French film entrepreneur Serge Hayat, who won the top prize at the inaugural World AI Film Festival (WAFF) with the bible for “White Mask,” has partnered with his son Amaury to launch a new AI-powered start up, OzmaLabs.
OzmaLabs was first used to develop the bible for “White Mask,” an original story expanding on the universe of the social media content creator and influencer known as White Maskkk who has imagined a dystopian future in which Paris is totally deserted. His dozens of videos on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, which see him wandering the ghostly streets and landmarks of Paris, have racked up tens of million of views. In the narration created with the help of OzmaLabs, White Mask – who has 340,000 and 600,000 followers, respectively, on Instagram and TikTok — explores other capitals.
The bible picked up the first prize at the WAFF from a jury chaired by Claude Lelouch and presided over by filmmaker-screenwriter Thomas Bidegain (“Emilia Perez”), alongside members such as Alexia Laroche-Joubert, the boss of Banijay France; filmmaker-producer Julie Gayet; and business angel and founder of Allociné Jean-David Blanc.
Co-created and coded by Amaury Hayat, a prominent researcher in mathematics and AI, OzmaLabs will help refine the story for “White Mask,” while excerpts will be filmed and tested with the creator’s social media community, said Serge Hayat, adding that the idea is to adapt the scripts of “White Mask” into a podcast, book and series.
Hayat said the startup has trained large language models using its “proprietary dramaturgy methodology,” rather than scripts or books which are copyright-protected.
“It’s a tool that will not be commercialized — we want it to be for internal use for creative talents who wish to join us,” said Hayat, adding that online content creators might be interested in working with OzmaLabs because they “often develop exciting concepts that bring together large communities without necessarily having the dramatic material to turn them into a film or series.” He said OzmaLabs can “catalogue and define story DNA, model patterns, and mix them together to create new, original stories that work.”
Serge Hayat is the co-founder of the Cinemage fund which has invested in more than 600 films, including “Intouchables,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Animal Kingdom.” He’s also co-founded Federation Studios, the banner behind “The Bureau.”
A press conference highlighting the first edition of WAFF was hosted at Canneseries in the presence of Laroche-Joubert, Bidegain and Lelouch, among others.
