Filmmakers' AI adventures: profit or elimination

"When the steam locomotive appeared on the streets of London, it was ridiculed by the chariot-riding aristocracy, but today the carriage is only a tourist sport. On April 21, at the relevant forum of the 14th Beijing International Film Festival, the well-known director Huang Jianxin described the impact of AI on the film industry. To a certain extent, Huang Jianxin is a "traditional" director, and his works include "The Great Cause of the Founding of the People's Republic" and "The Great Cause of the Founding of the Party".

On the same occasion, Wang Changtian, chairman of Guangguang Media, said that AI may reduce costs and even become the key to profitability. "Even a 20% reduction in production costs is a huge boost for the industry. Because the content production link of China's film industry is loss-making as a whole, if we can reduce the cost by 20%, it may become profitable. He said.

AI is indeed advancing at a rapid pace. On February 16, OpenAI released its first AI video generation model, Sora, which is capable of generating high-definition video up to 1 minute while maintaining extremely high consistency and understanding and simulating the physical world. In March, Dark Side of the Moon announced that its conversational AI assistant product, Kimi Smart Assistant, now supports 2 million words of lossless contextual input. Industry insiders generally believe that the writing ability of the domestic large model Kimi has fully reached the level of GPT-4.

Right now, AI has penetrated into the creative process.

"The Savior"

Wang Changtian elevated AI to a key element of the industry's survival. He said that AI is initially expected to increase the efficiency of film production by 30% or more, and with it, the production cost will be reduced by 20%. "Especially when it comes to animated films, because the biggest problem faced by animated films is the lack of production capacity and low production efficiency. Wang Changtian said.

Kurt Reid, senior vice president of theatrical distribution (Asia Pacific) at Warner Bros. Discovery, agrees with this sentiment, saying that major Hollywood productions that used to take years to produce are now about 20% shorter production cycles, and studios are now more efficient in distribution. "In the past, I could produce 8~9 works a year, but now I have 12~15 works. Kurt said.

Based on this, Wang Changtian strongly promoted AI in Guangguang Media. "The proportion of AI applications in the company will be higher and higher, at least in the field of animation production, we require every aspect of animation production to consciously apply AI, even if it is not done well. He introduced.

However, the unavoidable problem is that the current level of AI development has not yet reached the level of movies. "The clarity, imagination, character and scene consistency of AI are far from meeting the needs of films, so they can only be applied to some basic early stages. For example, TV dramas and online dramas are more about reproducing reality, and movies are beyond reality on the basis of reality, and different products have different needs for the use of AI technology. At present, AI plays a relatively large role in reproducing and describing reality. When it comes to transcending reality, it can only help in some creative aspects of animation, but it is not very helpful for creativity and imagination, so AI has certain limitations. Wang Changtian said.

However, at present, China's film industry is still in a financial predicament, and AI is one of the few ways out in the industry's loss-making situation, at least AI can solve the cost problem to a certain extent. The performance forecast shows that Bona Film is expected to lose 360 million to 560 million yuan in 2023, and Huayi Brothers is expected to lose 460 million to 690 million yuan in 2023.

During the Beijing International Film Festival, Wang Yibing, CEO of Bad Monkey Pictures, admitted that the biggest feeling in the past two years is two words, lack of money. Bad Monkey Pictures' production projects include "I Am Not the God of Medicine", "All or Nothing" and other head works.

Director Zhang Mo feels the same way, "I have also felt this way since last year, that is, there are few opportunities to make blockbusters. Zhang Mo's work "Saving the Suspect" will be released at the end of 2023, and her father is the well-known director Zhang Yimou.

The uncontrollable return on investment makes capital dare not enter the film market, and the non-standard shooting mode makes cost control seem ethereal. As a result, it is more difficult to raise funds for film projects, especially medium-sized projects.

"Disruptor"

When AI penetrates into the creative field, the attitude of the industry is even more ambiguous.

In the United States, the film industry's growing fear of artificial intelligence has led to Hollywood's biggest labor dispute in more than six decades. Screenwriters are demanding that studios commit not to using AI to generate scripts or train so-called large language models, which can massively generate variations of their work. They also wanted to make sure that only humans could get a screenwriter's byline. Actors are also concerned about the misuse of their faces.

Looking at China, AI has not yet caused an explicit conflict on the content side, but it may also have a subversive impact.

Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI, analyzed at the Beijing International Film Festival that AI's in-depth content may have a "catastrophic" impact on newcomers entering the industry. "In the future, directors, producers, and screenwriters may not need young people, it is enough to talk to machines, and they can input their own thoughts into the machines, and machines can help people write words, draw storyboards, and even cast. He said.

However, from another point of view, young people can use AI to overtake. "Previously, young people did not have the opportunity to create a complete work, but now through generative AI, they can write a script and generate a complete work, and at the same time, it doesn't require a lot of money, maybe 500,000 yuan can make a good movie similar to the investment effect of 5 million or even 50 million yuan. Gong Yu said.

Huang Jianxin said that the appearance of Sora is not the original appearance of the physical world, it is the appearance that caters to the needs of human illusions. From this point of view, it is still an extension of human illusion, not an essential confrontation. Huang Jianxin said.

Based on this, Huang Jianxin believes that this is an opportunity for young people, because they have no burden and are easy to embrace and integrate with AI.

Huang Jianxin also gave an example that when television came along, everyone thought that movies were going to decline. But then the cinema revolution brought IMAX, Dolby sound integrity, and spatial representation back to television, and people returned to the cinema to keep movies alive. AI is a good thing, and it will only benefit us if we have a good relationship with it.

Like their American counterparts, the actors also have their own understanding of AI. "If one day AI can reproduce the complex eyes of humans, maybe the profession of actor will come to an end. At least, it's still a long way off. A well-known actor sighed to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.

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