Digital Hollywood: The AI Summer Summit
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024
Noon – 12:50 PM Eastern Time Zone
Session III:
A Virtual Event:
Generative AI and Cinematic Hollywood: The Transformation of the Media Industry
While full AI video production hasn’t quite arrived, each week it seems that OpenAI debuts another generation of Sora and Pika one ups them with Audio software to lip-synch with the new video clips and another billion dollar investment is announced for a Virtual Humanoid company. And that was all in a three day stretch in March of 2024. And that’s not counting the Pro AI Music Generators from Google, Adobe and Meta and to paraphrase Stability AI’s CEO, “Emad Mostaque, "It has become possible to imagine an AI-generated new season of "Game of Thrones.” It with that thought in mind that we address the future of AI and Hollywood with our esteemed panel.
Speakers:
Ted Schilowitz, Visionary & Futurist, formerly Paramount Global & 20th Century Fox
Scy Heidekamp, Head of Product, Cuebric
Diana Williams, CEO & Co-founder, Kinetic Energy Entertainment
Leslie Shannon, Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting, Nokia, Moderator
Leslie Shannon
Ted Schilowitz
Diana Williams
Scy Heidekamp
Scy Heidekamp is the Head of Product at Cuebric and a creative technologist passionate about exploring creative workflows with new technologies. With a background in experience design and future design, she has developed multiple creative tools that bridge technology and art. By combining a deep understanding of technology, design, and product strategy, Scy pushes the boundaries of innovation. She is excited about new technologies and trends, including generative AI, and inspires teams to collaborate under a shared strategic vision.
Diana Williams is the CEO & Co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment. She has a wide range of experience in the entertainment industry, developing IP and producing creative content for distribution across all media. Throughout her career she has been at the forefront of working with emerging and established creators to ensure a diversity of voices and talent are included in an ever-evolving industry. Kinetic Energy Entertainment is a multi-platform venture studio specializing in building businesses around the development, production and marketing of IP that is entertaining, culturally impactful, and accessible across all media. Kinetic’s slate includes a TV series in development at HBO set in the world of K-Pop, TV series adaptation of The Gatecrashers comic, political sim videogame Political Arena, podcast series Founder Hustle inspired by venture fund 1863 Ventures’ focus on entrepreneurs of color, Crimson an epic fantasy/thriller take on Alice in Wonderland, YA sci-fi adventure Space Hoppers, recipe-memoir Adventures in Starry Kitchen, creative studio and publisher Shifting Tides, and a documentary feature film in post-production with Apple+. Kinetic is also an advisor to companies that are utilizing cutting-edge technologies to innovate in traditional entertainment categories. Prior to Kinetic, Diana was the Creative Development and Franchise Producer for Star Wars at Lucasfilm, where she developed film and tv (including Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One), mobile and console videogames (including 2015’s Battlefront), and publishing (Marvel’s Star Wars comics and novel expansions). While at Lucasfilm she was on the founding team that launched start-up ILMxLAB, an immersive entertainment and VR/AR/mixed reality lab, with projects including Vader Immortal for Oculus/Meta, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire for The Void, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award© winning VR experience Carne y Arena. Diana has also worked with BET Networks as a production consultant on Let the Church Say Amen, Gun Hill Road, and The Kenya Barris Project. Diana produced the critically acclaimed feature film Our Song, which earned her a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award in the Producer category. Other credits include documentaries Room 237, the Emmy© award-winning Sylvia Drew Ivie, Student Academy Award©-nominated Another First Step, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, and Dear Mom Love Cher.
Ted Schilowitz, Futurist, Paramount Global: Ted spends his time and pursues his passion in a unique role in the entertainment industry. Ted works across the leadership and the technology teams across Paramount Global, including CBS, CBS Sports, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Plus, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, PlutoTV and Comedy Central, exploring emerging tech for entertainment with an emphasis on Virtual and Mixed Reality and Web 3.0/ MetaVerse pursuits. Prior to joining Paramount, Ted was the Futurist at 20th Century Fox, where he worked on the evolving art, science and technology of advanced interactive visual storytelling. He was part of the creation team for the Martian VR and Wild VR experiences, which premiered at CES and Sundance as groundbreaking projects that pushed the envelope of Virtual Reality storytelling, Ted was part of the creation teams for the Alien, Planet of the Apes and Predator VR experiences at Fox, and at his current home at Paramount Pictures, he’s been instrumental in bringing the Grease Mixed Reality experience, the Light as a Feather mixed reality experience and the Quiet Place Virtual Reality experience to life. Ted was an integral part of the product development team at Red Digital Cinema as the company’s first employee. The Red One and Epic cameras have made a significant impact on the Motion Picture Industry, winning a Sci-Tech Academy award. Many of the world’s biggest movies are now being shot with these ultra high resolution digital movie cameras. Ted is one of the founders and creators of the G-Tech product line of advanced hard drive storage products. As one of the most recognized brands in that industry, they are implemented worldwide at the highest levels on cinema, episodic television, sports and news production. In his role as Chief Creative Officer at Barco Escape, he spearheaded an experimental immersive cinema project for movie theaters worldwide. Titles include Paramount Pictures Star Trek Beyond and 20th Century Fox Maze Runner & Maze Runner 2. Before being part of the founding teams at Red Digital Cinema and G-Tech, Ted was on the team that developed and launched the Macintosh desktop video division of AJA Video Systems, creating professional video products in tandem with Apple. These products are used on a massive scale worldwide for video production and post at the highest levels, on many of the world’s biggest movies, TV series and sporting events. Ted has presented worldwide at numerous conferences on the advancements in next generation visual experiences for the movie, television and, interactive entertainment industries. He’s been featured in Wired, Variety, NY Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Hollywood Reporter, NBC, CNET, Studio Daily, Videography, Film and Video, DV Magazine, TV Technology, HD Video Pro, Engadget, Gizmodo, Millimeter, American Cinematographer, MacWorld, Post Magazine, Popular Science, and countless other publications discussing his areas of passion and exploration. In 2019, Ted was honored at the Variety Hall of Fame event with the Variety Innovation Award.
Leslie Shannon, Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting, Nokia: Leslie entered the mobile communications world as a billing database analyst in the early 1990s. She joined Nokia Australia in 2000 and became the manager of the FutureLab, an early developer incubator in the days of WAP, GPRS and 3G. Building on her first-hand technical and business experience of the reality of bringing applications to market, she developed an analysis service for Nokia that examined success and failure factors for operators bringing mobile data to market for 4G that proved so successful that Nokia created a new department around her work. While in this role, she was based in Finland and worked with over 100 operators in more than 70 countries. Leslie relocated to Silicon Valley in 2015 and now focuses on identifying disruptions and opportunities for Nokia and its operator partners coming from outside the traditional telco world, particularly in the worlds of 5G, AR, VR, MR and the Spatial Internet. She is passionate not only about bringing strategic insight to Nokia and its customers, but also about introducing successful new paradigms from Silicon Valley to the telecommunications mindset, and continues to be a highly-regarded analyst and speaker. Born in Manhattan, Leslie has a BA in Psychology from the University of Virginia and a Master’s Degree in the History of Art from Yale University. She was an undefeated five-time champion in the American television game show “Jeopardy!” in 1992 and was invited to return to the show to compete in a tournament for one million dollars as one of the show’s “most memorable contestants” in 2002 and again in 2014. (She didn’t win, but still had a lot of fun.) She also got four questions away from willing a million dollars on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” in August 2017. Leslie lives in Santa Clara, California, with her husband and their two mobile-data enthusiast children.