Artificial Imagination: The Making of “DreadClub”, the First Fully AI Animated Feature Film Ever Made

In an unprecedented peeling back behind the curtain, Hooroo Jackson offers his complete dialogue with LLMs during the 6-month production of “DreadClub: Vampire’s Verdict”, the first A.I. animated feature film in history.

An entire feature film made by one single person, with every piece of sound, performance, video, animation, and image AI generated? The complete production is documented here. This book presents—warts and all, Hooroo’s running dialogue with LLMs such as GPT and Claude AI throughout the six month, one-man production of the revolutionary animated film, “DreadClub: Vampire’s Verdict.”

“DreadClub” represents several milestones in AI filmmaking: it is history’s first fully AI animated feature film, it is the first AI generated anime, and it is the first feature film with 100 % of its music, sound, performances, video, and animation AI generated, meaning everything on screen is machine generated.

Hooroo’s attention to detail, and neurosis calls to mind a comic ‘Curb your Enthusiasm’ type relationship to machines, and his funny back and forth with the LLM present a full picture of the demands involved in breaking history.

Beyond the technical challenges, a picture emerges of Jackson’s anxiety over the historic nature of the production, his trials in promoting the film, and the constant snubs, trolls, and haters he faced; included are many bleak email exchanges with various gatekeepers, institutions, and critics, in both the tradfilm, and AI sphere. The picture is a grim fascination of a totally independent artist going up against an entire machine, with an even more powerful machine behind him.

Hooroo Jackson’s making of is a first and is as uncompromising as the film itself—he had no idea any of it would be published, giving an incredibly fresh look at ‘one man’ making of an entire film completely solo and breaking history by creating the first fully AI feature length anime film.

Date:
Published:
August 31, 2024
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