Everybody is talking about AI. Some people love it, are rooting for it to keep advancing, while others are very wary of computers taking over our lives, ultimately our world.
Bennett Creative video production and marketing started this discussion with a blog post about what jobs would be low hanging fruit for AI replacement. Now, on a lighter note, we want to have the conversation about how team members at Bennett Creative are using AI, how it has made work easier and how creatives can hedge against AI taking their photography and video production jobs.
AI: Resisting, Embracing or Somewhere in Between?
AI has always fascinated Andrew Bennett. He’s been implementing AI in Bennett Creative video projects for years and it has really aided workflow, helping us to get more done, quicker. We’ve also seen rapid developments in how well AI generates content.
All the while, Andrew has been thinking about how to keep his job, how to stay on top of AI and keep Bennett Creative thriving. Which, to be honest, he wasn’t too worried about until the recent release of OpenAI’s, Sora. Sora is the new AI tool that generates up to one minute of high quality videos from text. Now AI isn’t making laughably terrible videos like the “Will Smith Eating Spaghetti” from a year ago, but hyper-realistic videos. It’s only been a year since that video came out and look where we are now.
In the face of the new developments Bennett Creative has started thinking about how creatives can hedge against AI replacing their jobs and business pivots we can make to stay on top of the advancing technology.
Creatives Thinking About Safety Nets
It’s hard not to think about which creative jobs might be safe and which ones are in jeopardy, especially if your livelihood is a creative career. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the changes AI can bring and how quickly it’s happened. Part of the reason Bennett Creative founder, Andrew Bennett, decided to also add in a digital marketing service was not just because he’s good at it (he is), but because he was also beginning to see the need for full scale video production start to ever-so-slightly diminish.
Every brand needs video content for their business, we’ve established that, but in a meeting with a client a few years ago, a new, younger, tech guy was brought on who suggested the company just do talking selfie videos to get their message across. He wasn’t totally wrong.
Bennett Creative believes you need both forms of video marketing, the selfie and high quality production. However, due to other ways of video content creation coming about, AI generated or not, the lean into digital marketing has been a great decision. A decision many creative people are thinking about - how do I safeguard my likelihood? The threat of tech taking over creative jobs feels very real.
How Bennett Creative Uses AI for Video Production and Digital Marketing
Before we get into how to hedge against AI, we want to talk about how AI has benefited Bennett Creative in video production and marketing. How it’s helped us crank out projects not just faster, but better. Here are a few cool things about AI that we at Bennett Creative have been leveraging every day.
AI is essentially, to quote Dorothy Bennett, "an undergrad research student". You wouldn’t want an undergrad research student writing a final paper for you. You wouldn’t want an undergrad photo student taking your brand photos or directing your commercials. However, an undergrad research student does a great job of building mood boards, of even doing storyboards.
In pre-production Bennett Creative has been using AI such as Midjourney and ChatGPT. We use Midjourney for concept art, to get ideas, as well as using AI for storyboards. We direct AI to actually generate images to describe the shots we want to shoot. Then share the storyboards with our clients for approval. Of course, we’ve been using Chat GPT for scripting, for first drafts in scripts.
Another tool for pre-production is Muse AI, an advanced AI platform that helps video production companies by revolutionizing their creative workflow. By leveraging cutting-edge machine learning algorithms, Muse AI streamlines the content creation process, from conceptualization to post-production. Its intuitive interface allows users to generate script ideas, storyboard visuals, and even suggest editing styles based on desired outcomes and target audience preferences.
In terms of marketing, Muse AI can analyze vast amounts of data to identify trends and insights, helping video production companies tailor their content to maximize engagement and impact. With its ability to automate repetitive tasks and provide valuable creative guidance, Muse AI enhances efficiency, accelerates project timelines, and delivers high-quality content that resonates with viewers.
We used generative fill to fill frames, taking this product video from a tall fame to wide frame.
In post-production we use Photoshop Generative Fill quite often. This has really proved to be incredibly convenient. The AI in generative fill is also good for expanding frames such as photo and video frames. It’s really helpful in translating things from, for example, tall format into wide format or vice versa. For our client Malk, we used generative fill to do that and it was incredibly helpful.
Another way that Bennett Creative has been using AI is with transcription. Videos for social media almost always need transcription now. We used to have to pay for a service, rev.com, to transcribe projects and now it’s built into the software of Adobe. And basically, every other platform now has transcription abilities like on Vimeo or on YouTube, making it cost effective and easier.
The AI Tool That Makes People Uncomfortable…
There’s one thing that’s been a huge help and it’s honestly the thing that scares people the most. The AI tool that’s been insanely helpful for us has been Voice Creation.
We’ve had several clients now where we have shot interviews with them but then later we wanted to add another statement or fix a statement. Instead of having to go over to where the client is with an audio recorder and do it in person we’ve been able to feed AI a portion of their voice and use it to recreate phrases. We’ve used this for brand videos and also for commercials. If we want to write new hooks or conclusions for commercials, this is a super efficient alternative. We just feed an AI software the lines and use our client voices, with their permission, of course, to create the new hook or conclusion.
Every time Bennett Creative has done that, we’ve asked permission, and when we show them the result, they’ve been delighted that we have been able to do this so easily.
On the Marketing Side of Things
As Bennett Creative makes our way into digital marketing, we’ve found AI to be incredibly useful for content writing. ChaptGPT, which we’ve been using for social media content for a few years, is now helping us to write blogs and website content faster.
Everything created by ChaptGPT needs to be proofread by a human and typically tweaked a bit, but it’s an amazing tool and saves us so much time. A blog post on, say, spray foam insulation, would take hours without AI, but with it, there’s no need to spend much time researching, ChaptGPT does that for you.
How to Hedge Against AI Taking Your Photography or Video Prodcution Job
Let’s not also forget to mention that AI can take a lot of time. It takes quite a bit of time to learn how to prompt, to learn how to sit there and write new prompts, to wait for it to generate. Still, you almost never get what you want off of the first prompt so you have to go back in there, tweak things and just keep trying and trying and trying. There is a part of AI where you can waste a lot of time, at least right now. However, once you learn the art of prompting to get what you need, that’s where you become a valuable asset with AI.
There is a lot to be said about people who have put in the work to really learn different forms of art. Those are going to be the people that are going to be able to prompt and curate AI the best.
A skilled photographer knows what goes into a great photo. They know the terminology and direction to give Midjourney, for example, on how to create a good AI photo. Some of that stuff can be researched but you’ll still need taste, people with good taste. Someone who can guide AI into these different creations, whether it be good taste in writing or good taste in visual art.
AI is Here, Work With It to Stay Ahead
AI seems to be one of those things that you either utilize or potentially fall behind. In reality, the ways that we have used it at Bennett Creative have been super helpful, increasing our efficiency and even cost effectiveness, paying for less. It’s worth researching and playing around with it a bit. Once you figure it out, AI has the power to positively impact your workflow in video production and marketing. As with all things technology, the more on top of it you are, the better equipped you are to keep moving forward and staying relevant, for better or worse.
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