WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 You tell me your first, last name, where you're 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:05.019 located and the name of your business. My name 00:00:05.019 --> 00:00:09.859 is Eric Archer and my company name is CGA Creative. 00:00:10.460 --> 00:00:14.339 CGA are the initials of all four of my kids. 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:19.039 So named it after them as this AI wave came about 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:21.780 and I felt like I needed a structure for all 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:24.600 my AI work. I named it after them. Hopefully 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:26.339 they'll work for it someday. They're all small. 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:32.100 i'm in the i'm in the boston area i'm about 30 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:35.439 miles north of boston up on the uh north shore 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:40.119 i love that how old are the kids may i ask i've 00:00:40.119 --> 00:00:45.280 got uh two seven nine and eleven all about uh 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.420 birthday up pretty soon so please tell me more 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:52.899 about cga creative sure well uh as the you know 00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:55.840 as i got really into ai a couple years ago i 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:00.520 just felt like um I needed a place to put things. 00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:03.460 I make videos and I just wanted a place to put 00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:08.099 things. And, you know, I could see I just needed 00:01:08.099 --> 00:01:12.560 a space for that thinking, any projects. So I 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:16.980 just made a little Wix website and gave it a 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:19.599 name and started putting things there as I made 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:24.109 them. it's just sort of uh evolved with me over 00:01:24.109 --> 00:01:27.730 time it's intentionally a diy website so i can 00:01:27.730 --> 00:01:29.909 always update it myself and it doesn't look very 00:01:29.909 --> 00:01:32.890 good but uh you know now i'm starting to get 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:36.269 um some paid work doing doing generative ai video 00:01:36.269 --> 00:01:39.129 production and a little bit of other ai type 00:01:39.129 --> 00:01:43.090 of stuff but mainly video production work wow 00:01:43.090 --> 00:01:46.629 okay so tell me about your history prior to getting 00:01:46.629 --> 00:01:50.629 in ai Sure. It's been all video all the time. 00:01:50.730 --> 00:01:53.769 I got a film studies degree in school and then 00:01:53.769 --> 00:01:56.510 went to New York and worked in TV for five or 00:01:56.510 --> 00:01:59.010 six years and then out to L .A. for a few years. 00:01:59.109 --> 00:02:02.769 And then back here in Boston, always doing television 00:02:02.769 --> 00:02:07.150 and video. So when I started to get excited about 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:09.770 AI, I naturally applied it toward what I had 00:02:09.770 --> 00:02:13.810 always been doing. Yeah, well, that in my my 00:02:13.810 --> 00:02:19.039 first thought. Eric was like, nerd. I like it 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:22.939 in a good way. Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, let's 00:02:22.939 --> 00:02:25.280 just apply it to whatever I'm currently doing. 00:02:25.419 --> 00:02:27.740 So what does that look like? You know, I only 00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:31.340 know AI utilizing it to give me prompts and things 00:02:31.340 --> 00:02:33.639 like that. But for video, what does that look 00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:39.680 like for you? Well, now you can generate all 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.110 kinds of different. video components whether 00:02:43.110 --> 00:02:47.990 it's a video clip or imagery or audio so you 00:02:47.990 --> 00:02:51.550 can do voiceover sound effects most of the elements 00:02:51.550 --> 00:02:53.650 that you would need to create a video you can 00:02:53.650 --> 00:02:56.650 now generate with these new ai tools and there's 00:02:56.650 --> 00:02:59.270 a lot of them and increasing amount of them and 00:02:59.270 --> 00:03:03.129 so a lot of what i do is just learning about 00:03:03.129 --> 00:03:07.620 them and the way that i do it is just uh in a 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:09.840 project way and that's sort of how you you could 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:12.979 think about how ai would apply to whatever your 00:03:12.979 --> 00:03:16.919 subject matter is um what are you currently working 00:03:16.919 --> 00:03:20.780 on and then what out there with the ai stuff 00:03:20.780 --> 00:03:24.560 might help you and that was just for me how i 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:27.819 got into it was like okay this chat gpt thing 00:03:27.819 --> 00:03:30.419 how could it help me well with all the writing 00:03:30.419 --> 00:03:34.889 oriented things research planning learning all 00:03:34.889 --> 00:03:38.110 that kind of stuff okay great uh maybe even writing 00:03:38.110 --> 00:03:40.490 proposals to clients certain things that are 00:03:40.490 --> 00:03:44.449 harder to do reviewing like you know contracts 00:03:44.449 --> 00:03:47.370 and so but that's how super helpful great uh 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:49.810 and then you know trying to get really good at 00:03:49.810 --> 00:03:52.530 that yeah and just and and then you inevitably 00:03:52.530 --> 00:03:55.449 learn chat gpt more broadly just because you've 00:03:55.449 --> 00:03:58.330 been putting hours in and and same thing with 00:03:58.330 --> 00:04:00.289 like a mid journey that was one of the earliest 00:04:01.210 --> 00:04:03.949 um image generation tools that came out a couple 00:04:03.949 --> 00:04:06.069 years ago right around when chat gdt did and 00:04:06.069 --> 00:04:11.830 um it was like oh my god i can generate any image 00:04:11.830 --> 00:04:15.129 how can i use that you know and and when i had 00:04:15.129 --> 00:04:17.310 the opportunity to make a personal project i 00:04:17.310 --> 00:04:19.730 made a ken burns style thing because it was like 00:04:19.730 --> 00:04:23.290 ken burns's images it's pictures right one after 00:04:23.290 --> 00:04:26.829 another slow zooms nothing fancy just good story 00:04:26.829 --> 00:04:28.490 and it was like let me try that because i can 00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:33.589 make pictures now so It's always just been, what 00:04:33.589 --> 00:04:37.329 is my project all about? And where might these 00:04:37.329 --> 00:04:39.569 tools help? And I just keep finding that it's 00:04:39.569 --> 00:04:42.750 in more and more ways. More and more tools are 00:04:42.750 --> 00:04:45.329 helping me in more and more ways. And I'm finding 00:04:45.329 --> 00:04:50.079 it a lot of fun because it's... It's advancing 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.740 me. You know, I'm able to do more. I'm able to 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:54.620 create more and make more money and all kinds 00:04:54.620 --> 00:04:57.000 of good stuff. So I find it rewarding in a number 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.339 of ways, creatively, financially, you know, take 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:02.519 your pick. Yeah, it all sounds interesting enough. 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:06.519 It just sounds super time consuming. So you find 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:08.740 something, you find something that works with 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:12.639 you and with your project and then you implement 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:16.000 it. How long does it take? It just seems like 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.170 it's just. A lot for me, right? Because I'm learning 00:05:19.170 --> 00:05:21.730 for someone that's listening. It's like, how 00:05:21.730 --> 00:05:23.850 does this, how does this really work? And how 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:27.800 time consuming is it? Well, it's absolutely time 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:29.920 consuming. And so that's why I think you really 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.000 want it to be about something useful to you, 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:36.459 specific to you, like really helpful to you because 00:05:36.459 --> 00:05:39.180 it's, you know, it's, it's learning, it's learning 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:42.959 something new. I will say that a lot of this 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:45.680 stuff is the easiest technology you're ever going 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:49.240 to learn because it's conversational and, and 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:52.839 general purpose. So you can be like, tell me 00:05:52.839 --> 00:05:55.180 what i need to know about this thing you know 00:05:55.180 --> 00:06:01.540 uh which is amazing um but i think to it's not 00:06:01.540 --> 00:06:04.660 a it's not a uh you should be applying yourself 00:06:04.660 --> 00:06:07.980 as much as you can to learning like as much as 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:11.259 you can stand to learn you should be learning 00:06:11.259 --> 00:06:15.339 it's that kind of time yeah okay that that sounds 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:18.899 like but again for someone that has that time 00:06:18.899 --> 00:06:23.899 and then learns it to the core, it could be so 00:06:23.899 --> 00:06:27.079 useful. So with that being said, with CGA Creative, 00:06:27.459 --> 00:06:32.839 do you actually help individuals create videos 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:36.040 and then that's how you get paid? Is that where 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:39.579 the financial piece comes in? A little bit. A 00:06:39.579 --> 00:06:41.779 little bit of it is speaking engagements where 00:06:41.779 --> 00:06:44.399 I'm showing people the tools and some of the 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:48.360 know -how, but most of it is the actual production. 00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:52.720 So, you know, hey, I have a video need that I 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:55.680 think this AI stuff might be able to meet or 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:58.160 I want to try it out because it might be cheaper 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.000 or I might be able to tell stories I've never 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.480 been able to tell before. Can you make this stuff? 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:04.899 And so then I go and try to wrestle with these 00:07:04.899 --> 00:07:06.639 things and figure out if I can make it or not. 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:11.680 So, yeah, I mean, I think what's cool about that 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:15.439 is, you know, you used to have to be in a New 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:19.360 York or L .A. to kind of get that. type of work 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:22.279 and now you can get it from anywhere on based 00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:25.139 on how quickly you can learn and apply your talent 00:07:25.139 --> 00:07:29.399 and market yourself so um that's very exciting 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:32.800 i think to the individual creator out there tell 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:35.139 me about your vision when you decided to create 00:07:35.139 --> 00:07:45.079 cga um well you know i i uh i studied film in 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:48.579 school and went to New York and LA to pursue 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:51.800 it in the biggest way possible. And then, you 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:54.740 know, life happened and reality came into the 00:07:54.740 --> 00:07:57.019 picture. And I'm fortunate that I'm still in 00:07:57.019 --> 00:08:00.639 the television industry, but it's a much smaller, 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:05.939 you know, one might say like realistic place 00:08:05.939 --> 00:08:08.740 to land. I shot for the stars and had some cool 00:08:08.740 --> 00:08:11.889 experiences and, you know. it's not for the moon 00:08:11.889 --> 00:08:13.750 fell among the stars is the expression i think 00:08:13.750 --> 00:08:16.089 so you know i'm in the game but it's it's an 00:08:16.089 --> 00:08:19.769 obscurity to you know for the most part uh but 00:08:19.769 --> 00:08:21.970 this gen ai stuff came along and it was like 00:08:21.970 --> 00:08:25.550 whoa wait a minute maybe uh maybe we can actually 00:08:25.550 --> 00:08:30.170 do some filmmaking after all maybe we can um 00:08:30.170 --> 00:08:36.690 exercise that creativity i always pursued for 00:08:36.690 --> 00:08:40.129 real in a way that i didn't see coming You know, 00:08:40.169 --> 00:08:44.570 I mean, it was very recently that I was paid 00:08:44.570 --> 00:08:47.210 for the first time to make an original piece 00:08:47.210 --> 00:08:50.830 of video, like 20 something years of making it 00:08:50.830 --> 00:08:53.909 like their way. You know, someone came along 00:08:53.909 --> 00:08:55.710 and said, hey, we want to pay you to make whatever 00:08:55.710 --> 00:09:02.450 you want. And I was like, it happened. That's 00:09:02.450 --> 00:09:06.820 AI. Thanks to AI for that. I'm here for it. You 00:09:06.820 --> 00:09:09.179 know, I think it's new and different and not 00:09:09.179 --> 00:09:12.600 everybody likes it. Even people that have been 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.159 doing television work alongside me this whole 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:18.159 time don't want to do it. So it's not for everybody, 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:21.580 which will change a lot about the industry and 00:09:21.580 --> 00:09:24.759 what that looks like and everything. But I wanted 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:27.419 a home for all of that work that I intended to 00:09:27.419 --> 00:09:31.240 make a lot of. What's the most unexpectedly human 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:34.480 thing that AI has been able to help you and your 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:38.690 team create? so the the first video i made with 00:09:38.690 --> 00:09:44.149 ai was uh about my ancestor my great great great 00:09:44.149 --> 00:09:47.710 grandfather my dad had done a bunch of like uh 00:09:47.710 --> 00:09:50.929 ancestry .com research and it turned out that 00:09:50.929 --> 00:09:53.129 my ancestors were all from the area i still live 00:09:53.129 --> 00:09:56.750 in salem massachusetts the witch trial area uh 00:09:56.750 --> 00:10:00.610 and um we go way way back and it was interesting 00:10:00.610 --> 00:10:03.730 i i wasn't ever super into that material like 00:10:04.429 --> 00:10:07.409 uh you would think i might be but i just wasn't 00:10:07.409 --> 00:10:12.070 really for me um until i needed a subject for 00:10:12.070 --> 00:10:15.450 an ai piece to work on that ken burns piece i 00:10:15.450 --> 00:10:18.950 mentioned earlier and i saw this research and 00:10:18.950 --> 00:10:22.029 it was like huh you know i never could have like 00:10:22.029 --> 00:10:24.210 shot this before i couldn't have made a video 00:10:24.210 --> 00:10:27.649 about this really but let me give it a shot now 00:10:27.649 --> 00:10:32.179 and so i made my great great great grandfather's 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:35.100 image many times over and i turned it into a 00:10:35.100 --> 00:10:36.799 little two -minute thing i learned all about 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:40.360 him i i brought him to life of the custom gpt 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:43.519 and talked to it and uh told my dad all about 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.399 this and like so it was a really cool way to 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:50.700 learn about my family and um my area just think 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.340 about like where i came from and and my you know 00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:57.629 so that was super human it was like you know 00:10:57.629 --> 00:11:01.789 it was very educational and um uh a lot of people 00:11:01.789 --> 00:11:03.830 connected with it for that reason and thought 00:11:03.830 --> 00:11:05.610 they would love to do that for themselves and 00:11:05.610 --> 00:11:09.070 you know i'd love to bring the story of my ancestor 00:11:09.070 --> 00:11:11.389 to life i have this great story i mean stories 00:11:11.389 --> 00:11:15.389 get pretty amazing when you go back in time and 00:11:15.389 --> 00:11:19.389 the real the real stuff is fascinating and to 00:11:19.389 --> 00:11:21.049 think you could bring it to life now it's like 00:11:21.049 --> 00:11:24.029 oh wow that there's some raw material for you 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:26.399 Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:28.600 that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.860 forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes 00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:33.659 continue to move forward. This is going to get 00:11:33.659 --> 00:11:36.299 more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement 00:11:36.299 --> 00:11:38.360 as well. We'll invite people to participate in 00:11:38.360 --> 00:11:40.539 the show and thank you for giving us your time 00:11:40.539 --> 00:11:42.840 and attention. Have an excellent time building 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:45.159 out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.