The Boogieman: An AI-Assisted Short Film Trailer

Movie Ideas
Written By David May

The Undergraduate Senior Thesis that Got Away

The Boogieman tightens a piano string.

The culmination of undergraduate education at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts is the senior capstone project - at least, it was in the early 2000s. Thanks to a great cast and crew, and thanks to faculty and staff support, my senior thesis, Itsy Bitsy, was screened internationally at over 50 Film Festivals. Feeling overly ambitious, I thought I'd shoot a second senior project called "The Boogieman," which was intended to be a horror-comedy-musical (with heart), but unfortunately, it was never finished. 

Nearly 20 Years Later

As an early adopter of technology, I decided to jump in and explore these tools after all of the artificial intelligence (AI) tools became available. I started to use ChatGPT to write the first drafts of some of my blog posts and generate images on Midjourney. As a recovering filmmaker, I was impressed by the generative AI for video that I saw on Twitter, particularly from Ben Nash. After watching some of his creations, I also decided I wanted to jump in. I started with little tests and realized I have a bunch of unused source footage I could reference so I don't have to shoot new footage for my AI tests. Then I realized, "Maybe AI can help me finish "The Boogieman."

What the short film here >

AI Tools Used

  • The image prompts generated in Midjourney.

  • Video developed by RunwayML Gen-1.

  • Voices by FakeYou.

  • The song was generated using Rave.

    • Inputs were Nightcrawler: https://youtu.be/BrxFy5thPDE and

    • KC and the Sunshine Band: https://youtu.be/_Ee3C2m3OXE

David May
Internet Marketing: David has enjoyed employment ever since he graduated from Chapman University as an undergraduate. He's got more than 8 years of marketing and 'sales' (Admission) in the education vertical and has managed Chapman's team of web gurus since the summer of 2011. He now serves as Chapman University's Director of Web and Interactive Marketing. So... we know what you are thinking - you don't want to hire someone with a day job. Well, get over it because that's how we can afford to keep our rates low. Video Production: David May's two short films have screened at over 100 film festivals. Both Fetch and Itsy Bitsy have won many awards including "best of fest." He has also had international syndication through his experience on the FOX Reality show "On the Lot" where he placed 12th out of 12,000 applicants. David has also directed/produced Marketing videos for Universities such as Chapman University and University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and organizations such as WACAC.
http://www.pogonacreative.com
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