‘I see the incredible promise’: on set of an AI film shoot as new studios embrace controversial tech
TL;DR
Near the entrance to Sony Pictures' historic Culver City lot, a new AI-driven studio called Promise has set up this summer. Its artists build backgrounds, special effects and synthetic performers with rapidly improving models, drawing on US systems as well as market-leading Chinese ones. The film-makers argue AI lets them bypass the studio giants and take bigger creative risks from far more modest premises. The work runs alongside continuing fears about jobs in the industry.
Nauti's Take
The opportunity is real: small teams can build imagery with AI models that used to require studio budgets, and get projects made that would never have been greenlit. The catch is the work in art department, VFX and supporting roles that disappears in exactly those places, plus unresolved rights questions around synthetic performers.
A good time to start for creatives, a harder one for the mid-tier crafts.
Sources