I got a little more productive in my writing this week. I completed a writing exercise, experimented with ChatGPT, and started a new short script.

 Writing Exercise

At the script writers’ group this week we did a writing exercise based on the title “The Wisdom of the Annoyed Accountant.” I recorded it and posted it on SoundCloud and my website. It struck me that the advice the accountant gives is rather problematic.

 https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-wisdom-of-the-annoyed-accountant

https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The_Wisdom_of_the_Annoyed_Accountant.mp3

ChatGPT Test

At the script writers’ group, we talked about ChatGPT and if it could help us write. We decided to test it by giving it the same title we used for our writing exercise. We ran the test several times using the same prompt. Each test gave a different story. It always tried to have a happy ending. On one test we explicitly asked it to make it a crime story, but it still managed to have a positive ending. The stories seemed bland to me.

I’m sure that you can get better results through improved prompts. Although I wonder if there is some point where you end up spending more time getting GPT to do the work than it takes to just do it yourself.

Random Title Improvements

Last week I created another variant of my random title generator which has two characters in the title. The feedback I had on it was that too many of the titles don’t make sense. That can be a problem with the other variants as well. I think that I may need to review the word lists and cull them a bit.

Old Filmmakers Short Script Challenge

I joined a Shut up and write group this week. I worked on a story for the Old Filmmakers short script challenge. The goal of the challenger is to create a script that runs 3 to 5 minutes and has only two characters and one location. The goal is to have a script that is easy to make into a short film.

I did an outline for one idea, but I felt it didn’t really work. People have been telling to write something about my late wife. I’ve found that difficult to do but decided to try again.

The story is a fictionalized version of a conversation I had with her about what she wanted done after she died. It was quite emotional, both at the time and when I wrote it. I felt that it was a good topic for a story because end of life planning is something that many people struggle with.

I didn’t finish it before time ran out. I think I have a good start on it but haven’t gone back to it yet. While I felt it was important for me to write it, I wonder if it is something I really want to share with other people.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

ChatGPT Test

There has been a lot of discussion of how Artificial Intelligence systems, like ChatGPT, will change the world. After prompting from several people, I decided to try ChatGPT.

What I wanted to test was whether an AI system, like ChapGPT, could be a useful tool in my writing and movie making. I’m looking at ChatGPT as something that might help me write. I am not looking at it as something that would create stories I want to read.

I’ve been doing a series of writing exercises based on a random title prompt. My plan was to give ChatGPT one of the prompts I had used recently. I chose “The Old House and the Desperate Baroness.” I’d posted a new recording of it last week: https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-old-house-and-the-desperate-baroness-1

I gave ChatGPT the prompt:

Write a 500-word story with the title "The Old House and the Desperate Baroness.”

It took about a minute to produce the short story, which ended up being 561 words long. I turned it into a recording using a computer-generated voice. I thought that would appropriate. "The Old House and the Desperate Baroness” by ChatGPT

I was impressed that the story was coherent and an easy read. It wasn’t the kind of story that I would have written. I like my story better. My story had a bit of a sad end for the baroness, while ChatGPT gave her a happy ending. I wanted a story with some dialogue, but this story had none.

I decided to ask ChatGPT to write a script, so I gave it the prompt:

Write a 5-page film script with the title "The Old House and the Desperate Baroness.”

It refused. This was its response:

I'm sorry, I am not able to write a 5-page film script at this time. My capabilities are better suited for providing concise and accurate information or answering questions. If you need assistance in creating a script, I recommend consulting a professional screenwriter or utilizing script-writing software.

I think there is more to learn about how to use ChatGPT. I suspect that the creativity in the stories it writes must come from the prompt you give it.

I would like to try giving it an outline for a story. I have several projects where I am stuck at the outline stage and need to do some more research before I can write the stories. I wonder if ChatGPT can do that for me. I would expect that all I would get would be a first draft that I would need to rewrite.

More generally, I think that the limitation of artificial intelligence systems is that unlike people, they don’t want anything. They can only react to a prompt or command.

I talked about Artificial Intelligence in some previous blog posts.

·         http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/joi-and-virtual-john/

·         https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/setting-priorities-for-2020/

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Old People Issues and Voice Changer Test

I rerecorded my writing exercise “The Old House and the Desperate Baroness” this week.

In the older filmmaker’s club, we discussed ideas for films about issues of aging. I had not been able to come up with any ideas. Then it occurred to me that I might be able to rework my writing exercise “The Old House and the Desperate Baroness” to focus more on elder issues.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve experimented with a program called Voice.ai, which transforms your voice into the voice of a celebrity. I thought I could use it to alter my voice to differentiate characters in the recordings of my writing exercises. Since I wanted to share the recording of “The Old House and the Desperate Baroness”, I thought it would make sense to test voice.ai to redo the voices.

My initial impression is that the system isn’t really intended to be used in the way I wanted to use it. It does allow you to modify a recording, but there is a fifteen second time limit. It was fairly easy to cut up my recordings into shorter files and do the conversion.

To start, I used my earlier recording. However, I noticed some glitches in the output voice. I decided that those were because when I didn’t articulate a word very well, the ai would make it worse. I need to articulate better when I record my voice to avoid the problem.

I rerecorded all the character dialogue and converted the voices. I don’t think the changed voices sound all that much like the real people they are supposed to sound like. For my purposes, I see that as a plus. There were a few lines that sounded a bit robotic to me, but that was more because of the way I read the line, than a problem with the ai.

I cut the new dialogue into the old recording and posted it on soundcloud.

·        https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-old-house-and-the-desperate-baroness-1

I used voices for two well know people. See if you can identify them.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog