The Art Directors Guild is not happy with Martin Scorsese’s promotion of AI tools for storyboarding.
The Studio City-based crew union applauded the remarks. Murderers of the Flower Moon On Tuesday, he was tapped to direct a recent ad shot in collaboration with startup Black Forest Labs. In the video spot, Scorsese, an advisor to the company, used the company’s FLUX technology to create a storyboard featuring a medieval street, praising the model for showing “cinematic intelligence.”
ADG said it was an example of the director “turning his back on the human artists who have helped create some of the most memorable works of his career.”
In a statement, the labor group cited Scorsese’s recent statements regarding partnerships with AI companies. “There was always the problem of how to convey what I saw in my head to the cast and crew,” he says. “There are some things you have to see and feel. I’m interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling and seeing how it can push the boundaries of creativity and create deeper, richer experiences for viewers.”
From an ADG perspective, he was claiming potential job losses. “He argues that the solution is to harness this generative AI program to do work that is the natural purview of the artists and designers of Art Directors Guild Local 800, the human artists and designers who have successfully collaborated with directors to visualize films for decades,” the labor organization said in a statement. “Mr. Scorsese’s promotion of generative AI products circumvents the cooperation of Art Directors Guild Local 800’s art directors, graphic artists, illustrators, production designers, set artists, set designers, and other talented union professionals.”
hollywood reporter We have reached out to director Scorsese for comment.
ADG negotiates on behalf of storyboard artists, who create visual sequences from written scripts that guide the filmmaking process. The union also represents concept artists, illustrators, graphic artists, set designers, and production designers. Scorsese himself has been storyboarding for a long time, and in a statement about his partnership with Black Forest Labs, he suggested that the company’s technology could aid in this process.
ADG, whose members include art directors and artists, has been hit hard by the recent downsizing of the entertainment business. In 2024, the union suspended training programs for young professionals due to mass unemployment in the targeted craft sectors. According to annual reports filed with the Ministry of Labor, union membership declined from 3,492 in 2022 to 2,966 in 2025.
And its members are among the most threatened generative AIs, according to a 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild and The Concept Art Assn.
ADG doesn’t have that. “The skills of Art Directors Guild Local 800 artists and designers bring the highest level of value to every film and television production,” the union’s statement continued. “It is a betrayal of the collaborative nature of film to think that their professional contributions could be imitated or surpassed by a generative AI built on work supposedly stolen from them and many other artists around the world.”
Read the union’s full statement below.
