For some people, the rise of artificial intelligence is the boogeyman of the century. But a team of Vanderbilt student filmmakers, instead of fearing the impact of rapidly emerging AI on art and creativity, is embracing it. Their goal is to us AI to inspire transformational changes on crucial environmental issues that only humans can fix.
"We're bringing untold stories to life and making them more accessible with the power of AI animation," - Shaun Karakkattu, Cornelius Vanderbilt scholar in economics and history and executive producer of Imagine Land 2040.
More than 40 students with majors tied to economics, history, engineering, computer science, music performance, math and more created the short film, which combines generative AI animation and live action. It premiered at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in December 2024.
"The entire industry of visual storytelling is really struggling with how, when and especially if traditionally human and artificially generative techniques intermingle," said the group's mentor, Ole Molvig, assistant professor of history and of cinema and media arts. "It is really wonderful to watch these creative talents work through this in real time."
Molvig also is head of AI ethics for the National Science Foundation's EngageAI Institute.
IMAGINING A BETTER WORLD
Imagine Land 2040 draws the viewer in with animations of wide-eyed children in the United States, Senegal, China and Brazil who are living amid environmental degradation. The viewer shares in their imaginative dreams for restorative growth.
"We want to infuse optimism into the often-depressing issue of climate change to help inspire people to take action," said Augustus Boettcher, BA'24 in economics and history and director of the film. "So, in one scene, instead of trees, a young boy imagines giant green robots fighting against the desertification of the Sahel."
The film balances the genres of live production and AI animation to bring the viewer in and out of the children's dream sequences. Ultimately, the viewer is transitioned back into the "real world" with an inspired girl who is ready to step up and work toward improving environmental problems.
"The feeling that really struck us was how uplifted people said they felt watching it because we want to help people dream of better possibilities," said Theodore Perl, human and organizational development major and creative lead for the film.
EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY
Juggling the evolving technology is far more hands-on than some might imagine. The vignettes in the different countries were broken up among student programmers. William White IV and Liv Lockwood, both in the Class of 2025, were the lead AI engineers, alongside Perl. Though the programmers were working on separate scenes, the visuals had to remain consistent.
"I created a style brief with keywords and a starting frame that would keep consistency across the vignettes," said Perl, Class of 2025, who also was director of AI for the film. "That would create a character with a reference code that you can actually put into your image generation."
Within the AI team, Lockwood focused her attention on AI research, developing new models and discovering more carbon efficient workflows. White focused on AI production, putting new discoveries to work and carefully crafting the final product we see in the film today.
The students admit that each day they worked with the rapidly changing technology was a challenge-and a perfect representation of immersive learning.
"I don't think any of us have ever taken on this much responsibility," Boettcher said. "And I don't think there's a future path where we're not telling stories in some meaningful way, so I'll be forever grateful for this."
MUSIC FROM THE (HUMAN) HEART
The music throughout the film was composed and performed entirely by students from the Blair School of Music.
"Initially when I heard about all of the AI being used in this movie, I felt immediate distrust," said the film's composer, Aaliya Ramakrishnan, a composition and mathematics double major. "I was pretty horrified as a musician because it's something that may take my job a few years down the line."
While working closely with the team and the musicians, Ramakrishnan saw the creativity-and her perspective-evolve.
"Throughout the process everyone was so artistically involved. And I think, to some extent, figuring out how to make new technology work for you is as important as sticking to more traditional forms of doing it," she said.
GLOBAL PARTNER
The film was created in partnership with the G20 Global Land Initiative for the COP conference in Riyadh. It was the U.N.'s first AI-driven film project.
"We showed it to a packed room of people, and the positive feedback was overwhelming, especially after working insanely hard for more than six months and getting pretty meticulous about it," Boettcher said.
From concept to completion, a core group of students worked tirelessly on the film outside of classes.
"This was truly a student-led initiative and shows how creative, hardworking and talented Vanderbilt students are," said Leah Dundon, research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative.
"They took a technology, AI, that has been met with a lot of promise but also skepticism in society and built something really positive and inspirational." -Leah Dundon
INTERNATIONAL STAGE
The whole concept of the movie started with Karakkattu, who took Dundon's climate change course his junior year and participated in the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The United Nations' COP conferences are the world's most influential global climate change events, and they present incredible immersive opportunities for learning and discovery. Dundon has presented research and led Vanderbilt students to COP conferences for several years; she helped the university earn exclusive U.N. "observer" status in 2019.
Karakkattu, Class of 2025, then became an advocate at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Youth Caucus. The goal of the caucus is to find ways to restore and manage the world's land to ensure food, water and shelter for all people.
He was inspired to do something unique. That's when he pulled together friends and fellow students and got working.
"I saw that we needed a new way to tell these crucial stories," Karakkattu said.
TOMORROW IN FOCUS
Karakkattu and Benedict Ballman, public policy major and executive producer of Imagine Land 2040, launched the film production group Tomorrow in Focus to continue this meaningful video production work.
"What we're hoping for Tomorrow in Focus is to help bridge that gap between the work credible individuals and organizations are doing and everybody else who needs to care more about these issues," said Ballman, Class of 2025. "We're hoping by creating inspirational stories, we can raise global awareness on critical issues and ease the negativity bias and anxiety."
Members of the group said they may be traveling internationally in the near future to work with other NGOs in telling their stories.
The group agrees the support from the university, especially the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt, Immersion Vanderbilt and faculty like Molvig and Dundon were essential to bringing this bold vision to life.
"It started with Imagine Land 2040, then we started dreaming about a bigger vision for our own futures," Karakkattu said. "I think we've found a really cool and unique and efficient way to tell important stories."
Watch the full movie, Imagine Land 2040, here:
By Amy Wolf
- Check out the student film group Tomorrow in Focus
- Learn more about the Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative
- Learn about Vanderbilt's Climate and Environmental Studies program
- See Vanderbilt's work toward a sustainable future
