Episode Transcript
Kyle James (00:00.834)
Hey, welcome to the AI Chronicles podcast. I'm your host, Kyle James. And today we'll be talking how a media production company called CGA Creative in 1623 Studios is using AI inside of their own business. And we'll share the exact steps that you can take in order to implement AI for yourself. Now, before we talk about that, listen closely. Are you looking to implement AI inside of your own company? Or maybe just struggling to get your AI to stop hallucinating? Speak to GPT Trainer.
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Once again, that's gpt-trainer.com. Today I have with me on the show Eric Archer, who is the founder of CGA Creative and also the executive director of 1623 Studios. Eric is an Emmy winning television producer with over two decades in the television and media production, and might I also say an AI specialist. Really excited for this conversation today. Hey Eric, welcome to the show.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (01:24.114)
Thanks very much, Kyle. It's great to be here.
Kyle James (01:26.414)
Yeah, man. So tell us a little bit about, so you right now you're full time at 16, 23 studios, right? Doing the media, but like you're also the CGA creative, like tell us a little bit better, a little bit of your background for our audience to kind of understand where you're coming from.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (01:38.098)
Sure. I got a film studies degree in college and moved promptly to New York and got into production in New York doing a lot of sports and music and reality television. And then moved out to LA and got into some bigger studio experience, NBC, Fox, ad agency, stuff like that. And then I moved back home to Massachusetts where I'm from to settle down and have kids with my now wife and had to kind of figure out.
what my production career was going to look like here in Massachusetts, where there were far fewer opportunities back then. And I found my niche, my lifeboat in the nonprofit community media space, old school cable access, about as traditional as it gets in terms of production.
But it's been a wonderful ride. I've been doing it for 15 years now running 1623 Studios, a small local nonprofit TV station serving a small region of Massachusetts. And then a couple of years ago, Mid Journey and Chad GBT came along and really just changed my world. I got really into them early.
and started making stuff because I already knew how to make videos. So it came pretty quickly like, oh, I can start with simple pictures and simple moves and go from there. And I've been just kind of obsessively doing that in my free time over the last couple of years and made a number of generative video pieces and just, you know, still exploring and learning and really, really enjoying this new space.
Kyle James (03:21.198)
Yeah, for sure. So you started kind of dabbling with AI, right? I'll give you the media background and like specifically though, like, I mean, outside of just like the interest, like what, what do you foresee it, I guess, being, and like, what have you been doing specifically with the AI that's been creating that some of that content, right? That you've been talking about.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (03:38.674)
Well, as soon as I saw what Mid Journey could do, I had a fuzzy little old picture of a relative of mine from the 1800s. And I was able to take that picture and essentially get a 16 by 9 cinematic, gorgeous looking film version of that little picture. And I was blown away because, you know, if you're familiar with Ken Burns, his films are simple pictures.
with great story and simple camera moves. And I was like, I mean, that seems to me like where we're at now. If I can just make a picture out of thin air, I can make something like that. And so that's what I did. I made a little two minute short about my ancestor generating all the images because I only had a couple and learning more about his story and telling his story. And I got a lot of attention because no one had seen anything like it yet. This sort of like
very traditional doc looking piece that looked and sounded like a Ken Burns piece, but everything was AI generated, including the audio and all of that. I think it, you know, I intended it to just be kind of a comment on the state of the art. This is where we are. This is what we're capable of. And everything I've made since then is sort of in that same vein of like, this is a prototype of what we're capable of now.
Kyle James (05:04.781)
Yeah. So walk me through kind of like that, that when you built out that documentary with your ancestor, like what, did you do exactly? Because I watched the video myself. It was like a, you know, two to three, four, five minute long video. And I was pretty impressed with it. Like, how did you come up with it? Like, how did you come up with the content? And like, how, what was the AI doing on the backend to, to produce a video such as that?
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (05:25.234)
So my dad was the one who had done all the research. He had a stack of papers and he had a few pictures and like a family organizational chart looking thing and all this ancestor.com information. I was in an AI fellowship program at the time and I needed a of a capstone project for that program. so I was like, all right, let me try to make an AI generated video.
And I knew he had had all this information that he had found. And I sort of looked at it like a creative brief. Like, you know, here's some information. It's a lot of data. I can just like try to pull a story out of it. And so I identified one of my ancestors who lived through all the 1800s in Salem, Massachusetts, right near where I live now. And so I was able to, with perplexity, learn how to learn all about Salem during the 1800s, what was going on.
really well known period of time and place. lot of Google images for reference imagery that I could pull in the mid journey and make AI versions of these things. And I was very transparent when I put it out that all of it was historically inaccurate in terms of the visuals. know, it wasn't Salem Harbor, the ships were all wrong. My ancestor who made barrels for a living, the barrels were all wrong. Everything was wrong. And yet, because the story was
basically, it really still worked. And so I used perplexity to build the timeline and learn a lot about them. used mid-journey primarily to generate all the images and then I used a couple early tools, LeiaPix, which I don't think is even called that anymore, and then Runway was the other one. And so I was either trying to do like the earliest image to video stuff,
or like parallax effects on images that sort of just separate out the elements and have kind of like a more controlled movement. And so it was that simple. then I made a custom GPT with everything I had learned about him and simulated an interview with him. Because normally if I was going to shoot something like that, I would interview the subject. And with a GPT, I was able to simulate that and all of the stuff I got back, like, you know.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (07:46.682)
Hey man, like tell me why your life was hard back in the day, you know, and he could be like, well, you know, it was tough raising four kids and the steam engine was coming in and blowing out my barrel making career. And it's like, cool. All right. Like I can, I can roll it, you know? And that, that's what I did. And then I put all that into 11 labs for voiceover and sound effects and stuff. And, and I think I bought the song. think that was the only thing that was sort of pre-made.
Kyle James (08:14.702)
Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. I was thinking of, so there's a, think it's up in Dallas, Texas area, Dallas, fourth area. I think it's there, but there's a, like a war Memorial for like veterans, military veterans, and they have an AI that's set up there. I haven't been yet, but they have AI set up there where you can go face to face with like these, you know, AI face, uh, you know, war, war two, war one, like medal of honor recipients and like have a conversation with them. it spits out like responses and stuff.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (08:42.684)
world.
Kyle James (08:43.96)
And I was like, wow, that's genius. That's what I was thinking about here was just like, you know, going back in time and yeah, it may not be like the exact date and time, but like, Hey, for your kids or our kids, it's like, they just want to have an idea of who their ancestors are. Like, you don't have to be like, what do they wear? Where do they, where do they live? Okay. Well, whether they lived here or there, doesn't matter. Like this is what they did though. And like, this is what they, the type of role they worked. I think it makes it so much interesting, like a history perspective too. You know what mean?
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (09:10.96)
I mean, I'm not a big history buff, but this for me as a visual person was a really cool way to engage with history. I definitely learned a lot and it like passed a lot of tests with like my dad who cared a lot about it and it's Salem Historical Society guys saw it and thought it was cool. Like I think it, you know, it was Ken Burns talks about creative equivalence when you don't have the media that you need.
Kyle James (09:15.246)
Hmm.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (09:38.182)
Like if he didn't have a car crash, he would just show a picture of a crashed car and use the audio. You know, and I kind of think of it like that. Like I don't have these images. They don't exist. I could not go recreate them. Certainly not as an individual with no budget for this. Now I'm able to pull the story out of thin air and share it with my family. And that's cool. You know.
Kyle James (09:54.421)
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Kyle James (10:01.216)
Yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned a little bit there, like how you showed just some like the community and like friends and family, like what, what, what was kind of like feedback you got from people when you finally built this thing out. And I'm sure it took you a couple of days or so, but like, what do they say? What were the thoughts like, give me some, give me the details of what, they're saying here.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (10:20.476)
Well, this was a couple of years ago when there really were not many examples of fully generated pieces yet. So the fact that all of the imagery was fake at all was really getting a lot of shock from people. I was surprised at how overwhelmingly positive the sentiment was. I really expected a lot of kickback about anti-AI sentiment. But I think I found
a way to make it work where it's contributing this new kind of value that's not stepping on old value. It's not replacing old value. It's not a cheap replacement. It's something that is newly valuable to people. And I think it inspired people about, well, could I tell stories of my family? You know, I got a lot of that. Like, that's awesome. Like I could tell these previously impossible to tell stories about my own family.
So it's been fun in that regard because the people's stories are great and when you go back in time they get really wild. So there's a lot of good story there.
Kyle James (11:25.102)
Yeah, for sure. So I mean, the CGA creative is like kind of like your, the portfolio you're bringing up. And for those like you're listening, definitely go out, go online, check it out. But like you're, I mean, you're still working at executive director at 16, 23 studios. Like how do you like, how do you balance that? like, what do you do with like, you've got this really cool creative side where you've got this AI during your content, your plan, you understand it. And then you're also working like full-time gig here. Like how do you bridge the two and like bring value to both sides? So that way, you know, obviously you got to go back to.
the full-time gig like walk me through that a little bit.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (11:56.402)
Well, fortunately, it's all pretty much the same thing, meaning it's all video production. know, and that's why the learning curve for me with the AI stuff was relatively fast because I already knew how to make a video. You know, it's still the same end product. It's a collection of smaller clips that you put together into a story. So that part hasn't really changed. And so whether I'm doing it traditionally for my day job, shooting it with cameras and lights and mics and all of that.
or generating the assets, the post-production is the same, basically. So, you know, I'm still using the same expertise, really, for the most part, other than having to learn the new software. But, you know, it's just, it's really, it's just so exciting to me that I'm able to find the energy when I get home to do it because I really want to do it. really, this has unlocked latent creativity in me.
and given me this opportunity to flex it that I didn't have before and make some money from it in a way I didn't have access to before. I have a family and I'm trying to support them. So rather than drive an Uber at night, I can make a video at night, which is amazing to me. And I'm really grateful for that. So I get home excited to just experiment and learn and create.
Kyle James (13:19.884)
Yeah, that's awesome. That's really cool. Yeah. Probably beats doing Uber, Uber and lifts when you get great content, Like, yeah, like the content consumers, like consuming content is one thing, but content creating it's both fun if you can make it fun. But if you make it fun creating content and like, when people get paid for creating content, that's what the money comes from, not from consuming it. So I love the direction of going there. And as I can start stepping into this, I mean, there's gonna a lot of changes over the AI next couple of years, Blake.
Where do you see like the AI, maybe your upcoming AI initiatives, both like within your current company and also within CGA creative, like where do you foresee that going and what's that going to play a role in your operations next as worth mentioning.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (14:00.786)
Yeah, well for 1623, we're a small nonprofit. So I look at all this stuff as major resource gain. know, any small nonprofit needs resources and all these tools are force multipliers of different sorts, know, helping you research or write or plan, strategize, generate imagery, all this stuff is extra resources.
You know, that was a huge attraction to all this stuff for me with that hat on the nonprofit hat on. was like, wow, maybe I can write a lot more grants and stuff like that, you know, or set up automations to act like we've got more people here, you know, nuts and bolts, business stuff, automations are so powerful and you know, getting everyone on, on LLMs is really powerful and all that sort of stuff. And then, and so, you know, I hope, I hope by being
forward thinking we can revitalize that industry that needs revitalization. know, it's a little bit of an more, know, it needs to evolve that whole industry and it needs a big solution and AI is one. So I'm hoping that it's a big enough solution to kind of propel the entire industry into the future. So I'm doing a lot of like advocating in my industry for people to adopt these tools and try to figure out how to use them.
And then I'm just having a blast making stuff in addition, you know, and I see more and more content over the years getting made this way, obviously, more and more creators having an opportunity to participate, which is awesome. You know, used to have to move to New York and L.A. like I did. You don't have to do that anymore. I think that's cool. So, you know, for those reasons, I'm optimistic and excited. You know, there's obviously a lot of turmoil and
jobs getting run over that is real and difficult and it's changing our industry a lot. A lot of people are experiencing existential crises and not loving what they see because if you've spent your whole career shooting video cameras and this stuff comes along and you're not into it in the same way then you're like in a tough spot. So I feel for those people. I know a lot of them.
Kyle James (16:18.35)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I'm like, I love the, like going back to the video that I saw that you created. I'm like, dude, like ancestry.com would probably gobble this up. Right. And, and, and this is, I'm gonna throw you a curve ball question here, but like, um, just like with, with CGA creative, like what, what would, what would be like the coolest thing? Like if this like were to take off, right? Whatever that might be under creating content, like what, what would that be? That coolest thing? If you could just do that full time, what would that be, man? I got, I gotta know.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (16:47.196)
Well, would, I think it would be pretty cool to have your own company run by agents, run with agents, you know, where you could oversee a team of agents that do your bidding and you just build that all out so that it's a new kind of company. mean, you know, there's people talking about that sort of thing and like the one person billion dollar company type thing, but I think just the,
Kyle James (16:55.022)
you
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (17:15.506)
The mom and pop version of that is pretty cool also, you know. So yeah, so I think it's just gonna require a little bit of a different way of approaching it, a little more entrepreneurial, you know, for people, a little more solo mission stuff and learning how to leverage all these digital resources or whatever you wanna call them.
Kyle James (17:39.5)
Yeah, for sure. And man, Eric, appreciate you having on the show today. It's been awesome talking with you and just getting your perspective on the AI field. And like, where would you advise for people to maybe learn a little bit more about you and maybe a little bit more about like CGA creative and also 1623 studios.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (17:53.938)
Thank you. I'm very active on LinkedIn. You can find me there. spell my name kind of funny. E-R-I-C-H. It's just plain old Eric. Eric Archer on LinkedIn. And my website, cgacreative.com is where you can see my AI work. And my day job site is 1623studios.org. And you can see all of our local content there.
Kyle James (18:16.078)
Awesome. Great. Awesome. And I appreciate you, Eric. It's great having you on the show, brother. And let's definitely keep in touch. Looking forward to seeing you potentially next episode. Talking more about all the creative things you're doing, And thanks, everybody, for listening in. Remember, if you're looking to implement AI into your business today, please don't try and do it yourself. The time and stress the AI could cause, it may not be worth it. Schedule a call with GPT Trainer and let them build out and manage your AI for you. Once again, that's gpt-trainer.com. Signing off for now. Thanks, everybody.
Erich Archer | CGA Creative (18:24.07)
time to break out. Thank you very much.
Kyle James (18:44.91)
Have a great rest of your day and looking forward to seeing everyone on the next episode of AI Chronicles.
