(New York) Characters made of dried mud, Paul Gauguin in Tahiti or giant grandmothers, the New York AI (artificial intelligence) film festival has opened a window onto the range of possibilities now made possible by this technology, accessible to all.
Nearly 3,000 short films were submitted to this festival organized by the start-up Runway AI, one of the most advanced in video generation using AI, a sign of an intense creative ferment.
The ten films selected offered unbridled articulations of the imagination of their authors, with aesthetically breathtaking worlds.
“There is this perception that AI directing always has a very identified style, but these films are very different from each other,” notes Anastadis Germanidis, co-founder of Runway.
But cinema and animation have already come so far in the last 50 years, in part thanks to AI, that these works are reminiscent of others, ofInception has MatrixPassing by The Van Gogh passion.
Main difference: the short films cost a tiny fraction of the budget of these films and were made with tools that anyone could manipulate.
Runway allows, from a written request in everyday language (prompt), to create a shot of a few seconds, to transform a series of still images into a short video, or to reshape an existing sequence to transform, for example, a photo into a table.
In February, OpenAI launched its version, called Sora, while Google and Meta are working on their versions, called Lumiere and Emu respectively.
For his award-winning short at the festival, Frenchman Léo Cannone worked alone from his script, generated hundreds of images using the AI application Midjourney, then animated them using Runway, making numerous edits along the way. .
“Common language”
Current software is still limited in certain areas, notably camera angles or the staging of humans like in a live-action film.
“I couldn’t really have characters or words, so that kind of created the aesthetic of the film,” explains the director. After generation, “there were still a lot of flaws, aberrations in each scene, so I had to retouch a lot. This does not come out of the software ready-made. »
“If you want a story with hyper-realistic human characters, we’re not there yet,” concedes Alejandro Matamala, one of the co-founders of Runway. “But there are different ways of telling a story. »
Technical obstacles will fall, because the models on which this software is based continue to improve.
Runway is even working on a so-called general model, which will be able to understand movements within an image and how they modify its environment.
“When we get to the point where the (competitor) models all reach a high quality level, the important thing will be […] to create around useful tools,” said Anastadis Germanidis, another co-founder of Runway.
The three co-founders of the start-up do not have a traditional computer engineer profile and all received artistic training at New York University (NYU).
They insist on the importance of mastering a “common language” between programming and creation, citing Apple and Pixar as examples.
“Compete with Hollywood”
“For directors like me, AI is an opportunity to change the traditional Hollywood model”, governed by the studios, rejoices Carlo de Togni, co-author of Awakening to creationalso awarded at the festival.
“Artists will be able to bring new stories to life without necessarily having the means,” he says, recalling that several generative AI platforms offer subscriptions for only a few tens of dollars per month.
“Independent productions will probably approach certain Hollywood films and compete with them,” predicts the Italian director.
Something to worry the cinema industry. Last summer, in the United States, many actors and screenwriters went on strike for several months, demanding in particular protections against generative AI.
But for Carlo de Togni, the fascination with this technology will only last for a short time.
“What will make the difference next,” according to him, “will be your ideas, your thoughts, and the way in which you use these tools to represent your intentions, your vision. »
These new creative processes in fact bypass many tasks and jobs currently carried out by cinema professionals, at the risk of contracting this industry.
“Certain stages of filmmaking will be automated, replaced,” recognizes Cristobal Valenzuela, co-founder and general manager of Runway, “but these jobs will change,” and not disappear, according to him.