Media production, especially trailer production, is undergoing a transformation in which artificial intelligence (AI) — particularly advances in generative AI — is evolving from a supportive tool into an active co-creator. Film and television companies are increasingly investing in multimodal AI integration within their production workflows. In advertising trailer production, a crucial part of audiovisual communication, AI opens up new possibilities for greater efficiency and artistic expression.
This raises fundamental questions about the artistic and technical understanding of media production: Can an AI-generated audiovisual composition have the same narrative, emotional, and psychological impact as a trailer created by humans? What production conditions, methodological approaches, and creative skills will future moving-image creators need to actively shape this technological shift while developing their own artistic signatures?
This dissertation project, designed as a scientific-artistic doctorate, aims to explore the transformation of trailer production by examining the production processes of film and television trailers created with and through AI — and to analyze the resulting implications for the role of future trailer producers and the craft of audiovisual storytelling.
Artist Statement:
Sebastian Greßmann has many years of experience in creative media production. His career began as a cameraman and took him to Hollywood on a film scholarship before he established himself in Munich’s media industry. As a trailer producer, he worked for creative agencies and major television networks in Germany and Austria. During his studies in Media Technology & Management, he focused on the latest developments in digital advertising and wrote his thesis on the use of artificial intelligence in trailer production. He currently teaches media production and moving image at Designschule München.