How AI is being used in films
AI has been used in lots of films to alter the voices of actors, including Oscar-nominated films such as Emilia Perez and The Brutalist. The director of The Brutalist said that they used AI to make the actor’s accent so perfect “that not even locals would spot any difference”. Though this is a clear benefit for the director and the actors in this film there are a number of reasons that people opt not to use AI to correct their accents. One of them being that even with slight changes to the pronunciation of certain letters, directors risk losing the raw human emotion produced by actors and their improvisation.
As well as changing accents, AI has been used to alter the appearance of actors such as Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks to make them look younger. Previously this would have been the job of makeup artists (which could have taken hours every day) combined with CGI (which, again, would have taken a vey long time after filming to apply and perfect.) This technology has even been used in Furious 7 to bring Paul Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner back to life after the actor’s death.
AI has been utilised in creating visual effects, for example adding people to a scene. An example of this would be creating a large and complex crowd of people at a football game. It is believed that background actors are most at risk for losing their jobs in an AI future as they are already being replaced. AI can also be used to build landscapes in films which would usually require extensive green screen work or building sets which could take weeks. Alongside this, AI has been used to perfect the background and theme music for films. A famous example of this being done is in the 2022 movie The Batman where AI was used to create some of the atmospheric background tracks. Finally, AI has been used to assist in script writing for certain films such as the short film Sunspring. However, humans did refine and develop this script.
Why should AI be used in film?
In many of the processes that AI is currently used in it makes the process simpler and much quicker than normal. According to an article published by the Cyber Film School, editing a film takes around three hours per finished minute of shooting. This huge amount of time delays films release dates until years after they finish the initial shooting. This may result in a loss of excitement and anticipation for the film which in turn could decrease the revenue generated by the film. If AI could cut this by 50 – 90% (which is what has been estimated by people that have used AI to edit their own home films) it could not only save editors’ time and filmmakers’ money but also it could be hugely beneficial to people who are interested in watching the film. By cutting down the amount of time between shooting the film and releasing it, people may be more likely to watch it because they do not lose interest over the long wait for the release. However, this does have downsides, one of which being that this will damage people’s attention span and patience even more than it has already been by social media.
Filmmakers may have to rely on AI more than ever as they continue to make sequels and prequels to already existing films and need their actors of a certain age. Rather than using makeup like people used to, de-aging someone for a film now heavily relies on an AI input.
The future of AI in film
The first ever AI actress, named Tilly Norwood was recently created and there has been uproar from Hollywood. It has been emphasised by her creators that Tilly has not been built to steal jobs and instead is meant to be a star in the AI genre of film. In the future the AI genre may grow and develop until it is as common as horror or comedy.
Why should AI not be used in film?
This side of the argument comes more naturally to most people: “it is taking jobs”; “it’s bad for the environment”; “its less authentic”. All of these are true, but we can not argue that AI should be left out of the filmmaking industry without considering the enormous benefits that it could have.
It is almost impossible to say that AI will not be used in every film in the future because of its extensive benefits for editing and production, however, the extent to which it should be used is something that is very much up for debate. Relying too much on AI will cause us to lose the human touch that film thrives on.
Conclusion
The question of whether the benefits outweigh the costs of using AI in film is one that I believe will be discussed a lot in the years to come. As ChatGPT continues to generate storylines and FRAN goes on to de-age actors across studios the time it takes to create a film will decrease and the possibilities of what they can contain will be endless. However, does the amount of time and money saved outweigh the loss of humanity and jobs in film? I think there has to be a balance formed; a balance which allows for films to produced quicker and with more captivating effects but does not eliminate the humanity and the raw feelings expressed in TV.
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