AI and Filmmaking. It’s a hard pass for me, and will be until I die. Of course you’ll save money but at the end of the day, it should always be put people first. And unfortunately, most people aren’t wired that way. Here’s an example. Color correction.
When I shoot, I shoot flat and color grade after my edit. It’s one of the last things I do. I edit in Final Cut. I just like it better. Here comes the Adobe gang. Lol. Relax. I love Adobe, but for me Final Cut is faster and I’m working on at least 5-10 edits at a time. It’s just a better flow for me.
I recently filmed a few local commercials for a company in Austin. These commercials are going to air on Thanksgiving during the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboy games. I have multiple 30 second spots.
The owner of the company asked about the color, when he saw the rough cuts. I explained that these were RAW clips, and that I’ll do the coloring after final approval. I just needed him to approve the cuts, so I could move on. With commercial clients, there is non-stop back and forth, so I make sure I have a final approval before I continue to trim down my cuts.
The owner was in talks with a big ad agency based in San Fransisco. They told him they would save thousands per year by using their AI tool for sound and color grading. Is this true, yeah. But it’s bull****.
Your business will always save money by using AI tools. That’s a given. I hear people all the time talking about how AI is going to take over jobs. It’s not the AI. It’s the people making those shallow decisions.
Creative jobs are going to be the first on the chopping block. It’s already happening. It’s up to people to take a stand, and reject the AI tools completely. I say across the board, the answer is a hard no. Whether you’re using AI to respond to customer inquiries, or just answering calls. I don’t care if it’s the smallest of tasks. The answer is no. Never. People say, “Yeah but I’m just using AI for this one little thing.” Great. That one little thing is food for a family, or someone’s gas money. If you’re usage AI, you’re part of the problem, and saving money is no excuse. I say “hell friggen no” for AI for business. Screw your efficiency. I don’t care. People make mistakes. You own a business. Budget for mistakes. Grow up and be a man. I don’t mean to sound sexist. I know people get offended when you say that. But it really pisses off men in power when you tell them they aren’t a real man. To be fair, it’s equally men and women making desicions that are purposely making it difficult to put food on the table.
Ben Affleck quietly founded InterPositive in 2022. It’s a little different, and the jobs being replaced would be the clean up; The little mistakes production sometimes makes. I don’t care. It’s still money out of a human pocket. So F Ben Affleck and F Netflix too. The jobs most exposed in this scenario are the ones built around routine fixes and cleanup: wire removal, background cleanups, basic compositing, some color matching, reframing, beauty work, continuity fixes, and eventually certain pickup shots. If one human used to spend eight hours fixing something and the AI gets them 80% there in 20 minutes, a production may need fewer artist-hours. These fools can argue that it will create jobs. That’s a BS argument because when it comes down to it, production will always eliminate a job to save money. That’s just how some people are built. Not me. I can say with 100% certainty, I’ve always, 100% of the time, I chose people over saving money. And I will til I die. I hate that Ben Affleck is one of my favorite directors.
No. Nothing. Never. Ever. ZERO AI in production. Nothing. It’s a slippery slope and I think it might be too late. Keep art, art and F off. Call me.
