How Culver City is quietly emerging as a new mecca for AI filmmaking
asserted
City → emerge → filmmaking
-
Click here to listen to this article -
- Culver City’s mix of Hollywood studios, tech companies and available office space is drawing a growing cluster of AI filmmaking startups eager to reshape the industry.
asserted
mix → click → industry
- The companies tout new creative possibilities, using generative tools for everything from short-form crime shows to commercials and film effects.
asserted
companies → tout → commercials
- But unions and many Hollywood workers fear AI will take jobs, even as studios explore hybrid productions and secure protections against fully synthetic performers.
asserted
studios → fear → performers
The heart of Screenland is cozying up to artificial intelligence.
asserted
heart → cozye → intelligence
The open space in Culver Steps typically hosts community events and movie nights.
asserted
space → host → events
But on Wednesday, it turned into a job fair for companies looking to hire talent for AI studios.
asserted
it → turn → studios
Companies showed off their life-like AI videos, urging emerging talent — and out-of-work creatives — to join them as they worked to reinvent traditional filmmaking.
asserted
they → show → filmmaking
“It’s a great breeding ground for this new filmmaking,” Dave Clark, cofounder of AI film production studio Promise, said about Culver City.
asserted
Clark → ’ → City
“To the independent filmmakers here, it’s time to take back power.
asserted
it → ’ → power
The event was part of LA Tech Week, a citywide event organized by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
asserted
event → organize → Horowitz
Recently, a growing cluster of AI studios, including Promise, TrueShort, Native Foreign, and PhantomX,
asserted
cluster → grow → studios
Luma AI, a $4-billion Palo Alto startup that makes generative AI video software, opened a facility in Culver City last year.
asserted
that → make → City
The company’s Dream Lab occupies a 7,000 square feet space and employs a team of 13.
asserted
Lab → occupy → 13
“Culver City is the future of AI and filmmaking,” Caroline Ingeborn, Luma AI’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
asserted
Ingeborn → say → statement
The companies said they are drawn by the legacy studios they hope to rival.
asserted
they → say → studios
The fact that space is available and affordable thanks to the general decline of the entertainment business in L.A. also helps.
asserted
space → help → L.A.
Proponents of AI see it as an antidote to high production costs and say it allows creatives to make films that otherwise would never be made.
asserted
that → see → films
However, many in Hollywood, its unions, and the public at large are suspicious of the surge in AI use, worried it is stealing the work of human creatives and taking people’s jobs.
asserted
it → worry → jobs
The new wave of AI filmmakers have accepted the rise of AI as inevitable, and are forging ahead, increasingly in Culver City.
asserted
wave → accept → City
The city is not opposed to it.
asserted
city → oppose → it
“We’re a hub for the creative economy that is continuing to evolve,” said Adam Troy, Culver City assistant city manager, in a statement.
asserted
Troy → ’re → statement
“We look forward to what’s next in the space and what businesses see their future here in Culver City.”
asserted
businesses → look → City
TrueShort moved into Culver City last month, taking over most of a 5,000-square-foot office space near Amazon’s studio.
asserted
TrueShort → move → studio
The AI studio has raised $17 million and employs about 45 people.
asserted
studio → raise → people
Its streaming app hosts short-form true crime audio and video shows that are fully AI-generated.
asserted
that → stream → shows
On average, a 10-minute episode costs about $10,000 to make and takes about 10 days to go from idea to release.
asserted
episode → cost → release
“The next Netflix or the next Disney is going to come out of AI this time,” said Nate Tepper, cofounder of TrueShort.
asserted
Tepper → go → TrueShort
“And, in a way, it kind of needs to be a startup because the big incumbents are not going to move as fast.
asserted
incumbents → need → way
They’re going to be afraid of backlash.”
asserted
They → go → backlash
The company outgrew its Santa Monica office and is now located near Culver Theater.
asserted
company → outgrow → Theater
“It is cool being next to the other bigger lots like Sony and Amazon, only because it’s inspiring,” Tepper said.
asserted
Tepper → ’ → Sony
“We want the lot.
asserted
We → want → lot
We want to become the big studio.”
asserted
We → want → ?
A California e-commerce platform is fueling the rise of live shopping in the United States, taking on giants such as TikTok and tackling concerns that the app is draining people’s bank accounts.
Culver City-based creative studio Native Foreign makes AI commercials for brands that are more open than Hollywood about AI use.
asserted
that → fuel → use
It has done ads for Virgin and Toys R Us.
asserted
It → do → Virgin
It made one of the first AI-animated shorts, “Critterz,” using OpenAI’s software and planned to help make a movie based on it, but OpenAI pulled out of the project and canceled its video-making AI model.
asserted
OpenAI → make → model
“We don’t have the kind of opportunities that maybe some huge huge studios and companies have, so we are able to bag above our weight with these tools,” Nik Kleverov, co-founder of the company, said on a panel at LA Tech Week.
asserted
Kleverov → have → Week
Amid rapid technological change, a growing number of filmmakers and companies in Southern California are using AI tools to radically rethink how films and TV shows are made.
asserted
films → grow → tools
Google-backed Promise is another Culver City-adjacent AI studio that’s a proponent of hybrid productions, where human actors work with AI specialists.
asserted
actors → back → specialists
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
