By Dawn Chmielewski
LOS ANGELES, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Laid-off and sidelined by last year's production slowdown, Hollywood visual‑effects veteran Michael Eng discovered a gap in his resume while perusing job listings in Los Angeles -- experience in machine learning.
Eng turned to Curious Refuge, an online school teaching filmmaking powered by artificial intelligence, in a bid to reinvent his career amid the industry’s rapid technological shift.
Launched in May 2023, Curious Refuge's well-regarded AI film
academy has become a training ground for Hollywood workers racing to adapt as generative technology reshapes production, fueling new career paths even at a time when some in the industry fear losing their jobs to AI.
“I kind of just embraced it,” Eng said of diving into AI tools after he was sidelined. “I jumped in.”
Many in Hollywood remain wary of artificial intelligence, with critics pointing to last year’s debut of the AI‑generated actress Tilly Norwood -- condemned by the SAG‑AFTRA actors union as replacing human performers with “synthetics” -- as a prime example of the industry’s unease.
AI SKILLS SCHOOL DRAWS 10,000 STUDENTS
Eng is one of 10,000 students who have attended Curious Refuge's courses or workshops, looking to update their skills, the school says. Co-founders Caleb and Shelby Ward say 95% of the current students are entertainment or advertising industry professionals looking for new skills as artificial intelligence gains a foothold in Hollywood.
Others, like Petra Molnar, are hobbyists who have been able to harness AI to find new careers.
Molnar said she saw herself as a creative person but was unable to gain entry into art school in her native Budapest. She was working as a dental hygienist in London when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered her dental office. She used the time to explore her creative side, enrolling in classes -- initially studying digital product design and building her own dental app.
The rise of AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT and image generators like Midjourney led her to Curious Refuge, where she began taking courses in 2023.
She has found a new career in advertising, using AI to create promotional videos, including one for AI infrastructure company WhiteFiber that was shown on the Nasdaq's seven-story-tall LED video screen in Times Square when the company went public in September.
"AI genuinely changed my life," Molnar said.
ONLINE AI TRAINING STARTUP BECOMES GLOBAL HUB
Founded in 2020, Curious Refuge began offering courses in AI-assisted documentary and narrative filmmaking and in advertising in early 2023. It now provides instruction in 11 different languages to students in 170 countries. Other educators, such as the Los Angeles Film School, offer an online bachelor's degree in digital filmmaking, and major film schools also are incorporating generative AI into their curriculums.
The Curious Refuge classes are pre-recorded and made available behind an online paywall, allowing students to learn at their own pace.
Instructors hold weekly office hours to answer questions, and the school hosts regular meet-ups, including at the Cannes Film Festival and in major cities around the world. Meanwhile, the Discord platform, which is popular with gamers and programmers, has become a virtual place for the Curious Refuge community to gather.
Curious Refuge also has provided AI training and workshops at studios, which its founders could not identify because of non-disclosure agreements.
“We love to step in and create a baseline of understanding for the entire studio,” said Curious Refuge CEO and co-founder Caleb Ward. “Here's what's possible with artificial intelligence. Here are the creative possibilities. Here are just different takeaways that you can get from utilizing the technology.”
AI SHIFTS JOBS AS HOLLYWOOD SEEKS NEW SKILLS
One 2024 study commissioned by the Concept Art Association and the Animation Guild predicted that nearly 120,000 jobs in film, television and animation would be consolidated, replaced or eliminated by the end of this year because of generative AI.
Some see parallels between the rise of generative AI and the debut of YouTube, which ushered in a new generation of storytellers.
"There will be some job loss and job displacement, but there will also be job creation and a generation of new storytellers that emerge, in part, because financial barriers are being reduced or they simply now have access to make things that were not otherwise even available to them," said Chris Jacquemin, head of digital strategy for the WME talent agency.
"I think Curious Refuge plays a critical role as a program that specializes in training filmmakers and storytellers how they can use the array of machine learning tools to their benefit," Jacquemin said.
AI entertainment studio Promise, a well-regarded startup that is backed by media veteran Peter Chernin’s North Road studio and Andreessen Horowitz, acquired Curious Refuge last February.
The school serves as a talent pipeline for Promise as it seeks artists, directors and other creatives versed in AI production techniques. It would be a valuable asset, as the rest of Hollywood wakes up to the potential of generative AI and competition for talent heats up.
“We realized that there would be other studios like ours -- but also, many of the traditional studios and distributors and production companies -- would be looking to hire the same talent,” said Promise co-founder and President Jamie Byrne. “So we thought a lot about how we make sure that we have the right pipeline of talent into the company.”
Deepening the AI talent pool also will help speed Hollywood's adoption, Byrne said.
Yves Bergquist, director of the project on AI and Neuroscience at USC's Entertainment Technology Center, called education "the single biggest opportunity in AI right now" because the technology is highly complex and fast-moving. He hailed Curious Refuge's course offerings as "first-rate."
For visual-effects artist Eng, Curious Refuge has already opened doors.
“I immediately jumped into the tools and started getting work immediately,” said Eng, who also is teaching an AI filmmaking class with Studio Arts, a Los Angeles trade school.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Howard Goller)
