Janet Yang, a producer and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is part of what she calls a “grassroots movement” to help Hollywood navigate the many uncertainties surrounding artificial intelligence.
Yang and filmmaker Noah Segan were on hand. THR Autodesk’s AI and Independent Filmmaking Panel in partnership with Berggruen Institute at the Sundance Film Festival held at the Pendry Hotel in Park City, Utah. The program also featured conversations with Oscar-winning director Daniel Kwan, actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Autodesk’s Matthew Sivertson.
Yang, along with other Hollywood figures including Kwan, Gordon-Levitt, producer Jonathan Wang, CODA director Sian Heder and Natasha Lyonne, founded the Creators Coalition on AI, which works within Hollywood to advocate for guardrails and guidelines around the use of AI. The coalition has hundreds of Hollywood signatories, including Rian Johnson, Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart.
Yang said, “One of my biggest concerns is the decline in trust. What will happen to society if we no longer know what’s real and what’s fake?”
“We really want to slow down, and that goes against the granularity of people’s sensibilities and the tempo of work right now, but can we slow down? Can we look at things a little deeper? Can we actually look at where these learning models are getting their information from? Can we even define what artificial intelligence is? Do we have any agreement on anything?” Yang continued. “This is a very lofty goal of the CCAI… to arrive at certain basic principles that we can agree on.”
As an independent filmmaker, Seguin said he has yet to come across any fellow indie directors who are trying to incorporate AI into filmmaking. “I don’t think people who are used to doing everything themselves expect someone else to do it better than them,” he said.
But Seguin said he understands the temptation for up-and-coming filmmakers to use AI. “From the perspective of young amateur filmmakers and artists who will become the next generation of professional filmmakers and artists, the standards must remain high,” Seguin said. “Just because it’s so easy to make something that looks great, largely “Just as good” doesn’t mean it’s just as good. ”
Seguin attended the Sundance Film Festival to premiere his latest film. The only living pickpocket in New York. Starring John Turturro, the drama tells the story of an old-school pickpocket who must race across New York to track down what he stole in an ill-fated elevator ride.
The film received rave reviews at Sundance. THRDavid Rooney wrote, “This is the tip of a reverence for this city and the vast canon of New York cinema. And it’s also a gift to the wonderful Turturro, another native son. He imbues his role with a lifetime of personal history, understating it all with the most delicate restraint.”
Returning to the panel, Seguin added that he wants independent filmmakers to prioritize human-centered storytelling. “How do we garden so that young people, or people who aren’t even at the stage of being professional independent filmmakers, feel like they have material they can work on?”
Yang noted that future labor negotiations between studios and guilds will need to address some difficult questions regarding Hollywood’s use of AI. She said: “We’re already having a lot of discussions with the guild. We’ll start with the studio.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Janet Yang, Noah Segan, Daniel Kwan and Matthew Sivertson attended the THR x Autodesk “AI and Independent Filmmaking” panel held at Pendry Park City in Park City, Utah on January 25th during the Sundance Film Festival.
Credit: Hollywood Reporter
