In 2024, a GBP 1.04 million Innovate UK-funded programme brought together a consortium consisting of Oxford AI company Charisma.AI, UK higher education arts specialists University of the Arts London (UAL) and Falmouth University, broadcaster Channel 4 and animation studio Aardman. The Charismatic project explored the opportunities for the creative industries to better leverage the potential of AI technologies and the potential presented by AI to enhance and supplement storytelling practice in film and television. Working in partnership with creative companies, the consortium developed bespoke tools in response to the challenges to their practice identified by those taking part, inverting the more common retooling to creative applications of general-purpose machine learning products. Within the project, the screenplay form was used as a laboratory for testing and developing a tool that challenged creative ideas and narrative paths, creating playful approaches to linear storytelling. This article both articulates what was learnt through the first year of research and development and identifies some of the more challenging parts of the process – the distinction between what filmmakers aspire to do and the extent to which this can be codified in AI development, in addition to the challenges presented in the quite different vocabulary of these distinct creative practices.
Marshall et al. (Sat,) studied this question.