The trailer for the first-ever AI-generated rom-com is here… And it’s terrible
Apr 19, 2024
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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The future is here (unfortunately): Chinese TV giant TCL recently announced Next Stop Paris, the world’s first AI-generated rom-com. The film uses tech called Runway ML and Midjourney to generate the visuals, but hold on a second before you picture a groundbreaking cinematic experience.
The early trailer hints at a pretty… uncanny valley approach. While the plot seems like your standard meet-cute-in-Paris fairytale, the AI struggles to keep the main characters consistent. They morph and change from scene to scene, like digital chameleons.
TCL assures us this isn’t quite a full-length feature – think more of an extended TV episode. Also, not everything is AI: a human write the script, and the voices come from actual actors. What the company execs are betting on is the “AI novelty factor” to set them apart.
Next Stop Paris is definitely grabbing attention, and not in a good way. Social media isn’t exactly throwing virtual roses on the stage. it’s rather rotten totmatos. Comments on Reddit were scathing, with some viewers calling it “disgusting” and questioning the point of an entirely AI-made film that might be, well, entirely mediocre. And would you look at that – the commens on the YouTube trailer are mysteriously disabled. I wonder why.
What’s the issue here?
Or maybe I should ask what the issues are since there are a few. The most obvious one regards quality and consistency. The trailer reveals a struggle with AI keeping characters visually consistent, and it really, really shows. Not to mention that it lacks the human touch and emotional depth that makes a good rom-com. Or a good movie in general.
There could also be copyright issues, considering this is still a grey area. And as AI takes on more tasks in filmmaking, there’s a worry about human filmmakers and creative professionals losing their jobs. It’s already making its way into Hollywood, by the way. But hey, if the result it will look like this – I think the movie industry is safe. For now.
via Unilad Tech
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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2 responses to “The trailer for the first-ever AI-generated rom-com is here… And it’s terrible”
Some of the scenics are stunning, but the “actors”? Just terrible. The voices don’t emote. Don’t know if the voices were done by actual reading of lines or by sampling. Either way, just terrible.
I do not think anybody is going to watch this to be honest (except for; oh AI, interesting – and turn it off after 5min.) Even tho there are ‘human’ parts to the film, its full of (the wrong) cliche’s and there will be zero to hardly any emotional connection with these characters, and without it a romcom is destined to suck (more). Like the opening of the article: its going to be terrible (for now).