MUNICH MERKUR REPORT!! The first official report in the Merkur Magazine (Germany) about my science fiction short film ‘TRANSFORMATION’. Many thanks to the editors for this informative report. I have included the English translation for you. The date for the German premiere will be coming soon, I look forward to see you!
https://www.merkur.de/lokales/starnberg/starnberg-ort29487/mit-kuenstlicher-intelligenz-zum-regiedebuet-starnberg-93274599.html

Merkur: With artificial intelligence to first time director
„Film music composer Marcel Barsotti (‘Pope Joan’) celebrates his directorial debut. His AI science fiction short film ‘Transformation’ is a visually stunning and critical speculation about the future of the Earth. The Starnberg native has already been accepted to three festivals – including one in New York’s Times Square.

Only humans still live on earth. They have pulverised the entire food chain with genetic experiments. They can only feed on a yellow mass called ‘Nova’. And now they also have to deal with the ‘Drakzuls’, a highly intelligent species from a distant planet. This is the starting point for a short film that was made in Starnberg over the past six months. The 13-minute film is the debut work of film music composer Marcel Barsotti (‘Pope Joan’). At 62, he is celebrating his directorial debut and is aiming high. One thing is certain: ‘Transformation’, as the science fiction film is called, will be shown at festivals in France, Austria and the USA – and thus also in a theatre at New York’s Times Square.
Barsotti sits on a chair in his music studio between keyboards, speakers, guitars and a drum kits. Where he has been composing his film scores since 2018, a film editing programme is now open. A sequence from ‘Transformation’ appears on the TV above it: a sea of creatures with red hooded capes, the ruins of a city skyline in the panorama. The Swiss-born director cannot and does not want to reveal too much about the plot and the special storytelling ahead of the German premiere in October. But he does about his intentions: ‘I wanted to convey a contemporary message. I’m very concerned about three topics: the wars in the world, the shift to the right and evolution,’ says Barsotti, who emphasises: ’I didn’t want to make a classic alien film.’
Even if Barsotti makes use of tried and tested science fiction paraphernalia, spaceships and lots of technological hustle and bustle, there is nothing classic about this short film, which is visually stunning, full of symbolism and critically speculates about the future of the Earth. This is due to the way it was made: apart from the script and sound design, it was created entirely using artificial intelligence (AI). Actors or the film clapperboard, which leans decoratively in the studio, were obsolete. It is therefore immediately surprising that the whole thing was ‘an incredible amount of work’. ‘Some scenes took me 50 to 60 attempts, in total it must have been 3,500,’ says Barsotti, in this case screenwriter, director, producer, film musician and marketing expert all rolled into one.
Making an AI film involves a lot of text work and trial and error. You take the best version of paid software and feed it with the most detailed descriptions possible. The technical term for this is ‘prompts’. In the fantasy genre, feeding intelligence can sometimes get crazy. ‘A child with an elephant’s trunk,’ Barsotti says by way of example. The AI initially spits out images for selection that will later appear in videos. Selecting, discarding, revising, piecing together: this is how Barsotti describes the working mode. It is particularly difficult to make everything look like a single piece in the end.
From the Starnberg native’s point of view, science fiction is ‘the supreme discipline’ when it comes to AI art. ‘The look has to be right. There are so many fans of the genre in the world, otherwise they’ll condemn you.’ Barsotti is in the process of submitting the short film to 130 film festivals, including Cannes, the Berlinale and Oscars-qualifying competitions in the USA. If it’s possible, it’s possible. In addition to the five acceptances so far, cancellations are also trickling in, for example from ‘Manhattan Short’, a short film festival where around 2500 filmmakers want to be among the ten finalists. Barsotti hopes that he will be early with his professional work. The AI film competition is not yet that big. ‘Two years ago, the quality would have been abysmal,’ he says. The technology is developing so quickly that ‘Transformation’ could be outdated in just six months. Barsotti is confident: ‘But that doesn’t matter if the story is good.“

#merkur #magazin #transformation #transformationthemovie #marcelbarsotti #director #festivals #artificialintelligence #nominations #shortfilm #sciencefiction #article #germanproduction #movie #fantasy #review