Will AI endanger the art of moviemaking?

By Samuel Philpot

Corporate Hollywood made a major move in money-making machines when Warner Bros. purchased Cinelytic’s newest artificial intelligence system — a technology that decides whether or not a new film is worth creating.

Focusing on 15 attributes that drive film performances, the tool is meant to supplement the creative process of executive producers by solving algorithms that took days, in only a few hours. 

Using advanced pattern recognition, the technology can determine how a piece of film could perform in theaters. It can also review potential cast choices and decide which talent would be better suited for the film being made. 

Mark Brown, associate professor in English, says this technology is a catastrophic decision.

“Reducing moviemaking down to numbers and demographics is a terrible idea,” says Brown.

Using this AI may be a bust, or it could break ground and churn out one blockbuster hit after another. It may not be long before other companies get their hands on similar technology.

“Hollywood is a business,” Brown adds. “People want to make art, but Hollywood wants to make money.”

With this new technology in place, fewer films might make it to the big screen. Movie pitches could be forced to endure more barriers and survive a computational test to decide if they’re worth being made. 

Jeff Vande Zande, English professor and independent filmmaker, worries that this AI technology will reduce the creativity of film.

“[That means] artful, important films might not get green-lighted because they don’t meet some metric,” says Vande Zande. “What if someone had run Citizen Kane through an AI predictor and it came back that it wouldn’t be a hit? It’s dangerous to the purity of an art when its value is strictly assessed by its potential for monetary gain.”

Moviemaking as an art form hasn’t been around for long — roughly a hundred years. In that time, films have been made on gut instinct, creative decision and raw intuition. Now this platform is adding in a business element that could hinder the art form as a whole. 

The big name directors may not have an issue with getting their films fast-tracked to being made, but what kind of hindrance could this technology bring for up-and-coming filmmakers?

“The more seasoned, talented directors are gonna do whatever they want,” says Delta College student Jard Harris. “Odds are, no one is going to turn down Quentin Tarantino, or Scorsese.”

This is a piece of technology that can be bought by big Hollywood companies. However, some creative decision making still remains intact. Casting directors can still opt to go with their gut feelings; directors can still choose the movie they wish to make. 

But as this technology grows and expands, what will the future of film look like?