Vertigo, Federation Studios launch AI production system

Vertigo Films and partner Federation Studios’ AI entertainment company, amersia, has released its first technology product, Woven. A first-look still from movie Critterz, created using Woven, has also been revealed. “Every major shift in entertainment has come when creatives gained access to new tools – from sound to CGI,” said James Richardson, CEO of amersia. “AI is the next inflection point. We built amersia from the ground up to give artists the power to create at a scale and level of cinematic ambition that simply wasn’t possible before. Critterz is the first proof of that shift. The most extraordinary films and brand storytelling of the next decade will be born from this technology.” AI creative technologist, Nik Kleverov, will lead amersia’s creative strategy. Kleverov has spent more than fifteen years “working at the intersection of storytelling and technology” from title sequences (Narcos) to the first AI-generated commercial ever made (Toys”R”Us) at Native Foreign – the studio he co-founded that produced the original Critterz short. “Woven is built around human-led creativity,” says director of Critterz Nik Kleverov. “AI should remove friction, not replace judgment. By automating the repetitive parts of production, we give artists more time to focus on the creative decisions that actually matter.” Critterz, which marks amersia’s first movie, was created by Chad Nelson, a producer and creative technologist at OpenAI. Critterz originated within the OpenAI ecosystem and “serves as an early proof point for amersia’s AI-native approach to storytelling and production powered by Woven.” Woven was originally developed as amersia’s internal production system for Critterz and is now piloting with “select media enterprise partners” with broader roll-out planned in the coming months. amersia was founded by James Richardson and Allan Niblo, co-founders of Vertigo Films, who together produced and distributed over 100 films and premium television series before Vertigo became part of Federation Studios. Federation is a founding partner in amersia, “providing a testbed and a strategic bridge between traditional production and AI-native workflows.” Filmmakers will be speaking as part of the Cannes AI for Talent Summit at this years’ Festival. Hollywood independent studio AGC Studios will launch global sales to industry distributors at this week’s Cannes market.