Steve Fuller wrote, directed and served as artificial intelligence creative lead on this AI spec film for the Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Fuller took on the spec piece not as a tech demo but rather as a storytelling experiment. He was no stranger to AI going into the project, having deployed it for the past couple of years on treatments and as a means to supercharge his design work. Still, the veteran director–who’s enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Jeff Lewis’ The Directors Network–felt the need to learn and experience more when it came to AI. Thus he initiated a spec piece so he could integrate AI even better into his narrative toolbox.
Spurred on by a desire to discover how his directing instincts could translate into the best utilization of AI resources, Fuller came up with a creative concept for a product he was a user and fan of–the Fire TV Stick. What if a treasure trove of iconic characters and worlds were racing towards a huge Fire TV Stick in the middle of a desert, converging there in order to compete for viewer attention? And the climax of the spot has a household about to make the fateful choice for what they’re going to watch from all these varied options and forms of entertainment.
While via AI he was able to amass major celebrity talent and elements of blockbuster entertainment franchises for the Fire TV Stick adventure, that wasn’t the objective for Fuller who explained, “I was not trying to make a short film and suddenly have it star Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. Instead I wanted to see if I could use AI to make a really big and epic commercial.” The spec project was designed to open up the opportunity to curate imagery, create video sequences–all the while making choices as a director. “I approached it as I would a normal live-action shoot in a lot of ways,” related Fuller who immersed himself in the process of creating shot variety, mixing angles and scale, “all the things I need when I shoot for real,” working with the same building blocks he’d use to make a good live-action commercial.
The spec spot had 47 shots in the final cut–bringing the likes of Spider-Man, the Joker, Napoleon, Iron Man and assorted other villains, heroes and elements, into the equation. And for each of those shots, there were another five to 10 good alternatives as well as another 20-plus that were far from ideal. Fuller estimated that overall he was dealing with and culling through close to 1,000 generations of video. AI, he observed, is not a substitute for directing. What matters most are a director’s sense of storytelling, having good taste, visual acumen and an understanding of how images work together emotionally. Fuller was able to experiment freely, and continually push the envelope with AI, infusing the project with massive scale and taking the conceptual premise of the Fire TV Stick story to new heights. He also brought in additional human talent–such as editor, colorist and sound designer Peter Johnson–to get the final content just right. The human touches are what brought the spec concept to life, underscoring the value of craft.
AI does not replace filmmaking talent, noted Fuller, sharing that the Fire TV Stick film “hammered home that ‘the sky’s the limit.’ If you can imagine it and have the skills, if you have the experience of telling the mini-stories that are in commercials, if you have all that, then AI is fuel to the fire.”
Filmmaking remains a collaborative, human art form, affirmed Fuller whose body of work includes campaigns for such brands as Home Depot, Infiniti, Peloton, Ford, Amazon, Hyundai, McDonald’s and Xfinity. Before diversifying into commercial directing, Fuller made his initial mark in design, including serving as creative director and designer on a team which won a primetime Emmy Award in 2008 for Outstanding Main Title Design on Mad Men. He also earned two more Outstanding Main Title Design Emmy nominations–both coming in 2010 for The Pacific and Nurse Jackie.
