Will AI Destroy Movies?
Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) for video is causing drama on social media right now.
A few days ago, people on social media began to share the ability of AI text-to-video in the way we have come to witness text-to-image over the last year. Prompting creation of image and not video just as writing, from prompts which then takes results from its database of collected content all over the internet. Content created by humans like you and me.
The implications of AI can be dramatic, if we panic. I watched some tech people and video producers alike get excited over this, and some of them said the public will create their own films with prompts so that’s the future and get used to it. I don’t think this will work in the theaters, either.
My reaction.
People keep saying that AI will take over all forms of art. They’ve been making this claim for many months. So what do I think?
I think it’s up to the general public if they want to accept this as a future. It’s also up to artists, including photographers and filmmakers, if they want to accept this.
There are things governments all over the world are trying to do and that is protect original art. We can get into a philosophical debate over what is art but let’s not because if you studied the most basic topic of philosophy in school, you know they debate one question for centuries. We cannot stop time to hold a debate.
When it comes to art most artists around the world feel they know what art is. That is why defining art is an ongoing debate.
Art in a Box.
The definition of art is personal because it revolves around our feelings and our need for expression as humans. There are blind artists and deaf musicians.
I believe we all have an innate ability to create art in some form or another. I believe we are born with this ability. In the beginning of our human evolution, artists created art on cave walls. It was a form of expression and an innate need to communicate feelings, perspectives and stories.
Storytelling is an art.
Filmmakers are storytellers. The best photographers I’ve had conversations with, point out how their intent when they press that button on their camera, smartphone or other, is to share a story. It’s the same with many other art forms. A story can be a perspective connected to our individual personal human identity, through our life’s experiences, emotions and feelings.
Keep it real.
I am watching and listening to what people are saying within our mobile filmmaking community and outside it.
A long time ago, when I first launched the festival (2009) I sat down to create some basic rules for the film competitions. Contests and competitions are “supposed” to be fair and just, it was important to implement rules that would encourage the concept of democratizing filmmaking using (at the time) cell phone cameras.
In our rules we warned filmmakers not to use apps or software of any kind that automated editing decisions.
At the start of our 2024 open call for films, in June 2023, we took a step beyond automation and added that using AI was a disqualification. Personally, it would be sad if it came to light after publicizing a film selection to find out it broke the rules. That’s because we would have to correct it publicly which can damage a filmmaker’s integrity.
The restriction limits submissions. From my own research, the point of a competition in a film festival is not supposed to be about the number of submissions it takes in. I think in the age of social media we got used to an equation where the numbers of followers, views, subscribers, etc. depicted a declaration of fame and credibility.
The challenge to tell better stories through film and to inspire better films is important for the survival of independent filmmaking as a whole. Independent filmmakers don’t profit like studios, but they benefit from owning their stories, and one way to distribute their films is through film festivals.
I did my research on film festivals before starting our own. One thing I discovered was how much corruption film festivals practiced since their inception back in the 1930’s. I’m not saying that the oldest and all traditional film festivals were, or are, corrupt. But throughout history, there have been corrupt film festivals, and many exist today. Not to rule out some newer festivals.
What inspires me as a festival founder and director.
The purpose of a competition, from our perspective, is to challenge an outcome. At first the outcome was to send a message to manufacturers to make cameras so good on our phones that we could make movies for the big screen…and I knew eventually they would but I wanted to light a fire under them to move faster toward that result.
The other purpose of our film festival, for only movies shot with mobile phones, was to create an equal arena to compete with other mobile phone cameras. Which leaves the judges to rate the films based on skill and talent, and the overall quality of a film. Yes it must look good and sound great. But that also meant the equal arena enabled people with no budget or funds, to fairly compete.
Let me be clear, the camera is not what will make a great film. The fact that everyone has a camera on their phone, is why we created a platform to illuminate everyone regardless of their funding capabilities and elite status within a closed industry.
I’ve experienced a few filmmakers in the past complain that we should be like other festivals that came after ours. We should allow all sorts of mobile “devices.” I’ve also had filmmakers share they like that their film will only compete with other smartphone cameras.
We have not accepted the practice of accepting all mobile devices in our film festival. And to be fair, DSLRs and newer small cameras are all mobile devices because of their portability.
Wait, why is it a “mobile” film festival? That’s because it caters to the most popular device everyone has. If that changes in the future to be another mobile device, so be it…we’ll adapt that as the exclusive device.
Our competitions are as fair as we can define them. The criteria is clear but as precise as possible. If we made our competitions simple without boundaries we feel we would get many more submissions. However, the competitions would be less equal.
It was a conscious decision not to accept GoPros and iPods that were very popular at the time. In my vision from 2001, it was the mobile phone that would succeed as the most popular mobile device in the world to go hand-in-hand with the ability to accept films from all humans around the world. To be the most inclusive I made sure we were exclusive to only phone cameras.
Traditional film festivals are at a place they don’t care what you shot your film with.
How cool is that? I have a couple of friends who were founders of very successful film festivals that between the time I launched our film festival and not long ago, were fearful of damaging their prestigious reputation with filmmakers and their donors. Much less, for the large film festivals, supportive filmmakers in Hollywood.
Most traditional film festivals are still weary of having smartphone shot movies in their competitions. But they want to be innovative. So they create a category for mobile films. It’s not a genre like horror or documentary. If you shot it with mobile “devices” then you are in their mobile film category.
A category for a film festival is how we separate competition entrants and participants. We need to organize the contests and competitions in a way that we keep them fair.
I am always reconsidering how we do that for our film festival in San Diego. There’s always room for improvement.
I take a week or more every year to make decisions about the rules and criteria for the International Mobile Film Festival in San Diego, branded as International Mobil Film Festival™. I run these by our team, and most of the time they are glad to implement them.
AI Restriction for our competitions.
I am not trying to “sell” to a film festival that they should not allow the use of AI in their films. Back in 2017, we decided to allow a minimal amount of aerial drone footage in all films. Drone footage can really enhance scenes in a movie and aid in the cinematic effect of a film. However, only 10% of a total film can include drone footage to qualify in our competitions and contests. Most films spread aerial footage throughout a film, depending on their needs. Especially in feature length films.
We consider filmmakers as artists. You may be thinking you’re not an artist. Again, I believe you are. Some artists were discouraged as a young child, or perhaps as they reached their teens. But we all have an artistic perspective and a need to express and communicate with each other.
‘Art begins in our heart.’
The art of filmmaking is in the storytelling. The art of storytelling is in our human connection. We connect human-to-human on an emotional level. Stories are the best format to define our message and our feelings and emotions though our individual perspectives.
Filmmakers take storytelling to the ultimate level. That’s because filmmakers play to our senses, our perceptions and our emotions through their stories. Audio, visuals and psychology play into your experience watching a film. Filmmaking has evolved through the years, but the basic concept of making movies has not.
A good director will evoke the same emotions from you, as well as millions of others who may not have anything in common with you. Of course, the reach in distribution is another discussion.
Directors have an intimate relationship with their films.
The best directors are telling captivating stories. They share a compelling story. A good filmmaker can change the world with one story, and it takes years, usually, to learn how to do that through their experience making films.
When you are starting out as a filmmaker, it’s not easy to make a film that can have the same outcome for everyone. But you may reach and change the perspective of some people. If you’ve heard the line, “If I could just save one life…” in a movie, you understand what I mean. Finding out your film connected to someone else in such a way that it changed their own preconceptions and perspectives is quite rewarding. Sometimes that’s the only reward an indie filmmaker receives.
Stories are how we connect on a level that only humans connect.
Going back to AI in the filmmaking process, my final thoughts are that artists who feel a need to create art are experimenting. Art is a creative process that we are always exploring. I know some artists have become so attracted to experimenting with generative AI, that they are not creating their own art anymore.
When it comes to filmmaking, filmmakers are artists. And of course, I’ve understood some of my colleagues who say in the film industry, on the other side of the wall, there is only studio profit that matters.
This is a discussion for another time, though. I don’t believe that’s as black and white as it seems. However, the implication that the general public will accept the shift from selecting a film to watch on a streaming network to “designing” their own films by prompting an AI service is strange and weird. It devalues our own human attraction to stories that go back to the beginning of who we are on an individual basis.
Also, it gives too much optimism to the idea that when you get a break in your life to escape by watching a movie, you’re going to be good at creating your own through an AI service. Personally, I struggle enough making a choice between so many films, but that process has allowed me to watch films that I’d never have dreamed of creating myself, which I absolutely love so much I watch them more than once. Including old nostalgic vibe films like Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit.”
We won’t erase human art creation with AI.
Funny thing happened on the way to the market the other day...
In 2015, a feature film screened at Sundance and it turned the attention of many indie filmmakers, and industry media, to think twice before completely discarding the use of a smartphone camera to film. Tangerine by Sean Baker, inspired many to make feature and short film using a smartphone. Magnolia Pictures picked it up and distributed the film through a theatrical run and Netflix.
If you listen to my podcast with 173 episodes at the time of publishing this story, you’ve heard many filmmakers who discuss how they were inspired by Sean Baker.
I believe it’s an individual’s decision to use AI to create art. Most of us love new tech. As a creative creator myself, exploring and experimenting is naturally human. The non-human on the other end, however, learns from humans. At the point where we have erased original human created art from the internet, where are we?
At the point where we have replaced our own learning through experience making films and creating art, with simply asking an AI to do it for us—how will that affect our human connections and humanity, as a whole? AI is not human.
The world online is a dilemma for content creators today, but…
The problem with generative AI at this time, is that it feeds itself from all that humans have created, either individually or as an entity, online. The same thing that makes the internet an incredible, almost free asset and resource for all of us is what makes the content we share so vulnerable.
I find it personally interesting that any corporation profiting from AI technology cannot understand the complications of copyright infringement, especially in the United States law.
Listen to episode 154 with entertainment attorney Joshua R. Lastine as we discuss legalities about copyrights, and AI.
I can see AI in our physical world in real life to feed it’s content database. Not just for art. But for art as well. I know that’s already happening with other forms of AI.
Samsung is experimenting with an AI in their smartphone camera. If I find the article I read, I’ll add it later. (Here is the article)
I urge my artist friends to not limit their efforts creating art without using AI. In the same way I would urge a friend to not hurt themselves. For every minute, that can turn to hours, you use generative AI to create art is a minute you could have spent releasing your unique human expression into an art form that connects with other humans in a profound way. Even if they cannot explain it themselves.
You can make the world a better place through your art and your stories.
If you’d like another choice to support my work and efforts to raise the community you can buymeacoffee or become a patron. Your support helps me bring more to the community and help it grow. Thank you, I truly appreciate you.
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