The Next Generation Pixar: How AI will Merge Film & Games | Andreessen Horowitz

There are two major waves happening today that could accelerate the creation of a new generational storytelling company:

1. Consumer shift toward interactive media (over linear/passive media, i.e. TV/film)


2. Technology advancement driven by generative AI

An hour of gaming at 100% attention > an hour of passively watching TV. Many games are also social, with multiplayer mechanics built into the core design. The most memorable stories are the ones we create and share with those who are close to us.

And while generative video quality can be inconsistent today, the popularity of vertical shorts such as ReelShort and DramaBox has already proven that there is audience demand for lower production value, episodic short TV. With thousands of bite-sized mini series such as “Forbidden Desires: Alpha’s Love,” ReelShort has driven over 30M downloads and... See more

Specifically, we believe the Pixar of the next century won’t emerge through traditional film or animation, but rather through interactive video . This new storytelling format will blur the line between video games and television/film – fusing deep storytelling with viewer agency and “play,” opening up a vast new market.

For Bandersnatch , the crew filmed 250 video segments comprising over 5 hours of footage to account for the film’s 5 endings. Budget and production times were reportedly double that of a standard Black Mirror episode, with the showrunners sharing that the project complexity was equivalent to making “4 episodes at the same time.”

AI creator Abel Art reported a ratio of ~500 videos for 1 minute of coherent video. Image consistency also usually starts to fail after a minute or two of continuous video and requires manual editing – which is why most generations are capped at ~1 minute today.