Ukrainian Short Film Takes Third Place in AI-Generated Film Contest
The Ukrainian short film "Christmas Ghost" has secured the third position in the AI Holiday Film Contest, featuring the top three films created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The competition included over 140 AI-generated films, and details about the film can be found on the contest's website.
The film, crafted by Mykhailo Penievskyi, the creator behind the YouTube channel Yellow Medusa, narrates the story of a Ukrainian volunteer celebrating Christmas alone and encountering a Christmas ghost. The film has a duration of 2 minutes and 40 seconds.
As a reward, the author will receive a prize of one thousand dollars, complimentary participation in an AI cinematography course, and a festive Christmas jumper.
"For about a year, I wanted to tell a story close to Ukrainians, a true and life-like story, offering viewers a bit of hope and relief, even if temporary. However, all my ideas lacked something, and I postponed them for better times. In the past year, I have actively explored and utilized artificial intelligence for creating audiovisual content, finding it very intriguing," shared the filmmaker with the Ukrainian cultural resource "Suspilne.Kultura."
In his work, Mykhailo Penievskyi employed a variety of tools based on neural networks, including Midjourney for generating 2D images, Runway Gen 2 for animating 2D images, ElevenLabs for creating AI-generated sound, D-ID for facial animation, and DALL·E 3 and PixVerse as auxiliary tools.
"My greatest inspiration was my wife, who actively supports the Armed Forces of Ukraine by making trench candles and caring for the wounded in hospitals. She is one of those people who should rest more, but the war does not allow her to. She became the prototype of the main character," revealed the filmmaker.
It's worth noting that a Czech magazine used artificial intelligence to create a "bloody collection" of sports uniforms for "neutral" Olympians from Russia and Belarus. Journalists emphasized that contrary to popular belief that "sports is beyond politics," in reality, sports are heavily intertwined with politics, especially in the case of Russia. According to them, Putin uses athletes to promote his own terrorist regime. Therefore, they propose allowing Russians to participate in the 2024 Olympics on the condition that they wear a similar "bloody" uniform.