When AI robs filmmakers of jobs, how to transform to a new digital career?

Source: The Paper

Author: Lu Na, a researcher at The Paper

Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI

With the rapid development of emerging technologies, the film and television entertainment industry has also entered the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI). In this wave of change, the film production process is fully transformed to digital and intelligent, and related new digital occupations are rapidly emerging, which has also aroused concerns about AI replacing jobs in the traditional film and television industry.

Just two weeks ago, one of the three major Hollywood labor unions with 160,000 members, the American Film and Television Actors Association (SAG-AFTRA), announced a strike, and the Hollywood film and television industry in the United States began to completely shut down. Prior to this, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) had been on strike for more than 70 days. "If we don't hold our heads up now, we will be in trouble and face the danger of being replaced by machines." SAG-AFTRA Chairman Fran Drescher said that in the past 10 years, the rise of streaming media has led to the erosion of actors' income, and artificial intelligence has also eroded. Threat to the survival of creative practitioners.

Through this largest strike in Hollywood in the past 60 years, practitioners in the American film and television industry hope that capital, production companies and the public will re-examine the AI that is widely used in film production but lacks supervision. Human practitioners such as photography have brought about the impact of reduced job opportunities and lower pay, as well as the problem that personal data such as voice and image are accurately copied and imitated by AI, and then consider adopting a more balanced AI usage strategy to ensure that artificial intelligence not only promotes innovation , It can also protect the value of human creation and performance, and safeguard the basic labor rights of film and television practitioners.

This Hollywood strike is not an isolated incident, but the tip of the iceberg of a larger trend in the current workforce. After all, almost every round of technological revolution in human history has been accompanied by strong unemployment anxiety. The question is, are we in it, are we bound by the boundless road ahead, or are we actively adapting and embracing the future?

Movie production, machine station on the C position

Hollywood cast and crew are not unfounded in their fears of being completely replaced by AI. The application of AI technology has completely changed the traditional film production process. Now, an entire "blockbuster" movie can be made just by relying on generative AI.

First of all, generative AI can quickly conduct data analysis on massive movies and literary works, learn the plots and character settings in them, and then generate new script concepts, and then use natural language processing technology to create new scripts.

Next, AI can also design virtual actors and backgrounds based on the character descriptions and scene requirements in the script. The application of technologies such as computer graphics, computer animation and speech synthesis can make virtual actors appear lifelike, emotional and performative. By analyzing the movie's plot atmosphere and scene requirements, generative AI can also automatically generate soundtracks, sound effects, and character dubbing to make movies more realistic and touching.

In the post-production stage, through deep learning and computer vision technology, AI can add special effects to the movie screen, repair the lens, adjust the color and light and shadow, etc., to present a more fascinating visual effect. Not only that, with the continuous development of technology, in the future, AI can also adjust the plot and ending of the movie according to the audience's choices and reactions, so that the audience can participate in the creation of the movie, thereby creating a brand new viewing experience.

According to the above-mentioned film production process, it is already possible to completely eliminate the use of real actors, and other traditional film jobs, such as screenwriting, dubbing, props, makeup, special effects, etc., can also be replaced by AI to a certain extent.

Although there is still a long way to go before AI can create virtual actors who are truly emotional and exude unique personal charm, some film investors and production companies, out of consideration of efficiency and cost, as well as catering to young audiences, are more interested in streaming media channels, digital advertisements and videos. The demand for content such as games will tend to embrace AI. It is not unfounded to be alert to frictional unemployment in advance.

Digital new career is coming

As the demand for new digital talents in the film and television industry continues to grow, relevant practitioners, especially live-action actors who are most affected, can also develop new core skills and digital literacy in addition to traditional artistic and professional qualities to adapt to digitalization , Intelligent film production environment. Here are some key adjustments and career transitions ahead:

Exposure and understanding of AI technology: For real-life actors or screenwriters, they do not need to be AI experts, but they should understand and be exposed to the application of artificial intelligence technology. This helps to better understand the impact of AI on the film industry, and adjust accordingly for your own roles and performances.

Learn and apply digital technology: Live actors and other traditional cast members need to actively learn and apply digital technology, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), etc., so that they can play in virtual characters, virtual performances and dubbing There is more participation and performance on the one hand.

Extended role types and performance fields: Live actors can try to expand role types and performance fields, including dubbing characters in animated films, participating in virtual reality film projects, etc.

Participate in the post-production of film and television: Real actors can try to understand and participate in the post-production of film and television, such as special effects synthesis, virtual character production, etc., so as to better cooperate with the digital film production process.

Explore cooperation with AI technology: Real actors can cooperate with AI technology to participate in the creation and performance of virtual characters, and give full play to the advantages of real actors in creativity and emotional expression.

Looking further, the decline of traditional jobs is not the whole picture of the digital transformation of the film and television entertainment industry, and the absolute number of jobs related to film production has not declined significantly. A large number of new digital occupations and new job opportunities are emerging to support the digital process of film and television production, which puts forward new requirements for the core skills of talents in the film and television industry.

Listed below are some of the new digital occupations that have emerged from the current demand for film production, and are also possible new growth points for future job hunting for film and television talents:

Experts in image recognition, algorithm research, and deep learning: With the development of generative AI, the demand for experts in areas such as image recognition, algorithm research, and deep learning will increase. These experts will be involved in developing and improving AI techniques and models for application in film production and post-production.

Deep Learning Film Editor: The application of deep learning technology makes film editing work more efficient and innovative. Deep learning film editors will use AI algorithms to process a large amount of material to achieve high-quality film editing.

Data labeler: The application of generative AI requires a large amount of data labeling in order to train film and television production models. Data labelers are responsible for providing accurate data labels for the algorithm to ensure the effectiveness of model training.

**Virtual character designer:**Virtual characters are an important part of AI movie creation. Avatar designers need to master the method of cooperating with AI systems to create the appearance, image and performance style of avatars through data collection and transformation.

AI Dialogue Screenwriter: Generative AI technology is also playing an increasingly important role in film script creation. AI dialogue screenwriters need to cooperate with AI systems to co-create dialogue and plot.

**AI post-production special effects compositor:**Generative AI technology can be used for post-production special effects synthesis, and the AI post-production special effects compositor is responsible for the perfect fusion of virtual elements and real scenes.

It should be noted that the digital transformation of the film and television industry needs to attract a large number of talents who have mastered AI technology, but the particularity of the industry determines that it is not enough to only understand technology. Practitioners also need to have a high degree of life experience and performance appeal. Accurate communication of emotions and emotions, deep insight into human nature, and high-grade aesthetic qualities.

Only by fully integrating the efficiency and precision of technology with the sudden inspiration of art can we support film creation in the digital age.

At the same time, real practitioners also need to improve their flexibility to adapt to the times, actively follow the development trend of generative artificial intelligence, cooperate with AI technology, embrace digital technology and virtual reality, and participate in more diverse projects and content creation , to expand their career space.

The advancement of technology will definitely change the traditional types of work, but the revolutionary improvement of production efficiency will create more and newer employment opportunities. For relevant practitioners, this is the moment when challenges and opportunities coexist.