The Machine Cinema Times - June 27th, 2025

... still wondering if robots have celluloid dreams.

Jun 27, 2025

In this issue:

Real Creative “Pick of the Week”
“Overheard in Basecamp” for the week June 19 - 25
Community Call 6/25 Recording and Notes

Real Creative “Pick of the Week”

Each week the Real Creative team obsesses 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

Kyle Salazar’s newest short film follows an alien scientist who brings home a cute creature from a distant planet, only to watch it grow into something terrifying. Made with a wide range of AI tools including Midjourney, Kling, Veo, and Udio, the film blends sci-fi and horror for a unique experience.

About the Artist

AI-driven creator who has amassed over 75 million views on YouTube; he also directs music videos and commercials. He blends cutting edge AI tools with cinematic storytelling to deliver polished emotionally resonant that consistently connects with a growing audience.

Website / X / Youtube

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 in Basecamp - Week of June 19 - 25, 2025

Our Machine Cinema Basecamp is a firehose of activity and even the most diehard members of our community can feel overwhelmed sometimes. This weekly digest of hot topics discussed, links and articles shared and discussed is here to make sure you never miss a beat.

If you’d like to join the conversation, 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.

🎥 Cheap & Fast Isn’t the Whole Story

A deep discussion unfolded around AI production economics and the growing perception that “AI = fast and free.” While many agreed the tech accelerates timelines, the community pushed back on the devaluation of creative labor.

AI tools aren’t the story—what creators do with them is.
Agencies and clients now expect fast delivery at low cost, forcing creatives to advocate for their value.
The community emphasized reframing AI as an amplifier of vision, not a shortcut to slop.

💬 “The cheaper, better, faster narrative is correct for tech—but ruinous for human capital.”

🌍 Roblox, Runway & the Future of Interactive Storytelling

Multiple threads speculated that 2026 may be “the year of games,” as AI tools begin unlocking new narrative formats in interactive spaces.

Roblox UGC games like Grow a Garden are exploding in popularity.
Runway teased game-like video experiences—prompting questions about real-time narrative engines.
Members floated a Roblox-themed GenJam and noted a need for native devs to explore the space.

💬 “Feels like the FarmVille moment all over again.”

🧠 Distribution Is the Battlefield Now

The creator bottleneck isn’t tools anymore—it’s attention. As social algorithms flood timelines, breaking through the noise is now the real creative challenge.

Trust, curation, and community-building were named as emerging differentiators.
Creators must become their own brands—vision alone isn’t enough.

💬 “Creators must be the source audiences trust their time with.”

🎭 Creators as Brands, Not Just Projects

The idea of subscription-based patronage models resurfaced, championed as a hedge against commodified content and algorithmic noise.

Instead of pitching to studios or clients, some suggested building a base of micro-supporters.
Personal vision, long-form IP, and community trust were viewed as the next frontier.

💬 “It’s going to become about vision. You can envision entire movies with your team? You’ll be successful.”

⚖️ Anthropic Court Ruling: Fair Use for Training

A U.S. court ruled that training AI models on copyrighted books qualifies as fair use. Creators unpacked the implications for image, audio, and video datasets.

The group explored implications for video, image, and audio training.
The ruling may create a precedent for broader media usage—but questions remain about outputs and licensing.
Clean models, copyright compliance, and business strategies were all up for debate.

💬 “If Anthropic had just bought the books, no lawsuit. But training on data is now fair use. Huge deal.”

🎓 Teaching the Next Generation

Educators and mentors shared stories of introducing AI filmmaking tools to teens and students.

At Locarno and other festivals, youth are rapidly picking up tools like Luma and CapCut.
Creative freedom, storytelling agility, and fast iteration are opening new pedagogical doors.

💬 “This kid made a Jedi cat space battle based on his cat Turbo.”

👀 MrBeast, YouTube, and the Thumbnail Arms Race

A side thread dissected MrBeast’s new thumbnail generator—raising eyebrows about homogenization and algorithmic monoculture.

Many expressed nostalgia for “old YouTube” and skepticism of the platform’s current incentives.
Others welcomed automation of a task they already hate doing.

💬 “It’s bots making stuff for bots.”

🏆 Festival Wins, Global Spotlights, & Billboards

Brogan Wassell won Best Video at the AI Film Festival in Los Angeles. Multiple members posted screenshots and reactions from the event. – Congrats!
Another round of applause – Cannes Lions awarded “Hidden Eye Test,” a fashion-meets-vision AI billboard campaign by Elevado Studio!
A billboard ad made with LumaAI was spotted by multiple members in LA.

💬 “A big win, especially considering AI isn’t often perceived as craft.”

🛠️ Tips, Bugs, and Workflow Fixes

Premiere + Firefly: Clip extension works but renders are fragile—don’t delete those cache folders.
Luma: Quality is higher, but frame duplication remains an issue.
Midjourney Video: Still winning hearts with painterly aesthetics, but “motion” is a work in progress.

💬 “Cut out 1–2 frames between clip and extension to keep it smooth.”

🧠 Reality Check on Enterprise AI Hype

A critique of recent AI cheerleading articles sparked sharp pushback from technical voices in the community. One piece from Exponential View was called out for painting an overly optimistic picture of AI’s enterprise readiness.

Real-world applications still struggle with messy, edge-case-heavy environments.
Many AI tools are useful for narrow tasks but fall apart at production scale.
Hype can backfire, setting up engineers to look incompetent when tools don’t deliver.

💬 “They tell clients AI is magic. Then we have to come in and explain it’s not.”

🌌 Dream Playback Device Sparks Speculation

A new article claiming researchers have invented a headset that records dreams and plays them back ignited a blend of awe and skepticism.

Previous prototypes showed only blurry B&W reconstructions—this tech claims full fidelity playback.
If real, it could radically alter the nature of visual storytelling and subjective memory translation.
Community reaction hovered between “mind-blowing” and “this can’t be real… yet.”

💬 “We might finally be able to capture the true essence of our minds on screen.”

📈 Midjourney's Business Model Gets Scrutinized

While not discussed in depth, a shared link to a report on OpenAI's internal structure and Midjourney’s potential legal exposure highlighted an undercurrent of unease around company positioning and monetization.

OpenAIFiles.org post raised concerns about model sourcing and IP exposure.
As big players consolidate, indie platforms face new pressure to justify ethics and operations.

🔗 Link Drop: What the Community Shared

🧪 Tools & Industry

🎥 Film & Art Projects

Hidden Eye Test – Cannes Lions Win

📚 Reading & Thought Pieces

GenTalks Community Call 6/25 - recap

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.

Recording: View (74 min)
Guests: Kiki Wu + Ø Studio team, Willonius Hatcher
Themes: Anthologies, Workflow Experiments, Immersive AI, and "The 6-Month Window"

PART ONE: KIKI WU & Ø STUDIO

Overview:
Taiwanese multimedia artist Kiki Wu and her team at Ø Studio walked through their creative philosophy, studio process, recent projects (Black Hall, The Forest Remembers), and technical approach to blending traditional media with GenAI workflows.

Core Ideas & Takeaways:

Human + AI = Magic → But more accurately: Humans bring magic into AI.
AI is just data processing — It’s us who imbue it with meaning and emotion.
Studio Ethos: Focused on what feels most real, not photorealism. Their films center natural themes, cultural identity, and deeply human collaboration.
Global team of 3 core members + worldwide collaborators (UK, Brazil, India, Taiwan).
Recent Workflow Experiment:
- Shot cute toy characters in live action.
- Used MidJourney for styleframes → animated with Luma, Gemini, and Clean.
- Tested two workflows: (1) image → styleframe → animate, (2) video → stylize. Found (1) more reliable.
- Used Know for collaborative asset review.
- Sound design: Mix of traditional FX and ElevenLabs voices.

Project Highlight: “The Forest Remembers”

Interactive installation where users speak into a mic → AI generates a poem and a custom tree based on voice input.
Voice becomes poem → becomes animated visual → becomes memory.
Unexpected behaviors (e.g., gibberish input transcribed as “I love you” and rendered into beautiful poetry).
Comment on AI bias: LA = palm trees, Asia = cherry blossoms — reveals embedded cultural cues in datasets.

Bonus: AI Art History Primer

Harvok Kothen (1950s) → first AI art via coded drawing logic
David Cope (1980s) → EMI (first AI music composer)
GANs → early artists like Memo Akten, Refik Anadol, Holly Herndon
Diffusion models & MidJourney = inflection point
Kiki’s challenge: Who authors the output—the human or the machine or the process itself?

PART TWO: WILLONIUS HATCHER

Overview:
Comedian, creative technologist, and BBL Drizzy creator Willonius Hatcher (Time 100 AI) shared his origin story, comedy background, viral hits, and current creative ambitions.