tech Save Point "Reel" closed beta access

[Nate North]

I'm opening up the simplest and most currently stable section of the save point pipeline to closed beta testing. I can't tell you how many people I will let in because I don't know, that's something I'll just have to feel out.

(This video you saw in my last post was Directed cut edited scored and rendered in around 100 seconds.
The footage for it was scanned in advance which is a much longer process, probably around two hours. with my currently available equipment I can prepare one footage clip in about 20 seconds. This video had about 220 shots.)

Here's how it works. As time allows I will build a functional web portal for direct access by testers, but for now it's extremely primitive. To interact with the closed beta you message me with a project request, And provide a Google drive folder filled with your footage and music track(s).

The section of the pipeline that is completely stable Is capable of producing non-narrative short films of any type. It's ideal for showreels, Project compilations, Basic music videos, Highlight reels, Abstract art, And anything without a plot or conversation on screen. The technologies To create any type of video are currently under development and working at some level or another, but this most basic one is the one that I'm willing to allow public testing of at this point.

This service is free to a limited number of applicants during the testing period.

Here's what it does. You hand me a folder of loose footage and a music track, And I'll send you back a finished professionally cut video made from your material

Here's what's special about it. The engine can autonomously create your video within minutes and for many testers, A finished video would be Available within days or even hours. I'm not going to go out of my way to expedite free jobs but if I happen to be working on them when you send yours in it might come back an hour later. Realistically I'd estimate several days depending on many factors like how many footage clips, How many testers, And of course any financial contributions can be used to directly speed processing of footage by outsourcing scanning duties to remote server farms.

So if you love filming things or have tons of great archive footage, Maybe you produce a lot of cool AI visuals but don't have editing experience, This is your chance to just have a video made for you free of charge.

Every video is different, But many videos that I have made would have taken at minimum days of editing to produce the same result I'm now getting in two or three minutes.

Here is a small assortment of other videos that have been produced with this section of the pipeline for demonstration purposes.

This part of the pipeline, Known as "The Editor", Is Essentially ready for use. The three other main compositional sections will gradually become ready for use at a later time.

1. The Editor

(See examples above)

2. The Documentarian

3. The Adventurer

4. The Director

 

[Nate North]

So the site is finished and working, about 90 hours of coding work on this website, so far. There's quite a bit I want to add to even this simple Save Point spin off product, but first I need to beta test for a few weeks and work out all the kinks in the core function. It produces good videos right now as illustrated above, but I need to debug and add a few interface things, as well as make an introduction video and simple guide. I also just want to add some production values to the website while keeping it simple and streamlined.

This will be free to use, until I get done beta testing or get overrun with the costs. It's basically charging my credit card every time someone creates a video on this, but it's minor per job. I'll run it for a while as a loss leader so people can try out the system. I built it to automatically rent out server farms per job. Rental is per second, so I've temporarily limited uploads to 300mb. So basically don't throw 500 clips in there until it goes to paid service. This is just a live demo. It will make a five minute music video or a 90 minute movie right now as the site exists but I've just disabled that so random people around the world don't charge 5 or 10 bucks each to my credit card, Obviously renting corporate server farms cost me a lot more than running it on my own hardware.

After it leaves beta, I'll look at options like a subscription service, or pay as you go options. I'm thinking maybe about 3 bucks a video, maybe a bit more, I'll have to do some testing to see how bad the charges on my end get with beta test usages. If people keep uploading 400 1080p clips and turning on all the options every time, it could cost me a few dollars to fill each request. Remember the pipeline has to watch all your video clips, keep a database of everything in every clip, think about how to organize them, listen to your song, time every beat, conform all your video, time it to the music, do several operations on the file to add polish, and more. It could be cheaper, I'll just have to finish optimizing and then road test.

I'll need to fund the servers monday before I can give out the web address anywhere, but this coming week I'll publish a link here, and anyone who wishes to can try it out. It would be helpful if a few people could run jobs once it's up, so I can get an idea of what the user end experience is like.

This is a new technology, and understanding what it is, and what to expect is key to having a good experience.

WHAT IT'S GOOD FOR

You went out shooting at the Fourth of July, and got 50 decent shots of fireworks and crowds, (not one 2 hour shot). You lasso all the files in the folder, drag and drop them into the big video window, toss a song you want to use into the audio window beside it, then pick some settings, or don't, and hit the "Assemble Video" button, which turns into the Download Video button seen in the screenshot once the job is finished. 3-10 minutes later, depending on the size and format of your video and audio, you can click on the download video link and it just drops a finished fully edited video into your downloads folder.

The SP engine AI code will attempt to group shots together by similarity or theme, as long as you select "Intelligence" on. (it's the default). So let's say instead you went to a mall and filmed 100 shots. Some portraits, shots of a store interior, shots of the mall interior, outdoor shots in the parking lot, etc, it will group them logically.

It's great for Reels, montages, and showing off photography or AI generations.

Turn beatmapping on (also a default) and the video will be edited to match the music you added.


WHAT IT DOESN'T DO

You film a dialogue scene and toss it into the website hoping it will cut just to the speaking parts and keep them in order.

You want a sports highlight reel and you're hoping it knows what the pivotal moments in the game are.

You get an audiobook of Brief History of Time and drop it into the audio box hoping that the page will illustrate and animate it.

You drop in the last episode of The Sopranos, hoping the page will make the next episode continuing where the last one left off.


Those are all things that I'm programming other parts of the engine to do, and a lot of things way beyond any of that, but this public web version is essentially an intelligent montage creator, that uses advanced AI to create interesting videos fast and easy. If you've actually spent 10 hours making one of these videos, seeing one appear completely finished and ready to upload in a few minutes is like magic.

Oh, also, since this last week's announcement by Runway, I'll be demoing "The Adventurer" section of the pipeline soon. I was keeping it secret because I didn't want people to steal the idea, but they just announced the exact same product (though much weaker and easier tech than the way I'm doing it) so I guess I should probably show people the system I have running right now. It's way stronger tech, but I don't think anyone has a strong enough computer to run it, Until I make some major renovations and optimizations.

Anyway I'll have to make a new post To launch this because My experience is that people scanning threads miss any link that isn't in the top post and I can't edit that anymore because this thread is a week old.

I need to rewrite this whole thing anyway, I tried to be concise but it's too long winded for a product announcement and by the time you add in the three pages of scroll it's useless anyway look for a new post later today showing you actual access.

Anyway I ironed down an issue with my bank and I've got it up and ready to use now so after I finish this post I'll make another official post that's much more professional and to the point and that can be the point of entry for people interested in participating in the beta test.