After a 16-day open call period, an impressive collection of 586 posters was garnered for the AIGC Poster Creation Unit under the Metafilm Film Poster Exhibition at the Shanghai International Film Festivals (SIFF) on Friday.

A total of 36 exceptional AIGC film posters have been chosen to grace the walls of the Metafilm exhibition after undergoing meticulous evaluation by a professional review committee formed by China Film Art Direction Academy, Orange Studio under Alibaba Pictures, and film producers.

First AIGC Poster exhibition captivates industry attention

With the rise in popularity of GPT technology, the domestic market is witnessing a fierce race for large-scale models as various sectors endeavor to revamp their business models in the AI 2.0 era. Among these sectors, the integration of "AI+film" in content creation is widely regarded as one of the fastest-growing areas in the market.

As AI continues to garner attention in the film industry, it is also positioned as one of the major highlights at this year's SIFF. A unique "offline+online" exhibition was employed at the AIGC Poster exhibition. Distinguished from conventional offline exhibitions, it pioneers the utilization of cloud interactive-based metaverse exhibitions while launching together with SIFF the AIGC film poster creation competition. 

The creators were invited to create AIGC posters for four films, including "Lost in the Stars," "The Fallen Bridge," "Ride On," and "Striding Into the Wind." Numerous poster design teams, individual designers, and netizens submitted their posters for the films created through AIGC technology, exploring the infinite possibilities and diversity of artistic expression.

AIGC empowers the film industry

Movie posters serve as the predominant creative materials in the film promotion process. According to the data from Taopiaopiao, one of China's largest Ticketing platforms, a total of 8,425 posters were released for newly released films during the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, with an average of eight posters for each film released. In the actual process of promotion and distribution, an array of marketing posters and still images are shared on social media platforms and other channels, thus bringing about quite a heavy design workload. The emergence of AIGC undoubtedly enhances creative efficiency and introduces a novel solution for poster production and marketing.

Xiao Yin is a designer at Orange Studio and has been using AIGC for some time to make film posters. As a productivity-boosting tool, AIGC has saved him most of the execution time, allowing him to spend more time on creativity and idea development. More than 90% of the graphics on his poster for" Lost in the Stars" were generated by AIGC. Xiao now has a new definition for his job: "Creative designer + language trainer."

The development of AI2.0 is expected to comprehensively drive the upgrading of the film and TV industry chain. Whether AI will replace humans is also a matter of debate in the market. "Technology is people-oriented, and the goal of AIGC is not to replace people, but to free human's productivity and creativity from the traditional model by reducing costs and improving efficiency, enabling more creators to focus on content creation." Li Jie, president of Alibaba Pictures, noted, "The efficiency of AI lies in its certainty, and the charm of the human brain lies in its creativity; the content industry needs that certainty to reduce costs and improve efficiency, and the creativity for the exploration into the distant future."

Immersive trip to the SIFF

The exhibition took place at Asia's first large-scale independent film and TV festival metaverse - Metafilm. Users can download the Metafilm App to log in and select roles such as directors, screenwriters, or performers to create virtual identities. Various custom functions are available for complete user profiles, such as DIY looks and outfit changes. 

In addition to the fresh updates, the latest film and TV content, and news from SIFF and STVF, users can also immerse themselves in a high-quality film and TV poster exhibition and even "walk" on the red carpet in the parallel dimension to interact face to face with their favorite virtual digital characters and obtain a "beyond-dimension" film and TV sensory experience. 

There are various interactive ways where users can have knowledge quizzes, collect film fragments and more. Based on the social, prop, and task systems, they can receive their favorite peripheral film and TV benefits by completing corresponding tasks.