Prompt Engineers; the new wave of emerging talent
This month we've been talking about new talent; emerging creatives and directors honing their skills in order to find a place in the industry. But what if those skills are changing? What if there's a new job role that will supersede the more traditional advertising ones? The Moon Unit investigates...
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Another article about AI? Kill us now.
Except it isn’t. This is about the humans who are the new wave of talent coming through, making AI even more amazing.
We’ve all tried it. But mostly we’re not happy with it.
We’ve all tried it. But mostly we’re not happy with it.
Enter 'Prompt Engineer’ - probably the most important new talents about to emerge in this industry.
Above: Prompt Engineers might be the most important new talents about to emerge in the industry.
Anthropic, a Google-backed AI startup, advertised a salary up to US$375,000 for a “Prompt Engineer & Librarian” in San Francisco.
Those high salaries won’t last. Prompting is about to become so essential we’ll all have to learn to do it well which means that, as a specialist job, it won’t last.
Whatever your role – director, producer, creative – you’re going to need to add ‘prompt engineer’ to your skillset. Rapidly.
Whatever your role, you’re going to need to add ‘prompt engineer’ to your skillset.
AI video and moving image is where things are getting seriously interesting.
Google returns over seven billion hits for the term ‘AI video’; there are literally thousands of companies making them, or offering to help you make them.
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Credits
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- Production Company Private Island
- Director Chris Boyle
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Credits
powered by
- Production Company Private Island
- Director Chris Boyle
Credits
powered by
- Production Company Private Island
- Director Chris Boyle
Above: Just like a normal beer commercial. If people had several hands, and started dancing while on fire.
Once again, it’s all about the quality of the prompts. The key is to think like a screenwriter first, then a director, then a director of photography. In that order.
Right now, the results of AI video are usually not up to the standards that ad agencies and production companies require. People still look weird. Especially in groups, as the AI tends to clone them. It also doesn’t portray human emotions well. And, for now, illustrative imagery still works a lot better than a photorealistic style.
The key is to think like a screenwriter first, then a director, then a director of photography.
But we all know this is the future. Definitely for storyboards and, yes, definitely for ads themselves too.
Just look at the speed of improvement.
Just a few months ago, AI was so comically bad, people were using it solely to create parody – such as the hilarious AI-generated beer commercial above.
Above: A parodic McDonald's spot created by AI.
Quality is improving rapidly, but its overall feel can still be uncanny. Weirdly, even that can be a bonus. Filmmakers are exploiting this to create intense, dystopian worlds, ideal for parody, such the AI-generated McDonalds spot above.
Or this insane satire of Black Friday chaos which tells us more about ourselves as a consumer-obsessed society than we might wish to know.
The capabilities of Runway Gen-2 have improved to the point that it can create totally coherent videos.
Don’t miss parody ads for Chevy Sidewinder [below], Ford Mundo, or the Plutonium Playset.
Today, the capabilities of Runway Gen-2 have improved to the point that it can create totally coherent videos, at least in genres that don’t require total photorealism, such as this artsy AI short film, this gorgeous sci-fi mini-movie or this eye-popping acid-induced hallucination.
Above: Filmmakers are using AI to create intense, dystopian worlds, ideal for creating parody content.
So, where does this leave us in the commercial image-making industry? Arguably, it’s the end.
We honestly don’t want to project forwards too much, because it’s simply too scary to think about. Or is it?
What does seem certain is that massive change is coming, rapidly.
Where does this leave us in the commercial image-making industry?
No one can control the future. But if we want to be a part of it, we can only suggest y’all better get yourselves onto Runway Gen-2 and play around.
Don’t forget to iterate, iterate and iterate once again – and master the art of writing brilliant prompts.
Or maybe there’s no need. Pretty soon, the AI will be able to read your mind, and generate a video from your thoughts in real time, right.
