The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts is hosting the third annual AI Filmmaking Hackathon, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 5 in the Carson Center.
The event is free and open to the public for anyone interested in working with machine learning and storytelling. For information and to register, visit the event website. No AI experience is necessary.
A deep-dive workshop is being offered 5 to 7 p.m. April 2 in the Carson Center, Room 209 to introduce participants to everything they need to know to participate in the AI Filmmaking Hackathon. The workshop does not require registration.
“It is a hackathon that uses whatever the most current sort of tool set or tool chain for using generative machine learning for imagery creation, whether still or animated or interpolated or whatever that may be,” said Dan Novy, assistant professor of emerging media arts. “I teach a series of workshops, and Ash Eliza Smith, assistant professor of emerging media arts, joins me.
"The workshops are designed to expose the student, faculty, staff and wider Lincoln community with an overview of what those tool chains actually are, what tools are available, which ones are available for free, which ones are paid, which ones are more advanced. And then I expose them to tool chains that we make available to them. On our national research project, Super Computing Cluster, we have some tools that they can use during the hackathon for free.”
Cade Suing, a senior in emerging media arts, said the event is the chance to experiment with different tools involving artificial intelligence in some capacity.
“It’s all about gaining familiarity with the tools and what they actually are,” he said. “There’s a big emphasis on experimentation, most of it revolves around wanting to continue the discussion on AI and its place in artistic creation, and it can be very divisive, which is one of the things I like about it.”
On the day of the hackathon, participants show up with their team (or they can be assigned to a team).
“There is a more specific theme. The overarching theme for this particular hackathon is ‘Data,’” Novy said. “Because it is, in part, co-sponsored by the UNL Grand Challenge Creative Data Visualization team that I am on because data visualization and scientific literacy is also super important. You can use machine learning to do data visualization as well. In fact, it’s an area that’s rife with opportunities.”
During the hackathon, the teams create an approximately three-minute film from approximately 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. when the event ends with dinner and an awards program, where prizes are awarded for the best films.
“I would describe AI Hackathon as an annual, friendly competition put on by the Carson Center to help encourage people both in and outside of the college to learn how to leverage artificial intelligence-based tools within the filmmaking workflows and pipelines,” said Nathan Smiley, a junior emerging media arts major from Platte City, Missouri, who has participated in the previous two hackathons.
“I participated in it because I actually had a strong aversion to AI tools as they were first coming out and thought this event would be a good way to see the practical uses they might have,” he said. “The more I learned about it and how it worked, the less intimidating it became.”
In his first AI Hackathon in 2023, Smiley worked with his friend, Justin Watt.
“We created a sort of analog horror film in which a PSA was broadcast warning of an outbreak of AI impersonators,” Smiley said. “Again, this was around the time that I had an aversion to AI tools, in general, so that influenced the theme. We ended up winning ‘Best Film’ for the piece.
“AI doesn’t have to be a scary thing, and that it can co-exist with the creative process rather than replace it entirely."
Novy said the point of the event is to be “wonderfully experimental.”
“A lot of people are fearmongering, claiming that AI is going to replace movie studios, that the computer is just going to make the movie for you,” he said. “And the takeaway that almost every student has had at the end of each hackathon is, wow, this is still really hard, and there’s no way this going to take my job. It is simply another tool in the tool set for both conceptualization and visual effects artists. It is not going to completely take over the whole filmmaking process, at least not for a good long time. And even then, it will always be a tool for the filmmaker to create what they’re interested in making.”
Novy encourages anyone interested in learning more about this to participate in the AI Filmmaking Hackathon.
“Learn new tools, get access to hardware you wouldn’t normally get access to, and be able to experiment in a completely 100% supportive zone,” he said.
