AI in Hollywood: Are film makers jobs at stake?

Is AI really a problem for the future in film?

AI is no longer an extraordinary idea it's now our reality and is even affecting the film industry. From creating scripts from scratch and even crafting story boards and now generating images; raises questions about the future of certain jobs within the film industry and the need for people on set and behind the cameras.

Why is this such a big deal? Because AI isn’t just assisting us now its collaborating and creating from just a simple prompt. Whether it’s just for generating fake images, or editing videos exactly how you asked, its only growing stronger by the day and no one knows how far they are going to take it.

For example, screen writers don’t even need to come up with new ideas or even write the script anymore, they can type in a prompt as simple as: ‘write me s script for a coming-of-age short film about a young girl in NYC finding herself’ and a script will be generated in minutes. Editing software can now also be replaced with the use of AI by attaching a simple image and asking AI to change the colour, ratio and even the contents of the image. Arguably the scariest one is casting and target research, algorithms within AI can now be used to show which actor/actresses would be best suited for a role so do we even need auditions anymore?

Although AI is a great time saver and can perform strenuous task with efficiency, it is threatening the livelihood of real people and simplifying incredible talents of those who have been working and perfecting these skills for years. For example, visual effect technicians could now be replaced as a complex editing effect to enhance a film can now be made within 2 seconds without their audience questioning the authenticity of what they are seeing. Animators will more than likely be used less and less due to the high-quality cartoonish images AI can create. Thanks to the latest ChatGPT update it can now produce a cartoon of a certain person and even create different facial expressions and mouth movements to then be able to animate said image.  

However, all this being said the evolving use of AI in the film industry can also be creating new job opportunities. Although AI is very clever and seems like it does it all without the help from humans, we do need people supervising, training and creating the AI we are using especially with its high demand. For example, if the use of AI is being used in films, they would have to introduce an AI specialist to ensure that it is being used correctly within the film. For example, make sure they are asking the right questions and ensuring the final product being created by AI is suitable for the project. Although the job of script writers could be replaced very easily with this technology, we would still need to have a script writer to assist the creation and check the writing. We would still need them to have a plan and outline of how the script needs to look and the style they want to achieve. But is this just a demotion for box office script writers and almost humiliating for them to have to be a part of?

In my opinion I think we should be using AI as a collaborative thing and not to replace the talent of real people. For most directors and film makers AI is seen as a useful tool to make their life easier and improve the overall ease of creating their project to reduce repetitive and time-consuming tasks. However, to create emotional and deep story telling we still need the empathy and feeling of people to make the films we are creating mean something. For example, we could use AI to generate ideas for us and speed up the process but, for the audience to connect and find a real meaning behind the things we create we need the dialogue and emotion of a human. I think that the future of film making will be a collaborative hybrid model that directors use so that feels can be made quicker and easier but still feel creative and authentic.

So, are we just being dramatic and need to relax or should we actually be worried? I think that we just take advantage of the amazing technology now being produced and the fact we have access to it, but we need to make sure were not using it as a replacement and lose the Important of having real people behind the camera.

Or do you think we should just scrap the use of AI in film making all together? Let me know in the comments below.