Toys 'R' Us debuts AI-generated ad

Toys “R” Us is proving artificial intelligence could have a future in film.

The retail toy brand premiered a short promo film at the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival in France last month that was created almost entirely by using OpenAI’s new text-to-video tool.

The company’s entertainment studio partnered with creative agency Native Foreign, which had early access to Sora. Toys “R” Us said it believes it is the first brand to debut a film using the technology. The tool is not yet publicly available.

The 66-second promo follows a young Toys “R” Us founder, Charles Lazarus, who had a vision to transform toy stores with the help of the brand’s mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe, who came to him in a dream. Reactions to the clip were mixed on social media, with some calling it a compelling, fascinating look into the future of film; others called it “creepy.”

Toys “R” Us said that in addition to Sora, it used some corrective visual effects and an original music score.

In February, OpenAI — the company behind the viral ChatGPT chatbot —introduced the AI model Sora which it claimed can create realistic and imaginative videos from quick text prompts. It said the tool is capable of generating videos up to 60 seconds and can serve up scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion and detailed background details.

Following the announcement, experts said text-to-video types of AI models could have the potential to disrupt the digital entertainment market.

Kim Miller, CMO of Toys “R” Us creative studios, said the concept was born after she attended a brand storytelling group and told the host she wanted to do something “fun” and “different” for their next project, which involved the origin story of the founder.

After Native Foreign became an early tester of Sora, its chief creative officer Nik Kleverov called Miller with the proposal to join forces.

“Everything you see was created with text but some shots came together quicker than others; some took more iterations,” he said. “The blocking, the way the character looks, what they’re wearing, the emotion, the background — it has to be a perfect dance. Sometimes you would create something that was almost right and other times not so right.”

Miller said there was also a lot of gut checking and human involvement throughout the process.

“Sometimes it would check a box, but maybe a reaction wouldn’t be on time with what was going on,” she said. “It was a lot of learning and a lot of back and forth. It was an educational process.”

OpenAI has not yet announced an official release date for Sora but rumors indicate it could launch later this summer. (SD-Agencies)

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【宣传片】xuānchuánpiān promo a short film made to advertise a product

【反思】fǎnsī gut check stop to seriously evaluate something or one’s current state

玩具反斗城证明人工智能在电影摄制领域大有可为。该玩具零售品牌在上月举行的2024年法国戛纳国际创意节上首映了一部宣传短片，几乎完全由OpenAI新发布的文生视频工具Sora制作而成。

该公司的娱乐工作室与创意机构Native Foreign合作，后者很早获得了Sora的使用权。玩具反斗城表示该公司或是第一个使用该技术制作短片的品牌；Sora尚未公开发布。

66秒的宣传片讲述了年轻的玩具反斗城创始人查尔斯•拉扎勒斯在品牌吉祥物长颈鹿杰弗里的帮助下改造玩具店的愿景。社交媒体上对这段视频反应不一，有人认为它是对电影未来一次引人入胜的探索，也有人说它“令人反感”。

玩具反斗城表示，他们在Sora出品的基础上部分修正了视觉效果并配上了原创配乐。

今年2月，OpenAI —— 就是这家公司开发出了爆火的聊天机器人ChatGPT —— 推出了人工智能模型Sora，声称该工具可以根据文本提示快速创建逼真而富有想象力的视频。该公司称，该工具能生成长达60秒的视频，并能提供包含多个角色、特定运动模式和详细背景细节的场景。

消息发布后，专家表示文生视频类的人工智能模型可能颠覆数字娱乐市场。

玩具反斗城创意工作室的首席营销官金•米勒说，她参加一个品牌故事分享会之后碰撞出了这个想法，她告诉主持人想在下一个项目尝试“有趣的”、“与众不同的”方式来讲述创始人的起源故事。

在Native Foreign成为Sora早期测试者之后，其首席创意官尼克•克莱沃洛夫打电话给米勒提议合作。

他说：“你看到的一切都是用文字生成的，有些镜头比其他更快完成，有些则需要反复推敲。他说：“场景安排、人物造型、着装、情感表现、背景 —— 一切都要刚刚好。有时生成的视频几乎完美，但有时又不太对劲。”

米勒说，在整个过程中需要大量仔细检查和人为参与。她说：“有时候，Sora能达成目标，但也许反应并不及时。这是一个学习的过程，也是一个反反复复的过程。”

OpenAI尚未宣布Sora的正式发布日期，但有传言称它可能在今年夏天晚些时候推出。

(Translated by Debra)