Deep Fusion Films has announced plans to make 12 new documentaries, employing the company’s artificial intelligence technology in the production process.
In what it describes as a first-of-its-kind partnership, Deep Fusion Films is working with historical-picture archive agency Topfoto, which owns and licenses millions of images.
Deep Fusion will be granted access to a curated selection of Topfoto’s archive material to produce 12 premium one-hour documentaries.
As part of the production process, the company will use its proprietary AI technology, Weavr, to analyse archival material and assist producers in curating the material through visual analysis.
The production team will also use the software to help draft a script, create a guide voiceover track, auto-assign the archive material to the right moments in the script and then create a draft edit, which can be imported into Premiere for finessing.
The company said human involvement will still be necessary at every stage in the process to ensure accuracy and creative control.
Benjamin Field, co-founder and CEO of Deep Fusion Films, said: “This partnership with Topfoto opens up a treasure trove of stories—and stories that, in today’s over-saturated and under-funded content market, would remain in the vault without AI technology. It’s this efficiency that opens up the opportunity to create new programmes at scale for the new digital era, whilst maintaining authenticity and creativity.
“In essence, we are using non-traditional means to create traditional documentaries quickly and at a fraction of the cost. Our AI tools will expedite the long and costly research process that underpins premium documentary production, allowing us to tell niche stories, bring the explored past to life and to ‘create not scrape’ Topfoto’s unparalleled archive.”
