Does it shock you that the performances of the actors in two Oscar-nominated films were “enhanced” by AI?
Are you afraid that soon the stories told in a film will be written by ChatGPT?
These questions that are currently being asked in the cinema industry boil down to a debate: who will win in the battle between humans and machines?
IN SHOCK!
On January 17, Paul Shrader wrote on his Facebook page that he was downright “in shock.”
The one who wrote and directed American Gigolo (and the scenario of Taxi Driver and of Raging Bull) had asked ChatGPT to write screenplays imitating his own style but also imitating the style of great directors (Scorsese, Tarantino, Bergman, for example).
“Every idea proposed by ChatGPT [en quelques secondes] was good. And original. And well developed. Why should screenwriters sit for months to come up with a good idea when Artificial Intelligence can provide one in seconds?”
It’s as if a pastry chef were to ask: “Why would I bust my butt creating new desserts when software can invent a new cake in a few seconds?” It seems to me that Shrader was shooting himself in the foot a bit by shouting from the rooftops that his job was obsolete!
But honestly, would it be a big deal?
Could we tell the difference between a story told by a flesh-and-blood human and a story told by a thing, a robot, a machine?
-It gives rise to a fascinating reflection on creation. If ChatGPT was able to invent a “Tarantino-style” scenario, it is because Tarantino has already created scenarios. AI did not create from nothing but from the imagination of talented humans.
And no software can feel emotions, have experiences, go through personal experiences that make an artist’s work evolve over time.
I would have a lot of difficulty imagining that ChatGPT could “adjoin” the career of Denys Arcand who made us think with Comfort and indifference AND made us shed tears with Barbarian invasions.
For the films nominated for the Oscars, we learned that the Respeecher software was used to improve the Hungarian accent of the two main actors of The Brutalist and to improve the singing voice of Karla Sofia Gascon in Emilia Perez.
Personally, it doesn’t shock me at all! We are there. Like when we went from silent cinema to talkies. If technology allows it, why not?
It’s like dubbing. I have a lot of sympathy for the actors who earn their living with that, but opposing dubbing using software is like opposing the arrival of electricity when your job is to be lamplighter.
WHERE IS DENIS?
Speaking of cinema, have you noticed anything? At the Oscars, Dune 2 is nominated for best film, but Denis Villeneuve is not nominated for best director.
When we met Villeneuve at a restaurant in Montreal on Friday evening, my boyfriend even joked to him, “Your film is the first film that directed itself!”
Villeneuve snubbed by the Oscars? That shocks me!
