The 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN, Festival Director SHIN Chul), which held an official press conference on the 12th to unveil this year's program, has unveiled its official Identity Film (ID Film), which was produced using generative AI technology for creating video and sound. A vertical screen version of the film, optimized for smartphone viewing, was also released at the same time.

 

¡ã Various screenshots of the ID Film of the 28th BIFAN
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The 28th BIFAN released an ID film with a message about the future of BIFAN in the AI video revolution, in line with the launch of the new 'BIFAN+ AI' project this year. It is worth noting that AI technology was used for video and sound in the production of the ID film. Hansl von KWON, who was the first Korean to win the main prize and the audience award at the first Dubai International AI Film Festival, directed the film. Under the direction of director Hansl von KWON, the AI video production company "Studio Free Willusion", consisting of AI artists such as producer Dohyung KU and AI Lab / R&D director Hanwool SUL, was involved in the production, and poster designer PARK Si-young participated in the planning.

The central concept of this year's ID film is the connection between the creative ‘Latent Space’, in which AI materializes images or videos, and the H-shape that appears on the official poster. The ‘latent space’ refers to the subconscious mind where inspirations materialize when people create new ideas and thoughts, just as generative AI refers to the space that forms a kind of ‘picture’ when it materializes an image or video.

The H-shaped object, ubiquitous from ancient wonders to everyday life today, is a homage to the iconic ‘monolith’ in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The ‘monolith’ is a symbol that means that it has always existed, whether at decisive moments in human evolution, or at the crossroads of destruction. The combination of the "latent space" of the H-shaped object and the "monolith" expresses the modern human looking at artificial intelligence. Using sequences in which people are confronted with artificial intelligence, the film reflects on how we should approach AI. The director used an LLM (AI language model) similar to GPT and set up the question "AI, who are you?" as the central key phrase and derived the response message "I am just your mirror" through discussion. In addition to the technical aspects, such as visuals and sound, the use of AI to plan the central message of the film is impressive..

Director Hansl von KWON stated: “By using AI to generate this ID film, we wanted to showcase the result of the convergence of technology and creativity. We wanted to examine the struggle of AI in the latent space as it mimics the world of ‘us humans’ with the data of ‘us humans’. I think the identity of cinema is something that has been constantly changing its definition as technology evolves and the times change. You can only be competitive if you embrace the new, and I hope that BIFAN will become the festival with the good intention to promote this.”

This ID film corresponds with BIFAN's key theme 'BIFAN+ AI' this year, which is rebranding by newly expanding its scope. BIFAN presents 'BIFAN+ AI' in line with the era of AI, which has become a major topic in the global content industry. BIFAN has launched Korea's first international AI film competition and will host the ‘BIFAN+ AI International Conference', an international conference, providing the latest information on AI film production and insights from pioneers around the world. In addition, the festival will organize the ‘Al Filmmaking Workshop’, a hackathon-style workshop that provides an opportunity to see the reality and possibilities of AI and challenge existing limitations.

The 28th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival will be held from July 4th to 14th in Bucheon City. The festival BIFAN will present a wide range of works to the audience, including AI films, which will provide a bird's eye view of global trends.

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