It seems artificial intelligence has finally fulfilled the dream of many film producers: it has learned to create films with virtually no real actors, no huge film sets and no endless retakes. 🎬 😂
But then one small problem arose.
AI has learned to make movies. But it hasn't yet learned to make audiences buy tickets! 😂
An unusual science-fiction film has premiered in Chinese cinemas: “Sanxingdui: Future Past”, created with extensive use of artificial intelligence.
And this is not a short experimental clip, but a full-fledged feature film!
The most surprising thing is that a significant part of the usual film production was replaced here by digital technologies.
Actors? Generated.
Voices? Created with the help of AI.
Sets? Drawn by neural networks.
Fantastic worlds? As many as you like!
You would think Hollywood should be nervously packing its suitcases, and actors should be urgently learning new professions.
But reality, as usual, had a surprise in store.
🤖 A hundred people spent two years teaching AI to make movies
Creating the film required nearly 100 specialists, more than two years of work and about 1,5 million dollars.
Yes, yes, you heard right.
Artificial intelligence, which was supposed to replace people and greatly simplify production, required an entire team of people to teach it to replace those very people! 😁
The developers created the characters and worked on the scenes, movements, voices, lighting and visual effects.
All of this required constant supervision, corrections and numerous refinements.
After all, it is one thing to ask a neural network to draw a fantastic city.
And quite another to make the characters move naturally, talk, express emotions and keep the same appearance throughout an entire film.
It seems AI turned out to be the perfect actor: it doesn't demand fees, doesn't show up late to the shoot, but sometimes you have to explain to it a hundred times how many fingers a hand should have! 😂
🍿 Ten thousand screenings. The audience is still thinking it over
The creators expected that the unusual technology would attract the public's attention.
For the premiere day, more than 10 thousand screenings were scheduled across the country!
The scale is impressive.
You can imagine how the producers were already mentally preparing for huge queues, enthusiastic reviews and new possibilities for digital cinema.
But advance ticket sales turned out to be unexpectedly modest.
According to the first reports, they amounted to only about 65–80 thousand yuan.
By the evening of the premiere day, the box office had approached 290 thousand yuan.
For a film with a budget of about one and a half million dollars, the start turned out to be rather chilly.
AI created an entire world, populated it with digital actors, and came up with incredible sets… But digital viewers ready to pay for tickets, for some reason, it did not provide for! 🤣
Of course, the results of the first day do not yet determine the final fate of the picture. The film may find an audience later, especially on digital platforms.
But the contrast between technological ambitions and the first box-office results turned out to be quite striking.
🎭 Are actors no longer needed? It's not that simple!
Artificial intelligence is indeed capable of creating convincing images of people, synthesizing voices and reproducing a multitude of emotions.
But audiences don't go to the movies just for pretty pictures.
We love actors for their charisma, unexpected reactions, lively facial expressions and their ability to make us laugh, cry or worry.
Think of your favorite films.
Do we love them only for the sets and special effects?
Of course not!
Sometimes a single glance from a real actor can say more than ten minutes of grandiose computer graphics.
That is precisely why the new technology evokes both admiration and a great many questions.
Can artificial intelligence replace human acting?
Will viewers find it interesting to watch fully digital characters?
And most importantly — will a neural network be able to create a story that truly moves a person?
For now, the answers are not as clear-cut as technological enthusiasts would like.
🎥 The most patient director in the world
Yet artificial intelligence has one undeniable advantage.
With it, you can shoot a film endlessly!
The actor isn't tired.
The cameraman doesn't ask for a break.
The sets don't need to be transported.
Didn't like a scene? We create a new one!
Don't like the weather? We change it in a second!
Feeling like adding ten thousand aliens, three spaceships and a talking dinosaur?
No problem!
True, afterwards you'll have to spend a few more months explaining to the AI why the dinosaur shouldn't suddenly turn into a refrigerator. 😂
And yet the very idea is incredibly interesting.
Perhaps in a few years directors will be able to create science-fiction films that previously required budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars.
And small independent studios will gain opportunities that were once available only to the largest film companies.
But for now the technology is only undergoing its first serious trials.
And the audience's vote with their wallet turns out to be no less important than the capabilities of neural networks.
🤖 Maybe now it's time to ask the AI to watch its own film?
The funniest thing about the whole story is the paradox of what's happening.
Artificial intelligence is capable of creating actors, depicting gigantic cities, inventing incredible science-fiction landscapes and even voicing an entire film.
But one task remains unsolved for now.
How do you convince a real person to spend two hours of their life watching this beauty?
Perhaps the next stage in the development of AI will be exactly that.
First a neural network will create a film.
Then another neural network will write rave reviews.
A third will put together an advertising campaign.
A fourth will book the tickets.
And a fifth will head to the cinema, buy popcorn and laugh in all the right places! 😂
And then producers will finally be able to announce the complete success of the digital revolution.
True, one small question will remain: who will pay for the tickets?
And yet the experiment of Chinese filmmakers deserves attention.
It shows how far technology has advanced and how complex the very art of making cinema remains.
Because a film is not only image, sound and special effects.
It is a story for whose sake the viewer is ready to turn off the phone, settle into a chair and forget about everything else for two hours.
And the main takeaway of this unusual premiere: artificial intelligence can already create cinema without actors. Now it only has to learn to make films for which people will want to come to the cinema!
And for now, the creators can be offered the following experiment:
“Make a sequel. Only this time, ask the AI not just to make the film, but first to find out who is actually going to watch it!” 🤣🎬
