CNN
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When movie editor Dávid Jancsó admitted that he had used AI to replace parts of actors’ voices in the new film “The Brutalist,” he sparked a frenzy online about technology’s impact on the arts. It sparked a debate.
But it’s not the first time AI has been used in filmmaking, and it probably won’t be the last, said Louis Heaton, a senior lecturer in digital film and TV production at London Metropolitan University.
“I suspect that the use of AI in production will become increasingly common and widely accepted, especially for work that can be seen as menial labor such as creative background, crowd scenes and so on,” Heaton told CNN on Wednesday.
“This is work currently done by visual effects houses that requires large teams and hours of labor, and which AI will be able to produce cheaper and faster.”
This is reflected in Jancsó’s comments about his motivations for using AI in “The Brutalist,” which tells the story of Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth, played by Adrien Brody, who After surviving the Holocaust, he had moved to America and was awaiting his arrival. Wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones). Brody and Jones speak Hungarian in parts of the film.
Jancsó, a native Hungarian speaker, said he used an AI tool from Ukrainian firm Respeecher to authenticate the main actors’ Hungarian dialogue.
“Most of his Hungarian dialogue is part of me talking inside. We were very careful to keep his performance. It’s basically just replacing letters here and there,” Jancsó said in a The interview Published on January 11, with industry publication Red Shark News.
“You can do it yourself in Pro Tools (audio software), but we had so much dialogue in Hungary that we really needed to speed up the process or we’d still be in post (production).”
Jancsó addresses ongoing debates about the use of AI.
Talking about AI in industry is controversial, but it shouldn’t be, he said.
“We should have a very open discussion about what tools AI can give us. There’s nothing in film using AI that hasn’t been done before,” Jancsó added.
“It just speeds up the process a lot. We use AI to create the little details that we didn’t have the money or time to shoot.
For Heaton, these questions are debated in the film community, particularly around authentic creativity and the impact of AI on creative jobs.
In some cases, AI is “considered a cheaper alternative, and taking paid work away from talented graphic creators,” he said.
“At the industry level, there is concern about the use of AI to replace creativity at the lower levels of production, reflected in recent industrial action such as the SAG and WGA strikes,” said Heaton, who led digital’s Also highlighted the usage. Double and increasingly realistic text-to-speech AI that can replace voice-over actors instead of paid actors.
“The Brutalist” director Brady Corbett responded to Jancsó’s comments in a statement published by Deadline magazine on Monday, saying the actors’ performances were “entirely their own” and that they Worked with a speech coach for months.
Corbett added that the technology was only used to improve the Hungarian-language dialogue, and that the English-language dialogue was not changed.
“This was a manual process, done by our sound team and respeaker in post-production. The goal was to preserve the authenticity of Adrian and Felicity’s performances in a different language, not to replace or transform them. Karna and done with the utmost respect for this craft,” he said.
However, Heaton makes a point that may explain the strong response in this case.
“The interesting problem with ‘The Brutalist’ is that its use of AI isn’t something that audiences would recognize for minor visual details,” he said, such as erasing an actor’s complexion or changing their eye color. to do
“Since the AI is directly altering/improving some element of the actor’s performance, it can be seen as questioning the validity of that performance,” said Heaton, who also questioned whether AI This use was necessary.
“Would the average moviegoer really care if the lead actor spoke perfect Hungarian? Given Hollywood’s catalog of award-nominated horror accents, I’d say no.
