AI for Film Making Hackathon

“Tell Me Your Dream”

We will provide unlimited beverages and snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the day!!!!!

Abstract

The past 10 years have witnessed a fast-growing field of AI technology in computer vision and graphics. All these technologies facilitate image/video processing/generation, which benefits video production. The mission of the MIT Film Makers Association is to leverage the power of these technologies and empower MIT nerds everybody to create stories/scenes to sympathize with others. We are organizing the “AI for Filmmaking Hackathon” on January 21st, 2023 at MIT Innovation Headquarters with the theme of “recreating one’s life”. We invite people with both artistic and coding skills to team up and utilize AI for filmmaking. No previous experience is required! Come and learn cool techniques to create art! We will provide unlimited beverages and food during the event.

Requirement

Format

The film has to be original, 1-2 min long, and finished on time.

Content

The film has to match the topic of the hackathon “Tell me your dream”. This topic is designed to accommodate a wide range of stories for people to express themselves. For example, “dream” can take any meaning in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, like “a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep”, “something that fully satisfies a wish”, etc. The keyword “me” can hold various meanings as well, eg. sharing between friends, inquired by people of power with the intention to help the less fortunate, or as a question during an interview…. anything you see fit.

Utilization of AI technology

The film has to utilize at least one of the following AI techniques:

AI techniques that reduce the cost of film making

AI for content creation

AI for facilitating artists

AI techniques built-in software

Timeline

11/15/2022: Registration

We will send out a sign-up sheet for people to sign up around mid-November. We welcome both undergrads and graduate students from MIT, Harvard, Emerson College, Berklee, etc. to participate. Other AI or art lovers are also welcome if they can come on-site.

Registered participants are then invited to a Slack group and freely form teams of 5 people. For people that are left out, we will match them with participants with complementary skills.

01/16/2023 & 01/18/2023: Workshops

We will organize two workshops to equip our participants with adequate skills for the hackathon. Food will be provided during the workshops.

Workshop 1: 01/16/2023 6pm AI tools for video production

We will introduce AI tools for video production in the first half of the workshop. We will host a coding session for participants to try these models/APIs themselves. Our staff will troubleshoot GPU access, model installation, and model deployment.

Location: MIT Building 6 - 120

Workshop 2: 01/18/2023 6pm Traditional tools for video production

We will give a quick tutorial on the Adobe series and DaVinci Resolve in the first half of the workshop. We will host a practice session in the second half of the workshop. Our staff will troubleshoot the installation of software and answer questions related to the functions.

Location: MIT Building 6 - 120

01/21/2023: Hackathon

9 am Opening Speech [Participants only]

Pioneers in the AI for art creation will give an opening speech.

9:30 am-6:00 pm Film making [Participants only]

Teams finish shooting/creating a 1-2min long film. Our staff will provide technical support on GPU access/model implementation/software usage.

6 pm Screening + Dinner [Participants and audience are welcomed]

We will serve dinner and watch the finished films together. Professional judges will pick the winners based on the quality of the story, technical innovation, and artistic skills. The audience can vote for the most liked team.

7 pm Awarding Ceremony [Participants and audience are welcomed]

We will host the awarding ceremony.

Location: MIT Innovation Headquarters, 292 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02142

3rd floor Student Innovators Lounge all day

4th floor Student Venture Studio Open Space for Opening Speech, Screening, and Awarding Ceremony

Award

We will give the following award to our winners. Winners will be awarded special prizes.

  • Best film award
  • Best actor award
  • Best actress award
  • Best script award
  • Best AI technique award
  • Best visual effect award
  • Best music award

All participants will receive a free T-shirt with the hackathon theme！

Invited speaker/judges

  • Greg Dandiels

Gregory Daniels is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, adapting The Office for the United States, and co-creating Parks and Recreation and King of the Hill. Daniels attended Harvard University, where he befriended and began collaborating with Conan O'Brien. His first writing credit was for Not Necessarily the News, before he was laid off because of budget cuts.

He joined the writing staff of The Simpsons during its fifth season. He wrote several classic episodes, including "Lisa's Wedding", "Bart Sells His Soul", and "22 Short Films About Springfield". He left The Simpsons to co-create another long-running animated series, King of the Hill, with Mike Judge. The show ran thirteen years before its cancellation in 2009. During the run of King of the Hill he worked on several other series, including the American version of The Office and Parks and Recreation. In 2016, he was an executive producer on the TBS series People of Earth. With The Office star Steve Carell, Daniels co-created the Netflix comedy series Space Force. He also created the Amazon science fiction comedy series Upload.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Daniels

  • Ben Relles

Ben Relles** **is an American businessman. He was formerly the Head of Comedy at YouTube, as part of the company's YouTube Originals program. In this role, he oversaw development of new content from YouTube's top comedy talent. Currently, he is working with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Prior to joining YouTube, he was Vice President of Programming at Next New Networks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Relles

  • Pat Pataranutaporn

Pat Pataranutaporn is a technologist and a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he explores the intersection of synthetic virtual humans and synthetic biology, specifically at the interface between biological and digital systems.  He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Fluid Interfaces research group at MIT Media Lab, where he works with his collaborators at NASA, NTT DATA, IBM, and Harvard to examine the future of human-computer integration.

His interdisciplinary research ranges from investigating AI-generated characters for learning and well-being,  human-AI co-reasoning, a wearable lab on the body with programmable bio-digital organ for space exploration, a machine learning model to detect linguistic markers related to mental health issues,  and mind-controlled 3D printer.

Pat’s research publication is recognized worldwide and has been featured in the United Nations AI for Good forum, Time magazine, Forbes, National Geographic, FastCompany, The Guardian, Disruptive Innovation Festival, and more.  As a person, who really loves space dinosaurs, Pat believes in bringing crazy ideas, and moonshot thinking to create future innovation.

https://www.media.mit.edu/people/patpat/overview/

References