DR.STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB

Change is a constant, and you could easily be frightened to death about things that go on.

After J Robert Oppenheimer developed the world’s first atomic bomb, the world was gripped by the fear of total annihilation in an episode of mutually-assured destruction. Looking into the future, in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One, the anxiety resides around ‘The Entity’, a terrifying intelligent weapon that threatens all of humanity.

In today’s world, for those participating right here, right now, in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the existential threat comes from AI (artificial intelligence) being used to replace writers and actors.

Look a bit wider – at examples like The Galactic Menagerie, an AI-generated trailer for an imaginary Wes Anderson Star Wars film, The Frost, in which every shot is generated by a bot, and Jake Oleson’s Given Again, which uses neural radiance fields to transform 2D stills into 3D objects and environments – and you begin to wonder what impact AI will have on the camera department, and cinematographers in particular. Indeed, there’s a tweet I read recently about DPs getting new business cards calling themselves “Camera Placement Operatives.”

Of course, as with nuclear proliferation, the genie is out of the bottle when it comes to AI, and it’s perfectly understandable and sensible, that people are on picket lines demanding protection. Whether AI will actually distil the DP’s role down to the doomsday scenario of a bod fixing-up the cameras and lights to a pre-ordained spreadsheet… I’m not so sure. There are a lot of assumptions currently, without the benefit of actualities, time and consideration behind them.

A lot will rest on how AI is regulated with regard to how much it might affect your job in making moving images. Even if AI brings about tremendous change, it will also create tremendous opportunities too. So a lot will also rest in how you evolve, adapt and embrace the future. Forewarned is forearmed.

One has to believe there will always be a need for creative people with vision and imagination, who know their craft and how to use another new tool in the cinematic toolbox.

Stay safe and best wishes.

Ron Prince Editor in Chief

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