Sora: How AI is Transforming Video Production One Short Film at a Time

We explore OpenAI's Sora platform through their recently released short film featuring animals using screens in the wild. This text-to-video AI generation tool represents a significant leap forward in quality and realism compared to previous AI video generation capabilities we've reviewed.

• Sora is included with ChatGPT subscription plans ($20 or $200)
• The AI-generated short film looks remarkably real until animals pull out phones
• Audience reactions at screenings show people genuinely entertained, not just impressed by the technology
• Production quality rivals expensive CGI without requiring traditional production processes
• This technology will likely reduce the need for many production shoots in advertising
• Future applications could include completely personalized movie experiences generated by AI

Check out Sora Selects to see these incredible AI-generated short films for yourself and consider how this technology might transform content creation in your industry.

The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:

James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Brand News.
Today, we are going to bechecking out a video that's just
been released as a short film,which has been completely
generated by AI, and it was doneby Sora, which is OpenAI's
platform.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, so Sora is a text-to-video AI generation
platform.
You can also prompt it withother video and it can extend
the duration of a clip that youhave with prompts added in.
And they've released a seriesof what they're calling Sora
Selects, which are short filmsmade to highlight the
capabilities of Sora.

(00:33):
I first saw this and thought itwas an ad.
It is an ad for Sora.
They've just gone to contentcreators and directors to
produce a bunch of clips To showhow cool that platform is To
show how cool it is.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, so we're going to have a look at it today.
I've had a bunch of clips Toshow how cool that platform is.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
To show how cool it is yeah, so we're going to have
a look at it.
Today I've had a look at it,get you to have a look at it,
and then we've been reviewingthese AI ads for their quality
invincibility, let's call it andhow they make us feel.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, and I guess a big point of it is are these
platforms getting to a pointwhere there is a real use case
for them within digitalmarketing or within a business
purpose?
Yeah, because we're constantlytrying to extend what we're able
to do on capabilities, in termsof what we're doing in terms of
advertising and marketing, andthese platforms are really
getting closer and closer tobecoming really a good solution

(01:20):
to be able to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes, and after seeing this ad, I can see it's taken
another step even further fromthe Adidas campaign that we
looked at late last year.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, that was a cool video.
So when we're looking at this,well, I guess the idea behind it
is showing that animals usingscreen time, but it's making it
look in a way that kind of looksreal, Like it doesn't look like
it's jumping around.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It almost looks like a proper nature video but then
it's got the added element ofall these screens that are
thrown up in front of them.
Yes, To me it feels like ahugely expensive CGI job that
presumably one guy has pulledtogether using Sora AI.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
So they'd just be typing in.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
show me a bear holding a mobile phone and
potentially giving it someprompts of other video to use as
a placeholder, but not onesingle frame of that was stock
or taken from live.
It was all generated by AI.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, it's really cool.
I mean it's shown that thecapability is there and that if
people were wanting to create avideo, even a movie, it's
probably not too far off fromthis happening.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
And I feel like the way that was shot and it was
created by a proper director,someone who actually knows how
to make good quality content.
Clips I've seen of it beingviewed in the Sora Select cinema
screening.
The whole cinema was laughing.
It's not just wow, look at whatAI's doing, it's.
This is entertaining.
They're enjoying it.
They're finding it funny thethought of animals across the

(02:48):
deserts being hooked on theirphones.
It's removed that feeling that,oh, this has been manufactured
or created and there's somethingwrong with it.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
The shots were beautiful.
It's not too far off, though, aPixar animated film, right yeah
, I mean that's what those filmstry and evoke emotion and all
the different things that it'sdoing, but this is doing it in a
way that you don't need to sitand create from scratch, or you
are created from scratch, butpeople are just typing this into
prompts and generating this, asopposed to seeing through a
whole production process.

(03:17):
That would have been done inthe past.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, absolutely, and I know we've said this before
that we're going to see more andmore of this AI content in ads.
But creators and advertisersshould be careful of it feeling.
You know that uncanny valleyfeeling where you see a slight
issue with the mouths or toomany fingers Because this is
animals it's a lot moredifficult to spot issue with it.

(03:40):
But I think it's now at anotherlevel of anything we've seen
before.
Even the Adidas campaign.
It had a illustrative qualityto it.
This looks perfectly real untilthe hand comes up holding a
phone.
So, yeah, I'm very impressed.
I think this is going to reducea significant amount of

(04:01):
production shoots that need tohappen, especially for ad
creative.
It's just not going to benecessary to either get CG
animated shots for your ads or,in some cases, produce any of
these wild ideas or concepts, ormaybe it'll even just make it

(04:22):
possible to produce more wildideas and concepts that budget
would prohibit in the past.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, so, looking at it, the cost is included within
your OpenAI ChatGPT subscription.
So if you're on the $20 plan orthe $200 plan, it does have
Sora included in your platformthere.
So anyone who is currentlyusing ChatGPT, I think you
should definitely jump on andjust see what kind of cool stuff
you can create with it.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, absolutely, and if this is what's coming out of
the latest version.
Chatgpt is known for justreplacing the model that it's
got with a better one at noextra cost, or, in some cases,
making the paid model not evenneeded because they've done the
free model.
So this is going to be ineverybody's hands.
I can't wait to see what peopleproduce with it going to be in

(05:05):
everybody's hands.
I can't wait to see what peopleproduce with it.
Uh, hopefully it's not too much, you know, scan level content,
uh, and hopefully it's used for,you know, enriching ads, making
them better than they werebefore.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
So I was watching a thing, um, and I think it was
ashton kutcher, it might havebeen someone, someone from
hollywood and they were talkingabout that.
The way that ai is going interms of hollywood and the movie
business is that people willsoon well, not too soon, but
they'll be basically onlywatching movies that they're
creating for themselves.
Yes, so it could be like look,I enjoy watching x show and x

(05:34):
show create me something that isa mashup of this and it's set
in I don't know paris andwhatever, and and these you know
this type of story.
It goes down and then the aiwill generate it, and then Sora
or something will then createthe movie, and then you'll just
watch the movie that you've justthought up in your head and
then you'll watch it through,and so it's really going to be
more of, instead of movies beingmade on a mass scale for

(05:54):
everybody, it's going to be muchmore custom-tailored for the
individual.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, I think I had that same interview clip and it
blew my mind the thought of notbeing able to go and talk to
people about this movie that youjust saw.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
That was made just for your tastes and it just gave
you everything you wanted.
Imagine you'd be sharing it.
You'd be like, hey man, look atthis movie I just watched.
I created it and I watched itand I'm like I don't like this.
It's like, but it's goteverything I like.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, and I'm wondering how that will impact
platforms like TikTok as well.
Will platforms like TikTok aswell, Will the?
You know, in lieu of contentcreated by real people, will my
feed just become short clips ofstuff that is generated that
will just entertain me?
Well, I mean, that's what it isalready, isn't it?
Yeah, but it's just made up nowit's not even someone faced a
camera.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, this is going to be a bunch of AI avatars and
me just eating popcorn scrolling.
That's the future.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Can't wait.
Well, thanks again for watchingBrand News today.
We've got another episodecoming out next week and a full
episode of Digital Heroes, andit's not far off.
Thanks for watching, thank you.