The Inspiring Story: Cristóbal Valenzuela, CEO at Runway

Imagine a world where you watch a movie and realize the actors aren’t real. It’s a contradictory feeling, isn’t it? On the one hand, there’s the allure of cost-effectiveness in movie production and the time-saving aspect – no need for human resources like actors, plus the potential for vastly improved visual effects.

But what about the consequences? What about the loss of artistic authenticity? What about the displacement of jobs and the looming threat to the entire cinematography industry as we know it? You might be wondering why the entire cinematography industry would be at risk of disappearing.

Well, have you heard of Runway AI? With Runway AI, you can create videos using text prompts in so many ways! All you need to do is type out a simple description of what you want to create and let it work its magic. By the way, Runway tools have already been used in film production, but we will speak about it later. 

Today, we’re exploring the cutting-edge technology behind Runway AI and its potential impact on the whole world, but most importantly, we will speak about who is the CEO of Runway company and how he came up with such a groundbreaking idea of creating Runway. What is his mission, and what challenges he has already encountered? Without further ado – let’s go!

Early beginnings

So, who founded Runway AI? Meet Cristóbal Valenzuela Barrera – the co-founder and CEO of Runway company. Cristóbal was born and raised in Chile and studied there a combination of economics, design, business, and software for around 7-8 years. Cristóbal fell deeply in love with the design, and a bit later, in Chile, he came across a groundbreaking research project called Deep Dream, which ignited his fascination with artificial intelligence. Deep Dream was among the earliest neural networks capable of generating images, leaving a lasting impression on Cristóbal Valenzuela.

“I was impressed by several aspects of the aesthetic of how the image looked, but more importantly, how it was created is what really caught my attention.” 

He was so intrigued by the huge potential of AI that he decided to leave everything he was doing in Chile and pursue further studies at New York University, where he delved into the field of studying and researching AI for 2,5 years. During his studies at New York University, he met his future business partners and co-founded their research project, Rango, which eventually they transformed into a successful company.

“It’s impressive to think that my initial plan was to come to New York for 2 years to study this program and then return home. It’s been 7 years since I came for 2 years, so it’s been quite a journey of research, experimentation, and curiosity more than anything else. I believe curiosity has defined me professionally.” saying Cristóbal Valenzuela with a sincere smile in one of the podcasts. 

It’s truly wonderful to witness someone who is so passionate and dedicated to pursuing their dreams, like Cristóbal Valenzuela. Let’s see what happens next.

The birth of Runway

So what is RunwayAI company all about? What mission does Cristóbal Valenzuela pursue?

Overall, the origins of the project date back to around 2015-2016, when three future founders of Runway – Cristóbal Valenzuela, Anastasis Germanidis, and Alejandro Matamala met while studying at New York University. They were all united by the wish to understand algorithmic methods for generating and automating content.

Thus, in 2018, Cristóbal Valenzuela, Anastasis Germanidis, and Alejandro Matamala founded Runway – a company dedicated to the frontiers of Artificial Intelligence. In its essence, Runway allows the creation of models that enable the creation of images, videos, and multimedia content using things as simple as text or images.

Runway has been dedicated to revolutionizing the audiovisual and videovisual industry for the past 5 years. By democratizing content creation, they aim to provide people who may not have considered themselves filmmakers or artists with the tools to create content in entirely new ways.

As both a designer and visionary, Cristóbal drives Runway’s mission to make content creation accessible to everyone, regardless of their artistic background. He’s committed to keeping Runway innovative in the ever-changing world of technology and media, ensuring it remains a leader in the audiovisual industry.

What is so unique about Runway?

Cristóbal was pursuing his dreams, and he indeed created something amazing and unique. Nowadays, Runway operates as a straightforward platform, allowing users to create videos or images using just words.

The technology behind Runway involves algorithms capable of understanding and translating words into visuals, including images or moving videos. Users can interact with artificial intelligence by providing text prompts, which the system then interprets to generate the desired content. Cristóbal turned his dream into reality by providing an opportunity for everyone to become a professional in video editing, allowing users to create videos or images simply by using words. It is available globally, ensuring access for people from all countries in the world.

The technology behind Runway involves algorithms capable of understanding and translating words into visuals, including images or moving videos. Users can interact with artificial intelligence by providing text prompts, which the system then interprets to generate the desired content. Cristóbal turned his dream into reality by providing an opportunity for everyone to become a professional in video editing, allowing users to create videos or images simply by using words. It is available globally, ensuring access for people from all countries in the world.

“What we’ve been trying to do and have been working on for the past 5 years is to create a new way of creating and distributing content. We’re somewhat democratizing the creation of content and making it easy and accessible for people who may have never considered themselves filmmakers, artists, or designers to create content in a completely different way than before. Anyone can use Runway; it’s a fairly simple and easy-to-use platform. You can access it and create videos.”

Runway also offers flexibility by allowing users to integrate with other tools or platforms. Besides, Runway allows users to use existing videos as inspiration and modify or edit them.

Overall, Runway stands out for its innovative approach to content creation, leveraging artificial intelligence to empower all people, with or without background, to express themselves creatively in entirely new ways.

Runway’s achievements

Cristóbal firmly believes that the most remarkable era of cinema lies ahead, asserting that the finest films are yet to be created. He suggests that many untold stories from diverse voices worldwide still remain undiscovered due to the expensive costs and complexity associated with filmmaking. Therefore, Cristóbal is dedicated to democratizing technology to render filmmaking more accessible; supporting filmmakers from diverse backgrounds is something Cristóbal deeply cares about.

Meanwhile, Runway’s tools have already gained prominence, notably in the movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” where Runway ML was used during prime time.

In the movie, Runway’s tools were used by a small team of only 7 editors and visual effects artists to automate tasks such as rotoscoping and video segmentation. Before employing Runway, these tasks would typically take filmmakers hours and sometimes even days or weeks to complete. However, by using Runway’s Green Screen tool, they were able to save significant time and effort in the editing process, allowing them to focus more on executing their storytelling vision efficiently. This approach not only optimized the filmmaking process but also contributed to the creation of a visually stunning and unique film, which ultimately received critical acclaim and won 7 Oscars. (Wow! That’s impressive.)

The success of this project, without any doubts, showcases the potential of AI tools like Runway to revolutionize the filmmaking industry by helping smaller teams with limited resources to produce high-quality content that rivals larger productions. This is definitely a thing to be proud of for a company like Runway and its leaders, particularly Cristobal Valenzuela, as this is one of his prominent goals, which was successfully achieved.

Challenges and non-acceptance of AI

Despite the excitement surrounding Cristóbal’s vision of democratizing filmmaking through accessible technology, there are a lot of significant challenges yet to overcome. One major hurdle lies in helping industry professionals, mainly within Hollywood and the media, understand the full scope of the impending changes.

If you follow the news, you might know that in July 2023, both Hollywood actors and screenwriters began a strike that lasted for more than 120 days. At the core of these negotiations was the issue of AI and its impact on Hollywood.

Despite such a non-acceptance and misunderstanding of the whole concept of AI in the film industry, Cristobal Valenzuela remains patient and understanding personality, trying to explain the concept of AI in the film industry as best as he can. Thus, he often draws parallels between AI and the revolutionary impact of the camera over a century ago.

“I think the magnitude of what’s coming is to think about AI as a new kind of camera. This, for us, feels like a new camera. We are opening the doors for a completely new form of art that’s gonna create an entirely new form of storytelling. The camera created the seventh art, a new form of art, and cinema is a new art. We’re heading to a world where AI will be a new form of art, and that will change radically how we think about media, how we think about stories, and how we think about art in general.”

Cristóbal also insists that there’s a crucial distinction to be made: just possessing the tools does not equate to mastering the craft; AI requires a profound comprehension of its application in storytelling. Rather than replacing creativity, AI should be seen as augmenting it, serving as a tool to enhance the creative process.

Despite all the challenges, Cristobal and his team at Runway remain committed to guiding creators in embracing the power of AI to produce innovative and compelling content and will keep educating people on how AI can be useful for filmmakers and other people.

Bottom line

Despite the misunderstandings and fears harbored by some people regarding AI’s integration into our lives, Cristóbal stands out as an admirable figure. His passion for design, coupled with technical expertise, led to the creation of a company poised to revolutionize creative processes.

Cristobal firmly believes that creativity knows no bounds and is accessible to anyone, regardless of background or expertise. He sees creativity as a state of mind, emphasizing that it’s all about how one perceives and approaches a situation. According to Cristóbal, sometimes all it takes is a fresh perspective or a different angle to unlock creative potential. 

Thus, Cristóbal believes that Runway, born out of dedication and unwavering belief in its mission, allows all people to view the world through a more imaginative lens. And we at KITRUM are sure that Cristóbal’s commitment is a driving force that will undoubtedly propel Runway to new heights.