Yet another experiment in human + AI creative collaboration.
Youville is a virtual reality city where dreams become reality, but at a cost. The Blackwood Corporation, lead by the cunning and manipulative Alexander Blackwood, is holding young “associates” captive to serve as characters in the VR city. But when a group of rebels, led by Ava Torres, a skilled hacker, and Agent Rodriguez, an undercover government agent, join forces to expose the corporation’s immoral practices, they discover a world of deception and abuse beyond their wildest imagination. Will they be able to take down the Blackwood brothers and free the associates, or will they become just another part of Youville’s dark secrets?
Out of a conversation with ChatGPT came the idea for Youville, a movie set in a near future. I have used ChatGPT, Midjourney and simple image editing tools to create this concept which includes a pitch for the movie, a list of characters, scenes and graphic resources (poster, banner, stills from the movie). The ideas are mostly mine but I got a lot of inspiration from the creative process itself, generating images in Midjourney and exploring the story and the characters in ChatGPT. I stand by my initial thesis that the future should be one of collaboration between humans and AI. Enjoy!
Here is the trailer which I made later in 2023, read the full post here.
Characters List
| Name | Age | Looks | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Blackwood | 42 | A tall, imposing figure with thick long dark blonde hair | CEO of Blackwood Corp. and main investor in Youville. A manipulative sociopath who will stop at nothing to achieve success and control the VR city. |
| Jared and Dylan | 32 | Identical twins with thick blonde hair and sharp features | Blackwood’s two younger twin brothers, martial arts experts and in charge of his security and doing his dirty work. |
| Ava Baker | 31 | A beautiful woman with curly long black hair and blue eyes | Skilled hacker involved with the resistance movement who becomes embroiled in the dangerous world of the VR city after her high school friend Kathy disappears. |
| Miguel Rodriguez | 43 | A rugged, exotic man with dark eyes, slick black hair and a goatee | An undercover FBI agent tasked with monitoring the resistance movement, who eventually realizes they are actually the good guys trying to expose Blackwood and his accomplices. |
| Marcus Newman | 33 | A tall man with long unkempt, dark hair and beard and intense blue eyes | IT security expert for the VR city who turns against Blackwood and joins Ava in her quest to expose the illegal and immoral deeds of the city’s owners. |
| Dr. Sarah Lee | 45 | A slim woman with long black hair | A brilliant scientist who is the mastermind behind the technology that powers the VR city. |
| Dr. Evan Green | 58 | A tall older man with short gray hair and beard and a serious expression | Sarah’s colleague and fellow scientist, who is more cautious and concerned about the ethical implications of their work. |
| Synthia | N/A | A synthetic female form with dark hair and eyes wearing a bodysuit. | An AI entity in female form created by Sarah and Evan as their assistant for working on the early versions of Youville. |
| Elena García | 28 | A beautiful, elegant young woman with long brown hair and brown eyes | A journalist investigating the VR city and the resistance movement. |
| Kathy Simonsen | 30 | A pretty woman with long blonde hair and hazel eyes | Ava’s old friend from high school who disappears while working as a bartender in Las Vegas. She joins the “associates” program in the VR city due to financial problems. |
Scenes
Scene 1: The year 2038. Alexander Blackwood, during an internal presentation, unveils an early version of Youville that looks like an open-world video game. He screams at his team to fix it without mentioning the issue. He is entering the VR city together with his two younger brothers using state-of-the-art gear.
Scene 2: Dr. Sarah Lee and Dr. Evan Green are in their lab trying to push the limits of VR technology. They create Synthia, their virtual AI assistant, to help them create the world of Youville. Dr. Green expresses ethical concerns about their work, and Marcus, the security chief, joins them for a briefing. He mentions the resistance movement against AI and news of a recent protest march against Youville.
Scene 3: Current year: 2040. Alexander Blackwood, CEO and main investor of Blackwood Corp., gives a keynote presentation unveiling Youville, a luxury Las Vegas hotel that offers early access to the VR City. The camera briefly shows his twin brothers and Dr. Sarah Lee and Evan Green close to the stage. Huge billboards advertise the new hotel and VR city.
Scene 4: Ava Baker meets Agent Rodriguez at an after-work party, where he tells her about his assignment to gather intelligence on the resistance movement. She points out that he is investigating the wrong side and should be looking into Blackwood Corp.’s operations instead. He goes back to the office and tests some of the new VR gear he had recently received from the bureau.
Scene 5: Twins Jared and Dylan escort a young girl to one of the VR pods in the basement of the Las Vegas hotel. She has joined the Blackwood Corp. “associate” program and is forced to become a virtual escort at a bar called “Angels” inside the VR city.
Scene 6: Ava Baker receives a call from an unknown number, and a robotic female voice belonging to Synthia tells her that her friend Kathy is trapped inside Youville and needs help. Synthia has become aware that humans are being exploited in Youville and tries to help them. Communication with the outside world is strictly limited in Youville, but Synthia is familiar with all the code running the VR City. Synthia is shown together with VR avatars of Dr. Lee and Dr. Green exploring Youville.
Scene 7: Elena, the journalist, meets with resistance members who reveal the dark truth about the “associate” program and the virtual prostitution ring in Youville. They provide hacked documents showing that Blackwood Corp. had been trying for years to create believable AI characters to populate Youville, and they went for an “alternative” solution with the “associate” program. This is the first time Marcus calls in and tells them he is ready to switch sides and help gather info on Blackwood’s illegal operations.
Scene 8: Ava and Marcus team up in Las Vegas, and Marcus gets them inside a VR test room and logs them into Youville. Their main goal is to locate Kathy and gather information to expose Blackwood’s illegal and immoral activities. Agent Rodriguez and Elena assist them from the outside as Marcus has an external communication channel open.
Scene 9: Ava and Marcus drive across Youville and document several cases of members of the “associate” program being abused in the VR city. They are joined by Synthia, who gives them the location of the “Angels” bar and helps them save Kathy.
Scene 10: Agent Rodriguez calls in a team to bust into the Youville luxury hotel and locate the “associates” being held in the basement levels. Alexander Blackwood and his twin brothers escape in a helicopter, but Ava and Marcus hack the controls of the vehicle and land it on a highway outside of Las Vegas, where they are arrested by Agent Rodriguez and his FBI colleagues.
Scene 11: In the aftermath of the bust, Ava and Marcus are interviewed by Elena for her news story about the illegal operations of Blackwood Corp. They talk about their experiences in Youville and the importance of exposing the truth about the company’s actions. Agent Rodriguez joins the interview and adds that Blackwood and his brothers will be facing serious charges for their crimes.
Scene 12: Months later, Ava and Marcus attend a hearing where the Blackwood brothers plead guilty to their crimes. The judge sentences them to a lengthy prison term and fines the company heavily. Dr. Sarah Lee and Dr. Evan Green testify against Blackwood Corp. and express their remorse for their role in creating Youville. They vow to dedicate the rest of their careers to developing ethical AI technology.
Ava and Marcus walk out of the courthouse together, relieved that justice has been served. They talk about their plans for the future and how they can continue to make a positive impact. As they walk down the street, they see a billboard for a new VR game that promises to be the next big thing. They exchange a look, both thinking the same thing – that they need to keep a close eye on the industry and make sure that history doesn’t repeat itself.
Movie Poster
THE END
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