Oct. 4, 2023

Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on Cinematography

As technology advances with time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grown in capacity and has become highly prominent, with many AI-led services available to write, voice and create sound effects. We look into understanding how AI is utilised in the production and filming ecosystem. By: Dylan Low

From pre-production to post-production, AI technology is readily used to improve the filmmaking process. By analysing large data to collect insights and create aesthetic scenes, it offers plenty of options for filming. Through AI, it saves production resources, time and costs that can be used elsewhere.

Benefits of AI Technology

AI can be used in areas such as scriptwriting. In 2016, a short fiction film named Sunspring was released using AI technology. The film was directed by Oscar Sharp and created through Benjamin, an AI programme developed by both Sharp and AI researcher Ross Goodwin. Benjamin was a programme run on science fiction screenplay data, which contained a long-short term memory (LSTM) neural network usually used for text recognition. This experience marked the scriptwriting potential of AI.

AI can also be used to locate possible shooting locations, organise budget and scheduling alongside analysing actors best suited to play a certain role. This makes the process more efficient by saving time and resources.

AI benefits cinematography as well, such as camera automation to produce complicated camera movements. The filming scenes can be made aesthetic through determining the lighting, colour composition and angles through AI functions. AXIBO, a camera automation company used by Netflix and Apple, utilises a robotic system that does panning, tilting and camera sliding. It contains an AI processing unit that provides quick learning, adaptations and responsiveness. 

It is usually most seen in post-production through the editing process. With technologies such as visual effects (VFX) and computer-generated imagery (CGI), AI can be employed to design digital characters, change ages of people and create unseen creatures. 

Unhappiness towards AI

With AI being able to create artificial voices and visual effects, namely deepfakes and de-aging, it has caused controversy amongst many, such as Hollywood action stars. Keanu Reeves placed a clause in his contract, stating studios are banned from altering his performance scenes.

“If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view,” he clarified. “That’s scary.”

In fact, AI was one of the major reasons for the WGA-AMPTP and SAG-AMPTP strikes, involving both writers and actors in a ‘double strike’. They had concerned that unmonitored AI could detrimentally affect Hollywood and compromise their jobs, which causes a battle of creativity between both parties. 

As the WGA strike comes to an end, a new agreement and contract terms have stated. Writers are allowed to use AI tools such as ChatGPT at their own use and cannot be forced to use AI technology. Companies will also have to reveal if work given to the writers is AI made. Hence, the contract terms showcase writers to utilise AI as a research tool.

Proficient in technology automation, MIT economist Simon Johnson says, “AI is under the control of the writers, not under the control of the studios,

“It’s not to be used as an automation technology. It’s complementary to humans.”

By taking control of AI and using it wisely, filmmakers and actors are sure to obtain creative inspiration through their experiences. With boundless possibilities, it will be interesting to see how the film industry uses AI to their advantage.

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