Any adult who has seen more than four movies or television shows in their lifetime has invariably said, at one point or another, “I would’ve done this differently,” or “I would’ve changed this.”
Well, good news for all those armchair directors: They may soon have a chance to actually do things differently or change things in a show.
Fable Studio, a San Francisco startup, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is launching a new streaming platform dubbed Showrunner that seeks to arm everyday television watchers with the power to influence what’s happening in a given show.
🚨ANNOUNCING SHOWRUNNER🚨
We believe the future is a mix of game & movie.
Simulations powering 1000s of Truman Shows populated by interactive AI characters.
🚨Welcome to Sim Francisco & Showrunner!🚨
SOUND ON!
Link to Signup in Bio pic.twitter.com/yptMocqOfW
— The Simulation (@fablesimulation) May 30, 2024
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Powered by artificial intelligence, Showrunner will allow viewers to both watch AI-generated content and create content of their own.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, when creating their own content, viewers will have “the ability to control dialogue, characters and shot types, among other controls.”
Showrunner grew from a Fable Studio showcase where AI created an episode of “South Park.”
While reviews for the AI “South Park” episode were mixed, the fact that AI was able to even pull off a poor facsimile of the popular and raunchy adult cartoon was a big step forward for generative technology.
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“The vision is to be the Netflix of AI,” company founder and CEO Edward Saatchi told the entertainment news outlet. “Maybe you finish all of the episodes of a show you’re watching and you click the button to make another episode. You can say what it should be about or you can let the AI make it itself.”
“Users are encouraged to make their own episodes of the shows, the best of which will be included in the catalog of the series when Showrunner is officially launched,” THR reported. “The winners will get a lump-sum payment, as well as revenue sharing if the show is picked up by a streamer.
“Saatchi says the platform’s tech allows users to create a series of scenes that can then be stitched together to create a full-length episode. Prompts can range from just a couple of words to over 100.
“Users will be able to edit the dialogue, shots and flow of scenes, among other things, he adds.”
According to Forbes, the actual process of creating your own show sounds fairly painless.
The user simply needs to provide a prompt of 10 to 15 words, which will then create an episode ranging from two to 16 minutes.
As mentioned above, there is a deeper layer of control — including dialogue and shot types — should viewers want to do more with their generated show, but as Forbes described, Showrunner is very much targeting “non-technical” and “non-professional” users.
“Generating a new TV show should be as easy as browsing Netflix for a show,” Philipp Maas, co-creator of Showrunner, told Forbes.
While the jury is very much out on whether this user-generated content will actually be worth watching (or, more importantly, worth staying subscribed to), Hollywood can’t be thrilled with the rapid development of this platform.
After a brutal 2023 and a rough go thus far in 2024, the last thing Hollywood will want to see is yet another stay-at-home option for entertainment viewing needs.
Showrunner is currently accepting users for an Alpha test, though there is a 50,000-deep waitlist for the app.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the waitlist is for a free testing version of Showrunner, which is expected to last until the end of 2024.
