A LED screen, a camera and a photographer, this simple configuration is enough to complete a scene of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Even the realistic scene is not actually in the Amazon rainforest in South America, but in Stage 15, Amazon’s virtual studio in Los Angeles, USA, which is currently the largest virtual studio in North America. The huge LED wall in the studio is composed of more than 3,000 LED panels and 100 motion capture cameras. The images displayed on the screen are rendered by artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technology, which can meet the shooting needs and highly restore the real scene or create virtual scene. With the director's "click", the audience can seamlessly change scenes from the tropical rain forest to the California beach or a corner of the city.
To achieve all this, there is no need for a crew of thousands of people, and it is no longer subject to weather and time.
“There are only a few brief periods of natural light throughout the day that are ideal for shooting, and missing them can delay progress. Today, with virtual production, any time of day is ‘prime time.’ ” Amazon Web Gretchen Libby, industry director of media entertainment, gaming and sports services) said.
Libby has been working in Hollywood for nearly 30 years. During his career, he has participated in the production of many well-known blockbusters, including "Star Wars Episode I: Attack of the Clones", "Iron Man", "Transformers", "Avatar" and "Jurassic World" "etc. In an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Business News in Los Angeles, she said that the AI craze is bringing disruptive changes to the media and entertainment industry: "Generative AI is a tool that film and television production teams can use to create images and scripts, which will consume a lot of resources." Projects that take days or weeks are compressed into a few hours, which greatly improves work efficiency. Because generative AI can handle more tedious tasks, humans can focus on creativity. I think this creates many opportunities in the industry.”
ai "Invading" Hollywood
As the center of the film industry in the United States and even the world, Hollywood is home to a large number of established film and television production companies, including Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Disney Films, MGM Films, etc.; in addition, Netflix and other streaming services New media forces have also entered the country in recent years. When a new generation of technology represented by generative AI sweeps the world, this movie "Dream Factory" is also experiencing a transformative moment.
In early May last year, the American film and television industry launched a series of strikes that lasted for five months. Among them, two labor disputes led by the Screenwriters Guild and the Screen Actors Guild caused the most serious industry disruption since the 2020 epidemic, and many film projects and TV shows were forced to stop or postpone production. The strike is costly. Kevin Klowden, chief global strategist of the think tank Milken Institute, estimates that it has caused more than $5 billion in losses to the U.S. economy. In addition to affecting film and television production companies, catering, freight, dry cleaning and other peripheral areas The service industry has also been affected.
One of the main conflicts between labor and management is the "invasion" of artificial intelligence. Many actors and screenwriters have expressed concerns about "unemployment".
Luo Chenya has been working in the film and television drama industry for more than ten years, and has been involved in positions such as screenwriter, documentary photographer, and assistant director. She told China Business News that after chatgpt became popular, she also tried to use chatbots to assist in script creation. "I can talk to AI about my ideas and creativity, and it will help analyze and refine my ideas, and even make some suggestions that I think are quite effective. But at the execution level, it means putting the ideas into writing and making them very concrete. It doesn’t really help me with a scene or a character’s lines and movements.”
Luo Chenya said that artificial intelligence still needs more training and evolution in script writing, but its ability in image presentation is amazing. "AI can directly generate pictures, which can indeed save labor to a great extent. It may even replace photographers in the future. In post-production, AI can beautify pictures and modify defects."
The battleground of military strategists
At the beginning of this year, openai released the Vincent video model sora on its official website. The model can create minutes-long videos and generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of movement, and precise theme and background details. Scene. In addition to being able to generate videos from text, the model can also generate videos from static images and accurately animate image content.
"Vinson Video can quickly produce high-quality video content, greatly improving production efficiency, and generative AI It helps to improve the analysis of user preferences and personalized recommendations, and enhance the attractiveness of content. These technologies will subvert traditional video production and content distribution models, and media companies must adapt and change their operating models. "Mai Rui Asset Management CEO Wang Haoyu said in an interview with China Business News.
Because of this, Hollywood giants have already made large bets and stepped up their layout.
Before the strike, artificial intelligence technology had gradually been used in movies In the industry. Warner Bros. teamed up with Los Angeles technology company Cinelytic as early as 2020 to develop an AI system to assist movie distribution and predict movie box office; Disney established an artificial intelligence task force earlier this year to study how AI can be widely used in its overall entertainment Business; MGM, which was acquired by Amazon in 2022, is leveraging the former’s more than 20 years of accumulation in artificial intelligence and machine learning to explore the potential of AI in the film and television industry.
However, Wang Haoyu further explained that the new technology Application requires considerable investment in hardware and software, involving infrastructure, content production, content management, labor costs, etc. “Enterprises face high short-term costs, but this is a battleground for military strategists, so they need to seize market share. "
Human creativity or AI creation?
The protracted Hollywood strike came to an end in September last year.
Screenwriters achieved key victories in their demands for artificial intelligence, data transparency, salary and minimum staffing. has attracted much attention Regarding the issue of AI, both labor and management have not completely banned the technology, but have stipulated a number of specific situations to ensure that screenwriters will not be reduced to AI modification tools: for example, the material generated by AI cannot be regarded as original material, and the screenwriter’s The right of authorship and originality cannot be damaged due to the intervention of AI. The production company cannot require the screenwriter to use AI. The Screenwriters Union has the right to prohibit the production company from using the materials created by the screenwriter to train AI.
Despite this, whether it is a practitioner or a screenwriter, Film and television giants are well aware that technological innovation is unstoppable.
“I am indeed somewhat divided in my views on AI. "Luo Chenya said, "The subconscious reaction of is a little resistance, with a sense of crisis that it may be replaced, but I am still willing to understand this technology and try to use AI to assist creation, because I think it should be an irreversible trend. I hope that the ideal situation is that artificial intelligence and humans work together. The former helps the latter improve creative efficiency, but it does not completely replace humans. "
Libby told China Business News that the application of artificial intelligence in the media and entertainment industry has already taken place, and as time goes by, technology will continue to iterate. "At the same time, I also believe that human intervention must be in the creative process. Indispensable, by using generative AI to promote business transformation, humans will also gain new opportunities. "
Artificial intelligence's ability to imitate and learn from humans is amazing and has begun to redefine the creative process for centuries. However, there is still no clear answer on how to conduct relevant supervision and governance.
Screen Actors Guild-American Television Fran Drescher, president of the Federation of Broadcast Artists (SAG-AFTRA), previously told the media at a press conference that the problem of artificial intelligence is one of the last and most difficult problems to solve. “In the world of artificial intelligence, 3. A month is equivalent to a year. "Constant communication is needed to keep our hands on the pulse of technology like this," she said."
Wang Haoyu said that how to ensure the reliability and security of AI-generated content is crucial. The industry needs to carefully evaluate the application of these technologies and formulate a complete content review mechanism. At the same time, it must also pay attention to the impact of new technologies on the job market and help traditional Practitioners have successfully transformed.
(This article is from China Business News)
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