest).
Expansion to connected TV (Roku, Samsung, etc.) as a growth channel.
Emphasis on curation, discoverability, and creating a safe, prestige neighborhood for GenAI storytelling.
Audience Qs: data hosting (Cloudflare), hybrid vs pure AI films (Escape welcomes both), audience acquisition strategy (social media + festivals + creator reach).
Part 2 – Animatics.ai (Sylvain & Andreas)
Mission: unify fragmented AI tools into a single collaborative platform.
Features demoed:
Story-first prompting → storyboard → character sheets → consistent shots.
Supports 26+ models (NanoBanana, VO3, Kling, Runway, etc.) with agentic layer recommending best tool per task.
Timeline-based workflow to maintain continuity, consistency, and context.
Collaboration: multi-user workspace, audit trail for prompts/models used.
Licensing: integration with Flickforge (200+ real actors with rights managed for royalties/residuals).
Adoption so far:
Advertising (short, high-margin projects, spec ads).
Broadcast/film studios (children’s programming, docu-style reconstructions, experimental formats).
Enterprise deployments up to 5,000 seats.
Legal & governance focus: enterprises can define approved models, ensure licensing compliance, and integrate with existing IT environments.
Still in alpha; Version 3 will launch after the Amsterdam broadcasting show this month.
Meta Themes
Neo Cinema vs Machine Cinema: reclaiming “cinema” as a broad evolving category.
Abundance mindset: huge influx of creators → new curation/distribution systems needed.
Professionalization: tools are maturing from hobbyist hacks to enterprise-grade pipelines.
Licensing & governance: becoming central for pro adoption.
Hot Quotes
“Cinema began as magic, and it’s going to continue to be magic. It will get demystified the more we talk about how it’s made—but it’s about to get remystified as it gets intelligent.” – John Gaeta
“Distribution is the hill we all die on. Escape is about building a safe, prestigious neighborhood for this new wave of creators.” – John Gaeta
“We prompt for a film, not just a frame. Animatics is about removing the blank prompt problem and giving creators a full workflow.” – Sylvain Montreuil