Researchers Rita Grácio and Tobias Frühmorgen wrote a bookchapter on AI with for Routledge. They have explored how GenAI can support storytelling in film education.
The chapter draws from our research within the @FilmEU_RIT pilot project "Machine Acts" where undergraduate screenwriting students and teachers used LLMs to simulate a writers' room environment. Through interviews and observations, we've examined creativity as a collaborative process between humans and AI tools.
The bookchapter is published as a part of the book "Artificial Intelligence in the Cultural and Creative Sectors" at Routledge / Taylor Francis, edited by Marta Massi, Marek Prokůpek, Alessandra Ricci, Maria Carmela Ostillio.
Abstract:
"Creating Stories with Generative AI in Film Education"
This chapter explores the uses of Generative AI (GenAI) in creative processes and products (stories) in the context of film education, through a case study of using Large Language Models (LLMs) by undergraduate screenwriting students and teachers. The study consisted of designing and implementing seven group screenwriting sessions with the LLM ChatGPT, emulating an industry “writers’ room” setting. It also included interviews with participants before and after the writing sessions, and observations in the sessions. This study was part of the FilmEU_RIT pilot project “Machine Acts”. From the lens of a theoretical understanding of creativity as distributed between human and non-human actors, in specific environments, this chapter aims to understand to what extent LLMs can contribute to the writing of compelling and diverse stories, in the context of European film education. Findings show that participants recognised a creative potential to LLMs, framing them as a tool for unlocking their own (human) creativity, and that the writing of stories was pervaded by biases from humans and machines, which must co-create to counteract them. We discuss how the integration of creative generative tools in film education calls for the development of critical thinking skills, and we provide pedagogical strategies and actionable recommendations for screenwriting teachers.
cite:
Grácio, Rita, and Tobias Frühmorgen. "Creating Stories with Generative AI in Film Education: The Screenwriters' Room with Large Language Models (LLMs)." Artificial Intelligence in the Cultural and Creative Sectors. Routledge, 2025. 151-163.