20th Century Fox Uses Machine Learning to Predict Movie Audience Appeal

cageymaru

cageymaru

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20th Century Fox has teamed up with Google Cloud to leverage the power of the Cloud Machine Learning Engine and the TensorFlow deep learning framework to analyze film attributes as data. This allows 20th Century Fox to predict audience preferences in movies. Merlin Video used datasets available from YouTube 8M to break down film into major categories such as male lead. Merlin Video then used labels such as facial_hair, beard, screenshot, chin, human, film and more to analyze films second by second to determine what male audiences prefer in a movie trailer. They found certain cues such as long shots of an object versus intermittent short shorts of the same object could predict customer behavior. This tool was created in a matter of days instead of years and will be used to prototype media plans for marketing campaigns. The research paper can be found here.

With the right infrastructure in place, the team began its analysis on YouTube 8M, a publicly available dataset of YouTube videos. This dataset includes a pre-trained model from Google that is able to analyze specific video features like color, illumination, many types of faces, thousands of objects, and several landscapes. As seen in the figure above, the first step in Merlin's architecture is to parse out these predefined characteristics, as a precursor to determining which elements of the trailer are most predictive of moviegoers' preferences.
 
If they need AI to determine what is a good movie, I think Hollywood has bigger problems to deal with. Their movies are so bad they forgot what a good movie is and now ask an artificial intelligence to point it out. Also they need to know what attributes men want to see in a movie? Boobs you idiots.
 
What an age we live in! We can be in the focus group and the target group - at the same time.

Superimposition in marketing is super annoying.
 
fwiler1 said:
I could of saved them a lot of time. The answer is boobs.
No cloud machine learning or AI needed.
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No its T&A, preferably nice and perky with gratuitous shots interspersed amongst the dialog. Or you could just cut right to the chase and watch a porn "movie" on mute....

I would laugh so hard if this AI started recommending they make nothing but porn.
 
Ditch all the unnecessary PC stuff and just make good movies then they won't need a new fancy AI program. If the story needs some gay guys.. fine. Adding some just so they can score a few PC points... well, not so fine. They've become so obvious and desperate in their efforts to push "diversity", that good movie plots have gone the way of the dinosaur.
 
Does it take in to account for what a bitter bunch of crybabies on the internet can do to a movie?
Does it think "BUT THIS TIME HE'S A GIRL" is a new idea?
Does it know that the anti-SJW crowd spend all of their waking hours outraged about everything?
Does it know that no matter what kind of "diverse" lead you have it's simply never going to be diverse enough for everyone?
Does it understand that every single thing you do makes somebody angry and on the internet anger spreads like a cancer?

I don't think there's an AI cynical enough to predict response to any kind of media. It would have to be some kind of Artificial-Semi-Sapience.
 
I would use the power of this AI to create a great movie that would piss off as many demographics possible.
 
cageymaru said:
This allows 20th Century Fox to predict audience preferences in movies.
With the right infrastructure in place, the team began its analysis on YouTube 8M, a publicly available dataset of YouTube videos. This dataset includes a pre-trained model from Google that is able to analyze specific video features like color, illumination, many types of faces, thousands of objects, and several landscapes.
Click to expand...

Audiences prefer movies with Robert Downy Jr. in them. The next strongest indicator of movie success is whether any of the characters are, were, or will be an Avenger.
Isn't that obvious from the box office numbers?

That said, there's a lot of potential in cross-over/mashups. Take two blockbusters and mash them together.
So, imaginine this: a mixed live-action/animated R-rated movie where Josh Brolin's Cable (from Deadpool), Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (from Wolverine), and Robert Downy Jr.'S Iron man (from Iron Man) team up with Elsa (from Frozen) to fight Josh Brolin's Thanos.
The box office should be off the chart, plus, two Josh Brolin!! And it's all Disney!

Edit: And they can fight him on Pandora (from Avatar). Also Disney.
And there's probably even better all-Disney mashup possible. "Wreck-it Ralf wrecks A Wrinkle in Time" maybe.
 
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NemesisX said:
This is ... sad ... to say the least. Hollywood tends to have no idea what people want. You can tell by simply looking at Rotten Tomatoes scores.
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And the Oscars. My wife and I, when deciding whether to buy a movie, generally hold it winning or being nominated for an Academy Award against it. "Oh, it won the Best Movie Oscar. We probably wont like it."
Except the technical awards of course.
 
So it doesn't take into account how good the writing is? If so, that's no surprise. Good writing is a rarity in movies these days.
 
is anyone impressed with machine learning? are there examples of where it's actually useful, and not just what appears to be robots stroking each other off?
 
Youn said:
is anyone impressed with machine learning? are there examples of where it's actually useful, and not just what appears to be robots stroking each other off?
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IBM has some business solutions that are used for inventory and personnel management I have heard that Boeing and Lockheed use it for testing and simulation for thinking of problems they forgot to account for on system and aerospace design.
 
Kogan said:
So it doesn't take into account how good the writing is? If so, that's no surprise. Good writing is a rarity in movies these days.
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Yeah even the best actor can’t fix a fundamentally bad movie. But a great editing team can...
 
DukenukemX said:
If they need AI to determine what is a good movie, I think Hollywood has bigger problems to deal with. Their movies are so bad they forgot what a good movie is and now ask an artificial intelligence to point it out. Also they need to know what attributes men want to see in a movie? Boobs you idiots.
Click to expand...

They are a business.. When they make money on shit movies... like marvel movies and stuff.. They see them as... GOOD MOVIES....

vote with your wallet..
 
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I can see how this will pan out.

Execs: "The machine learning says that all of our new movie ideas are bad!"

Also Execs: "No, they're not bad, it's the machine learning that's wrong!"
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
So AI is being used to find out what camera tricks we prefer, in order to get us to watch movies, rather than making films with better stories and ideas.
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They have been doing that for a few years now by filming everything through a blue filter.
 
How to ruin the creativity that is Hollywood... Appeal to the lowest common denominators...

And they wonder why I don't buy movie tickets any more. It's all fucking vomit only made to make money, and nothing else.

Fuck you Hollywood.
 
south-park-s08e02c11-computerized-automatron-4x3.jpg?width=100%&height=100%&quality=0.jpg
 
Twisted Kidney said:
I can top that: Life of Brian
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Well, that's Britain and Monty Python. No matter how PC they get, being a bit edgy in the UK seems to stay in style. Besides, trashing Christians seems to be OK with Hollywood and most critics. I think you could get your funding to make that movie. :)

None of them have the guts to actually make a movie like that with Islam as the central theme though.
 
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A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: [Cartman] Movie idea #2,305: Adam Sandler is trapped on a deserted island and falls in love with a coconut.

Producer: Great. Great, A.W.E.S.O.M.-O. Uh, guys, take a break. I need a minute alone with A.W.E.S.O.M.-O.

Executive: Okay.

Producer: You are an incredible robot, A.W.E.S.O.M.-O. I was just wondering, are you by chance a *pleasure* model?

A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: What?

Producer: Have you been programmed to satisfy urges of humans?

A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: A.W.E.S.O.M.-O does not understand.

Producer: Let me show you what I mean.

Butters: [on the phone] Yeah, we're having a great time, Aunt Nellie. The movie studio guys are real nice.

A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: Lame!

[bursts out of the board room, followed by a pants-less Producer]

A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: Not cool! Totally lame!
 
Boobs, guns, and awesome have long been the gold standard for a quality trailer. I don't need a supercomputer to tell me this.
 
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Old_Way said:
Well, that's Britain and Monty Python. No matter how PC they get, being a bit edgy in the UK seems to stay in style. Besides, trashing Christians seems to be OK with Hollywood and most critics. I think you could get your funding to make that movie. :)

None of them have the guts to actually make a movie like that with Islam as the central theme though.
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Monty Python couldn't get that movie made back when it was made. George Harrison funded it out of nowhere because he "wanted to see the film". Studios wouldn't touch such blasphemy with a ten foot pole.

Trashing Christianity is a career ending move in the west. Even exposing child abuse by the Catholic Church puts you into hiding.

Insulting Islam will get you shot in the chest if the Muslims you're dealing with are conservatives.

Again, most Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Hindus don't give a shit what people do about their faith. They just refuse to participate, we just focus on the crazy ass hole because they're so noisy. Especially in countries where the rule of law is absent and mob rule in what's left in the void.

Yes: Some Buddhists butcher people for having the wrong sort of faith. I'm pretty sure that's bad Karma.
 
Sadly, no video of this gem

latest?cb=20090723095234.jpg


Network President: "Greetings, gentlemen. You already know my execubots. Executive Alpha, programmed to like things it has seen before."
Executive Alpha: "Hey, hey, hey!"
Network President: "Executive Beta, programmed to roll dice to determine the fall schedule."
Executive Beta: *rolls dice* "More reality shows!"
Network President: "And Executive Gamma, programmed to underestimate middle America."
Executive Gamma: "It's funny, but is it going to get them off their tractors?"
 
Youn said:
is anyone impressed with machine learning? are there examples of where it's actually useful, and not just what appears to be robots stroking each other off?
Click to expand...

Self driving cars, verbal and written translation, medical diagnosis, accounting and legal documentation.....there are lots. What machine learning does is give you answers to something that is already there but may not be obvious...and sometimes it is obvious =P. But...the question yo want answered is biased upon the data you give it (e.g. the training).

For example...one news agency was looking for ways find "good resumes" for increasing their chances that a new employee would be successful. Well, they fed in all the resumes of the people that were already successful as the training data. Guess what it said was a "good candidate"...white guys. Well duh. It doesn't mean white guys are better news people....not at all....it just means there were "more successful" based upon certain criteria (which was probably $/revenue).
 
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NemesisX said:
This is ... sad ... to say the least. Hollywood tends to have no idea what people want. You can tell by simply looking at Rotten Tomatoes scores. The differences in the ratings and reviews between critics and regular people are often so polarizing it's crystal clear that Hollywood has no idea what people want to see. AI isn't going to help them when their heads are so far up their nether regions. Nobody cares about Hollywood's liberal agenda. They often place "diversity" far ahead of a viable script/story to appease the obnoxious vocal minority who aren't even happy with anything even when they get their way. People go to the movies to be entertained ... not to have someone's agenda shoved down their throats. The movies are a time to briefly escape all the nonsense going on. And there is no shortage of amazing stories ... it's just most of the time Hollywood takes an amazing story, butchers the hell out of it, throws in "diverse" actors for the sake of diversity even if it means completely changing a character, and so much other nonsense. Hollywood has forgotten what it means to entertain. It's mostly politics now when it shouldn't be. Fox is also notorious for cancelling amazing TV shows with high ratings for no apparent logical reason whatsoever ... over and over again. It's tiresome.

Having said all that, if AI can somehow result in less shitty movies, I'm all for it. But I don't have much hope.
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I think the movie industry is like the video game industry: They're selling to the reviewers, not to the customers. Look at how bonuses are tied to Metacritic scores instead of how many units that were actually sold.
 
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