More than perfect craftsmanship, the relentless frequency of at-bats ultimately dominates the market.
Henry Kim ·
My first job was as a commercial video producer. It was a continuous process of planning, persuading, storyboarding, and persuading again. After countless meetings with staff, we filmed, and I spent nights in the editing room adding computer graphics. The series of processes, from holding screenings to incorporating numerous revision requests, felt like a blood-curdling gamble every time. In the advertising industry, just like in baseball, there's a kind of batting average. Planners with a good batting average are given higher production budgets, followed by significant expectations for success. I, too, was a planner with a fairly good batting average, but every time I started a project, I had to stand in the midst of deep uncertainty and endless tension, unable to predict the future.
I found myself reminiscing about these past days after encountering ByteDance's recently released SeaDance 2.0 model. Video generation AI has been steadily advancing for several years, but this time, it's completely different. This technology, which combines text, images, and audio simultaneously and even achieves perfect beat synchronization, has reached a point where it matches human output by over 95 percent. A 10-minute short film made for just $80 is good enough to be featured on Netflix right now. Frankly, 90 percent of those working in the film and advertising production industries this year might need to find a new breakthrough.
Some will still champion human craftsmanship and perfection as their weapon. But let's recall the concept of batting average I mentioned earlier. There's a batter who steps up to the plate only once a month, and another who swings the bat once every minute. The total number of hits cannot even be compared. The market ultimately wants frequent and numerous hits. The era of the one-person complete production team, handling everything from storyboarding to filming, post-production, and audio, has begun. Overwhelming frequency maximizes infinite possibilities and cost efficiency. No matter how excellent the craftsmanship, the market will ultimately have no choice but to opt for an AI-hybrid production method in the face of cost and speed efficiency.
Of course, my social media feed is also flooded with countless controversies. Major Hollywood studios are issuing strong legal warnings citing portrait rights and copyright infringement. On the other hand, there's a surge of hope that anyone can create director-level videos. I don't wish to delve deeply into this debate of right and wrong. As history proves, there has never been a world that merely rejected an overwhelmingly useful and disruptive technology once it was invented.
There might be a temporary pause due to initial resistance and confusion. But there's only one crucial fact: the experimental phase of video generation technology is now over. The signal has been fired, marking the beginning of an era where this technology will be deployed in real marketing campaigns as early as tomorrow. Tonight, I wish I could take the computer from my desk, go back 20 years, and tell my past self about this incredible world that is about to unfold.