A.I., video and Hollywood

Written by Michael Maximillian Moss
Co-founder & CEO at Nova A.I.

London, UK, (15 July 2021)

The growing prevalence of A.I. in video and film-making and what to make of it.

What is becoming increasingly apparent is the growing integration of A.I. within differing technology across society. With major technological breakthroughs having occurred within recent years, the use of A.I. across the board within society has skyrocketed, with it being strongly regarded as central to the digital transformation of society (Europarl,2021). But how about A.I and film & video?

More videos mean more people are trying to edit them, but the process of achieving this (as so many of us appreciate!) is painstakingly slow and tedious. A.I. is therefore being increasingly integrated into the software to speed up the video editing process — its success proving to revolutionise the video editing scene in major ways.

However, video editing is not only where A.I. is seeing a boom. The Hollywood film industry is now also beginning to use A.I. for a variety of purposes to fight off increasing competition to make the biggest, and best blockbusters. The use of A.I. within this industry may come as a surprise, but A.I. efficient software is having increasing responsibility in assisting film makers with a variety of purposes — from writing scripts, casting actors, simplifying pre-production means and composing music.

Particularly, the use of A.I. within Hollywood to edit trailers is helpful, as the A.I. algorithm can understand areas of high action or high emotions, highlighting them for the human editor to create the final trailer. Similarly, the A.I algorithm can also do the same for long films, by identifying the main characters with advanced facial recognition technology, allowing scenes to be sorted out quickly for film editors, who are then able to focus their attention on other scenes to get first drafts out quickly (Allerin, 2021).

In terms of A.I being used to edit film and video, the potential of doing so to speed up the video editing process for anyone — from film editors, to freelancers, marketers and creative agencies is huge. This is because A.I. has the ability to ‘interpret’ videos, allowing them to help assist with practically any type of editing tool — from colour correction, to object removal, visual effects, image stabilisation and much more.

PromoMii’s Nova A.I. identifying “Weapon”, “Gun” and “Darth Vader” in Star Wars.

In terms of A.I being used to edit film and video, the potential of doing so to speed up the video editing process for anyone — from film editors, to freelancers, marketers and creative agencies is huge. This is because A.I. has the ability to ‘interpret’ videos, allowing them to help assist with practically any type of editing tool — from colour correction, to object removal, visual effects, image stabilisation and much more.

As a result, many platforms are already beginning to use more of these intelligent editing tools that are assisted by A.I.’s nifty capabilities — including Adobe (Thompson,2021). With more and more software becoming available that offers such assistance, the video editing world has the potential to change forever, by allowing both beginners and experienced users the ability to edit their videos with ease, and at a fraction of the time.

However, as with all new technologies there will always be sceptics concerned that the technology will replace human-led contribution, despite all the positives of growing integration of A.I into the creative sector within both the video editing scene and Hollywood. I think it is important to recognise this is a misunderstanding. A.I. is nowhere near being sophisticated enough to ‘stand alone’ in editing videos, and currently assists and facilitates human video editors/film makers in editing content better and more efficiently — only editing according to the requirements set by the editor.

Arguably then, it is fair to say that A.I. has the potential to entirely revolutionise the video editing industry completely. Put simply, it takes more than three hours to make a one-minute video. With A.I, you can shorten the three hour process to just three minutes (Intelligent HQ, 2020). If those stats don’t persuade you to include A.I. into your video editing game, I don't know what will!

References:

1. Europarl (2021) ‘What is artificial intelligence and how is it used?’ Europa, 2 October 2020. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20200827STO85804/what-is-artificial-intelligence-and-how-is-it-used (Accessed: 17 June 2021)
2. Allerin (2021) ‘Can AI automate the film industry’ Allerin, 13 April 2020. Available at: https://www.allerin.com/blog/can-ai-automate-the-film-industry (Accessed 17 June)
3. IntelligentHQ (2020) ‘How artificial intelligence is transforming video editing’ Intelligent HQ, Available at: https://www.intelligenthq.com/artificial-intelligence-transforming-video-editing/ (Accessed 17 June)
4. Thompson, C (2019) ‘How AI will turn us all into Filmmakers’ Wired, 21 January 2019 https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-will-turn-us-all-into-filmmakers/ Accessed (17 June)