The story surrounding generative AI in the entertainment industry has been extremely sensitive over the past year. Hollywood needs to think carefully about how studios and creatives will — and maybe should — use gen AI models and software tools in the many different creative processes involved in producing film or TV now that the writers’ and actors’ strikes have ended.
Variety Intelligence Platform’s special report, “Generative AI in Film & TV,” explores the potential and constraints of gen AI models and emerging software as they relate to their current and potential applications in the film and television industries. This comes as the industry prepares to grapple with this game-changing technology in the upcoming months.
A vast array of opportunities are presented by generative AI at various points in the production value chain. Examine the usefulness and value of this growing, varied, and potent collection of AI models and tools in particular for screenwriting, VFX, previsualization, content localization, and sound editing tasks.
Additionally, generative AI tools are currently being used to automate certain creative tasks, which is starting to disrupt traditional methods. However, it should have a positive effect because it gets rid of repetitive work, shortens project schedules, and lets productions explore previously unattainable creative avenues that were blocked by budgetary, scheduling, and even physical reality constraints. Its application also holds the potential to decrease the number of workers and specific processes required to produce the same amount of work.
The exponential pace of research and development in the AI community since the first significant public release of generative AI user applications last year has further enhanced the capabilities of these systems.
As a wave of large tech companies have been developing, open-sourcing, and commercializing generative AI, a number of startups have also sprung up, providing best-in-class tools and software for post-production and entertainment production.
A portion of the research for this report comes from more than 20 background interviews, mostly held in August through November 2023, with advisors in the media and entertainment (M&E) space, executives and founders of generative AI startups, and independent filmmakers who use AI tools and techniques in their work.
Runway, Synthesia, Wonder Dynamics, Digital Domain, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ), ElevenLabs, Deepdub, Resemble AI, DeepBrain AI, Luma AI, and Fable Studio were among the companies that took part.
The impact of generative AI in TV and film production is the main topic of this report. For more information, see “Generative AI & Entertainment: Part 2,” which explores potential mitigations as well as the legal and labor risks associated with gen AI in the film and television industries.