Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Thursday, March 21, 2024
'Willy Wonka Experience' Organizer Has History Of Shady Dealings
brobible.com: Billy Coull, the director of the House of Illuminati, which is the organization that hosted the disastrous “Willy Wonka Experience” in Glasgow last month, says the incident has ruined his life to such an extent that he’s lost the “love of his life.”
7 comments:
Jasper Gitlitz
said...
The news of the Willy Wonka experience took over TikTok almost immediately after it happened. Very quickly, people were making memes about the event, clips were going viral, and I’ve even seen videos of a drag performer who created a drag persona based on the villain created for the experience, The Unknown. It’s well known how bad this immersive experience was but until reading this article, I hadn’t heard anything about its creator. It’s interesting and not at all surprising to learn that this is not the first time this person has done shady business. The use of AI generation to help create both his books and this experience is particularly interesting because it is a prime example of what many people have feared would happen with the increase in popularity of AI. However, it also shows that the complete use of AI can easily be spotted and does not produce quality work. Hopefully, this indicates that AI, at least for now, will not be able to completely replace artists.
If I had worked with a person like this, and been in a position where I was giving them money in exchange for a final product, I would be absolutely irate that they used AI to this capacity, and didn't even deliver on their idea that they promised. If you make a promise to do something, you need to follow through on that promise, or you simply will not be trusted. When working in the world, you need to maintain respectful collaboration with people, and can't use AI to do work that you were supposed to do. That's like outsourcing the labor you were supposed to do, except it's unpaid. This article underscores the need to do research on your collaborators. You need to find out not only if the people you're hiring can carry their own weight, but if the people you're working with can genuinely assist in the process in a meaningful way.
This ‘Willy Wonka Experience’ is absolutely crazy bonkers and diabolical while also being incredibly hilarious as an outside viewer. This is yet another example, like another article I just read and commented on, of someone using AI art and people getting disappointed in it. It is sad how so many parents got scammed into paying a good deal of money for the complete mess and nothingness that was this experience. Though, I feel like there definitely were some red flags on the website considering there were no actual pictures of anything besides AI art posters that had a multitude of spelling errors and a lot of weird imagery when you looked closer. Videos about actually being there and then commentary from 3rd parties and actual actors working the event blew up on tik tok. I will say, the video of the Unknown popping out behind the mirror made me die laughing for maybe five minutes. It was so ridiculous.
I love seeing headlines and reading articles about this event. It spread around the internet so quickly and the memes are fantastic. I didn’t know until reading this article that this guy has a history. The AI-generated books are funny but what makes it even better is that it was SIXTEEN books. And some were published on the same day. It is like a kid in first-grade cheating on a test and trying to get out of trouble when the teacher catches him. I do feel bad for the kids and parents who had to go through this, but I also feel like the parents like one percent to blame. I think the villain created for this event, The Unknown, is hilarious and should get a role in a movie now because a villain that lives in your walls is funny as hell.
This was all over the internet a few weeks ago, and it was really funny. It kind of is still funny. I was really amused when I first saw photos and read an article on the topic. I saw the AI generated photos but I didn’t realize that it was used for marketing. The way the warehouse was decorated was just awful. It’s interesting to hear about Billy Coull’s past shenanigans; it really doesn’t cast him in a good light. It’s good that Coull is getting thrown into the light, hopefully preventing him from scamming more people in the future. His AI generated books are an interesting topic, since I don’t think there’s a precedent yet in the book world for AI content. Coull’s use of AI is just irresponsible and landed him exactly where he should be. I hope we get some kind of follow-up to this, but I don’t know if he can really be charged with anything for what he’s done up to here.
More than anything, this is kind of just funny. Obviously, I have heard a lot about the whole Wonka Experience, since that’s very much the kind of thing that takes the internet immediately by storm. You just can’t even make up stories this good, so the fact that it actually happened is crazy. However, I hadn’t heard anything about the guy behind it, which I think was a really missed opportunity by the initial wave of internet popularity this entire situation received, because his entire shady business and “writing” background is such good comedy material, and it’s hard to believe that this guy is just somebody that exists. The AI generated author bio declaring him as the next big star in writing is unnecessarily funny. I think that him saying that he was “made out to be the face of all evil” isn’t entirely true, since I think he was more made out to be the face of all stupidity, but at least this whole thing was a moment of entertainment that will go the way of Dashcon as an iconic piece of internet history.
This is gross, taking something like Willy Wonka, an inspirational story, one where a boy who has nothing but the love of his family– is given a magical world of chocolate. It is a warming and whimsical story that can cheer up any child. Billy Coull has taken this and corrupted it. He used AI to make an advertisement for this but led to a warehouse-looking – crack den. How can such greedy people exist? I ask myself. All for money and personal gain, not thinking about the people who would have truly enjoyed this, like I would as a child, and even now. A Wonka experience would give some kids a source of happiness, especially someone like Charlie Bucket, like in the movie. The repercussions of this should be something that makes Coull never do something like this again. It is a cruel act of greed. I hope he regrets what he has done.
7 comments:
The news of the Willy Wonka experience took over TikTok almost immediately after it happened. Very quickly, people were making memes about the event, clips were going viral, and I’ve even seen videos of a drag performer who created a drag persona based on the villain created for the experience, The Unknown. It’s well known how bad this immersive experience was but until reading this article, I hadn’t heard anything about its creator. It’s interesting and not at all surprising to learn that this is not the first time this person has done shady business. The use of AI generation to help create both his books and this experience is particularly interesting because it is a prime example of what many people have feared would happen with the increase in popularity of AI. However, it also shows that the complete use of AI can easily be spotted and does not produce quality work. Hopefully, this indicates that AI, at least for now, will not be able to completely replace artists.
If I had worked with a person like this, and been in a position where I was giving them money in exchange for a final product, I would be absolutely irate that they used AI to this capacity, and didn't even deliver on their idea that they promised. If you make a promise to do something, you need to follow through on that promise, or you simply will not be trusted. When working in the world, you need to maintain respectful collaboration with people, and can't use AI to do work that you were supposed to do. That's like outsourcing the labor you were supposed to do, except it's unpaid. This article underscores the need to do research on your collaborators. You need to find out not only if the people you're hiring can carry their own weight, but if the people you're working with can genuinely assist in the process in a meaningful way.
This ‘Willy Wonka Experience’ is absolutely crazy bonkers and diabolical while also being incredibly hilarious as an outside viewer. This is yet another example, like another article I just read and commented on, of someone using AI art and people getting disappointed in it. It is sad how so many parents got scammed into paying a good deal of money for the complete mess and nothingness that was this experience. Though, I feel like there definitely were some red flags on the website considering there were no actual pictures of anything besides AI art posters that had a multitude of spelling errors and a lot of weird imagery when you looked closer. Videos about actually being there and then commentary from 3rd parties and actual actors working the event blew up on tik tok. I will say, the video of the Unknown popping out behind the mirror made me die laughing for maybe five minutes. It was so ridiculous.
I love seeing headlines and reading articles about this event. It spread around the internet so quickly and the memes are fantastic. I didn’t know until reading this article that this guy has a history. The AI-generated books are funny but what makes it even better is that it was SIXTEEN books. And some were published on the same day. It is like a kid in first-grade cheating on a test and trying to get out of trouble when the teacher catches him. I do feel bad for the kids and parents who had to go through this, but I also feel like the parents like one percent to blame. I think the villain created for this event, The Unknown, is hilarious and should get a role in a movie now because a villain that lives in your walls is funny as hell.
This was all over the internet a few weeks ago, and it was really funny. It kind of is still funny. I was really amused when I first saw photos and read an article on the topic. I saw the AI generated photos but I didn’t realize that it was used for marketing. The way the warehouse was decorated was just awful. It’s interesting to hear about Billy Coull’s past shenanigans; it really doesn’t cast him in a good light. It’s good that Coull is getting thrown into the light, hopefully preventing him from scamming more people in the future. His AI generated books are an interesting topic, since I don’t think there’s a precedent yet in the book world for AI content. Coull’s use of AI is just irresponsible and landed him exactly where he should be. I hope we get some kind of follow-up to this, but I don’t know if he can really be charged with anything for what he’s done up to here.
More than anything, this is kind of just funny. Obviously, I have heard a lot about the whole Wonka Experience, since that’s very much the kind of thing that takes the internet immediately by storm. You just can’t even make up stories this good, so the fact that it actually happened is crazy. However, I hadn’t heard anything about the guy behind it, which I think was a really missed opportunity by the initial wave of internet popularity this entire situation received, because his entire shady business and “writing” background is such good comedy material, and it’s hard to believe that this guy is just somebody that exists. The AI generated author bio declaring him as the next big star in writing is unnecessarily funny. I think that him saying that he was “made out to be the face of all evil” isn’t entirely true, since I think he was more made out to be the face of all stupidity, but at least this whole thing was a moment of entertainment that will go the way of Dashcon as an iconic piece of internet history.
This is gross, taking something like Willy Wonka, an inspirational story, one where a boy who has nothing but the love of his family– is given a magical world of chocolate. It is a warming and whimsical story that can cheer up any child. Billy Coull has taken this and corrupted it. He used AI to make an advertisement for this but led to a warehouse-looking – crack den. How can such greedy people exist? I ask myself. All for money and personal gain, not thinking about the people who would have truly enjoyed this, like I would as a child, and even now. A Wonka experience would give some kids a source of happiness, especially someone like Charlie Bucket, like in the movie. The repercussions of this should be something that makes Coull never do something like this again. It is a cruel act of greed. I hope he regrets what he has done.
Post a Comment