Writers Guild Tells Members That Studios May Not Be Serious About Restarting Talks to Make a Deal - eviltoast

After the union sent a cautionary message about the studios’ “playbook,” the group representing those companies in negotiations said, “Our only playbook is getting people back to work.”

  • xyzzy@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Writing a screenplay or television script is not the same as writing a letter to a government department, anymore than painting a portrait is the same as painting a house… One is a work of creative expression, the other is simply a menial task (no offense).

    LLMs can help with writing an email, but they’re not producing a script worth reading anytime soon, if ever. The job you describe is the type that generative AI will one day eliminate, but not screenwriters—at least not if studios want audiences to continue watching scripted movies and TV.

    If studio executives had a creative bone in their bodies, they would understand this fundamental fact.

    The only time I’ve found LLMs to be useful for creative writing is when I need lists of things.

    • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I think it’d be a good tool for a writer. I’d bet Bret Easton Ellis would have used AI to write large portions of American Psycho. All those passages like the ones about Huey Lewis and the News etc would be much easier to write with AI I think.

      • xyzzy@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Sure, you’re right in that case. But most novels and scripts don’t contain extended encyclopedia-like entries. Besides American Psycho, Moby Dick and House of Leaves are the only other ones I can recall off the top of my head.

        • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I think for formulaic type books it could be used to flesh out a basic plot. Like, Tom Clancy has been dead for years, but he keeps bringing out books…