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Does AI present an opportunity or challenge for the industry?
That was the question posed today at a Zurich Summit panel featuring Jim Rivera, Chief Product Officer at AI production company Flawless, David Unger, CEO Artist International Group, Chris Jacquemin, Partner & Head of Strategy WME, and Sara Murphy, Producer Fat City.
The answer was largely positive from the panel, while they also acknowledged significant challenges around implementation and ethics.
Rep David Unger expressed optimism about the current direction and also noted the transformational impact of AI.
“I think this is the transitional moment to a new cinematic language that we can’t yet foresee. It’s like the birth of sound. It’s that transformative moment where films will never be the same, and we can’t imagine where they’re going to go, and it’s going to give birth to a whole new generation of creatives and artists who are going to learn how to make films in this manner. The whole concept of narrative is going to change. The whole concept of length of content and concept of celebrity is going to change. It’ll take time, perhaps a generation, but we’re at the very birth of this moment.”
He added: “I’m very hopeful, because I see that there’s going to be a new cinematic language, new manners of creativity. For me, this is all very exciting, and I’m very curious to see how it unfolds.”
Flawless is one of the leaders in the field of AI in indie cinema using tools such as TrueSync to dub performances into different languages and modify scenes. Theatrical and streaming hit The Fall (pictured above) is among their movies designed to streamline the production process and reduce costs. Principal Rivera noted that there are still hurdles to overcome in terms of quality control.
He said: “AI is amazing, and it really raises the bar for what people can do, but for cinematic films, there’s the quality. The resolution, the color depth, color space. Research science is not built on this….Also, if you modify some someone’s performance, you really need to get their consent based on how substantial that changes is.”
Rivera noted that the company had worked very closely with the Hollywood guilds around the time of the strikes to ensure that ethical standards are being upheld.
He said: “From the very inception of the company, we’ve been talking to the guilds about this. We were really imploring them to lean into this and to think about it. As we were having these conversations, what became clear is that as the technology evolves, new rights around consent start to emerge that need to be managed…The right to allow a company to use your image and likeness in a generated performance, for example.”
Producer Murphy acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of dollars can be saved in reshoots on indie movies using AI production tools.
WME Partner Jacquemin noted: “It reminds me of that early couple of years after the iPhone launched and the App Store launched, where most of the product that you saw felt like a toy. It wasn’t quite real…A lot of our clients are now in the development phase using these AI tools to storyboard things as easier ways to pitch their their ideas. But you’re also starting to see products that could absolutely be used in a filmmaking sense.”
But he acknowledged that studios and companies need to be kept in check when it comes to consent and permissions.
“A few years ago we had two different major media companies that were negotiating deals with our clients. Their perspective was, ‘we own that voice for this animated project so can use it for sequels and derivatives without having to go back to the actor’. One was a film, one was a TV show. I remember thinking ‘This is crazy. This can’t this can’t work. This is not how the business is going to sustain’.
Finally, the panel was asked whether there will be an AI movie star, “an AI Harrison Ford”. The panel agreed there would be in the near future.
Jacquemin commented: “Yeah, I think so. A number of years ago, we were representing a company that was creating virtual worlds, and they believed then that some of those digital characters, no different than video game characters, could develop some sort of celebrity status. It just seems inevitable that there’ll be some version of that.”
