The Making of The Haven

This is an exercise in how Microsoft Chat GPT can be used for creative writing. Creating an entire soap opera with characters, locations, back stories, relationships and scripts.

On the whole it has done a fantastic job with probably more imagination that current fare coming form soaps such as Eastenders, Coronation St and Emmerdale.

### Problems that required manual correction.

* American Bias
* "Does anybody want any toast?" The answers are obsessed with baking just like the talking toaster in the comedy series Red Dwarf.
* Everyone is called Sarah, John and Sophie? Are there people on the team at Bing?

### Where it has excelled expectations

* Creating a bi-sexual main character.
* Choosing a fitting location, Ludlow is very picturesque and not currently used in a major TV series. It also has artisan bakeries that would make a Spanish Bakery plausible.
* The soap has similarities to the failed BBC Soap opera Eldorado with and English/Spanish cast. Some people say that soap was not given enough chance after early teething problems. It was produced by the genius producer of Dr Who Verity Lambert. There were problem having the location in Spain. A problem Chat GPT has solved. That soap has a problem with casting. Before I said to chat GPT it had to create fictional actors to play the characters it chose Penelope Cruz to play Luna. Which is a good choice but probably budget busting. English soaps are popular in Spain e.g. Emmerdale.
* It has created two extras for scene off it's own bat.
* Identifying tropes in soap operas for character and scenario creation.

### Prompts

**Prompt:** Invent the name for a new popular UK fictional soap opera. I want a name that is catchy and easy to remember. I wanted you to come up with a new fictional name not an existing one.

**Bing**: Here are some new fictional names that you might like: **The Haven,** The Crest, The Peak, The Rise, The Summit, The Pinnacle. Bing: Do you like any of these names? Or do you want me to suggest more?

**Prompt:** Tell me more about The Haven.

**Bing**: Sure, I can help you with that. What kind of setting would you like for The Haven? A small town, a big city, a rural area, or something else? Great! Here are some ideas for the setting of The Haven in a small town: The Haven is a small town located in the mountains. The town is known for its beautiful scenery and friendly people. The town is also home to a number of small businesses, including a bakery, a coffee shop, and a bookstore.

### The Locations

Bing described the location of the Haven and I asked it for a pictures location not popular with tourists that matched. I picked one of the three that did not currently have a TV series based there Ludlow coincidently I had real footage of Ludlow that I could use for the titles. It was an afternoon of filming but for my own enjoyment.

### **The Music**

The music is by Beathoven AI I just picked 1 minute to fit the various moods I need for the selection give. Zero Effort

### The Casting

The actors are the first that appeared on refresh of This Person Does Not Exist that matched the character given by MS Chat.

### The Acting Coach

These still images of the actors are moved with Cutout AI.

### The Vocal Coach

The voices are created bu SpeakIt and Speaking Intelligence. There is better software out there designed for the purpose but that costs money.

### The Editing

Was done by myself in Shotcut and cost £0 and a day for the title sequences. Suitable sound effects were manually added to give atmosphere from Free sources and suitable images of the characters talking in Spaghetti Western style. There are better facial animation out there but they cost money as far as I am aware.

### Lack of Free Voices

I have to make a character Irish, Welsh Australian due to the small number of free voices on Speaking Intelligence and SpeakIt.

### Budget

£0 The whole point of the exercise was to create this for nothing.

### Time

This did take longer than I expected.

3 days to create the characters and locations, which is what I expected.

A half hour to create the script for the first episode. Which is less than I expected,

2 days of editing for the first episode, mainly creating animated images for the actors and locations which was more than expected.

1 day editing the second episode. I have to figure out a more automated way of going from script, text to speech to editing.

### Reasons for it's Creation

I totally HATE soap operas. Whenever a soap opera appears on my TV set, I hit the off button. I have friend, even intellectual ones who watch them. My mother has wasted an entire life watching them. I am okay with drama and even a long running one where a string character can tell different stories. However soap operas are geared for quantity over quality. This introduced lazy, uncreative writing. Characters having schizophrenic character changes. Shock tactics and implausible scenarios to keep viewers. They fulfil glamorous, cut out. stereotypes that bear no relation to the real world. No heart at all, just as if it was written by a machine. So why not let a machine have a go and churn out these tropes ad infinitum.