You aren't just given some money and told to do whatever - there is a significant amount of capital raised and GTM plans created.
It actually isn't much different from VC - I've found the mechanisms around film/TV production financing to be fairly similar.
Watch the Skies review – see the lips move in alien abduction sci-fi with pioneering AI
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/08/watch-the-skies...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44498995
This nicely put together Swedish UFO throwback is notable for its early use of ‘vubbing’ – using tech to match lip movements to new English dialogue.https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/netflix-crime-doc-...
Jennifer Pans case is from 2010 so there’s no explaining away how photos of her from that time ended up with characteristic AI fingers
Essentially, prices for video games and media are stagnant (or even go down) compared to inflation, and the prices for people go up every year. Changes (something like moving to lower cost countries or utilizing AI) is inevitable in a capitalist system.
DarkNova6•6mo ago
But given the abysmal quality of CGI/FX these days (look at the new Mortal Kombat trailer ffs), I can’t imagine film deteriorating any further. But industry must seriously step up its game because soon, everyone can make movies like that.
What counts is not the monopoly on talent and technology, but distribution and how much artistic merit you can leverage.
Hollywood is rightfully afraid.
pointlessone•6mo ago
DarkNova6•6mo ago
The new movie looks like a collection of scenes containing 2-3 people on a bluescreen, with pre-rendered backgrounds that look worse than the last 2 video game entries (which were genuine pieces of art).
I wanna love it, but I'm currently watching 90s anime and I am impressed by their composition and how they can linger on a single scene to create mood. All while having a dense plot.
DoctorOW•6mo ago
Technology aside, I believe that the monopoly on talent, as in the hiring of talent is symptomatic of a monopoly on distribution, which means the devaluing of talent over reach is actually worse for the independent filmmaker.
alephnerd•6mo ago
The issue for a lot of productions is the budget per episode is low. For example, the show mentioned in the article has a budget of $15M to produce 6 episodes that heavily rely on shooting on location, significant set design, VFX, somewhat high profile actors, and a significant reduction in tax incentives by the Millei government at a moment when countries like Vietnam, India, Philippines, Colombia, and China are creating a second VFX production subsidy war.
Choosing to use GenAI to automate the creation of secondary scenes can become fairly cheap and is the lowest hanging fruit.