Windy Days with shy kids

Toronto-based collective shy kids are a multitalented creative powerhouse, whose work as writers, directors, filmmakers, animators and musicians have planted them firmly at the cutting-edge of film right now. 

You've almost definitely seen ‘Airhead’, one of the first short films to be made with Sora, OpenAI's groundbreaking text-to-video model. But whether it's boundary-pushing brand collabs or so-bleeding-edge-it-feels-like-literal-magic deployments of new video gen tech, shy kids are setting the pace for what is possible with AI technology (and a healthy helping of human creativity). Here we chat with them about their work, tools, creative process and what AI can mean to humanity.   

It seems like you guys have been on quite a journey as creatives: band, production company, animators, writers, directors, musicians, storytellers. How has all of this come together to create the shy kids ethos?

that's the most difficult question to answer. it started singing “baby got back” at a talent show. then it was making a movie on a laptop. somewhere along the way we made an installation of Salvador Dali’s studio and now we are here. it doesn’t make very much sense.
it’s not something we think about too hard or it might break our brains.

A lot of AI outfits tend to have one particular focus - as the tools become more capable, do you think your brand of multi-hypenate creation is going to become the norm?

we never would call ourselves an AI outfit. rather people who have used AI. i think our looseness of what we are allows a little freedom to embrace things that are new. being a musician makes you a better filmmaker and vice versa. hopefully by speaking many artistic languages it allows us to translate new mediums more effortlessly. unsure if it will become the norm but it has been the norm for us.


Are there particular creative challenges that come with wearing so many hats?

windy days. your stacks of hats get blown over into the street. then people surround you attempting to pick them up saying “why are you wearing all these hats”, and you have to hurry and pick up your fedora as the traffic honks at you.

Obviously ‘Air Head’ became a bit of a phenomenon when it was released - talk me through how that came about and what went into making it?

oh man - I feel like we’ve said everything we can on that. instead I think what is really interesting was the sequel Deflated. it didn’t get as much heat but arguably it dealt with the backlash of that film in an interesting way.
it’s also in our opinion one of the best combinations of Live Action and A.I.

Now that the tools have advanced as much as they have, how would the process look different if you were creating ‘Air Head’ now?  

something that is extremely important with art is limitation. as tools get better we need to find new limitations.
the reason we made our character have a bright yellow balloon for a head is to distract you from inconsistency. as those things get better you must ask what is the new artistic limitation I am trying to overcome.
how do I make that limitation a virtue.

Looking at something like the continuity features in the Runway Gen-4 release, what do you see as the next big frontiers for AI video creation? 

i think the biggest thing is training data using only your own work. i don’t want to be “in the style of…” but rather see how the A.I. uses our body of work to help propel new ideas. 

What are your go-to tools at the moment? 


After Effects (the GOAT)

Spork (Multi-Hyphenate)
Blender

Sora
MidJourney

Runway Gen-4
Luma Dream Machine

ChatGPT

Obviously using AI can be controversial - what do you think people misunderstand about AI and the creative process?

i think if people hate A.I. they should be allowed to. i think right now we are in the process of labelling things as AI because we are documenting the moment. it’s a little bit of a cash in on the hype. that being said - people don’t really say “hey look at this film I made - where I edited it on a computer” or “isn’t it amazing this song I made using autotune”. i think once the hype fades (which it will) we need to decide if using AI helps us feel more human and how much humanity is needed to make something transcendent. And what is humanity anyways… 

most art is created with a technology. when things stop being labelled as I MADE WITH THE HELP OF AI - rather “look at this thing I made” - we’ll be able to decide how valid it is in the artistic process. right now as soon as you say I used AI there is a subsection of people who will immediately hate it. which is their right to do. but what if they didn’t know how it was made…then would they have the same opinions? 


Where are the shy kids heading from here?

features.

shy kids is due to release ‘shylo’ an animated musical feature and ‘everybody is doing drugs’ a feature documentary about the people, places, and substances that make up the new psychedelic renaissance. Here at EI we can’t wait to jump into the shy kids world once again. 

Here at Enamoured Iris, we're committed to spotlighting creative pioneers just like shy kids. We believe that by embracing the unconventional and crossing boundaries, we can create impactful work that kicks butt.