Opening Doors
A short video by Tyler Sklazeski using AI technology to bring historical photos of Thunder Bay to life
AI-Assisted Video Brings Local History to Life
Story by Sidney Ulakovic, Video by Tyler Sklazeski
The intersection of science and art has historically been a crossroads where, more often than not, something compelling is happening.
Inspired by a fascination with Thunder Bay’s past, local photographer/videographer Tyler Sklazeski set out to bring the city’s history to life through video. The result is a one of a kind vignette, taking the viewer back to another time and through the bustling streets of the city as it stood then, which he was able to achieve with the assistance of AI technology.
Sklazeski says he was motivated to begin the project by his collection of local historical images paired with his interest in architecture and urban design. “You start to get a picture of a place that’s just so different than it is now,” he says. “You start to see all these little signs of what used to be here, and it’s kind of easy to obsess over.” He explains that his daytime work in design and advertising requires him to stay on top of technology trends, prompting him to learn a fair bit about AI imaging models and eventually creating his own for this video project.
An upscaled image of the Silver Islet mine site used in Sklazeski’s video
“So basically you pick models that will work best, depending on the subject matter, scale [the image] up so that it’s got lots of information that’ll make it a clear photo, [and] check to make sure every detail is changed,” Sklazeski says, adding that, in this stage of drafting, lot of time is dedicated to reviewing what the model generates to ensure the content it creates makes sense (for instance, you don’t want to see palm trees at Boulevard Lake). “I’m really big on trying to preserve as much of the original image and accuracy as possible [...] so I try to basically frame it so when I’m choosing angles it’s zooming in [or] panning around a centre subject so that it’s not panning out. It’s not zooming out or revealing things that aren’t in the picture. I try to always go in so that everything is already contained and all that information is there so it doesn’t have to guess.”
A photo of Middle Falls Campground used in Sklazeski’s video
As he would with regular video editing, Sklazeski will continue to refine the clips until he’s happy with the result. The payoff is a peek into the past of the city where, ironically, the humanness of the people in the source images isn’t lost in the way it sometimes is in old photos. The footage conveys a sense of grandeur, excitement, and busyness—all backdropped by areas still recognizable to any local—that showcase how the city served as a hub of industry and society.
A wartime-era photo of Red River Road featured in the video
“It just brings it to life in a way that I think people would really look twice and think about our place in the city and also [...] compare and contrast existing landscapes with what they used to do,” Sklazeski says. “You really see how communities are shaped by business and development in ways that help and hurt, and so finding that balance between looking at the history and all the wrong that was done but also getting back to our roots as small communities.”
Sklazeski says he plans to create more vignette-style videos to complete a short series showcasing the history and development of the city and asserts that creators can incorporate AI into the creative process without compromising their ethics or artistry by allowing the creativity to still come from within. “It’s super important to always be looking at how it’s impacting people, how it’s being used,” Sklazeski says. “I know a bunch of artists in town who will train their own imagery, their own art, on it and use it to brainstorm,” he says. “It’s kind of like having someone to bounce ideas off of.”
Aside from offering a starting point, Sklazeski emphasizes that AI technology has opened the door for him and other artists to achieve something of this scale. “If I was to try to recreate this through any other way, it would take a studio. It would take millions of dollars. It’s a massive undertaking,” he says. “It allows people, and it empowers people–and it empowers everyday people–to create some incredible things that will inspire others and that might not be possible any other way.”
To see more of Sklazeski’s videos as he publishes them, follow him on Instagram @facingnorth.