Small independents and artists should be wary
Hollywood has always embraced change and revolutionized creativity and society as a whole. From silent films to talkies, cinema to TV to streaming, technology has posed a constant threat to the status quo. When Wired suggested that AI isn’t the villain of Hollywood but rather its flawed hero, I refer to the invention of the talkies. Sound wasn’t invented to destroy silent pictures, it was invented to advance filmmaking and consumer experience.
Imagine if Hollywood in the 1920s rejected new sound synchronization and didn’t produce talking pictures. Television in the 1950s and 1960s posed a threat to cinematic films when many of the cheap movies churned out at a fast rate moved to TV and cinematic films played with aspect ratio and the promise of an experience. Videos, DVDs, and streaming have all posed a threat to the cinema.
The options we have to view content have produced an explosion of film and TV production and artificial intelligence is just another revolution that creates a new way of doing things while everyone in Hollywood adjusts their skills accordingly. If we look at AI as a tool rather than an evil that will end jobs and destroy mankind then we will adapt and evolve.
What will take a hit are small independent films as they continue to struggle for big-screen audiences and rely on streaming companies for distribution. Without the festival experience that creates buzz for small films like Little Miss Sunshine, streaming can kill small projects.
Studios use algorithms and predictive analysis to green light films which is concerning for creativity and independent projects. Artificial intelligence that predicts which stories, cast, and crew can make or break a film means that creativity is dead and only Marvel films will be made. Computer scientists, engineers, and concept artists are driving films instead of writers, actors, and filmmakers.
With AI being used to analyze scripts and the market profitability of actors, it’s easy to see that independent films, women, and people of color are up against huge profitable franchises like Marvel.
Actors no longer have to be on set during filming or even have to be alive. This has caused many to protect their rights. The actor Michael Douglas is protecting and licensing his likeness so that his family retains intellectual property rights after he’s gone. The actor said:
“You get to an age where you start to think about your will and estate. Now I’m thinking I’m also going to have to license my name and likeness so that the rights go to my family rather than to the metaverse.”
Douglas and others are right to be concerned for their IP when artificial intelligence can recreate the likeness of people, including their voices. Keanu Reeves recently expressed concerns about deep fakes:
“What’s frustrating about that is that you lose your agency. When you perform in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deep fake land, it has none of your points of view.”
There are still ethical questions about using AI to create the likeness of the dead when legal provisions have not been put in place to protect or exploit estates. What of the rights of film stars and musicians who died before the invention of AI? Do they not have a right to their agency and the right to be laid to rest?
Synthetic media relies on machine learning tools to do a range of tasks like streamlining production and post-production workflows. It can create, edit, and animate from a text prompt. Hollywood will continue to innovate because it is always looking at ways to streamline production and cut costs and labor.
AI is used for various visual effects like battleground and crowd scenes and to create digital faces, like de-aging, and for cosmetic purposes. The documentary, Welcome to Chechnya created AI personas to disguise the interviewees instead of using actors. And AI created the late artist Andy Warhol’s voice for a documentary. Before AI, a voice actor would have been employed and because there is nothing to gain in the narrative for using AI except for novelty and publicity purposes, the only artists losing out are the voice actors.
Vanity AI by Canadian VFX studio MARZ, uses AI to digitally render and de-age actors. The small tech company has worked on big blockbusters such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Spider-Man: No Way Home. AI-driven tech cosmetically alters and enhances skin and hairline, and ages or de-age actors. Vanity AI can also fix cosmetics in a single-day turnaround, saving time and money. Cosmetic touch-ups can also replace principal photography.
A new Center for Generative AI and Society explores the transformative impact of AI on culture, society, media, and education. The $10 million center will seed research from influential experts from the fields of computer science, film, media, and education, and create innovative generative AI projects. Willow Bay, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism said:
“AI is poised to redefine how we communicate, create content and contemplate our world and its truths. We have an imperative to unite journalists, media makers, artists and storytellers to design new investigative methods and technical tools that interrogate AI’s transformative power, helping to realize its potential as a positive force.”
In January the Writers Guild of America West shared their concerns for the protection of writers from Chat GPT in a statement:
“We’re monitoring the development of Chat GPT and similar technologies in the event they require additional protection for writers.”
Hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into AI startup investment as it is hailed as the greatest revolution since the last one. Does Hollywood have a right to be anxious about AI revolutionizing the industry?
On Christmas Day, 2022, my niece’s husband was flicking through the television channel menu when he declared what we’ve all been thinking since the beginning of Covid. Why were there no new big exciting movies? Despite living in a post-Covid world, there were few new big movies available on streaming platforms. Instead, there are platform-created movies that have none of the big budgets and excitement of a studio film and all of the look and feel of a made-for-television movie. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe we shouldn’t be watching a big blockbuster movie on our laptops or smartphones.
Ginger Liu is the founder of Ginger Media & Entertainment, a Ph.D. Researcher in artificial intelligence and visual arts media, and an author, journalist, artist, and filmmaker. Listen to the Podcast.
