Filmmaker urges creatives to embrace AI as useful tool

Filmmaker, communications consultant and screenwriter Timothy Teemal believes AI could democratise the local film industry and aid in a content explosion.

He sees his two short, AI-developed films as the start of this and he intends to train as many people on how to do it.

The Eulogy and Tulsi are the first of many AI films he hopes to generate.

“Everything in the films are AI – from the actors to the voices, background music. I did everything. The voices are me, the characters are me,” he said in a phone interview with Newsday.

He wrote The Eulogy approximately six years ago and Tulsi was done in observance of this year’s Indian Arrival Day celebrations for the Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT).

“The Eulogy was done as a demonstration of what AI filmmaking is and the capacity it has to change the world.”

Teemal had an interest in AI and filmmaking for a number of years and has been urging people to to get onboard with the technology.

“I discussed this at length, telling people to prepare themselves, ‘It is coming, it is coming, it is coming.’”

He saw an opportunity when, in the last three or four months, a lot of text-to-video tech became available which allowed filmmakers to translate a story into a finished product.

And although some editing was still required, it is not a difficult process.

“Tulsi took about two days, and The Eulogy took about five days to produce.”

He used a Chat GPT learning language model, image-to-video tool Kling AI, the free text-to-speech and AI Voice generator ElevenLabs for sound engineering and AI music generator, Riffusion for background music.

“I used about five or six other free editing tools. I used five or seven paid online tools with small subscriptions.”

Teemal said even this was significantly cheaper than the costs usually incurred in creating a short film.

The initial impetus for the film's creation was to give people a demonstration of AI’s capability.

“AI filmmaking changes everything, from education to advertising to production. One of the extrapolations from what I have been doing is that I have put together a project to teach AI filmmaking.

“I am running a pilot project with some students from Point Fortin every Thursday, and I am scheduled to start something similar with TTT. They provided me with OJTs as well as some of their staff, so there are 18 people in all.”

Teemal said he’d be teaching the basic concepts of AI and how AI filmmaking could be quickly and easily done.

His goal is to have thousands of people all over TT producing films and stories.

While AI’s ascendency raised many discussions and, in film, like other industries, there are concerns about job losses, he thinks the positives outweigh the negatives.

He said, in terms of copyright, “Who owns the copyright when an artist paints a painting? Is it the brush? Is it the people who sell the easel?

“I say that to say, AI and all of the tools I am talking about, are tools. The creative force behind that, the ownership of the IP, is the individual.”

He said it is up to the individual to bring out the best in the tool.

“As far as what it means for the creative sector, yes, there are going to be people who are affected.”

The makers of equipment will be threatened as people would no longer need as much hardware, Teemal said.

But while it is disruptive and may result in job losses, it would also create new jobs and industries.

He calls on TT to embrace AI as it could not be stopped. He said an understanding of it is growing in the local creative sector, which is a good thing.

Teemal’s programme, CLAIP (pronounced Clip), aims to help people tell their stories using AI.

The creative person’s role is to show new perspectives, he said.

“There are no new stories, only new perspectives, and what AI and the person who is using it as a tool brings, is new perspective.”

He said nascent technology always brings discussion about job losses and industry change. AI is much more disruptive but is not a monolith and still relies on people for creative guidance, he said.

While global discussion about AI legislation takes place, Teemal does not think TT needs to legislate AI usage in the creative sector as existing copyright and IP laws are already robust. While he believes there should be AI legislation to address deep fakes, this should not extend to the creative sector and its output.

“There is a little boy living in Bethel, Tobago, a little girl in Charlotteville or an older man in Matelot who might be the greatest storytellers this world has ever seen, and the only way for us to actualise that is to expose and make them aware of the tools we have now.”

He said prior to AI, creating a film was prohibited by cost and industry contacts. Now, AI has “democratised” filmmaking and storytelling.

“We should be celebrating this and not trying to fight it. We should embrace it because it gives every sound man, actor and other industry players the opportunity to produce their own content.”

Teemal said he is aware of four or five other AI-filmmaking projects in the works, and if he had his way, he would teach as many people as possible to generate an explosion of AI content in TT and the region.

“We have the opportunity for TT to jump about 20 years ahead and be on par with the rest of the world, and not just have markets in TT, but to also have regional and international ones.”

The explosion of AI-content can generate foreign exchange for individuals, communities and the country by accessing huge markets through streaming platforms, he said.

“The stories and opportunities to create those stories are here now, so we have to take advantage of them before we are left behind,” Teemal urged.

He also sees this as an opportunity to provide an avenue out of crime for young people.

The Eulogy was shown again on TTT on June 11, and an AI-film for Father’s Day will also be created to be aired this weekend.

He hopes to, along with his students, produce a short film every week, and to one day soon, produce an AI-feature film.

“AI is not something to be afraid of, it should be embraced because it is the future.”