Steven Soderbergh believes AI will make his war film 'better'
Steven Soderbergh has insisted using artificial intelligence (AI) technology will be "better" for his upcoming Spanish-American war movie, but he stressed he won't use it to replace performance.
Steven Soderbergh has insisted using artificial intelligence (AI) technology will be "better" for his upcoming Spanish-American war movie.
The 63-year-old filmmaker is working on an ambitious new project based around the 1898 conflict and he plans to embrace the developing technology to help cut costs when it comes to special effects.
But despite being open-minded on the controversial subject, Soderbergh doesn't think AI can ever replace real performances.
He told Deadline: "I’ve got ocean battles with scores of warships from 1898: I can’t afford that. I can build the deck, but I mean, I’ve got to have a plan here. But I think that’s different. People looking at that and knowing that that’s a visual effect is different than, as I say, a dinner table scene.
"I guess I’m going on my instinctual sense of better. So for instance, battle on the ocean in the Spanish-American War film: the options are traditional VFX, which can be expensive; miniatures, which are interesting, but when you use miniatures in water, usually not so great; or this new technology.
"In almost all situations that involve performance, I’m at a loss to know how [AI is] better. I’m not talking about face replacement or anything like that; I’m just talking about scenes in which the performances are central and locations that, again, you’d spend a lot of time trying to recreate in a virtual space.
"My attitude is, well, we can just go there and do the whole thing in four hours in the real place. Why is this better? So I’m just going on my, I guess, gut reaction to what’s better and what feels right for the piece."
Soderbergh cautioned against AI being overused in a way which seems "unnecessary".
He added: "This is another interesting area: I do want to be tricked by a movie in the sense that I want to believe in the universe that’s being created by the filmmaker, and I want the spell that they’re weaving to remain unbroken.
"What would break it for me is a use of technology like this that seems unnecessary and worse."
The Black Bag director is very keen to see how audiences react to material they know has been produced with the help of AI.
He said: "Here’s the other thing that I think we’re all waiting to see, which is why I want people using this technology, so we can answer this question.
"Because it’s a big question: Is there, and will there be, a basic sort of allergic reaction on the part of the audiences for material that is, for all intents and purposes, supposed to be 'real,' that they know has been generated by AI? Are they going to have a human reaction that basically just leads them to go, 'Yeah, I’m just not vibing with that'?
"I don’t know the answer; I want to know."
