New Release: Voltz Experimental Audiobook

Literature on the Frontier of AI Cinema

A basic physics axiom is that the book is always better than the movie, but what if the book is the movie? I initially wrote Voltz as an experiment to test my skills at writing a science fiction short story. As technology evolves and opens the door to new mediums, I thought it would be fitting to revisit Voltz to help me learn to use AI voice and video tools. I’m releasing a chapter every week and you can watch the first Chapter now on our YouTube channel here:

This is an experimental film layered on top of an experimental audiobook. I initially wanted to use a unique voice for each character, that sounded “human”, and expressed the content faithfully. I saw it as a choice between authenticity and polish, so I chose the former. In hindsight, it’s clear I could have had both if I conceded every character couldn’t have a unique voice. I think if I’d narrowed it down to 1 - 3 voices that could generate good audio consistently, I would’ve found the Aristotelian mean.

I used RunwayML’s Gen-3 text-to-video service to create the clips from which I cut the companion footage for the audiobook. I then used Adobe Illustrator for the text graphics and edited it all together in Adobe Premiere. It’s interesting to consider that at the time of production, summer of 2024, I was technically limited to ten second video clips. Once feature length long shots in the style of Russian Ark (dir. Alexander Sokurov, 2002), which is an entire film that consists of a single shot and no cuts, become something you can generate in minutes, it’s interesting to think what will be possible as it relates to new forms and styles of filmmaking.

I had fun reinventing this story and hope you have as much fun watching and listening. Click the “Subscribe” button below to get our email newsletter about my projects. Voltz Chapter 1 can also be viewed here on our Rumble channel:

https://rumble.com/v5dxoy4-voltz-experimental-audiobook-chapter-1-of-5.html

and I’ll be releasing a new chapter on a weekly basis.

Thank you.