Reel Corner - July 2023

July 2023 Issue
Reel Corner by Donne Paine

“AI” — Artificial Intelligence

Is “AI” going to put filmmakers out of a job?

 

First let’s define AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an advanced technology, typically run by a series of algorithms, computers, or robots, that uses real-time data to simulate human intelligence. AI can replicate human discernment and make real-time decisions.

Artificial Intelligence is a technology that allows machines and computer applications to mimic human intelligence, learning from experience via iterative processing and algorithmic training.

You can think of AI as being a form of intelligence used to solve problems, create solutions, answer questions, make predictions, or offer strategic suggestions.

Because AI can do all these things, it’s become incredibly important to modern businesses and other types of organizations. It is already being used in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and finance.

Because AI never needs a break, it can run through hundreds, thousands, or even millions of tasks extremely quickly, learning a great deal in very little time.

AI isn’t just a single computer program or application, but an entire discipline, or science.

So, what does all this mean to the film industry?
AI is already a staple in the filmmaking world. It helps with scriptwriting, pre-production (planning and scheduling), formulating release strategies and predicting success at the box office, casting, and promotion. It’s also become increasingly popular for video editing, coloring, and creating music.

Filmmakers are hoping that even though AI technologies can automate certain tasks and provide useful insights, it cannot replicate the human touch and creativity that human filmmakers bring to their work.

And some fear ethical challenges, too, such as the lack of transparency of AI tools. AI decisions are not always intelligible to humans. AI is not neutral and AI-based decisions are susceptible to inaccuracies, discriminatory outcomes, embedded, or inserted bias. There are also surveillance practices for data gathering and privacy that are questionable.

AI-generated videos may be far from refinement, but Artificial Intelligence could revolutionize the film industry in the near future—or as some predict, in the next two years to be precise.

Before AI takes over, and if you are a fan of director and writer Wes Anderson, look for his newest entry into original filmmaking this month.

ASTROID CITY
Directed by Wes Anderson
Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell

An all-star road trip to Nowheresville, USA, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is unmistakably the work of one of the few modern directors who can genuinely be called an auteur—an artist (musician, writer, filmmaker) whose style and practices are distinctive. In Asteroid City it’s easy to recognize Anderson’s camera movements, his characters, his compositions, crammed with aesthetic bric-a-brac the second you see them. It’s also a jumble of ideas colliding into one another like particles in an accelerator, with none of them ever taking hold or turning into something resembling a cohesive narrative. There’s enough gorgeous “Andersonaphernalia” to get lost onscreen with the very talented ensemble comedic cast.

One thing is for sure. The creativity Wes Anderson brings to films makes one hope AI films are a long time coming.

References: www.forbes.com, www.raindance.org, www.imbd.com

Donne Paine, film enthusiast, once lived around the corner from the Orson Wells Theater in Cambridge, Massachu-setts, where her strong interest in films, especially independent ones, began. Supporter of the arts, especially films, she has traveled to local and national film festivals including Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca. There is nothing like seeing a film on the big screen. She encourages film goers to support Hilton Head local theaters, Park Plaza Theater and Northridge. To support her habit of frequent movie going, Donne is a vaccine medicine nurse consultant and also the author of 4 Interview Pillars available on Amazon. See you at the movies!