Steven Soderbergh hints at using AI in future movies

Ever since everyone started talking non-stop about generative AI a few years ago, there has been concern (and excitement) about how this technology will impact the film and television industry. Filmmakers like Vince Gilligan are adamantly against it. episode of his show pluribus At the end, it even says, “This program was created by humans.” avatar Director James Cameron was initially opposed to the use of AI in his films, but he has changed his tune a bit, talking about how the technology “could reduce the cost of films.” [VFX] In half. ”

and, ocean’s eleven and magic mike director steven soderberghhe seems to be embracing AI in a new interview filmmaker:

It’s worth talking about what the technology is good at. I’ve recently been working on a documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono using AI, and it’s almost finished. AI helped create thematically surreal imagery that occupies a dream-like space rather than a literal one. It was really fun because you need a Ph.D. Literature tells us what to do. But like all technologies, very close human oversight is essential.

The upcoming documentary centers on a three-hour interview that John Lennon and Yoko Ono gave to RKO radio hours before Lennon was murdered in 1980. Director Soderbergh said that 90% of the film’s visuals will be archived stills, but the other 10% are “little pockets of images that we create every time they start talking philosophically. If there’s no literal element to what they’re saying, I create these images” that are surreal versions of what their words are trying to convey. ”

And that’s just the beginning of Soderbergh’s interest in generative AI technology.

Only 10% of the John and Yoko documentary uses AI, but Soderbergh seems to have ambitions to go beyond that. He wants to make a film about the Spanish-American War of 1898 that is “AI-heavy.” That movie may be a while away, but so far he’s only starring in Wagner Moura – but when it does happen, Soderbergh clearly has no qualms about using AI to complete it.

Soderbergh is famous for finishing movies quickly. Since 2017, he has been releasing at least one movie a year, sometimes more than one. traffic jam and Erin Brockovichtwo of his most famous films, were both released in 2000. One of the big selling points of generative AI is its ability to reduce production time, so it’s no wonder filmmakers like Soderbergh are drawn to it.

But that would come at the cost of cutting many jobs, something Soderbergh doesn’t seem to mind. “For me, the only benefit of any new technology is that it allows us to work faster with fewer people,” he said when speaking generally about advances in film technology.

Additionally, generative AI works by taking work done by others and reusing it, usually without credit, essentially making it a plagiarism machine. AI companies like Ben Affleck’s InterPositive, which was recently acquired by Netflix, are trying to get around this problem by creating closed-circuit AI systems that are trained only on the dailies of movies and shows you’re shooting, so they only use work created by people who are creating something new. But jobs will still be at risk, especially in the special effects field.

Soderbergh’s new work christophersComing out this weekend, the AI doesn’t seem to be used much, but the plot rings some bells. The story is about an art forger (Michaela Coel) who is tasked with finishing an unfinished painting by a famous artist (Ian McKellen) and, after his death, passing it off as the artist’s own work. His estranged children are then able to sell them for a high price, even though the paintings themselves are stolen and fake. It seems a little on the nose.