International
Theatre operator shaves off head as last single-screen shuts in Seoul
MUMBAI: The only surviving single-screen theatre in Seoul, Seodaemun Art Hall, is soon to be knocked down and replaced by a hotel. As a parting shot, the cinema hall played its final film, the Italian classic The Bicycle Thief, yesterday. The moment was so emotional for the theatre operator that she publicly shaved her head in frustration.
“My heart is aching because I have to let (the theatre) go like this,” Kim Eun-ju, 39, the head of theatre operator Hollywood Classic, reportedly said before having her head shaved.
The theatre, which opened in 1964, had become a place where mostly elderly moviegoers gathered regularly to watch classic Hollywood and South Korean films and go back in time and indulge in nostalgia.
As huge multiplexes made it hard to compete financially, the cinema hall played up the one thing the newer theatres could never match – its age. But the theatre‘s attempt to keep business alive based on that shared joy of nostalgia and a sense of community among its elderly patrons came to an end on Wednesday.
The building venerates Hollywood royalty, with a hand-painted advertising board over the theater and big photos of American movie stars like Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor hanging on the walls.
Seoul officials approved plans to demolish the theatre way back in August last year to build a high-rise hotel that, according to them, would create jobs and resolve a shortage of hotel rooms for foreign tourists.
The theater‘s end has been hard to take for many of the workers and people who regularly watched movies here, hundreds of whom came Wednesday to see Italian director Vittorio De Sica‘s 1948 classic.
International
Utopai Studios unveils 4K three-minute video generation for PAI platform
New Story Agent and editing tools aim to streamline AI-led filmmaking workflows
MUMBAI: Utopai Studios has announced a major upgrade to its PAI storytelling AI platform, introducing what it claims is an industry-first capability to generate three-minute videos in 4K resolution, alongside enhancements to its Story Agent feature.
The update, rolling out from April 15, expands the platform’s capabilities across the filmmaking process, from early concept development to post-production. The company said the new features are designed to help filmmakers maintain continuity across characters, scenes and visual styles, a key challenge in AI-driven storytelling.
At the heart of the release is a next-generation model that enables more structured narrative development, allowing creators to move more seamlessly from idea to execution. With tools such as multi-shot sequencing and multi-turn editing, the platform aims to give both studios and independent creators greater control over complex storytelling workflows.
Commenting on the launch, Utopai Studios co-founder and CTO Jie Yang said, “The next phase of AI in media will not be defined by isolated tools, but by systems that can carry story, continuity and collaboration across the full creative process.” He added that the update is a step towards enabling more practical, end-to-end narrative development at a professional level.
Echoing this, Utopai Studios co-founder and chief scientific officer Zijian He said, “Generative video is opening the door to a new production model, where creative ambition is less constrained by traditional cost and complexity.” He noted that the platform combines multimodal models with iterative editing to give creators more speed, control and consistency.
The company said PAI is already being used in professional film and television productions, particularly in Hollywood, for tasks such as pre-visualisation, scene design and post-production refinements. The latest update adds features including improved voice options, character consistency, unlimited editing and more flexible asset management.
Utopai also emphasised that its models are not trained on copyrighted material, positioning the platform as a cleaner alternative for creators and rights holders navigating the evolving AI landscape.
As AI continues to reshape content creation, Utopai’s latest push signals a shift from standalone tools to integrated systems, aiming to make high-quality filmmaking faster, more flexible and increasingly accessible.
