Lights. Camera. AI.

Filmmaking has long been about conjuring fantastical images from the past, the future or entirely other worlds. AI, that 21st century sensation, has proven quite effective at doing the very same, so it’s no surprise the two are finding common ground.

The speed at which AI is evolving has shown Hollywood and many industries adjacent to filmmaking that it will have a place in the future of the industry. Just what that role looks like is slowly coming into focus, but some have a clearer vision than others.

Seeing the future

Two years ago, advertising industry leaders Kent Boswell and Marcus Tesoriero were catching up over a beer in Cannes, Europe’s film hub, when the conversation turned to AI.

“We knew the industry was set to change,” Boswell tells The CEO Magazine. “And not just a little – a lot. Every second talk at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that year was about AI and we thought if we had a blank canvas that could use our skillsets – Marcus from a creative point of view and myself from tech and production – we could fill a hole in the market.”

Meanwhile, the advertising industry was in a deep crisis, Tesoriero says.

“Decreasing budgets, yet increasing expectations of quality. In the middle of that, ideas were becoming impossible to make. We realized AI could make the impossible happen,” he says.

The result of their brainstorm, AiCandy, is Australia’s first AI-powered film production company. Able to bring the most outrageous scripts to life or realize an entire campaign from scratch, AiCandy is pushing the envelope of what’s possible in the advertising landscape.

“Looking back on our first year, Kent and I often say that of all the big-brand projects and award-winning campaigns we’ve been involved with throughout our careers, AiCandy is without a doubt the best idea we’ve ever come up with,” he says.

It’s a long way from that Cannes conversation, Tesoriero says.

“Back then, AI was a bit of a joke,” he says. “Six-fingered people, that sort of thing. There was an overall feeling from the industry that AI tech would never improve, but Kent and I could foresee it becoming a tool that would redefine the future of filmmaking.”

The pair left high-paying jobs to pioneer a new era of AI filmmaking, exclusively signing the best AI directors and artists to fill a very specialized niche. One year on, that niche is theirs alone.

“No-one in Australia is at our level,” Boswell says. “We’ve attracted some of the best AI artists from around the world and quickly gained a reputation as one of the top five studios globally doing what we’re doing.”

A platform for ideas

And what AiCandy is doing at times defies description. Found in the company’s showreel are heroic condoms and villainous monsters depicting sexually transmitted infections, ice skaters on Sydney Harbour, a despondent Santa Claus and an Amsterdam of the future submerged by the effects of climate change.

“I think we all got into this industry to share big, bold and ambitious ideas and that’s slowly decayed over time,” Boswell says. “What we’re doing is empowering clients, brands and agencies to tell those big ideas again.”

Tesoriero says the possibilities AI provides the industry are essentially limitless, but with none of the budget woes of old.

“I remember when I first started in the industry as a junior copywriter, I’d have all these grandiose ideas with no concept of budget,” he recalls.

“You’d say, ‘We open on a beach in the Bahamas, jets arrive and a big Coke ball comes crashing through the waves,’ and you’d get, ‘There’s no way you can make that for this budget. Great idea though. Put it in the bottom drawer.’”

Now, that bottom drawer is a treasure trove of concepts that can now see the light of day.

“It’s the most exciting time ever in the creative industry,” Tesoriero says.

“We can greenlight more big ideas than ever before. It’s the great equalizer. Now even smaller brands can bring ambitious ideas to life and compete with the biggest brands in the world.”

And Boswell believes the ideas AiCandy is bringing to life have the power to do more than just sell.

“We premiered our ad for the United Nations, which depicts the world underwater as a result of missing the 2030 sustainable development goals, during our SXSW keynote,” he says. “One guy came up to us after to tell us how the ad had moved him to tears.

“That was the first time I’ve had a complete stranger tell me my work had made them cry. If we can create that level of engagement and emotion, we’ve done our job.”