【Literary and Artistic Tide】
Authors: Liu Hanwen and Zheng Zekun (Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of School of Communication, Fujian Normal University, Research Assistant, School of Arts and Media, Beijing Normal University)
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in a technological explosion. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AIGC) empowers the acceleration of the implementation of multi-format application layers, enabling technological leaps in the fields of Wensheng Literature, Wensheng Graphics, Picture Video, and Wensheng Video, and bringing huge opportunities and revolutionary changes to the film and television industry. Starting in 2023, artificial intelligence will frequently appear in the domestic film and television industry. Especially in the screenwriting process, artificial intelligence has brought great convenience to script writing in terms of creative divergence and content generation, which has caused subversive reshaping of the screenwriting process and caused in-depth thinking in the industry. In the face of the wave of artificial intelligence technology, how to accelerate the pace of technology application and transformation and meet the challenges brought by artificial intelligence is a difficult point for the industry to think about.
AI micro-short drama "Chinese Mythology" poster profile picture
Dramatically improve production efficiency
Today, generative AI is the technological singularity that is reshaping the film and television screenwriting industry. Large language models based on natural language processing, deep learning models, pre-trained algorithms and other technologies make one-click generation of script writing a reality. At present, the mainland has developed large language models such as Wenxin Yiyan, Tongyi Qianwen, and Xunfei Xinghuo, and has been deeply used in the film and television industry. For example, the AI channel of CCTV launched the mainland's first AI full-process micro-short drama "Chinese Mythology". The work is written by Zhipu AI and Wenxin Yiyan, mainly responsible for text generation and theme refinement, and AI screenwriters account for up to 80%. There are also micro-short dramas such as "Sanxingdui: Future Apocalypse", "AI Reading Classics", "Mountains and Seas Mirror: Splitting Waves" and other micro-short dramas have also contributed to artificial intelligence.
The biggest help that AI can provide to screenwriters is to improve efficiency and shorten the cycle. Traditional script writing requires a lot of time and energy to be creatively conceived, outlined, and characterized. Artificial intelligence allows screenwriters to enter keywords and other information in the form of questions and dialogues, complete detailed descriptions and bridge ideas, and automatically generate a complete script in a short time. Artificial intelligence can also directly convert novels into scripts and storyboards, reducing labor costs. In addition, artificial intelligence can provide screenwriters with a dynamic perspective, which can not only disassemble the character storyline, but also evaluate and compare while writing. For example, the "Film and Television Script Intelligent Creation System" developed by the AIGC Application Research Institute of Huace Film and Television can evaluate the content of 200,000 to 500,000 words of novel scripts, reducing the workload of a screenwriter from 3 days to 5 minutes.
Artificial intelligence can also help screenwriters generate ideas and inspire ideas. In the past, screenwriters had to consult various materials and spend a lot of effort to conceive a plot. By learning, integrating, and analyzing a large number of films, TV series, and literary works, AI provides screenwriters with several options and quickly sorts out and determines the most valuable story lines. For example, users only need to enter creative points in the "Creative Generation" column, and the software will perform "plot generation" based on this and give several different storylines; Select one of them to enter the "Script Generation" section to complete the professional storyboard script.
Once script writing has taken shape, AI can also optimize content and patch loopholes. Traditional script writing is based on human experience, inspiration, and writing ability, and grammatical loopholes inevitably occur in the writing process. Artificial intelligence has a relatively comprehensive knowledge framework, relying on algorithms and databases to help screenwriters check the script's language logic, grammatical errors and spelling errors, and can also polish the script text by entering specific instructions to improve the quality of the work.
Stills from the AI micro-short drama "Sanxingdui: Future Apocalypse" Data picture
It can only assist the screenwriter in artistic creation
When the screenwriting function of artificial intelligence first appeared, it sparked a discussion in the industry about "whether artificial intelligence will replace screenwriters", and even made many practitioners, especially screenwriters, resist. But after learning and practice, we have found that artificial intelligence has certain limitations. CCTV-6 "Today's Film Review" once tested the screenwriting level of artificial intelligence on the spot in the program, and the results showed that it can only deal with the primary problems of content logic, and it is difficult to carry out in-depth detail design, especially lack of control of cause and effect logic. Therefore, at this stage, AI can only assist screenwriters in their artistic creation, and cannot completely replace screenwriters.
First of all, it is difficult for artificial intelligence to reflect the deep texture of life. Screenwriting is based on the writing or processing of words, and its work is essentially literary creation, more precisely the conception and grasp of the story. A good story is inspired by the screenwriter's own powerful imagination, and imagination is the integration and encoding of memories of daily emotions, life experiences, and aesthetic perceptions by the human brain, which is a unique ability of human beings. When creating, the screenwriter will mobilize all his life memories and use his imagination to transform personal emotional experiences and observed social phenomena into artistic expressions of universal significance, so as to make the works vivid and real. The essence of artificial intelligence is machine programs and data processing, which cannot construct its own world inward, has no individual experience, lacks the generation and divergence of imagination, and the scripts produced can only describe the story, lacking the depth of thought, the breadth of life, and the core of the story and art.
Secondly, it is difficult for artificial intelligence to make artistic expressions with personality and warmth. Traditional screenwriters examine the story's causal logic, character development, plot structure, and the subtle attitudes and underlying themes in the script from God's perspective. The underlying logic of artificial intelligence comes from its corpus, which can only achieve the expansion and diffusion of primary language, select the optimal solution through matrix logic and algorithm rules, and can give people knowledge but lack emotion, and cannot design a classic scene similar to the recitation of "Will Enter the Wine" in "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an", as well as lines containing various metaphorical expressions.
Finally, it is difficult for AI to grasp the overall narrative rhythm. Traditional screenwriters should not only focus on the design of story content, but also consider scene setting, scene selection, camera arrangement, lighting use, etc., to provide directors with sufficient shooting freedom. In contrast, the limitation of artificial intelligence is that it currently mainly focuses on the generation of the script itself, and adopts a point-to-point and point-to-multi-point linear processing method, rather than the traditional comprehensive processing method of the screenwriter's fluidity and coverage of the whole situation, so it is difficult to take into account all aspects of the entire shooting process and lacks the overall control ability. Especially in the script creation of large-scale TV dramas, senior screenwriters can ensure the coherence between each episode and the overall rhythm. However, the application of artificial intelligence is still limited to the initial writing stage of a single episode, and it is difficult to grasp the rhythm and direction of the plot as a whole.
AI micro-short drama "Fantasy Store" poster profile picture
Screenwriters who don't know how to use AI may be eliminated
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an important engine for the development of new quality productivity. In the film and television industry, the construction of a film and television power and the development of the film and television industry require us to embrace artificial intelligence technology with a positive attitude and make it highly suitable for the film and television screenwriting industry.
The first is to encourage the development and optimization of artificial intelligence technology that is highly adapted to film and television screenwriters. By deepening natural language processing technology, AI can improve its ability to understand complex text content such as script language, character dialogue, and plot development, so that it can generate more natural, emotional, and logical dialogues and narratives. Optimize the algorithm in detail to allow the AI to learn and mimic different writing styles. By analyzing a large amount of script data, learning the logic and mode of plot construction, assisting or automatically generating creative and attractive storylines to adapt to diverse creative needs. At the same time, it is necessary to further enhance the emotional understanding ability of artificial intelligence, so that it can recognize and respond to the emotional changes of the characters, and create a story that is closer to reality and more warm.
The second is to build a human-centered "human-machine collaboration" screenwriting creation paradigm. Human beings are always the subject of artistic creation, with spiritual awareness, emotional expression, and value judgment that cannot be understood by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence lacks human perception and cannot reach the level of narrative art, but it has superior objectivity, computing power and linguistic logic to humans. Artificial intelligence can help screenwriters break the traditional one-way linear creative thinking, turn to diversified and open thinking, and even directly generate pictures and videos from text scripts, so that screenwriters can change from the imagination of words to visual presentation. As the application of AI continues to be promoted, screenwriters who do not know how to use AI may be eliminated. Therefore, we should actively explore the "human-machine collaboration" model in which screenwriters are responsible for providing creative inspiration, shaping characters, and building plot frameworks, and artificial intelligence is responsible for processing large amounts of data, providing creative suggestions, optimizing text structure, and other auxiliary work, so as to improve the quality and efficiency of artistic creation.
The third is to strengthen the level of copyright management and improve the intellectual property management system. With the in-depth involvement of artificial intelligence technology and the large-scale application of artificial intelligence creation, it is bound to cause profound changes in the intellectual property management system. At present, the core issues on the copyright of AI creations mainly focus on the two levels of "whether to grant copyright" and "who the copyright is granted". Existing technologies cannot effectively trace, identify, and protect copyrights created by AI. Therefore, we need to further explore and establish a copyright management mechanism applicable to AI creations.
At present, the application of artificial intelligence in the field of film and television screenwriting is still in the initial stage of development, and various technologies and supporting mechanisms have not yet matured. However, under the trend of the times of "artificial intelligence +", artificial intelligence will become an indispensable existence in the screenwriting process. Therefore, in the face of artificial intelligence technology with both advantages and disadvantages, we should embrace it and use it with a more proactive attitude, resolve risks and challenges in a rational way, and empower the high-quality development of China's film and television industry with the new paradigm of "human-machine collaboration".
Guangming Daily (October 02, 2024 06 edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily