The reimagined classic TV and movie trailers you see here were all created by humans, using AI as a groundbreaking tool. Our creators were in the drivers seat, shaping the story and making the calls. But AI helped us achieve something we never could on our own—at least, without a Hollywood budget.
Not unlike our practices’ partnership with Pearl, AI enabled us to produce more, more efficiently. Here’s how we did it.
The storytelling started with a human producer, who sketched out a series of plots that worked well within recognizable Hollywood genres. We were careful to choose genres that had three qualities: a distinct visual style, strong dialogue, and a place in popular culture.
From there, our producer crafted prompts that asked Chat GPT to write scripts in the style of sci-fi, vampire, 80s action movies, and more. The output was good, but not perfect. In every case, our writers edited the scripts for dialogue, particularly where the details of dentistry were important.
Script in hand, we set out to generate the still images that would become the basis for our “movies.” Working with Midjourney and in partnership with YouTube creator Dog People Productions we generated hundreds of images.
We experimented with prompts that detailed not just the content of the images, but the feel of them. We researched the kinds of camera lenses, cinematography styles, and shot composition.
Casting was particularly difficult given Midjourney’s training data. Generative AI image engines are trained on publicly available imagery, which in total reflects American cultural sensibilities. Women are always young and beautiful. Men are always hunky.
Creating characters that fell outside of these confines required detailed prompting and multiple variations. It was particularly hard to generate images with a female dentist and a male patient.
Here, our production partner took over entirely, using a wide array of generative AI tools to animate our stills, create AI-generated voice overs, and create “original” music. In each case, there were several rounds of revision to ensure the right look and feel.
We want to extend a very special thanks to Dog People Productions, whose Panovision style trailers of modern movies inspired the project, and whose dedicated partnership made the project possible.
