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AI's Too Optimistic...

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Dear Juliet Checked back with AI and I'm not pouring a bucket of cold water on everything, but at present it would struggle a bit to do it all as easily as I first wondered: Revised facts: You are completely right on the big picture: £100,000 is roughly 5% to 10% of what a traditional low-budget indie feature would cost to shoot across two continents. Taking a live-action crew from Glasgow across the United States on Greyhound buses to Los Angeles would easily run £1 million to £3 million+ once you factor in union crews, transatlantic flights, hotels, filming permits and insurance. If you want the unvarnished, practical reality of making a feature-length version of Dear Miss Landau for around £50,000 to £100,000 right now, here is what actually happens behind the scenes. The real advantages, the hidden costs and where the technology still hits a wall. 1. Where the £50,000 - £100,000 Actually Goes When people hear "AI movie", they assume the software does all t...
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The Shape of Dru To Come...

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Dear Juliet What a difference a day makes... I'm not sure if anyone's fully appreciated it, but I caught something called AI Fable or something on YouTube last night and it looked much superior to current fare. Anthropic has released something called Claude Fable 5.2 and I think the entertainment world's just changed... Anthropic also said that  advanced AI systems "could, if not developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity. " Like this, perhaps! So, you might ask, why am I concentrating on this so intensely and what does it have to do with you? Well, Claude Fable might be able to make Dear Miss Landau for £5,000! No, I'm not kidding. It looks like technology has just made a quantum leap forward. Apparently, Claude can orchestrate diverse and scattered AI tools seamlessly in order quickly to create Hollywood-standard moving pictures. But, as I got AI to ex...
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To Be Or Not To Be, Whether Or Not Seattle To Go and See...

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Dear Juliet I get paid on the 20th, so I'll decide then whether I go see Seattle, sit by the sea at Point Lobos or just opt for Skegness... Skegness has a lot to recommend it, it's always wet and saucy! On slightly more serious subjects, I don't have much more to say about the idea of a table read as I've already tabled the idea but the opportunity's still there for you all should you wish to do so. However, I'm going to go see I Play Rocky on Wednesday and I guess it'll strike a few chords... You know, people call it the ultimate underdog story but maybe that was me. I had no track record, no possibilities, no real hope and every real chance of fouling up during the 2010 crossing. And it was like this sometimes:   Of all things, a line from Rocky IV kept going through my head as I waited for departure: “Mighty long way to go, baby!” Rocky’s trainer was advising him he was in for a long, bruising fight against Ivan Drago, that the fight was probably g...
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The Last of London...

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Dear Juliet Just a few more photos of November in London, and a few thoughts... On the corner of Trafalgar Square... Upstairs at a Starbucks on Tottenham Court Road... Seems this is actually a cocktail bar just off Bond Street... I hope this is getting your mind off things. I know the Motor City Comic Con is coming along soon and to be honest, I think you should keep Friday free. Try not to overdo it. In other news, I myself tried to get a new literary agent at the Society of Authors gathering, but I doubt I'll get lucky. I'm also considering trying to interest Passion of the Nerd in Dear Miss Landau , but I'd rather get your permission first. And now America's gone Blue, repudiated Trump and maybe saved my ESTA, I'm even considering going back to Point Lobos in March/April 2027? It's a thought, anyway. Maybe the pull of nostalgia and past times is stronger than that of ventures new... True, I suppose. But I'm always happy with you. Love, James
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London Without Love...

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Dear Juliet I missed you all the time. Not in an awful stupid demonstrative way with lots of tears and hyperbole, but with that quiet deep down niggle that lurks in corners of trains on the Elizabeth Line. The Tartt was gone from Henry Pordes' shelves although my favourite lavatory was still firmly in place 'twixt Portrait and Garrick (K-Pop teddy's for a colleague's little girl): Sixties fashions seem, in some measure, to be swinging back to London? And there was skating to the sounds of Shakespeare though no nightingales sang in Bloomsbury Square... Routemasters returned to Regent Street! Came upon Captain Kirk's pub! But I sat without solace on the steps of St. Martin's, all for the love of you... Love, James
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Not Forgetting the Point...

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Dear Juliet Centrepoint, to be exact. On Tottenham Court Road. Wish you'd been there. Teri Hatcher's starring in The Devil Wears Prada a little behind "you." I don't seem to have brought down the British government this time, but tomorrow's another day. I'll write again later, hope you're okay. Love, James
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London, Liberty and Literary Agency!

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Dear Juliet A few things today, a couple of surprises (I might get shouted at...) and a pocketful of possibilities. Anyway, first of all I came across this new wildlife crossing in Liberty Canyon, Agoura Hills , just west of you. As you probably still watch Animal Planet , maybe you'd like to take the day off and go see it. Please don't get eaten by a mountain lion. It's the kind of thing that restores one's faith in humanity just when you're on the verge of losing it... And remember, you are free to do what you like as long as you don't do a Thelma and Louise ... I'm off to London tomorrow as long as the bus don't break, and just picked up that a literary agent will be attending the Society of Authors get-together. I'll see if I can make a connection although she does look about forty years younger than me. However, I'll only refer to Dear Miss Landau in a historical context (ie nothing much later than 2012). Pity you couldn't be there. A...
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