Good morning. Are you a finance and/or business creator based in NYC? We’re hosting a creator dinner the first week of March to talk shop, meet other creators, and enjoy a nice meal. Apply to RSVP.

— Hannah Doyle 

Creator Camp Launches Film Festival

The gap between creators and Hollywood continues to shrink. The latest example: creative production studio Creator Camp is hosting Camp Film Fest—a two-day film festival in Austin, Texas, this April with Patreon as the title sponsor. 

What to expect: 11 shorts and one feature-length creator film, plus filmmaking workshops and music performances. 

Creator Camp cofounders Chris Duncan, Simon Kim, and Max Reisinger helped supply resources to the festival’s featured creators (like Baron Ryan and Gracie Koh), from scouting locations to supplying directors of photography to helping with post production. 

“A lot of the traditional industry sees YouTube content as just content,” Duncan told us. “We want to show this is the future of filmmaking—a more democratized and permissionless path where you can start from the bedroom.”

Camp Film Fest aims to bring creators and Hollywood execs (plus their financial backing) into the same category.

• “In order to get creators to cross over into Hollywood, we need to show Hollywood the same signals they look for,” Creator Camp Head of Partnerships Danny Desatnik told us. 

• “If we’re just showing films with algorithmic media—which Hollywood can’t value cause it’s all an advertising model and they go off of ticket sales and IP—we want to build a system over the next couple of years where creators can get the necessary signals so that Hollywood looks at them and sees ‘oh you sold out a 1,200 person film festival,’” Desatnik said.

Big picture: While Camp Film Fest is curating a creator-first approach, it’s not alone in its efforts to blur the lines between traditional and new media. Sundance Film Festival introduced a creator track this year and Tribeca Film Festival recently opened up submissions to creators for branded work. 

AI Roundup: Deepfake Takedowns + Tech Advancements

The proliferation of artificial intelligence in the creator industry is a double-edged sword: The tech gets better and better…but you can’t control who leverages it (and how). This week’s AI headlines →

Woodworking creator Cam Anderson, aka Blacktail Studio, found out scammers were using his likeness in AI-generated deepfake videos that conned one fan out of $17K. He worked with police to help thwart the scammers (and created the scam victim's dream table while recounting the story on his channel).

YouTube shut down a channel that told AI-generated and fabricated murder stories billed as “true crime,” as 404 Media reported. YouTube determined the channel, True Crime Case Files, was violating several community guidelines including rules around child safety.

ByteDance researchers recently demoed new AI tech called OmniHuman-1 that generates realistic deepfake videos from a single image. In one example—featuring an AI-generated Albert Einstein giving a lecture—the results look surprisingly real.

Sponsored by CTB

How Theo Von Booked One of Comedy’s Most Elusive Stars

Katt Williams is one of entertainment’s most compelling voices. When he speaks, the world listens.

But getting him on a podcast? That takes the right mix of timing, trust, and connections.

For Theo Von, working with Central Talent Booking helped make it happen. With CTB’s expertise navigating the process, everything lined up for a conversation fans wouldn’t want to miss.

The result? Over 9 million views and counting—one of Theo’s biggest episodes ever.

Looking to book major guests for your content? See how CTB’s 25+ years of experience can make it happen.

Amazon Shuts Down TikTok Competitor

Two years back, Amazon launched a shopping feed called Inspire, complete with a TikTok-like For You Page. 

Inspire incentivized creators with 1) cash for every video made on one of its shopping categories and 2) a cut of sales.

Amazon is now shutting down Inspire to focus on features that “better align” with what customers want, a spokesperson told TechCrunch. 

Going forward, Amazon is doubling down on existing platforms, like in-app shopping on Instagram and direct sales via Snap.

➕ Community Tab

Last week, we wrote about Spotify’s new Partner Program, one month in. Now, we want to hear from you—have you participated in Spotify’s updated creator monetization plan? Reply and let us know. We’d love to feature your experience in a future story.

🔥 Press Worthy

• AMP is launching a personal care brand.

• Instagram is testing a private dislike button.

• Join 33,000+ social media and marketing professionals who get their latest social media news and expert analysis from Geekout—subscribe for free here.

• Smosh partners with content syndication agency Wild Vision.

• The People's League launches as a creator-owned competitive golf league.

• Facebook is now deleting Facebook Live videos after 30 days.

• A new streaming service, Olyn, aims to become a “Shopify for filmmakers.”

• Andrew Callaghan is premiering his new movie, Dear Kelly, in NYC tonight.