philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

What if A.I. Is Actually Good for Hollywood?

... “The difference here is that A.I. has the potential to disrupt many, many places in our pipeline,” says Lori McCreary, the chief executive of Revelations Entertainment, a production company she owns with Morgan Freeman, and a board member of the Producers Guild of America. “This one feels like it could be an entire industry disrupter.” ...

A.I. applications are often divided into two broader categories. The first is generative A.I., which helps artists and studios create things. Then there is “agentic” A.I., which helps them get things done. A new A.I. tool called Callaia, for instance, reads scripts and generates 35-page coverage reports, along with historical comparisons and suggested theatrical release patterns — the core duty of countless junior studio executives’ daily work life, though perhaps not for long. ...

Filmmaking is often described as the most collaborative art form, and Metaphysic was just one among many creative contributors to the trickiest scenes of Hanks and Wright as young lovebirds in “Here.” The actors performed in full period costume, not in green suits covered with Ping-Pong balls. The makeup department taped back the loose skin around Hanks’s neck and pulled up his droopy ears, so Hanks’s A.I.-generated young face would match Hanks’s real-life old head. And, of course, they had award-winning actors to deliver all the lines. “You still need the warmth of the human performance,” Zemeckis told me. “The illusion only works because my actors are using the tool just like they use their wardrobe, just like they’d use a bald skull cap.” It was the future of Hollywood, and it looked uncannily like its past.

See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/magazine/ai-hollywood-movies-cgi.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwY2xjawGR-ghleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcxK6Z4OMMxfylRfp7bBbxk13vjUeR1bT55xLS4cor3vA1IxAuoSthftgA_aem_JiH_RPbU5NxO4815k0kqlQ