S’pore AI-generated sci-fi movie slammed after just one screening, S’pore Film Society denies ‘suggesting anything’
Trace Project — a movie created entirely with artificial intelligence (AI) — had its sole public screening at Golden Village VivoCity on National Day, drawing polarising views from movie-goers and creatives alike.
Set in a fictionalised version of Singapore, Trace Project tells the story of Lin Jia Jun, the Republic’s first astronaut to set foot on Mars.
According to a synopsis found on Golden Village, the movie purports to answer one central question: "Is humanity’s future found in escaping Earth, or in learning to protect the home we already have?”
The 64-minute movie was produced by FizzDragon, a studio that brands itself as the “world’s first Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) film production company”.
Even before its sole public screening, Trace Project had stirred controversy within creative circles, with many coming forward on social media to voice their opinions on the AI-generated movie.
Writer and director Arvind Jay shared an Instagram post on Aug 7 that lambasted what he felt was “Singapore’s unadulterated lust for AI”.
Regarding the movie’s National Day screening, the creative said: “What a total farce and slap in the face to the thousands of artists in Singapore who have poured their lifeblood into their craft.”
He ended the post critically, by suggesting that anyone who uses AI for filmmaking should not call themselves a filmmaker. “You create nothing but s***,” he concluded.
Instagram page @socialstudies.textbook, which posts memes and satire on local issues, also shared a post on Aug 3 poking fun at the movie spelling the end of local cinema.
Netizen review: ‘Genuinely crashing out’
One TikTok user, @squashyboy2, reviewed the film in a video posted on Aug 9.
“Oh my goodness, it is worse than I could ever imagine,” he said, adding that there were parts he felt were “completely unwatchable”.
Critiques Squashy Boy had of the film include, but are not limited to, the following:
- A scene where a man drank almost through his nose
- Eight concurrent story lines that do not start and end “completely”
- “Disfigured” Singapore flags with more than five stars featured several times throughout the film
- Multiple songs playing over each other throughout the film
- Dialogue that did not match the subtitles
- Characters that do not look at each other while interacting
- Inconsistent accents
He closed the video by clarifying that he studied visual effects for three years, and felt that Trace Project was an “utter disgrace” to cinema.
Another TikTok user @nowusiminowudont, who goes by Simi, encouraged her audience not to watch the movie. She questioned why Golden Village and Singapore Film Society (SFS) would support “a product like this”.
Simi implored viewers to watch movies made by “real people” and “actual creatives”.
While opinions about the movie were largely unanimous, not everyone panned Trace Project. Daphne Neo, an attendee of the Aug 9 screening and a former Mrs Universe Oriental pageant winner, called it a “great AI movie” in her Instagram post.
‘Not everyone will like the film’: Founder
On Aug 4, FizzDragon founder Zhuo Chen addressed ongoing criticism of Trace Project in a LinkedIn post.
In the post — which appeared to be a public response to media queries — Chen said: “We also accept that not everyone will like the film. This is a creative work, and audiences should be free to judge it as a film.”
She called the movie an “experiment” and caveated that the studio is not claiming that AIGC movies are perfect.
Regarding manpower, Chen said: “The Trace Project is a much smaller production, involving around 10 people from three countries and using FizzDragon’s own creative tools.”
“These projects are part of our ongoing effort to understand what new possibilities technology can create for storytellers.”
Chen attributed her interest in space to her background in electrical engineering, which led her to “personally write” the novel that inspired Trace Project.
“We felt that the National Day period was an appropriate time to share a fictional perspective on Singapore’s future,” she said of the decision to screen the movie on Aug 9, claiming that she had taken advice from a senior figure within the SFS.
“The Trace Project is therefore not intended to be the final statement about Singaporean cinema, nor the final statement about AI filmmaking,” Chen stressed in her LinkedIn post.
“Ultimately, we hope this experiment can contribute to a larger question: can technology give more creators the opportunity to tell the stories they have always wanted to tell?”
Singapore Film Society says it ‘did not suggest anything to anyone’
In response to Stomp’s queries, SFS chairman Kenneth Tan said that the society “did not suggest anything to anyone about whether or when to screen the film”.
Tan added that it is the prerogative of content creators to choose the technology and tools to make and promote their work.
“As with all publicly exhibited media content, the audience ultimately decides what the audience likes or doesn’t like,” Tan added.
He explained that SFS recognises “AI is part of life in numerous domains” and that the “right” balance to strike remains unknown as the industry continues to experiment and evolve with this technology.
As a veteran of the film industry, Tan does not believe that AI or any technology will ever replace the heart of a human filmmaker, but clarified that this did not equate to a value judgment of the technology.
“Let the filmmakers and consumers try. Let them fail or succeed or whatever happens anywhere on that continuum of experimentation and creation,” Tan shared.
Stomp has reached out to Golden Village and FizzDragon for comment.
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