While much of the world is understandably wary of the incredible and lightning fast advances in AI development across numerous industries, and how that could in a very real way change the face of global society, within the realms of cinema Rogue One director Gareth Edwards is very excited indeed. Speaking on a panel last week he made clear his excitement at the possibilities and how – in the right hands and used in the right way – the technology could be a boon rather than a harpoon to the film and TV industry.
It feels like this stuff’s changing every three months. It’s like we have to revisit the plan six months from now because it might be a totally different series of tools. And the things that … weren’t possible three months ago or six months ago, some of them are now possible.”
“I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t become interested in this stuff as a filmmaker. It’s so clearly a tool that might be up there with the camera. It’s going to be be better than CGI. I’m excited, I hope you are.”
“It has no taste whatsoever. It is a f***ing genius at helping you. I view it like having a second-unit director who is a billionaire on acid. Like, it’ll do anything you ask, not a problem. Sometimes it’ll [go] bats*** crazy. And you’ll give it notes, and it’ll be like, ‘I don’t do notes. I’ll just do something totally different.’ But it’s worth it.”
“It’s only good for iteration and discovering what the movie should be, and then once you know what it is, go in and start making it your movie,”
“We don’t know where it’s going to go. I think anybody saying they know exactly what’s going to happen over the next five years is just a liar.”
Is he right to be excited by and prepared to embrace a technology that could turn his industry on its head in a few short years, or is he woefully misguided? Let us know what you think by emailing news@fanthatracks.com and we’ll discuss it on a future episode of the podcast.
