The news: Moonvalley publicly launched its Marey video-generation tool, making its ethical AI filmmaking tool accessible to broader audiences concerned about brand safety and copyright infringement amid AI adoption.

• Marey, which debuted in beta in March, can create videos up to five seconds long—comparable to other AI video-generation models on the market.
• It’s available via a monthly, credit-based subscription: $14.99 for up to 10 videos, $34.99 for 25 videos, and $149.99 for 100 videos.

How it works: Marey integrates into the production process much like CGI, allowing users to tweak results over time to build up to the content they want rather than getting a video fully auto-generated as the AI sees fit.

Users can input reference images or videos to guide the AI’s timing and creative direction and convert 2D content into 3D. Its “studio-grade” capabilities let users move objects in post-production without needing to enter new prompts or reroll results.

Ethical production in a sea of scraping: Marey is trained only on open-source data, according to the startup. Training data for models from Stability AI, Runway, and Midjourney allegedly includes web-scraped data, leaving generated content more vulnerable to copyright infringement lawsuits.

Challenges Marey could address:

• 29% of marketers worldwide cite copyright concerns as their top challenge in adopting AI, per Canva, making Marey a strong option for CMOs concerned about brand safety.
• 35% are challenged by limited customization options. Marey’s ability to customize outputs in both pre- and post-production could help address that issue.

Big screen adoption: Marey could also become a viable entry point for AI in Hollywood. It offers studios a way to avoid the copyright lawsuits and ethical controversies that have complicated AI adoption in the entertainment industry.

Those lawsuits include Disney and Universal’s copyright case against Midjourney.

Our take: Moonvalley’s Marey could make AI video generation more accessible to brands, especially those focused on prioritizing ethical AI practices and those with smaller production budgets.

Marey could also serve as a lower-cost prototyping tool to test out video concepts and align creative direction plans prior to filming to streamline full-scale production and save costs.