AI filmmaker Gossip Goblin on building a feature film with a full crew — premiering December 4

Speaker 7: If my life is at stake.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it would be a way to yeah. Put anybody who thinks it's fake, thinks that's AI video. But we filmed it ourselves. We know it's real. Anyway, speaking of AI video, we have Zach London from Gossip Goblin with us

Speaker 2: What's going

Speaker 1: on? Hey. How you doing?

Speaker 8: How's it going?

Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: Where where in the world are you?

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 8: I'm in I'm in Sweden.

Speaker 1: Oh, cool.

Speaker 2: There you go. Sorry.

Speaker 8: You're up so Thank

Speaker 1: you for so late. Please introduce yourself and what you're working on specifically. It's fascinating.

Speaker 8: Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm Zach, better known online as Gossip Goblin.

Speaker 6: Mhmm.

Speaker 8: I make make some AI videos that you guys hopefully have seen. Yeah. Yeah. And I have a feature length film coming out in a little over two months.

Speaker 1: Yeah. What was the process for making the feature length film? What do you like, I imagine there's AI tooling that can help at every step of the way, but it feels like there's still an incredible amount of human involvement. What did you start with a title? Did you start with a concept? A genre? A log line? Like, what was your process?

Speaker 8: Yeah. So so contrary to popular belief, you're not yet able to just type in make me a movie into a box. Although, there's plenty of people trying to to make that happen. Yeah. No. I mean, depending on how you look at it, this is like four years in the making maybe. I mean, I've been making AI videos since that was really a possibility, like four years ago. And at first, you know, it looked pretty terrible. But I thought there was a there there, that there was, like, actual potential to do narrative storytelling beyond just, like, Will Smith's spaghetti memes or, you know, just Twitter clickbait. Yeah. And I'd say about a year and a half ago is when the tools really hit this inflection point where it became clear that you can actually make stuff that people want to watch beyond just like the shock value of, you know, this new taboo technology. Mhmm. So, yeah, I've been kind of building out this sci fi universe for for several years now, you know, in public on social media. And it's garnered enough, you know, interest that I was able to quit my day job, start a little studio, hire a team. And for the last eight months, nine months, we've been working on this feature film, which has been a premiering

Speaker 2: in two months.

Speaker 8: Yeah. December 4.

Speaker 2: So it's pretty good. Pretty good timeline to but but talk about talk what what can you share about the movie? Like, concept and general story?

Speaker 8: Yeah. So, you know, everything I do, it's like, I would say, leaning on pretty dark, sardonic, twisted sci fi stuff. And there's, you know, there's a bit of like an allegory edge to it. It's not just like wild, out there sci fi. Hopefully, it's not too on the nose, but I think one of the fun parts about AI is the actual like, I still write the script. Myself and a co writer writes the script. We use a dozen voice actors in the film. We have musicians scoring the film. We use full year artists for the sound effects. We have a whole post production crew. So it's not just me in my dark basement in Sweden. There's like a full crew of people. And so I'd like to believe there's still that level of like craft and detail and authorship involved. We haven't just, you know, relegated this to, you know, pipeline of tools to just render the shit out. But it's been a pretty arduous process to put it all together. But even with that said, the actual production time is still pretty fast and lean relative to, like, how you would make a a sci fi epic of this scope in the past. Mhmm.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 8: So I'd like to believe that the topics are like a lot timelier and more tuned to the present. And that's all paired with like, we put out ten minutes of short form content a week. Yeah. So that's not quite the same caliber, but that keeps us kind of, you know, relevant and front and center. And now, we've caught Elon's attention recently with, you know, some videos that may or may not have to do with Club's wet lab in San Francisco.

Speaker 2: No. To to me to me, like, the one of the biggest opportunities at the moment is, like, taking something like soup a time very timely topic Yep. And then applying something that creating something that looks like it took months and months and months to produce. Yeah. And I mean South South Park, like part of Yeah. Why South

Speaker 1: Park of this.

Speaker 2: Always was like top super topical and would become part of the conversation. It was like the first thing out of Hollywood that was Yep. Like scripted, that was commentating on what was happening in the in the relative near term.

Speaker 1: Yeah. It's remarkable.

Speaker 8: Yeah. Totally. So I mean, I kind of break out the content into like the ultra short form. So it's those three minute clips. And the goal there is like, it's part of this kind of sci fi transhumanist universe we're building out. But, you know, I feel like San Francisco like writes plots for me at this point.

Speaker 1: Like Mhmm.

Speaker 8: The shit I come up with is not even sci fi by next week.

Speaker 2: So it makes Or a techno optimist? You

Speaker 8: know what?

Speaker 2: Or a transhumanist?

Speaker 8: Can I can be both? I can say, look, I think there's a 90% chance we survive.

Speaker 2: Okay. Right? Higher fired up.

Speaker 1: There we

Speaker 8: go. Way more Yeah.

Speaker 2: Fired up. I'm not a percent

Speaker 8: I'm not a doomer. I'm not a doomer, but I'm also not like But you're calling

Speaker 2: from a bunkie.

Speaker 1: I'm not Polly Anish.

Speaker 2: Are you calling in from a bunkie?

Speaker 8: I mean, Sweden's kind of a bunker on its own. It's just It's so off the grid, like, who's gonna bother wiping it out, you know?

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Where is the name from?

Speaker 8: It's just always been around. I don't know. I I I've had the same handle online forever. I think, like, ten years ago, Sticker Mule had a really good deal on vinyl stickers. And I just I needed to come up with the username quickly before the sale went away. So I committed to Gossip Goblin and I had such like a huge investment in the stickers that I it's too late to pivot.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Awesome. Well, come back on as you get closer to the to the release and I'm excited for for our audience to follow the shorts along as well.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Congratulations on the progress. Thanks for

Speaker 2: staying up. Yeah. You.

Speaker 1: Have a good one. Sleep. We'll talk to you soon. Let me tell you about Figma. Agents meet the canvas.