Top 5 in Tech: Moonvalley’s Ethical and Filmmaker-First AI Model, Veo 3’s Talking Images, Luma AI Op

VP Land Staff

VP Land is a newsletter & YouTube channel covering the latest updates in creative technology for M&E professionals.

Here's a quick roundup of the most significant developments in media and entertainment technology this week:

🎥 Marey: Hollywood-Ready AI, Built for Filmmakers

Moonvalley's Marey is dialing in on what filmmakers actually want from AI - models with full control, ‘ethical’ and licensed training data, and native compatibility with tools like ComfyUI. The platform supports text-to-video, image-to-video, 3D-aware generation, and editable motion, camera, and scene elements. Catch VP Land’s interview (Part 1/Part 2) with Moonvalley and Asteria Co-Founder Bryn Mooser as he dives into how Marey was designed hand-in-hand with Hollywood filmmakers, plus how they’re using it on Uncanny Valley, Natasha Lyonne’s directorial debut.

🗣 Veo 3: Now with Image-to-Video

Google’s Veo 3 just got a major upgrade—users can now animate a still image into a full-talking video, preserving character likeness across frames (you’ll still have to use another tool to build the first frames). The new features focus on lip-sync accuracy, emotion matching, and background fidelity, offering creators faster, controllable ways to prototype character-driven scenes.

🎬 Luma AI is Opening a Lab in Hollywood

Luma AI is making its mark in LA with Dream Lab, a creative hub in Hollywood focused on pushing the limits of photoreal generative tools. The lab will host hands-on workshops, artist residencies, and collaborative R&D focused on Luma’s latest tools, including its generative video model Dream Machine. Leading the new studio is Verena Puhm, with filmmaker Jon Finger joining as creative workflow executive. 

🧭 Comet and Dia: Agentic Browsers for the AI-First Web

New AI-native browsers are gaining traction. Perplexity's Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia are changing how people interact with the web by using autonomous agents. Instead of just answering questions, these browsers can take over and handle full tasks like research, booking, or summarizing entire sites. 

🌄 Freepik Drops All AI Image Generation Limits

Freepik now offers unlimited AI image generation for Premium+ and Pro users, removing caps, tokens, and wait times across models like Mystic, Imagen, Seedream, and Ideogram. This shift removes “generation anxiety,” enabling faster, freer creative output. And starting this month, Freepik is partnering with video models for weekly unlimited video generations. First up: MiniMax 02 by Hailuo, available starting July 10th.

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