Artificial Intelligence has been getting a lot of attention recently, especially in the film and animation industries. In some circles, there is excitement over the possibilities artificial intelligence presents, on the other side of the fence, there is anxiety and major concern. The truth is everyone should be concerned, whether you are an actor, director, cinematographer, writer, musician, or editor, and the buck doesn’t stop there. It affects all roles in the pipeline. However, the concern may not be what you think. Typically, I like to start on a positive note and caution with the bad as I go along while highlighting the ugly at the end, but this time around, I will do it in reverse because the ugly is the most concerning, and I want to end on a positive note. Yes, there are positives.

The Dark Side

When we think of Artificial Intelligence, we probably think of Robocop, Terminator, The Matrix, Ex-Machina, and a plethora of other scary doomsday-type movies where Artificial Intelligence views us as a threat and tries to eradicate us from existence. I’m not saying that won’t happen, but I am also thinking we don’t have to worry about that for now. There is also the likelihood that, as paranoid human beings, we are also ensuring there is a failsafe. Human beings are some of the most pervasive creative creatures on the planet. Regardless, AI has been threatening jobs in many sectors. Many thought the creative sector would be the last to go or not affected at all because computers can’t imagine or create that’s a human thing, right? Well, with platforms like Midjourney, Dall-E 2, and ChatGPT, we are seeing people generate seemingly intelligent and creative scripts and images with just a text prompt. We also see deep fake videos and voices substituting actors.

This has us worried about our jobs, but even worse than that, we must worry about our intellectual property. Many allegations have risen of artists' work being plagiarized by AI engines just regurgitating and combining different artists’ work. So much so their signatures are showing up on these images, yet the platforms allow the users commercial use of these images with no legal obligations. This is the ugly of it because AI is essentially stealing your work and giving it away for free, reducing your ability to earn passive income. In some cases, it is stealing styles and offering finished works of art for less effort and less money.

Imagine using AI-generated characters in your films and not having to pay royalties to actors. Imagine having AI write a script and not having to pay a writer royalties. Imagine how many VFX artists might be out of work because of AI generating VFX from a sentence.

The Light Side

With the dark side set, let’s look into the light. While the concerns above are valid, the good thing is we have a say in how AI shapes our future. If AI platforms are pulling from datasets that contain copyright material, there is the possibility of royalties being issued to the original artists. Adobe has already put in place measures to enable contributors to earn royalties for AI-generated content. It will be a matter of time before others follow suit. This can be a game changer for creatives seeking to earn passive income from their past work.

Bruce Willis, who suffers from Aphasia, a disease related to the function of the brain that enables reading, writing, and speaking, has licensed his image to Deep Fake Studios to make his digital twin for future movies. The possibilities become more favorable when we think of the benefits, don’t they?

In fact, most of us use AI and don’t even realize it. Video Editors would be accustomed to tools like the Rotobrush in After Effects, Motion Tracking, and background removal in most modern compositing software. All of those tools use artificial intelligence to make our editing experience much smoother and more efficient, saving us time and money, which in turn allows us to make more money.

As more and more streaming platforms compete, the demand for content keeps growing. There is a huge need to put out high-quality films faster. Artificial Intelligence can fill that gap. Imagine being a producer who wants to get to the meat of the matter where production is concerned, especially if producing several productions at one time, but you are bogged down in paperwork trying to manage release forms, contracts, and other administrative logistics. If AI could handle those mundane tasks and allow you to focus on the part of the pipeline that actually gets the production moving, wouldn’t you want that?

If you are a musician and you have several scores to do for a movie, what if you could type in a few prompts to create some music that you could then use as a base to manipulate and finish the score instead of creating something from scratch and having to do draft after draft?

The other major advantage of AI is that it bridges the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Imagine you have a great story; you have pitched everywhere, and you keep getting turned down like writer Director Zach Cregger whose sensational hit horror film Barbarian made waves in 2022, or Hwang Dong-hyuk, whose Netflix sensation Squid Game was rejected for 10 years. Unlike them, you don’t have the money, resources, or track record to do a proof-of-concept justice. Imagine if AI could help you create that proof of concept for far less, so you could get the attention you need to make people notice your great story.

In Conclusion

This is only the tip of the iceberg, and the limitations are up to your imagination. AI presents scary and amazing possibilities at the same time. It definitely has to be approached with caution and issues addressed as they arise. It is my opinion, and that of many in the creative industries, that AI should be seen as a tool to make our lives better, in the same way that non-linear video editing software made our lives easier, CGI made our lives easier, script writing software made our lives easier. If it weren’t for advancing technology, we would not have the real-time visual effects and motion capture that brought us Avatar. However, while we dive deep into AI as a tool, there should definitely be a consideration for regulation on how to use AI mindfully to ensure it is an advantage and not a disadvantage. Plagiarizing people's hard work is not acceptable and should be frowned upon by everyone.

With that said, whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay and most likely will not be banned. It will make some jobs obsolete, in the same way, the advent of digital video significantly reduced the need for actual film editors who physically cut reels and taped them back together. In the same way, screenwriting software ended the need for the typewriter, and in the same way, virtual sets may eliminate a lot of location scouting jobs and destination film revenue. However, when one job closes, another opens, and people will have to pivot their skills to fit in with the times. In the same way, traditional 2D animators had to start learning 3D to continue being animators, and, in many cases, they are better animators than those who started out with 3D alone. Let’s not look at how AI will take away from our future and start embracing how it can make our future even brighter. Don’t use it to cheat, use it to enhance.

If you want to learn more about how AI can be used in film production, check out this Stage 32 webinar on how AI can actually be a benefit to getting your project made.

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