Pinar Demirdag – Dec 18, 2024

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  • #216668
    Abraham
    Moderator

      Hello everyone,

      Yesterday, we released the newest episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, featuring Pinar Demirdag, the CEO and Co-Founder of Cuebric (a generative AI company) to talk about artificial intelligence in filmmaking.

      After listening, feel free to discuss the episode with each other below!

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    • #216713
      SQM
      Participant

        Thank you for having brought on an intelligent voice working in the A.I. space. I will say that as enthusiastic and focused as Pinar Demirdag is about the work she is involved in, it unfortunately reminds me of many of the “internet of things” apologists who promised seamless connectivity between ourselves, our homes, and work. A.I. is just a machine system that takes the most basic elements if a craft, copies, flattens, and then reconstitutes those elements in a form that mimics real-time, real-space activity. The analogue for myself as a writer/director-dp is a microwave oven. As someone who cooks daily and enjoys it, the microwave acts as a re-heater rather a way of reconstituting meals. But I do understand that many people prefer the convenience of reconstituting meals via the microwave oven, rather than chopping onions and making pasta sauce from scratch. In the end the microwaved meal ‘does the job’ of supplying calories; it however lacks a considerable element which for lack of a better word at this time I will use ‘frisson’.  Specific to filmmaking, as both Roger and James know, collaborating and real-time dialoguing leads to many moments of frisson, which resets and establishes as new, the elements being worked on, as part of a whole — in this case a motion picture. Flattening that process removes that frisson which is what makes movies, music, architecture, design, and yes cooking so ridiculously satisfying and fulfilling. If the only concerns we are allowed to have are with respect to a marketplace then we sacrifice the human element which is based on our own being, which is a universe of frisson. — I do get that many folks want to eliminate this very base part of being human and of reality itself. They would prefer an existence that removes imperfections, and establishes seamless transfers of raw data. Or at a minimum they accept these machine systems as superior arbiters of daily life, ironing out the wrinkles and aberrations that create doubt, or even boredom. –As a filmmaker you are choosing to make something artisanal. It is in the title, Filmmaker. It is like being a brewmaster or chef; it is the interacting with generationally linked recipes, in real time, in a real place, that opens a vein to a new presentation of human thoughts, ideas, and expressions, in the form of narratives, based on real things interacted with in the present tense.— In art school we made a distinction between making Art and making Illustrations. Both required great skill and imagination, but only one required absolute surrender to the unknown; to conjuring something heretofore unseen. That is what Filmmakers do, given enough freedom and trust to do so. — I have tried some A.I. systems to clean up audio and to provide a voice-over track for a trailer designed as a pitch. And yes, I do wish to one day see what both Tarkovsky and Astruc envisioned as the ‘cinema typewriter’ and the ‘camera pen’ respectively. For a filmmaker this is the golden goose; an ability to write directly from word to picture, and motion picture at that. But as long as such a system is engineered and governed by the prospects of commerce and profit, it will fall short for most people who really love making movies. Filmmakers, like all artists (and home chefs) expect a bit of privacy when working and collaborating. The interface that generates innovation and narrative inspiration is between two or more people, talking. Including a mechanical interface into this process has already proven to be more detriment to new approaches and ideas, despite the convenience –i.e. ‘video villages’.  Lastly, I understand some of the economic concerns involved with high-level filmmaking, which are a key driver for many people in management to openly hail A.I. as a viable solution. However, these fiscal concerns are the problems of a ‘privileged few’ in an Industry that, were they makers of boats would insist on building an aircraft carrier every time when a simple sloop is all that is really required. Perhaps a way of considering A.I. as a tool within filmmaking is to consider the effect monitors have had on production/sets versus relying on the ‘eye’ of the DP and their viewfinder. — I think the effect is evident in the mediocre quality of filmed stories by and large. Filming ‘blind’ engages the mind in a way that overuse of ‘production aides’ cannot. I think this is where A.I. falls short for filmmaking. Its better use is in medicine and science. Maybe it should stick to its strengths.

        Alvin Case

        http://www.squaremedium.com

        #216970
        G.C.
        Participant

          This episode was cringey to listen. Pinar speaks of “humans” so much, and yet sounds like a robot herself, reading pre-written boardroom corporate lingo, empty words, in great contrast with Roger and James’ down to Earth, simple and sensible approach. What was it about “sprinkling Roger’s genius” as an algorithm across the world to productions who can’t afford him? If that’s how people who build AI speak and think, then we’re in a very scary place.

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