September 2, 2025 • 27 mins
Cut The Tie Podcast with Erich Archer
What happens when a longtime TV producer discovers generative AI and feels the same spark he once had as a college soccer player? In this episode of Cut The Tie, host Thomas Helfrich talks with Erich Archer, a Massachusetts-based television producer turned AI creator, about cutting ties with limits, rediscovering creativity, and why AI is changing the way stories are told.
From network television in New York and LA to running a local nonprofit station, Erich spent two decades building a career in media. But it wasn’t until he dove into AI video production that he found his passion reignited. He shares how creative control has become his new definition of success—and why AI is both disrupting and expanding the future of film, TV, and content.
About Erich Archer
Erich Archer is a television producer and creative director with over 20 years of experience across sports, music, reality TV, and nonprofit community media. Today, he is focused on generative AI video production, creating end-to-end projects, consulting with businesses, and teaching others how to integrate AI into their creative processes. He is the founder of CGA Creative and shares his work and insights on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Thomas and Erich discuss:
- From broadcast to AI storytelling
Erich’s path from TV in New York and LA to a local station in Massachusetts—and how generative AI reignited his creativity to make full projects on his own. - Defining success through creative control
Why success now means owning the process end to end, and how AI brought back the same spark he once felt as a competitive soccer player. - The future of actors and avatars
How AI-driven avatars with emotional range are reshaping production, and why live theater and performance will remain in demand. - Advice for AI beginners
Start small: use ChatGPT on a real problem. By experimenting, you’ll see AI as a helpful assistant, not a threat.
Key Takeaways
- Creative control defines success - True fulfillment comes from owning the process, not chasing outside validation.
- AI is a catalyst for creativity - These tools don’t just speed up work; they reignite the spark many creatives thought they’d lost.
- Actors won’t vanish, but roles will change - AI will dominate digital production, while live theater and authentic performance will rise in cultural value.
- Don’t stiff-arm AI - Unless you’re already financially free, ignoring AI puts you at risk. Learn it, integrate it, and make it work for you.
Connect with Erich Archer
🌐 Website: https://www.cgacreative.com/
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericharcher
Connect with Thomas Helfrich
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 Instantly Relevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast.
Hello, I'm your host, thomasHelfrich, and I'm on a mission
to help you cut the tide ofwhatever it is holding you back
from success.
Now you've got to define thatsuccess on your own terms.
Otherwise you are chasingsomeone else's dream and it will
be a bit hollow and empty ifyou ever achieve that success
that you've defined.
So today I'm joined by EricArcher.
Eric, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me Now.
Is Archer series made after youor not?
No, although a lot of peoplethought so back in the day.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
You look like the bearded version of that guy and
I didn't have a beard, so it waseven more so.
We'll see if you got the vibeor not.
We'll see.
Take a moment, Introduceyourself where you're from, what
it is you do.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you.
I'm a television producer basedout of Massachusetts.
I've been in the televisionindustry now for over 20 years
and I bounced around from.
I started in New York Citydoing a lot of sports and music
and reality TV, then went out toLA and did some bigger studio
and ad agency work and then camehome and the last 12 years I've
been running a small non-profitcommunity television station
(01:07):
and the last couple of yearsjust got sort of completely
obsessed with generative AI andnow I spend all my free time
tinkering with AI tools andmaking generative AI videos and
even doing a little teaching andconsulting and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Just if you think you've reached the bottom of the
internet, you're like, oh yeah,I checked it, is it?
Yeah, you know, I I do love andI haven't given the bandwidth,
probably intentionally, becauseI know me, I would never come
out of this rabbit hole are thebaby podcasts?
Yeah, and, oh my god, they'reso good.
I'm like I, I end up watchingtheo von, do them.
(01:44):
It's funny, right, it's like sogood.
It's like it takes yeah, ittakes the your judgments of the
human out and just creates thisinnocence.
And then you take every word,come out with, like that lens.
Yes, I find I'm sure peoplefind it creepy, but I find it so
funny I think it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I think that new space of stuff we haven't seen
before.
That's sort of between thetraditional and the digital.
It's exciting, I think, thatnew space of stuff we haven't
seen before, that sort ofbetween the traditional and the
digital.
It's like we can do stuff likethat.
That's what I love about it is.
It's just this really funexploratory space.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Before we get into your journey and stuff, I always
give people the proper ADHDability to stalk you and look at
things while you talk.
So where would you like someoneto go and who should be going
there?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Sure, Thank you.
Anyone interested in generativeAI can find me at
cgacreativecom.
That's my portfolio AI site,cgacreativecom, and I'm on
LinkedIn, Eric E-R-I-C-H Archer.
I'm there a lot engaging aboutAI topics as well.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, that's great.
In the future, do you reallythink they're going to need
actors?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Not really, honestly.
I mean, I think they'll existand it'll be a hybrid.
A theater will be wonderfulwith humans, and hopefully there
are still movies being made andtelevision being made with
humans, because it's alsoexcellent.
But uh, I mean I was looking ata new platform today that the
(03:10):
emotional intelligence was somuch more developed and the lip
syncing was so much moredeveloped and the consistency
across shots was more developed.
So it's like you can really seeit's going in the direction of
full control over avatars thatfool people completely.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I believe it actually 100% goes away for a few
reasons.
One and I'm not from your space,so I'm taking this from not
inside the forest view that theproduction costs are going to be
way less, way less and thedistribution rights of who's
going to make money is going tobe 100% studio made, unless the
software models change andpeople are like, well, if you're
using my AI, you got to pay me,but then that won't even, but
(03:49):
the money being made is going tobe there.
I think theaters become a Kmartbecause, like, I can watch it
on just as big of a TV in my youknow, or bigger with a VR set,
and if I just want to watch itwithout something in my eyes,
it's easier at home.
And then I think, when youstart integrating video games of
you watch this movie and yourexperience of that actual movie
(04:11):
that you're watching is relativeto where you are in the game
and how many times you couldwatch that movie.
But the it's, it's gone.
I do believe theater andanything live will have a
massive surge back becausepeople will create it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, I could totally see that.
I could absolutely see thatbeing having a resurgence and
yeah, it's definitely.
It's going to be really, reallyinteresting to see the shift of
power and revenue and all ofthat.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I love it up, you know, before we kind of get in
your journey, how do youcurrently define success?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
success, uh, these days mainly on the level of
creative work I get to be incontrol of.
I think I haven't reallythought about that too much, but
that seemed to be top of mindjust because I'm, I didn't even
really think it was attainableanymore.
To be honest with you, you knowI went to school to study film
and aspired to do that and, likewent to New York and LA and all
that.
But, as I said, I've been backhome in the hyper local market
for over a decade 15 yearsreally.
(05:12):
So, like I I was not thinking Iwas going to be making zombie
films anytime soon, andgenerative AI has brought that
back into my life and likeallowed me to work on some
really innovative new projectswith cutting edge tools and
being super creative in thespace that I've been in the
whole time, but haven't neededto access that level of
(05:34):
creativity necessarily for a lotof the nuts and bolts
production that we do.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
so, um, yeah, uh, I guess I lost my train of thought
there, but Well, I mean, yeah,it's just, it's your definition
of success has changed and itsounds maybe I'm reading into it
, but it sounds like you found anew spark.
Yeah, it's something and, andand I know this feeling for as a
(06:00):
former athlete and some otherthings that when you find it,
you'll, you're not letting go ofit again.
Uh, because in life things getburied for work and jobs, what
you're supposed to be.
Then, all of a sudden, you kindof fold this plateaued and
you're like I got a spark again.
Is that a fair?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
way to.
Yeah, yeah, the athlete analogyis interesting because my first
love was a sport, was soccer.
You know, I went, played thatfour years of college and and it
took a while, like, fortunately, I loved video production a lot
and so my career was somethingthat I loved a lot and always
have.
So I've had a version.
Feels like soccer again to me,it feels like I'm lit up in that
(06:38):
, that new kind of way and likeit's training toward a, toward a
game day of sorts.
Not really, but like everythingis sort of it's like going to
(06:58):
the gym, I can do reps with this, these tools and technology and
get better.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
You know it's so yeah , yeah, it's a similar type of a
thing, I mean if this extendyour acknowledgement of the gym,
you can legally inject steroidsall you, any muscle you want,
and get a giant forming muscleand then train it in the same
day to do what you want.
It's that powerful, uh, nowgive him the shade of your beard
and light up like light.
Uh, salting on the pepper there.
(07:24):
Uh, you're a Gen Xer, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Uh, I think I might be the oldest millennial I'm 44.
What year?
81.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Oh no, you're Gen.
I'm going to give you Gen Xstatus.
My wife is 1980 and she willnot go millennial as a thing.
Yeah, I'll be right.
Okay, I'm on the fence there,I'll take whatever.
Now you want to go dead.
Actually, you don't evenmillennial, it's much cooler.
Uh, restore.
If someone wrongs your life,you punch them or do you yell at
them?
Oh, your instincts like I wantto lay this dude out because
that's yeah I'm.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm more than punch him okay, so you're an axer.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
For sure there's a question about it.
Almost sure that's like I'mgonna grab my gun and then sue
him.
Nah, that's a millennial thing.
We're like we're gonna puncheach other and maybe we'll have
a beer later yeah, yeah, Ialmost did that recently.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I wouldn't normally say that beer or punch by the
way, I'm in ge, georgia.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You don't punch anyone, you will get shot, yeah
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well, that's what we're on.
No, you can't play aroundanywhere anymore.
That's a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I'm going to give you a small tangent, just because
we're on it.
I was in San Francisco with mywife and we got in an Uber and
the Uber took off and thenwithin a few seconds, somebody
outside the car was like hey,man, watch where you're going.
There's people in the streets.
Now I didn't see anybody.
It was kind of a busy area.
It didn't look anything like.
The guy wasn't drivingaggressively.
And the guy, our driver,stopped.
We're like dude, no go.
(08:44):
And he rolls down and he's likewhat?
And he's like yeah, you Acouple other words, maybe an
M-bomb.
By the way, neither guy,neither one should have been
sending these things.
My guy parks the car, ourdriver gets a gun out and gets
out of the car.
We run.
And I said to my wife later Isaid you know what?
This doesn't happen in Georgia,because in Georgia the guy
would never come up to the carbecause that's an aggressive
(09:05):
mood and Castle Law basicallysays your fault.
So I do, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
No, it's, it's not.
I was running around.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Graph your story.
All right, so you have adefinite success.
You found a spark around that.
And I'm not manipulating yourdefinite success, but I think
when you were talking about it,the definite success is keeping
that spark and that creativeenergy and that love for it and
from sport and anything elselike that's where you drove it
and you think you found it againand that has become a success
(09:35):
measure for you today.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
A thousand percent.
A thousand percent and you knowit's become an incredibly
important thing, right up therewith, like, the ability to
financially provide.
You know, obviously that's thetop right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
That is, and at times you look like, but I actually
like doing this better, even ifit didn't, I'm not giving it out
.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Well, I'm gonna find a way to make one do the other.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
You know, that's just look where there's a, there's a
problem where people will payfor it.
Just comes down to focusing itand, um, that's, uh, this is the
work I do at my other company,so we'll take that offline.
Um, all right, here you got.
You got your passion and yougot the purpose.
Talk about a little bit on thisjourney.
You mentioned soccer.
Um, you've got to refine it,that that spark.
So talk about maybe a one ofthe metaphoric ties, so to speak
(10:18):
, that you've had to cut alongthe way to get there.
Like some, you know what haveyou been through.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And talk about your journey a bit uh well, I mean, I
think if, if you want toactually draw it to soccer, I
think that there's the, thefluid nature of the game feels
similar to the fluid nature ofthe technology.
Now, I've thought about that alot.
It's like sort of like a centermidfielder mentality of seeing
the entire field and being ableto make plays, um.
(10:43):
But moving on from that, I havelike a very bit traditional
business parent and an artistparent, and so I've always been
kind of in the middle of thatspace and I've been in
television and been able to becreative and learn from really,
really talented people.
But also the journey that mycareer took led me into
management.
So I've been running a smallbusiness for 12 years and so
(11:07):
I've learned a lot about justlike I've had to.
It's the.
You know it's a fourpersonperson company and so you
have to learn the marketing andthe hr and everything right, and
so that's all that.
Experience is coming into playnow and the privilege of being
creative for the last 20 yearsis certainly coming into play,
and all of the, the, the havingto always learn new technology,
(11:31):
because I'm in the video space,is helping, and so I've just got
a lot of these things that aresort of converging, to make me
feel very comfortable with allof this.
And then I had a couple pushesthat were sort of circumstantial
pushes that made me get started.
You know, they they put a.
So I got admitted into thismonth-long fellowship program
(11:55):
just a small program, but yougot some AI mentorship from this
woman, rachel Woods, who's likean AI influencer.
And so you had to make apersonal project and I wanted to
make this custom GPT ecosystemthat I did later go build.
But they were not impressed bythat, and so I had to go figure
(12:16):
out, like, all right, what am Igoing to do now?
And I was like I better juststay in my lane and make a video
.
And so that was the push that Iprobably would not have done
myself, or at least not at thattime to like buckle down and
make an end to end generative AIvideo.
Buckle down and make anend-to-end generative AI video.
(12:39):
And I knew in the back of mymind, from what I had learned
about it, that I could do it,because I already knew how to
make videos, what I do, I knowhow to edit, know how to shoot,
I know how to tell a story andall that stuff.
And so when I realized that Icould make really cinematic
images with these new tools andscripting and voiceover and
effects and stuff like that, Iwas like, of course I can make a
little short, like I alreadyknow how to do it, so it's just
(13:03):
a matter of the time it takes tomake the assets and then do the
editing.
But that program was like theokay, you have a reason to go do
this, there's a deadlineinvolved, you have milestones
that you have to show people andtalk about it.
And once that was done, I got alot of attention, went a little
bit viral on LinkedIn andreally reinforced to me that
(13:24):
when I apply my subject matterexpertise with AI, I can do well
.
And so I've kind of just beenlike, okay, let's do more of
that.
And two years later, I've mademore projects in the last 18
months than I would make in thelast 10 years.
It's crazy Like end-to-endprojects all by myself,
(13:45):
permissionless.
And so that's what I've beenabout is really just trying to
push the state of the art, seewhere the edge of these tools
capabilities are, make storiesI've always thought about making
, or that other companies wantto pay me to make um and
exploring all this yeah, uh, doyou so in the thing about ai,
(14:07):
right?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
so you know, I was an early adopter, chappy gpt, and
we and I started my company tobuild upon that.
And I quickly realized, as soonas new releases came out, it
was just sucking in everythingeveryone was doing and at some
point all these AIs will havesome kind of group you know,
skynet, whatever you want tocall it.
But are you, are you concernedthat all your, everything you're
(14:31):
doing, in three, four years, aiwould just do based on someone
entering a few things?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
well, I think what I mean by a few contextual things
like so, uh, someone's like, hey, just enter in what you're
trying to do and just goes I sawa great neil degrasse tyson
podcast recently where he waslike that's basically the case
with scientific discovery, where, like, if you don't discover it
, someone else will.
But it's not the case with artthat because of our unique a
(15:01):
cocktail of experiences andreferences and points of view
and values and the things thatmake your stories and your
artistic lens, and all of that,um, that no two people are going
to make the same thing or orthat that type of argument, and
that's maybe a littledisconnected from making money
from it, but I lean on that alittle bit.
(15:21):
Like I can know there's nobodycan make what I can make.
They just aren't.
They aren't me, they're not thecollection of things.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And I'm not being a question of it on that, just
because I think what peopleshould realize and they're all
worried about AI is coming frommy job.
Sure, if you're in anon-creative repetitive, anybody
can do it.
We just need you to go do it.
Yeah, you're, you're at risk,for sure.
I believe the resurgence oftheater and and creativity,
(15:49):
which has been it's been in thedark ages, for reward for those
who are gifted with it and, tobe clear, like my son, he starts
singing at a level that youcan't train to.
He's you know, when he was likesix, five, six, you could hear
it.
And then he sings now andyou're like, wow, and he's not
in training, he starts there.
That is a gift.
He's got the all that togetherand and and so so, and the
(16:10):
creativity like my, my onedaughter, can create these crazy
things in a day, hand drawingand I absolutely love like this
art and she's like, oh, it'sjust fun, it's not by doing.
I'm bored, I'm like you don'teven know what you have.
And I mean, if you have acreative idea and and this is
the era coming where you willget paid for it, because ai
can't do that, it can repeat andreplicate.
It can come up with some things, but it truly can't do that.
It can repeat and replicate, itcan come up with some things,
but it truly can't create yet.
(16:31):
That's right.
That's right, but for a longtime.
And I think where your moneybeing made is not.
Not that I'm trying to solutionwith it.
We haven't talked really at allafter this, but the point is
the consultancy of taking otherpeople's ideas to go create is
where the money is at.
Is is like that.
Other people's ideas to gocreate is where the money is at.
Is is like that's great, wecould do it ourselves, but that
doesn't matter.
I need you to guide it and runit and have your teams do it,
(16:53):
because that fine product willbe better, because someone who
understands creativity at a coreand can take a vision.
There should be a shit ton ofmoney that's being made.
But, um, and I can even thinkyour marketing plan to get it
very quickly because you can doit for free so quickly.
Anyway, you should have noproblem making money with this
like none at all.
On the consumption side.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, it seems like there's a huge demand and, sorry
, my two-year-old might bebanging down the door.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Well, two-year-olds are welcome on the show.
I'm not going to stay in theother room.
They'll reach me and exist.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, she doesn't follow rules or reasoning on the
AI topic.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Sorry that was distracting I apologize, I got
it off topic, anyway and I lovethis journey because I think
it's so relevant to anyentrepreneur out there that you
really have to evaluate whatyou're building and doing.
Is it going to be around or howare you going to evolve with it
?
Right?
And so where we used to be alot of content, we've evolved to
just become the consultancy tosay, hey, here's the framework
for lead generation that youneed to put in, which involves
technology, automation, people.
(17:52):
The reason is because it movesso fast, people are confused,
and that's when the money's madeis by unconfusing people.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And if you can execute behind it, then you
really got both edges of thatkind of sword done right and you
can cut both sides anyway,we'll keep moving forward here.
Um, maybe just shift, shift alittle bit here.
What are you most grateful forin this moment?
Oh, I mean the opportunity thatthis new technology is
providing me.
Uh, I am eternally grateful for,you know, I'm a dad of four, I
live in an expensive state,single income, and so the
opportunity to make a littleextra money because I can do it
from home with my kids around,from my laptop, as opposed to
(18:37):
production that always happenssomewhere else.
You know, um, right down tolike, I came up as a shooter,
but now I'm getting older, Ihave a bad back.
I don't want to carry a bunchof heavy shit around, know, I
mean, like there's that part ofit, uh, and I can just work on
these creative projects that Ireally hadn't.
I didn't even think about themcoming back around.
(19:00):
I just felt grateful to be in acreative industry at all, in
production at all, home fordinner great, you know, making a
living.
I've got health benefits, I'mhappy, you know, but then this
kind of brought new york and laand the rest of the world back
to me, right right here on mycouch.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It's, that's an amazing thing yeah, the
opportunity being in not onlyfinancial reward but also time
with those time.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, and the creative flex I mean I I kind of
lost sight that I was not using.
I had a lot of latentcreativity in me and I just
didn't have the ability toexercise it yeah, now I do the
alter ego.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Uh, I'm not autobiography, but I don't know
what you mean.
I I love doing comedy of somesorts and I have a whole other
channel that I do that on.
Yes, cool, I can say that way.
The reason is because I like it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I don't care if anyone else finds it funny yeah,
and that's what excites meabout all this too, is that that
that's going to happen for alot of people, especially a lot
of young creatives.
Like you used to have to haveproximity to big markets and
companies and stuff and otherpeople for this kind of thing,
and if you didn't, you reallyhad no opportunity to make money
(20:17):
doing it, or at least not Imean, that's not true, but it
was just harder.
And I think this is going toallow a lot of people to make
films and and content that theywould have loved to have been a
part of but couldn't have, or atleast in some way I got an
insight one time in the creativeworld of uh, you hear a little
example.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So you hear bands and they have their sound and they
sing and you know who they areand you like them or don't like
them.
So for a long time I didn'tlike post malone, didn't really
care about adam levine oranything like that.
And then on two separateoccasions I heard like Post
Malone do a cover with anacoustic and I was like damn,
that guy is actually quitetalented.
And then I whatever, and likeall right, so I started liking
(20:57):
Post Malone a little bit, causeI like.
Then I went back and listenedto his music, liked it.
Then I heard like an Levinecover and he sounded like Eddie
Vedder singing Muffin man onJimmy Fallon one night and I was
like okay, that's funny and Ididn't realize that guy could do
that either.
And then you realize that theyare.
And this is where I think a lotof artists fail, is they found a
way just to make money with thetalent.
It may not actually be whatthey wanted to go create.
(21:20):
And there's very few that getboth.
And this is where you see bandsbreak up or people kind of go
crazy or like you see WillFerrell do a serious movie,
you're like what do you mean?
He's like he was a trainedtheater actor.
He wanted to do that but hadthis thing for comedy that pays
the bills.
And you get bugged when you seehim do what he wants.
Creative, sometimes you got togo make money using your talent
and applying a way that it'scommercialized which is my point
(21:42):
and then you, when you have themoney, go do the hell you want.
Like what?
And you're not chasing me ifyou ever dreamed any corporate
person, because they're doingstuff that they can do to make
money, but the truth is theywant to go to a podcast or
whatever you know.
I?
I think that's the piece that'smissing by creatives is, and
then also the maybe at the corea lot of the, a lot of you guys
are, I'd rather be right thanhappy, um I I just I think
(22:05):
that's really true.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I think you see a lot of like hit new shows pop up
when a former show breaks apartand the writer was so burnt on
that they finally made theirpassion project and that blew up
, or like they're like reallygood, but they don't care before
then, right yeah, or I don'tknow.
I just think there's so manythings have to align for you to,
in the past, to have exerciseda creative vision of your own,
(22:29):
like it was almost impossible inin a lot of ways.
If you ever aspired to makefilms like like what is, what
are the percentages?
They're law, you know, um, andeven if you did, then you have
to be an extrovert, you have tofind money, you have to be
(22:50):
someone who can convince otherpeople and communicate well and
like all these things.
It's just you don't.
If you now, if you're anintrovert with computer skills,
you can participate in thesethings in ways that you might
have been too scared to and thatmight've been your big limiter,
just like you're an introvert,you don't want to go try to
voice your creative opinion in awriter's room or something like
(23:11):
that.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
If you could go back in your timeline at any point,
when would you go and what wouldyou do differently?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh, interesting question.
Um, I don't know.
I feel I really feel I don'thave a lot of regrets about my
trajectory.
I mapped it out pretty well inthe beginning.
I kind of knew I wanted the NewYork LA experience.
Obviously, you know, it was alot of ups and downs but it all
(23:39):
got me here.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah, I knew one part of it.
So some people are like nothing.
I just I wish I would have wornwhite instead of black today.
That's an easy answer too, whenyou're meeting new people in
your industry.
What's maybe the one I say book, but like what's the one
resource they should read,interact with to understand the
industry of filmmaking?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Oh, interesting, Understand the industry of film.
You know, the most satisfyingthing I consumed toward that,
and recently, was Ken Burns'Masterclass on Masterclass.
Um, it's such a such a dense.
(24:24):
It's like insight, it's like astack of insights from one end
to the next.
It is the most incrediblyinspiring, educational,
fundamental education infilmmaking at this, very, really
incredible for sort offoundational layer of it all.
You know it's very basic butgreat storytelling, really
(24:47):
thoughtful, uh, moviemaking anduh, super enjoyable watch I
found so yeah, that's good CauseI those masterclass ones are
good.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I'm a chess player.
I've watched Gary Kasparov'sand I all I realize is I don't
have the brain capacity to doanywhere close to what this guy
does.
You remember?
50 moves in?
You're fine, all right, great,you're stupid.
I'm canceling this membership.
I probably could ask you amillion things.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
What's one thing I should have asked you, though,
and I didn't today Maybe advicefor people about, like, where to
start and all that.
I'm feeling a lot of empathyfor people right now, just about
all the disruption and concernabout all of this, and and I
think I always want to try tojust help people find their
entry point if they haven'treally accessed this stuff yet
like, just you know, get chat,gpt and think about a problem
(25:44):
that is challenging you and tellit all about that problem that
you're challenged by, and gofrom there, and I think you'll
just, from doing that, see thatit's not scary, it's actually
really helpful and powerful andyou can use it for whatever you
want, and you really should notbe stiff-arming AI.
(26:04):
You should be figuring out howit can help you.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You could stiff-arm AI.
If you have enough money in thebank where you actually don't
need to make any more money,farm out of it, half-farm or bat
.
Well said, at that point youcan stiff-arm.
If you're trying to make aliving, you better get that shit
integrated in the way,otherwise you're going to get
eaten up by it.
That goes for everyone, fromfilmmakers, comics, business
process people, people workingat McDonald's, I don't care.
(26:30):
You got to understand itbecause it's coming.
It would.
Yeah, now what?
Do you have money?
Definitely stiff arm it.
Put the phone away.
Really, nature, that's.
That's the part we're allmissing.
Yeah, by the way, eric fixercoming on today, I appreciate it
.
Uh, once again, once you, whereshould people go?
Who do you want?
Who do you want to get ahold ofyou?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
thank you, um, certainly anyone interested in
generative ai video work.
I would love it.
I love to talk to you, uh, andagain, you can reach me on my
website, cgacreativecom, or onlinkedin, eric archer.
Erich archer, uh, you can findme there.
Thanks, eric, come on today,it's been great.
Thank, gacreativecom.
Or on LinkedIn, eric ArcherE-R-I-C-H Archer.
You can find me there.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Thanks, Eric, for coming on today.
It's been great.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Thank you, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
And listen everyone who's listening.
Thank you for still being withus, and if today was your first
day, I do hope it's the firsttime you come back.
Get out there, go, cut a tie atwhatever's holding you back in
life, but make.
Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast.
Hello, I'm your host, thomasHelfrich, and I'm on a mission
to help you cut the tide ofwhatever it is holding you back
from success.
Now you've got to define thatsuccess on your own terms.
Otherwise you are chasingsomeone else's dream and it will
be a bit hollow and empty ifyou ever achieve that success
that you've defined.
So today I'm joined by EricArcher.
Eric, how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me Now.
Is Archer series made after youor not?
No, although a lot of peoplethought so back in the day.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
You look like the bearded version of that guy and
I didn't have a beard, so it waseven more so.
We'll see if you got the vibeor not.
We'll see.
Take a moment, Introduceyourself where you're from, what
it is you do.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you.
I'm a television producer basedout of Massachusetts.
I've been in the televisionindustry now for over 20 years
and I bounced around from.
I started in New York Citydoing a lot of sports and music
and reality TV, then went out toLA and did some bigger studio
and ad agency work and then camehome and the last 12 years I've
been running a small non-profitcommunity television station
(01:07):
and the last couple of yearsjust got sort of completely
obsessed with generative AI andnow I spend all my free time
tinkering with AI tools andmaking generative AI videos and
even doing a little teaching andconsulting and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Just if you think you've reached the bottom of the
internet, you're like, oh yeah,I checked it, is it?
Yeah, you know, I I do love andI haven't given the bandwidth,
probably intentionally, becauseI know me, I would never come
out of this rabbit hole are thebaby podcasts?
Yeah, and, oh my god, they'reso good.
I'm like I, I end up watchingtheo von, do them.
(01:44):
It's funny, right, it's like sogood.
It's like it takes yeah, ittakes the your judgments of the
human out and just creates thisinnocence.
And then you take every word,come out with, like that lens.
Yes, I find I'm sure peoplefind it creepy, but I find it so
funny I think it's exciting.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I think that new space of stuff we haven't seen
before.
That's sort of between thetraditional and the digital.
It's exciting, I think, thatnew space of stuff we haven't
seen before, that sort ofbetween the traditional and the
digital.
It's like we can do stuff likethat.
That's what I love about it is.
It's just this really funexploratory space.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Before we get into your journey and stuff, I always
give people the proper ADHDability to stalk you and look at
things while you talk.
So where would you like someoneto go and who should be going
there?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Sure, Thank you.
Anyone interested in generativeAI can find me at
cgacreativecom.
That's my portfolio AI site,cgacreativecom, and I'm on
LinkedIn, Eric E-R-I-C-H Archer.
I'm there a lot engaging aboutAI topics as well.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, that's great.
In the future, do you reallythink they're going to need
actors?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Not really, honestly.
I mean, I think they'll existand it'll be a hybrid.
A theater will be wonderfulwith humans, and hopefully there
are still movies being made andtelevision being made with
humans, because it's alsoexcellent.
But uh, I mean I was looking ata new platform today that the
(03:10):
emotional intelligence was somuch more developed and the lip
syncing was so much moredeveloped and the consistency
across shots was more developed.
So it's like you can really seeit's going in the direction of
full control over avatars thatfool people completely.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I believe it actually 100% goes away for a few
reasons.
One and I'm not from your space,so I'm taking this from not
inside the forest view that theproduction costs are going to be
way less, way less and thedistribution rights of who's
going to make money is going tobe 100% studio made, unless the
software models change andpeople are like, well, if you're
using my AI, you got to pay me,but then that won't even, but
(03:49):
the money being made is going tobe there.
I think theaters become a Kmartbecause, like, I can watch it
on just as big of a TV in my youknow, or bigger with a VR set,
and if I just want to watch itwithout something in my eyes,
it's easier at home.
And then I think, when youstart integrating video games of
you watch this movie and yourexperience of that actual movie
(04:11):
that you're watching is relativeto where you are in the game
and how many times you couldwatch that movie.
But the it's, it's gone.
I do believe theater andanything live will have a
massive surge back becausepeople will create it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, I could totally see that.
I could absolutely see thatbeing having a resurgence and
yeah, it's definitely.
It's going to be really, reallyinteresting to see the shift of
power and revenue and all ofthat.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I love it up, you know, before we kind of get in
your journey, how do youcurrently define success?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
success, uh, these days mainly on the level of
creative work I get to be incontrol of.
I think I haven't reallythought about that too much, but
that seemed to be top of mindjust because I'm, I didn't even
really think it was attainableanymore.
To be honest with you, you knowI went to school to study film
and aspired to do that and, likewent to New York and LA and all
that.
But, as I said, I've been backhome in the hyper local market
for over a decade 15 yearsreally.
(05:12):
So, like I I was not thinking Iwas going to be making zombie
films anytime soon, andgenerative AI has brought that
back into my life and likeallowed me to work on some
really innovative new projectswith cutting edge tools and
being super creative in thespace that I've been in the
whole time, but haven't neededto access that level of
(05:34):
creativity necessarily for a lotof the nuts and bolts
production that we do.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
so, um, yeah, uh, I guess I lost my train of thought
there, but Well, I mean, yeah,it's just, it's your definition
of success has changed and itsounds maybe I'm reading into it
, but it sounds like you found anew spark.
Yeah, it's something and, andand I know this feeling for as a
(06:00):
former athlete and some otherthings that when you find it,
you'll, you're not letting go ofit again.
Uh, because in life things getburied for work and jobs, what
you're supposed to be.
Then, all of a sudden, you kindof fold this plateaued and
you're like I got a spark again.
Is that a fair?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
way to.
Yeah, yeah, the athlete analogyis interesting because my first
love was a sport, was soccer.
You know, I went, played thatfour years of college and and it
took a while, like, fortunately, I loved video production a lot
and so my career was somethingthat I loved a lot and always
have.
So I've had a version.
Feels like soccer again to me,it feels like I'm lit up in that
(06:38):
, that new kind of way and likeit's training toward a, toward a
game day of sorts.
Not really, but like everythingis sort of it's like going to
(06:58):
the gym, I can do reps with this, these tools and technology and
get better.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
You know it's so yeah , yeah, it's a similar type of a
thing, I mean if this extendyour acknowledgement of the gym,
you can legally inject steroidsall you, any muscle you want,
and get a giant forming muscleand then train it in the same
day to do what you want.
It's that powerful, uh, nowgive him the shade of your beard
and light up like light.
Uh, salting on the pepper there.
(07:24):
Uh, you're a Gen Xer, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Uh, I think I might be the oldest millennial I'm 44.
What year?
81.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Oh no, you're Gen.
I'm going to give you Gen Xstatus.
My wife is 1980 and she willnot go millennial as a thing.
Yeah, I'll be right.
Okay, I'm on the fence there,I'll take whatever.
Now you want to go dead.
Actually, you don't evenmillennial, it's much cooler.
Uh, restore.
If someone wrongs your life,you punch them or do you yell at
them?
Oh, your instincts like I wantto lay this dude out because
that's yeah I'm.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I'm more than punch him okay, so you're an axer.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
For sure there's a question about it.
Almost sure that's like I'mgonna grab my gun and then sue
him.
Nah, that's a millennial thing.
We're like we're gonna puncheach other and maybe we'll have
a beer later yeah, yeah, Ialmost did that recently.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I wouldn't normally say that beer or punch by the
way, I'm in ge, georgia.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You don't punch anyone, you will get shot, yeah
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well, that's what we're on.
No, you can't play aroundanywhere anymore.
That's a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I'm going to give you a small tangent, just because
we're on it.
I was in San Francisco with mywife and we got in an Uber and
the Uber took off and thenwithin a few seconds, somebody
outside the car was like hey,man, watch where you're going.
There's people in the streets.
Now I didn't see anybody.
It was kind of a busy area.
It didn't look anything like.
The guy wasn't drivingaggressively.
And the guy, our driver,stopped.
We're like dude, no go.
(08:44):
And he rolls down and he's likewhat?
And he's like yeah, you Acouple other words, maybe an
M-bomb.
By the way, neither guy,neither one should have been
sending these things.
My guy parks the car, ourdriver gets a gun out and gets
out of the car.
We run.
And I said to my wife later Isaid you know what?
This doesn't happen in Georgia,because in Georgia the guy
would never come up to the carbecause that's an aggressive
(09:05):
mood and Castle Law basicallysays your fault.
So I do, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
No, it's, it's not.
I was running around.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Graph your story.
All right, so you have adefinite success.
You found a spark around that.
And I'm not manipulating yourdefinite success, but I think
when you were talking about it,the definite success is keeping
that spark and that creativeenergy and that love for it and
from sport and anything elselike that's where you drove it
and you think you found it againand that has become a success
(09:35):
measure for you today.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
A thousand percent.
A thousand percent and you knowit's become an incredibly
important thing, right up therewith, like, the ability to
financially provide.
You know, obviously that's thetop right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
That is, and at times you look like, but I actually
like doing this better, even ifit didn't, I'm not giving it out
.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Well, I'm gonna find a way to make one do the other.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
You know, that's just look where there's a, there's a
problem where people will payfor it.
Just comes down to focusing itand, um, that's, uh, this is the
work I do at my other company,so we'll take that offline.
Um, all right, here you got.
You got your passion and yougot the purpose.
Talk about a little bit on thisjourney.
You mentioned soccer.
Um, you've got to refine it,that that spark.
So talk about maybe a one ofthe metaphoric ties, so to speak
(10:18):
, that you've had to cut alongthe way to get there.
Like some, you know what haveyou been through.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And talk about your journey a bit uh well, I mean, I
think if, if you want toactually draw it to soccer, I
think that there's the, thefluid nature of the game feels
similar to the fluid nature ofthe technology.
Now, I've thought about that alot.
It's like sort of like a centermidfielder mentality of seeing
the entire field and being ableto make plays, um.
(10:43):
But moving on from that, I havelike a very bit traditional
business parent and an artistparent, and so I've always been
kind of in the middle of thatspace and I've been in
television and been able to becreative and learn from really,
really talented people.
But also the journey that mycareer took led me into
management.
So I've been running a smallbusiness for 12 years and so
(11:07):
I've learned a lot about justlike I've had to.
It's the.
You know it's a fourpersonperson company and so you
have to learn the marketing andthe hr and everything right, and
so that's all that.
Experience is coming into playnow and the privilege of being
creative for the last 20 yearsis certainly coming into play,
and all of the, the, the havingto always learn new technology,
(11:31):
because I'm in the video space,is helping, and so I've just got
a lot of these things that aresort of converging, to make me
feel very comfortable with allof this.
And then I had a couple pushesthat were sort of circumstantial
pushes that made me get started.
You know, they they put a.
So I got admitted into thismonth-long fellowship program
(11:55):
just a small program, but yougot some AI mentorship from this
woman, rachel Woods, who's likean AI influencer.
And so you had to make apersonal project and I wanted to
make this custom GPT ecosystemthat I did later go build.
But they were not impressed bythat, and so I had to go figure
(12:16):
out, like, all right, what am Igoing to do now?
And I was like I better juststay in my lane and make a video
.
And so that was the push that Iprobably would not have done
myself, or at least not at thattime to like buckle down and
make an end to end generative AIvideo.
Buckle down and make anend-to-end generative AI video.
(12:39):
And I knew in the back of mymind, from what I had learned
about it, that I could do it,because I already knew how to
make videos, what I do, I knowhow to edit, know how to shoot,
I know how to tell a story andall that stuff.
And so when I realized that Icould make really cinematic
images with these new tools andscripting and voiceover and
effects and stuff like that, Iwas like, of course I can make a
little short, like I alreadyknow how to do it, so it's just
(13:03):
a matter of the time it takes tomake the assets and then do the
editing.
But that program was like theokay, you have a reason to go do
this, there's a deadlineinvolved, you have milestones
that you have to show people andtalk about it.
And once that was done, I got alot of attention, went a little
bit viral on LinkedIn andreally reinforced to me that
(13:24):
when I apply my subject matterexpertise with AI, I can do well
.
And so I've kind of just beenlike, okay, let's do more of
that.
And two years later, I've mademore projects in the last 18
months than I would make in thelast 10 years.
It's crazy Like end-to-endprojects all by myself,
(13:45):
permissionless.
And so that's what I've beenabout is really just trying to
push the state of the art, seewhere the edge of these tools
capabilities are, make storiesI've always thought about making
, or that other companies wantto pay me to make um and
exploring all this yeah, uh, doyou so in the thing about ai,
(14:07):
right?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
so you know, I was an early adopter, chappy gpt, and
we and I started my company tobuild upon that.
And I quickly realized, as soonas new releases came out, it
was just sucking in everythingeveryone was doing and at some
point all these AIs will havesome kind of group you know,
skynet, whatever you want tocall it.
But are you, are you concernedthat all your, everything you're
(14:31):
doing, in three, four years, aiwould just do based on someone
entering a few things?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
well, I think what I mean by a few contextual things
like so, uh, someone's like, hey, just enter in what you're
trying to do and just goes I sawa great neil degrasse tyson
podcast recently where he waslike that's basically the case
with scientific discovery, where, like, if you don't discover it
, someone else will.
But it's not the case with artthat because of our unique a
(15:01):
cocktail of experiences andreferences and points of view
and values and the things thatmake your stories and your
artistic lens, and all of that,um, that no two people are going
to make the same thing or orthat that type of argument, and
that's maybe a littledisconnected from making money
from it, but I lean on that alittle bit.
(15:21):
Like I can know there's nobodycan make what I can make.
They just aren't.
They aren't me, they're not thecollection of things.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And I'm not being a question of it on that, just
because I think what peopleshould realize and they're all
worried about AI is coming frommy job.
Sure, if you're in anon-creative repetitive, anybody
can do it.
We just need you to go do it.
Yeah, you're, you're at risk,for sure.
I believe the resurgence oftheater and and creativity,
(15:49):
which has been it's been in thedark ages, for reward for those
who are gifted with it and, tobe clear, like my son, he starts
singing at a level that youcan't train to.
He's you know, when he was likesix, five, six, you could hear
it.
And then he sings now andyou're like, wow, and he's not
in training, he starts there.
That is a gift.
He's got the all that togetherand and and so so, and the
(16:10):
creativity like my, my onedaughter, can create these crazy
things in a day, hand drawingand I absolutely love like this
art and she's like, oh, it'sjust fun, it's not by doing.
I'm bored, I'm like you don'teven know what you have.
And I mean, if you have acreative idea and and this is
the era coming where you willget paid for it, because ai
can't do that, it can repeat andreplicate.
It can come up with some things, but it truly can't do that.
It can repeat and replicate, itcan come up with some things,
but it truly can't create yet.
(16:31):
That's right.
That's right, but for a longtime.
And I think where your moneybeing made is not.
Not that I'm trying to solutionwith it.
We haven't talked really at allafter this, but the point is
the consultancy of taking otherpeople's ideas to go create is
where the money is at.
Is is like that.
Other people's ideas to gocreate is where the money is at.
Is is like that's great, wecould do it ourselves, but that
doesn't matter.
I need you to guide it and runit and have your teams do it,
(16:53):
because that fine product willbe better, because someone who
understands creativity at a coreand can take a vision.
There should be a shit ton ofmoney that's being made.
But, um, and I can even thinkyour marketing plan to get it
very quickly because you can doit for free so quickly.
Anyway, you should have noproblem making money with this
like none at all.
On the consumption side.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, it seems like there's a huge demand and, sorry
, my two-year-old might bebanging down the door.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Well, two-year-olds are welcome on the show.
I'm not going to stay in theother room.
They'll reach me and exist.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, she doesn't follow rules or reasoning on the
AI topic.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Sorry that was distracting I apologize, I got
it off topic, anyway and I lovethis journey because I think
it's so relevant to anyentrepreneur out there that you
really have to evaluate whatyou're building and doing.
Is it going to be around or howare you going to evolve with it
?
Right?
And so where we used to be alot of content, we've evolved to
just become the consultancy tosay, hey, here's the framework
for lead generation that youneed to put in, which involves
technology, automation, people.
(17:52):
The reason is because it movesso fast, people are confused,
and that's when the money's madeis by unconfusing people.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And if you can execute behind it, then you
really got both edges of thatkind of sword done right and you
can cut both sides anyway,we'll keep moving forward here.
Um, maybe just shift, shift alittle bit here.
What are you most grateful forin this moment?
Oh, I mean the opportunity thatthis new technology is
providing me.
Uh, I am eternally grateful for,you know, I'm a dad of four, I
live in an expensive state,single income, and so the
opportunity to make a littleextra money because I can do it
from home with my kids around,from my laptop, as opposed to
(18:37):
production that always happenssomewhere else.
You know, um, right down tolike, I came up as a shooter,
but now I'm getting older, Ihave a bad back.
I don't want to carry a bunchof heavy shit around, know, I
mean, like there's that part ofit, uh, and I can just work on
these creative projects that Ireally hadn't.
I didn't even think about themcoming back around.
(19:00):
I just felt grateful to be in acreative industry at all, in
production at all, home fordinner great, you know, making a
living.
I've got health benefits, I'mhappy, you know, but then this
kind of brought new york and laand the rest of the world back
to me, right right here on mycouch.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
It's, that's an amazing thing yeah, the
opportunity being in not onlyfinancial reward but also time
with those time.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, and the creative flex I mean I I kind of
lost sight that I was not using.
I had a lot of latentcreativity in me and I just
didn't have the ability toexercise it yeah, now I do the
alter ego.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Uh, I'm not autobiography, but I don't know
what you mean.
I I love doing comedy of somesorts and I have a whole other
channel that I do that on.
Yes, cool, I can say that way.
The reason is because I like it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I don't care if anyone else finds it funny yeah,
and that's what excites meabout all this too, is that that
that's going to happen for alot of people, especially a lot
of young creatives.
Like you used to have to haveproximity to big markets and
companies and stuff and otherpeople for this kind of thing,
and if you didn't, you reallyhad no opportunity to make money
(20:17):
doing it, or at least not Imean, that's not true, but it
was just harder.
And I think this is going toallow a lot of people to make
films and and content that theywould have loved to have been a
part of but couldn't have, or atleast in some way I got an
insight one time in the creativeworld of uh, you hear a little
example.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So you hear bands and they have their sound and they
sing and you know who they areand you like them or don't like
them.
So for a long time I didn'tlike post malone, didn't really
care about adam levine oranything like that.
And then on two separateoccasions I heard like Post
Malone do a cover with anacoustic and I was like damn,
that guy is actually quitetalented.
And then I whatever, and likeall right, so I started liking
(20:57):
Post Malone a little bit, causeI like.
Then I went back and listenedto his music, liked it.
Then I heard like an Levinecover and he sounded like Eddie
Vedder singing Muffin man onJimmy Fallon one night and I was
like okay, that's funny and Ididn't realize that guy could do
that either.
And then you realize that theyare.
And this is where I think a lotof artists fail, is they found a
way just to make money with thetalent.
It may not actually be whatthey wanted to go create.
(21:20):
And there's very few that getboth.
And this is where you see bandsbreak up or people kind of go
crazy or like you see WillFerrell do a serious movie,
you're like what do you mean?
He's like he was a trainedtheater actor.
He wanted to do that but hadthis thing for comedy that pays
the bills.
And you get bugged when you seehim do what he wants.
Creative, sometimes you got togo make money using your talent
and applying a way that it'scommercialized which is my point
(21:42):
and then you, when you have themoney, go do the hell you want.
Like what?
And you're not chasing me ifyou ever dreamed any corporate
person, because they're doingstuff that they can do to make
money, but the truth is theywant to go to a podcast or
whatever you know.
I?
I think that's the piece that'smissing by creatives is, and
then also the maybe at the corea lot of the, a lot of you guys
are, I'd rather be right thanhappy, um I I just I think
(22:05):
that's really true.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I think you see a lot of like hit new shows pop up
when a former show breaks apartand the writer was so burnt on
that they finally made theirpassion project and that blew up
, or like they're like reallygood, but they don't care before
then, right yeah, or I don'tknow.
I just think there's so manythings have to align for you to,
in the past, to have exerciseda creative vision of your own,
(22:29):
like it was almost impossible inin a lot of ways.
If you ever aspired to makefilms like like what is, what
are the percentages?
They're law, you know, um, andeven if you did, then you have
to be an extrovert, you have tofind money, you have to be
(22:50):
someone who can convince otherpeople and communicate well and
like all these things.
It's just you don't.
If you now, if you're anintrovert with computer skills,
you can participate in thesethings in ways that you might
have been too scared to and thatmight've been your big limiter,
just like you're an introvert,you don't want to go try to
voice your creative opinion in awriter's room or something like
(23:11):
that.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
If you could go back in your timeline at any point,
when would you go and what wouldyou do differently?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh, interesting question.
Um, I don't know.
I feel I really feel I don'thave a lot of regrets about my
trajectory.
I mapped it out pretty well inthe beginning.
I kind of knew I wanted the NewYork LA experience.
Obviously, you know, it was alot of ups and downs but it all
(23:39):
got me here.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah, I knew one part of it.
So some people are like nothing.
I just I wish I would have wornwhite instead of black today.
That's an easy answer too, whenyou're meeting new people in
your industry.
What's maybe the one I say book, but like what's the one
resource they should read,interact with to understand the
industry of filmmaking?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Oh, interesting, Understand the industry of film.
You know, the most satisfyingthing I consumed toward that,
and recently, was Ken Burns'Masterclass on Masterclass.
Um, it's such a such a dense.
(24:24):
It's like insight, it's like astack of insights from one end
to the next.
It is the most incrediblyinspiring, educational,
fundamental education infilmmaking at this, very, really
incredible for sort offoundational layer of it all.
You know it's very basic butgreat storytelling, really
(24:47):
thoughtful, uh, moviemaking anduh, super enjoyable watch I
found so yeah, that's good CauseI those masterclass ones are
good.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I'm a chess player.
I've watched Gary Kasparov'sand I all I realize is I don't
have the brain capacity to doanywhere close to what this guy
does.
You remember?
50 moves in?
You're fine, all right, great,you're stupid.
I'm canceling this membership.
I probably could ask you amillion things.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
What's one thing I should have asked you, though,
and I didn't today Maybe advicefor people about, like, where to
start and all that.
I'm feeling a lot of empathyfor people right now, just about
all the disruption and concernabout all of this, and and I
think I always want to try tojust help people find their
entry point if they haven'treally accessed this stuff yet
like, just you know, get chat,gpt and think about a problem
(25:44):
that is challenging you and tellit all about that problem that
you're challenged by, and gofrom there, and I think you'll
just, from doing that, see thatit's not scary, it's actually
really helpful and powerful andyou can use it for whatever you
want, and you really should notbe stiff-arming AI.
(26:04):
You should be figuring out howit can help you.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You could stiff-arm AI.
If you have enough money in thebank where you actually don't
need to make any more money,farm out of it, half-farm or bat
.
Well said, at that point youcan stiff-arm.
If you're trying to make aliving, you better get that shit
integrated in the way,otherwise you're going to get
eaten up by it.
That goes for everyone, fromfilmmakers, comics, business
process people, people workingat McDonald's, I don't care.
(26:30):
You got to understand itbecause it's coming.
It would.
Yeah, now what?
Do you have money?
Definitely stiff arm it.
Put the phone away.
Really, nature, that's.
That's the part we're allmissing.
Yeah, by the way, eric fixercoming on today, I appreciate it
.
Uh, once again, once you, whereshould people go?
Who do you want?
Who do you want to get ahold ofyou?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
thank you, um, certainly anyone interested in
generative ai video work.
I would love it.
I love to talk to you, uh, andagain, you can reach me on my
website, cgacreativecom, or onlinkedin, eric archer.
Erich archer, uh, you can findme there.
Thanks, eric, come on today,it's been great.
Thank, gacreativecom.
Or on LinkedIn, eric ArcherE-R-I-C-H Archer.
You can find me there.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Thanks, Eric, for coming on today.
It's been great.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Thank you, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
And listen everyone who's listening.
Thank you for still being withus, and if today was your first
day, I do hope it's the firsttime you come back.
Get out there, go, cut a tie atwhatever's holding you back in
life, but make.
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