The Pearldrop team is thrilled to share our recent experience of using cutting-edge AI technology to create an amazing promotional film for the Inspiring Hertfordshire Awards 2024. Remarkably, 95% of the film’s assets didn’t exist before we began. Without AI, there wouldn’t have been a film at all. Keep that in mind when you watch the final product. Here’s the film:
The Brief
This year, the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce is celebrating its centennial. To reflect this milestone, the Chamber’s Inspiring Hertfordshire Awards adopted a 1920s theme. The Chamber asked us to create a short promotional film to encourage ticket sales, involving the use of authentic 1920s-era footage and a compelling message to invite people to purchase tickets promptly.
Challenges and AI Solutions
Authentic Footage
Our initial task was to find royalty-free footage of 1920s dancers, but we quickly encountered some big issues. The very little available footage either wasn’t suitable for commercial use or was prohibitively expensive due to complicated licensing issues. We found just one viable clip, on a traditional stock site. It cost an initial £283 to licence. But upon further investigation, we found that, because of some murky copyright issues, we’d need to pay an additional £3000 to indemnify us against copyright claims. On a 25-second clip. Nope.
With traditional sources failing us, we turned to AI for a solution. Using Midjourney, a leading AI image generator, we created realistic 1920s photographs of flappers dancing and attending glamorous Art Deco events. It took just minutes, and cost only $20 for a monthly subscription. Problem solved. Check out some of the “photographs” we made below:
Music
For the film’s soundtrack, we wanted an authentic 1920s jazz feel. We started by writing the lyrics, with a little assistance from Chat GPT-4. We then used Udio, an advanced AI music generator, to create a 1920s-style song with a female vocalist. In just 15 minutes, we had a fully mixed track ready for the film. The speed of creation and overall quality of this AI-generated music were astounding. We could never have recorded a fully orchestrated track like this before, let alone in such a short time. The sudden availability of such astounding technology is simply staggering.
Voiceover
To complete the film, we needed a voiceover with a 1920s-style New York accent. Traditionally, this would involve hiring a professional voiceover artist, booking studio time, and engaging a sound engineer, which could be expensive and very time-consuming. Instead, we used ElevenLabs, an AI voiceover generator, which allowed us to experiment with different voices and scripts quickly and at minimal cost. This tool provides unparalleled flexibility and efficiency, enabling us to achieve the perfect voiceover in a fraction of the time and cost.
The site allows you to use clones of professional voiceover artists’ voices. Any concerns you might have about AI voices sounding robotic will be totally resolved when you hear just how authentic the Noo Yoik voiceover is at the end of our film.
Cost and Savings
Traditional Cost:
- Stock video: £3283
- Music writing and recording: £3000?
- Voiceover: £500?
- Total: £6783
AI-Generated Cost:
- Monthly subscriptions for all AI tools: ~$60
- Total: a fraction of $60
Embracing the Future with AI
At Pearldrop, we believe that AI is not just a tool but an enabler of creativity. Our 1920s-themed promotional film is a testament to how AI can enhance storytelling and production quality. By blending historical elements with modern technology, we created a film that honours the past while looking forward to the future.
As we continue to explore the possibilities of AI in filmmaking, we are excited to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Whether it’s recreating a bygone era or envisioning the future, AI empowers us to tell stories in innovative and compelling ways. Stay tuned for more groundbreaking projects from Pearldrop, where tradition meets technology.
If you’d like us to tell you more about our AI filmmaking, service, get in touch!
