Well i just spent the entire morning researching and testing out the top five text-to-image-to-video generators available and in an effort to not feel like i completely wasted my time i figured i should share what i learned.
For context, Im currently in post production on my third documentary titled -Degen Generation and ive come to a point where im ready to start adding B Roll to my interviews, of which there are some thirty plus interviews that require such footage.
My default approach would be to list out keywords from the interviews then go out on to the internet and start to collect the footage that aligns best with what is being described in the interview. This time however i figured i would see if generating my own more custom B roll could bring an additional dimension or aesthetic to the interviews i have sitting on the timeline.
The answer was yes, however I quickly ran into a fundamental problem with these various services, that being the credit system. After carefully studying the top five price plans and already knowing that i would require between one hour and two hours of B roll across the thirty plus interviews, the cost (not including my time) would quickly become uneconomical, not to mention the various restrictions being baked into these services around usage; what can and cannot be generated due to the various laws being rolled out somewhat haphazardly across various jurisdictions.
All up i estimated the service cost (in credits) just to generate between one and two hours of B roll, again not including my time to do so, would most likely cost upwards of fifteen hundred dollars in credits. And that doesn’t include any so called “up-scaling” that apparently would be required due to the various limitations of the technologies.
This might not sound like a lot of money for custom made B roll especially to an established studio, however its the constant trial and error in these systems to get what you actually want, and the lack of transparency around ownership of the generated content that gave me additional reasons not to proceed.
The credits system all these systems use and the unknown periods of trial and error that eat up those credits leaves you feeling like you never actually know what the final cost of using them will end up being, and thats such a dull consideration as part of the creative process of layering on B roll right now i personally cant justify leaning into it.
Lmk what your experience has been generating video for very specific purposes, I may well just not be patient enough for these systems but If i can convey the same information or feeling using stock footage or indeed my own footage then thats what I will stick to doing.
FYI the services I tried are:
Veo3
Runway
Kling
Pika
Hailuo
Artlist
PixVerse