Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron (“Avatar: Fire & Ash”) has been famously skeptical about the advancements of artificial intelligence to the point he made three “Terminator” movies (the last one “Terminator: Dark Fate“) about the dangers of it in the hands of military and corporate interests leading to all-out nuclear war with machines.
However, given the costs of mega-expensive VFX-heavy blockbusters like the “Dune” and “Avatar” films, Cameron believes that A.I. could greatly speed up the output of the visual effects community without putting people out of jobs or VFX houses out of business. Cameron’s thoughts on the subject of A.I. in the filmmaking space were brought up during a recent appearance on the “Boz To The Future” podcast (hosted by Meta‘s Andrew “Boz” Bosworth).
READ MORE: James Cameron Talks “Brave Choices” Made For New ‘Avatar’ Film & Confirms 3-Hour Runtime
“The goal was to understand the space, to understand what’s on the minds of the developers. What are they targeting? What’s their development cycle? How much resources you have to throw at it to create a new model that does a purpose-built thing, and my goal was to try to integrate it into a VFX workflow. Right? And it’s not just hypothetical, we have to,” Cameron said when bridging the subject of A.I. helping to increase the workflow of VFX artists rather than spell their doom.
Adding that for big VFX-heavy films to keep being made, budgets will need to be trimmed by half, and that A.I. could, in theory, help with that, “If we want to continue to see the kinds of movies that I’ve always loved and that I like to make and that I will go to see — call it ‘Dune,’ [‘Dune: Part Two‘], something like that, or one of my films or big effects-heavy, CG-heavy films — we’ve got to figure out how to cut the cost of that in half.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean the director thinks that would directly lead to half the staff losing their jobs, as Cameron has worked closely with the folks at Wētā FX for decades now on his “Avatar” films and “Alita: Battle Angel” and would be acutely sensitive to the worries out there.
“Now, that’s not about laying off half the staff, and at a VFX company. That’s about doubling their speed to completion on a given shot, so your cadence is faster, and your throughput cycle is faster, and artists get to move on and do other cool things and then other cool things, right? That’s my sort of vision for that.”
A pragmatic and optimistic point of view on the idea of artificial intellengence in the realm of making huge unruly blockbusters that can turn a profit. Seeing A.I. as more simply the next step of technological advancement tools for VFX teams, rather than all-out replacement/downsizing, could lead to easier workloads (effects artists are often overworked and underpaid).
Then again, the problem remains of employers, studios, and ownership exploiting a good thing to boost productiveness and earnings that might only benefit those at the top. Spending $150 million instead of $300 million on a huge tentpole would be a dream come true for studios, but there are still the dangers of A.I. as well and, ultimately, how long unions can prevent studios from improperly using it to trim workforces drastically.
You can watch or listen to that full exchange between James Cameron and Boz below.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
