Introduction

So good afternoon, good evening. Thank you very much, Melinda, for inviting me over. Thank you very much, WeWork, for having me.

Background and Role

My name is Helge Albers. I am the CEO of Moin Film Fund. Moin Film Fund is the film fund that is run, owned, financed by the city of Hamburg and the Land of Schleswig-Holstein. We're a public funding institution aiming to support the regional screen industries in Hamburg and in Schleswig-Holstein.

My background is in production. I worked as a producer for about 20 years. I was head of the German Producers Association for a couple of years and I'm in Hamburg for about five years now as the CEO of the Moin Film Fund. Moin is an abbreviation for Moving Images North. So in brief, this is who I am.

Understanding AI's Impact

What I'm not is I'm not an expert on AI whatsoever. I consider myself an AI idiot, I would almost say.

I work in a field that is obviously heavily affected by AI, will be affected by AI. As much as I don't understand how the internet works, I also don't understand how AI works specifically, but I'm very well aware that it will affect what we are doing.

And so I would like to confront you with a couple of questions that we are dealing with, with a couple of answers that we are looking at, and that's in no way exclusive. On the contrary, I'm sure there's dozens, hundreds of other answers of how to deal with AI, specifically in the film and media industry.

The Fund's Traditional Roots and Current Transformation

We have a specific soft spot for support of film production, theatrical productions. That's the DNA of the fund.

We were founded 40 years ago, so we're very traditional. company and are in the process of transformation.

Engagement with Cinema

Just a quick check-in out of curiosity. Who of you is going to the cinema more than once a month? Look at you guys. Interesting.

So I'm standing here going to the cinema quite regularly. five times a month maybe, maybe more, for professional reasons mostly, but not only.

And we are looking into what is happening specifically in the theatrical world with AI.

Predictions on AI-Generated Content

So what I'm predicting without being a prophet is that very soon we will see quite a flood of AI-generated moving images. It's already hitting us and we will see it much more with the advent of applications helping to generate AI images. And I'm sure there's millions of people out there who are indulging themselves in creating fantastic blasts, beautiful car chases, images that were previously only possible to generate in Hollywood with the big machinery and so on. So that's going to happen.

However, what we won't see in the near future, that's another prediction, is we won't see many AI-generated movies or films. Why is that?

The Nature of Films as Works

A film, a movie is a work. A work, what is a work? Work in the sense that we're looking at it, and I'm personally looking at it, not only in films, but in any creation, any work is... the sum of everything that a creator knows by the point when he or she creates something.

So it's a collected knowledge of a human being that is being transformed into something else at a specific point in time in their life, reflecting on where they are, how they are interacting with the environment. And that's a very specific thing. It's a reflection, it's something that a human being is doing in relation, in dialogue with its surrounding, with other human beings. It's a dialogue and hence it is a position.

So a work needs to have a position. And this is something that I feel AI generated films, by definition of what I've just said, will not have in the near future. I don't believe in any predictions where anybody says something will never happen. I'm not saying this will never happen, but I don't see it in the near future.

The Importance of Position in Filmmaking

Because a position is something that relates to an audience. And the reason why we are doing what we're doing is that we would like to present something to an audience, not we as a fund, but we would like to support creators by bringing their works to an audience. Hence, if it's a work, it has to have a position. We need to understand the position and that needs to address the audience.

Are there any questions? Good.

The Future of Authorial Cinema

So here's my take on what artificial imagery will also result in or might also result in. I give you a steep provocation.

Autor cinema, cinema that is done by human beings and reflect the state of a human being at any given time in their lives is the next big thing. You haven't seen nothing yet. This is what's going to be big.

in the foreseeable future alongside a big amount of artificial imagery. I'm sure there will be a need for films, for voices, for grammars, for forms that are unique and that I as an audience can be sure that they were created by a human being who wants to be in dialogue with me.

The Golden Age of Arthouse Cinema

So welcome to the new age, the golden age of arthouse cinema, because arthouse cinema is the pinnacle of a value chain that is underlined by one word, and that word is trust. And this for me, because I said in the beginning, I'm coming with a lot of questions. This is the key questions that we need to work on.

Building Trust with Audiences

We as an organization, anybody who deals with content, anybody who deals with works in specific needs to understand how to create trust between the work and the audience, because I, as an audience, I need to trust that what I'm seeing is a direct message from a human being. And how do we do that?

I have absolutely no idea. This is the point where I'm really honestly very curious to hear any idea about that's going to be done.

Technological and Regulatory Considerations for Trust

I'm sure there's technological ways to do it. I'm sure there's regulatory ways of doing it. Probably some blockchain nerds will have an idea about it. Probably some certification office will have an idea about it. And probably there's a couple of other solutions out there. But at the end of the day, it's about trust. And I think trust will become a very, very valuable currency in what we're doing.

The Evolution of Internet Content Access

Quick sidetrack. I was listening to a podcast recently about the Google Developers Conference, Google I.O. where Google had introduced a new AI sort of update on what they're doing, which is happening basically under the headline of, let Google do the Googling. So which doesn't mean anything else that you are in a scenario that is sort of, let's say, Star Trek driven, where you say, computer, tell me, where's the next cinema?

And computer will give you the answer straight away. This is the next version of Google, how Google imagines it, which will ultimately lead to a disappearance of websites. Nobody needs websites anymore to get any information from the internet.

So without any websites, there won't be any business models for any website that is advertising driven. And many websites are advertising driven. Many, many, many websites are advertising driven.

They will disappear unless they are able to draw traffic directly to them. And that needs the basis of trust. The only websites that will be relevant and that will be

authentic will be the ones that have a relationship between those who program, those who send, and those who receive. The connection needs to be trust. How that can be achieved, I have absolutely no idea.

I'll leave you to it. But that's my learning or my way of looking at what we're doing. So trust is essential in everything, even more than it is already, I think, in terms of AI.

Moin Film Fund's Approach to AI

And just to give you a quick idea of how we at Moin approach it. Again, this is not a one size fits all. It's one aspect of we, how we are approaching it in terms of funding and the way we support the development of feature films, of high-end TV drama series, of animation projects, of immersive media projects.

This is the scope of works we are supporting. We have introduced a new program that is looking into three things. It is looking into the facilitation of human interactions. It is looking into building communities and supporting project development on a project by project basis.

We have earmarked about 1 million euros for the whole program and have, in very broad terms, introduced a very wide open funnel to invite people to propose ideas. which results in a very strong competition, one has to say. We have a lot of applications for these programs.

We can make a very, very strong selection from these programs and have, together with an initiative from France, Legal Quest, managed to build an ideation world that doesn't exist in the German film funding landscape so far. It's pretty unique in the way it sort of combines science, anthropology, social science, It's not about writing, it's about thinking, it's about connecting human minds, it's about making people grow. kick them off from there into the writing process financed by the project support.

1Ultimately, we will build communities from all the alumni from this process and will then, as a fund, step back and give the empowerment to this group of people to make the selections for the next channel. So that is, as I said, just one approach of how we are dealing with the aspect of human interaction. and something that might be a company piece to AI in a way that it makes people aware of each other, in a way that it helps people to connect their minds, to enhance their creativity with each other and create a strong bond in a region in Hamburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, this is where we operate, to form a new core that is one alternative to artificial intelligence.

Conclusion and Open Questions

That's my little intro to how we see it. As I said, no answers here. This also wasn't an advertising blog. Don't apply. I mean, please apply, but also don't. Don't feel obliged. It's very film-specific. Maybe the three people who go to cinema more than once a month might be interested. But this is me. Thank you very much for listening.

If you have any questions, here I am.