Hollywood veteran Allan McLennan on AI as a production tool, micro-programming, and the industry's cautious optimism

you get the power of AI without the risk. Secure every agent. Secure any agent with Octa. And without further ado, Allan Mlennon in the wrist room waiting room. We'll bring him into the TV and let you jump.

Well, let's go. How are you doing?

I'm doing just fine, gentlemen. It's nice to meet you, bro.

Great to meet you, too. Uh, we were just talking about uh about Hollywood. How How are you feeling about Hollywood? I am optimistic. Project Hail Mary looks good. This AI documentary looks good. Is there any cause for optimism?

Oh, of course there is. Fantastic. I mean, there the Yeah. the the basis of the creative storytellers in Hollywood are in parallel and everyone wants to come to Hollywood to do their projects no matter what anybody says. Yes, there's been um somewhat of an accident um only because the that was motivated by the SAG after strike and everything kind of shut down 460 plus million a day was lost

you know so so it was it was a big hit for Hollywood and so that changed dynamics considerably. Yeah,

but from a storytelling standpoint and the capabilities of putting things together,

it's truly fantastic. It's it's the community that makes things happen.

Yeah. How do you think the uh the the the the mix of different film budgets is changing or should change? We've we've been in a uh you know there's the there's the lowbudget film and there's the huge blockbuster that gets up into the hundreds of millions of dollars. And it feels like we might be entering a new regime soon where there's more lower budget films made that are even more impressive than the blockbusters of old. H how do you think the Hollywood will react to new technologies potentially making uh blockbusters more affordable, more creativity, more uh more diverse perspectives? How do you think all of that changes?

I think you just summed it up really well to tell you the truth. Um the the fact of it is is that it's nothing really new. Yeah. Um this has been evolving over many years, 50 years, different types of programming, television, you know, um 30 minute shows, episodic activities, all of that has evolved. It's really driven towards the audiences and and the interest of the audience you know micro programming is the new used to be called you know basically um creator economy or the creator content you know user generated content on 2004 2005 when YouTube came into play it kind of created a whole new genre

of everybody can produce something but that doesn't take away the importance of the quality of the programming You know, and when it comes to micro programming, let's say micro shows, those in and of themselves for 90 seconds to 3 minutes are something that you really want to be able to capture.

Yeah.

You know, and also view and people do. Now, kind of the average viewing of a micro show is four to five different segments. It's kind of streamed together.

Yeah. So in answer to your question as best I can um it will find its path. It will find its pro like for example your program.

Yeah.

You know here here's consu consumers are looking at this and being able to engage with it and it's developing and delivering great content. At least I'd like to take that with me.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh we we we do have a question from the chat I want to ask about uh this idea of Barbheimer. These moments that are shelling points. They bring everyone together. And I'm wondering if you think that we'll see more of those in the future or if Hollywood should be thinking, even if it's teaming up with a rival studio to create something that gets even more people into the theaters, uh, because the internet's so noisy, but everyone's in their own little pockets. But then something like Barbenheimr happens and the Barbie film and Oppenheimer and they're two completely different but everyone was talking about it and it seemed like it was the true Hollywood returning to the center stage of American culture postco in my opinion.

Yeah, cultural events are really important no matter what they are you know wherever they are there, you know, there's groups out there that are doing that live causing

that's pulling the kinds of activities together. There's the spear

which is another place that is a communal environment that is truly fantastic.

Yeah.

When it comes to the kind of event that you're talking about with Barbie

um pardon me the the fact of it is is that people are looking for that people want to engage. You know, a long time ago, and I say really a long time ago, you know, remember when we were looking at the kinds of shared experience like interactive television where you could choose what you're watching with anyone at any particular time.

That didn't really go over that great.

You know, it was good and it was well done, but people really didn't want to watch television and share with their neighbor or whatever it might be. They would they would talk about things when it came to programming with their friends.

Yeah.

Um but not that many. So audience sizing is really critically important and events like that are unquestionably key in driving you know merchandising participation and then just engagement. And this is what's happening around the world when it comes to the new types of episodic television whether it's a blue and turkey or you know the different types acorn in the UK. These are really important networks that are driving a lot of viewers at this time.

Uh Hollywood has a lot of fear around AI. A lot of people don't even want to talk about even if they're excited about it because of fear of of push back. I've had a slightly more optimistic view that if you look back the last 10 years of traditional Hollywood, as in like the place, not like the the industry, a lot of these big productions are being shipped uh out of state or overseas. And I've had this optimistic view that uh uh Hollywood could see a general resurgence if the storytelling capacity stays here. But like we're no longer having to do as many expensive shoots in in Europe or the Middle East or any of these other places because those scenes can now be generated, but the talent that is involved with, you know, effectively directing, directing, producing, casting, those people could have a higher volume of work and budgets could potentially be

distributed. Instead of one, you know, $200 million movie, you might have 10,20 million productions that are using AI to be more efficient. Uh, am I totally off? Do you think that's a a possibility? Uh, what's your view? Well, AI has been here for about 20 years.

So, it's already been involved when it comes to production and and the ease of um the overall product being created.

Um you know, where it comes into play is, you know, dailies. At the end of the day, you can take a look at five, six different cuts very quickly, all during live shots of what you're putting together. um when it when it comes to AI involved, it's it's one of those situations where it's a tool and it's a tremendous tool and it's h and how that tool is leveraged is going to become key. Um you know, there's different efforts when it comes with all the different types of content creation, editorial tools. It's the managing layers that stay on top that allow for the efficiencies that come into play to create pieces of content. And then that lowers time. Lowers time is lowering budgets. Lowering budgets means rapid and escalating the kinds of productions that then are created. So you can you can meet the timeline. You can meet the pipeline. You can get more programming into you know into the distribution points to be able to see some of the more interesting things that are out there that are really key is how not just AI but AI when it comes to the content creation. Like for example, the ability to on the fly level set and uplift all of that content into high quality um visual like 4K and UHD. Like we're looking at UH we're looking at UHD right now. Yeah.

You know, and well 4K and and the fact of it is it looks pretty good. Well, and a lot of content that's being created that's pushed out there,

it's being shot in 4K, but as soon as it cuts to advertising, it drops down drops down to 2K. So you get this fragmentation that takes place. It doesn't look good, then it goes back up to 4K. Yeah. You know, and so level setting all of that is back to the point of audience engagement. And so audience engagement is really key. Um you kind of touched it a little bit when it says to the cost of production. Why wouldn't you why wouldn't you go down to Rio or Johannesburg or Prague and do a produ or or London and do a production for 80% of the cost of what it took to do in um LA or Hollywood. Okay. There was a shift on that the the actors pool the production capabilities now that you have live engagement in production facilities in LA or San Francisco or London because of the state of technology isn't just the AI component it's how things are made and how things get done. So the actors are, you know, exceptional in each one of those cities. I just um identified Paris, some of the French programming, it's great. Some of the the Madrid programming, um all of it is exceptionally well, but then the cost of putting that together is considerably less. That's the problem that we have. um AI can actually do a lot more engaged activities and enhance that capability as we move forward. Uh we just had a recent um event um out in the desert that's not like milling around in the sand or anything like that. It's like what we're talking about was that Palm Springs is quite lovely and and the fact of it was is with what's called the Hollywood Professionals Association that's HPA and that we we delve into that kind of discussion about the impact of AI and really come down to is that it's another fabulous tool. It's it's to be respected more than it is to be feared. And yes, will it kind of lessen the amount of work workers that are going to be approaching this? Yeah. But those workers it the workers are very straightforward. You either learn how to use tools or if you stick your heels in in the ground and drag yourself then you're going to be passed by.

Yeah.

So it's you learn how to use something to make something move forward. But

yeah, and we saw that with the digital transition where you know people who shoot on film, there are still movies that get shot on film. It's a smaller community and those films are special in their own way and uh I don't think anyone expects uh a complete revolution overnight in any of these things. Uh we do have one last question from the chat. It's sort of funny one. There's a surfboard behind you that looks like it's seen very many amazing beaches. Do you surf? Where do you surf? Uh tell us about the surfboard.

Um I have

nice

and I do as I've gotten older my my balance sucks but you know other than that um um my son's a big surfer. We're all surfers. We're water family.

You know and so so in the course of that yes I do.

And um now I'm more of a sponger. If somebody's actually identified that then they'll might know what a sponger is.

I know what a sponger is.

But I respect it. I respect it. you you you've you've earned the sponge, I think.

So, it's it it kind of comes back to that, you know, that's a prop. What can I tell you? It's it's it's a board staffed in half. It's not a group.

So, I I had a Hayden Shapes that the the same the same brand that I I took to like 20ome countries and it did eventually snap. They're like weirdly this this type of board. It's like a uh they're like extremely durable in some ways, but they have these certain impact points where they're just like over like they'll just snap.

Uh but a lot of fun memories on uh my Hayden shapes back in the day.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time. Uh we appreciate you taking the time to come chat with us today. Hope you have a great rest of your day.

Hopefully see you out in the water.

We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you. And I hope I was added some value.

Absolutely. Take care.

Have a great one. Byebye. Goodbye. Let me tell you about MongoDB. What's the only thing faster than the AI market?