Category Archives: Cinema

#ArtsFriday | Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on the Film Industry

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a game-changer in the film industry. From script writing and casting to special effects and distribution, AI is transforming the way movies are made and seen.

While there are many benefits to using AI in filmmaking, there are also potential downsides that need to be considered.

What impact will AI (artificial intelligence) have on Hollywood?

Who better to answer that question than ChatGPT, a thrilling but scary chatbot developed by OpenAI.

When VanRamblings asked ChatGPT about AI‘s potential impact on the film industry, it made the following points (note: only the single, numbered paragraphs represent the ChatGPT input):

1. Scriptwriting: AI can be used to analyze existing screenplays and create new ones, potentially leading to more efficient and cost-effective screenwriting.

In addition, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently told Business Insider’s tech reporter, Stephanie Palazzolo.

“Employing AI to create new scripts will help filmmakers deal with this task more efficiently. Being fed with large amounts of data in the form of movie scripts, machine learning algorithms analyze the data, learn from them, and come up with unique scripts. This makes the process much faster, saving significant time and resources for filmmakers.”

Sarandos went on to state, “Artificial Intelligence will also be used for analyzing scripts that will be made into a film. AI algorithms can study the script storyline, bring forward possible questions, uncertainties, and suggestions, thus making the process of script analysis much easier and faster.”

2. Pre-production: AI can be used to streamline the pre-production process, saving time and resources, including casting, location scouting and storyboarding.

“AI has great potential to simplify the pre-production process by helping to plan schedules, find locations that best fit the storylines and support in other preparatory processes,” says Disney chief, Bob Iger. “Implementing AI will automate the planning of shooting schedules according to the availability of actors that will save time, and increase efficiency.”

In addition, AI systems can analyze the locations described in screenplays and recommend  sites for shooting the scene, saving resources in location scouting.

Even now, AI is being used to improve the accuracy and efficiency of casting decisions. AI-powered platforms can analyze a vast amount of data, including past performance data and social media activity, to predict which actors are most likely to be successful in a given role. This can help casting directors make more informed decisions and save time and resources.

3. Special effects: AI can be used to create more realistic and immersive special effects, potentially reducing the need for practical effects and saving time and money in post-production.

AI is currently being used to enhance visual effects (VFX) in Marvel films. Machine learning algorithms have been trained to recognize and classify different objects in a scene, making it easier and faster to add VFX elements, saving time and money for VFX studios, as well as enhance the overall quality of the film.

4. Audience analysis: AI can be used to analyze audience data and preferences, helping studios make more informed decisions about which films to greenlight and how to market them.

Monica Landers, founder and CEO of StoryFit, acknowledges the peculiarity of using AI to evaluate audience connections with narratives or characters.

Says Landers, “Warner Bros. has turned to Cinelytic AI-based platform to predict the success of its movies and box office receipts. 20th Century Fox has integrated the Merlin system that uses AI and machine learning to match movies to particular genres and audiences, as well as provide complete demographics for any movie.”

5. Distribution: AI can be used to personalize movie recommendations for viewers and optimize distribution strategies, potentially leading to higher ticket sales and revenue.

University of Southern California film professor Siranush Andriasyan, in a recently published research paper, writes …

“Film studios have been using AI for effective advertising and promotion. Analyzing different factors such as audience base, actors’ popularity across the globe, film studios may plan their campaigns according to certain locations where they expect the highest interest from the audience. For example, 20th Century Fox has developed the Merlin Video neural network to predict the success of promotional videos.”

There are, however, potential downsides to the use of AI in the film industry, says retired USC Berkeley film studies professor, Eric Ironside.

One major concern, he states, is the potential for AI to replace human jobs. As algorithms become more advanced, there’s a risk they could replace human casting directors, screenwriters, and VFX artists, leading to film industry job losses.


Response to deal | SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, Chief Negotiator

“If you want to get hired, you have to be ready to consent to be replicated, so there are people who are out there saying that consent at the time of engagement is coercion because they won’t hire you unless you give them those rights,” Shaan Sharma, an alternate member of the Screen Actors Guild negotiating committee told Rolling Stone.

AI cloning set to impact the film industry, and jobs in Hollywood

“And it’s only those with considerable leverage that will have the ability to say no to the replication, but still be hired. That really concerns me because most members don’t have the leverage to say no at the time of engagement.”

Another potential downside is the loss of human creativity and personal touch. While AI algorithms can generate new stories and make accurate predictions, they may lack the unique perspective and emotional depth that comes from human creativity. This could lead to a homogenization of storytelling and a decrease in the overall quality of films.

For years, the idea that computers and data could play a role in filmmaking was considered anathema in Hollywood, where personal taste, charisma and talent were viewed as key to success.

In recent years, film industry skepticism about AI has lessened, suggests Largo.ai founder Sami Arpa, in part because streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon have thrived by using technology to guide decision making. Both use complex, jealously guarded algorithms to recommend content for their audiences, and analyze audience data to underpin their commissioning and acquisition decisions.

Make no mistake: AI is set to change the film industry in profound ways, from data analysis to virtual production.

While there are concerns about the impact of AI on the industry, it is clear that AI is here to stay, and it will continue to transform the way films are produced, distributed and consumed by moviegoers.

Those who are willing to embrace AI and learn to work with it will be at the forefront of this transformation, shaping the future of the film industry.

#ArtsFriday | The Digital Revolution in Filmmaking

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Human history, since time immemorial, has been undeniably marked by a series of revolutions that helped shape us as modern individuals.

Our whole concept of civilization is determined by a succession of consecutive turning points.

From the early Neolithic Revolution, 12,000 years ago, through the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century and the Jet Age of the 1950s and 1960s, our species has evolved enormously.

In the current age, the Digital Revolution — also known as the Third Industrial Revolution — is the continuous evolution from the previous models of analog, mechanical and electronic technologies to the transformative digital technology with which we have all become familiar in recent years (think: streaming).

In 1993, digital technology revolutionized cinema.

The highest-grossing movie that year was Jurassic Park, whose dinosaurs ironically represented an evolutionary leap. Audiences were wowed by those hyper-realistic digital effects — all six minutes of them.

Leading up to its release, the 2009 movie Avatar promised to be a record-shattering hit.

In order to capitalize on the blockbuster to the fullest extent, movie theatres around the world got rid of their creaky old film projectors and purchased sleek digital replacements.

While projection technology had been available for a decade, it took the promise of a digital smash hit to convince theatres to adopt it at a large scale.

Before long, digital filmmaking and digital projection had become the industry standard. While it was an expensive investment for theatres, it allowed them to be more nimble in what they screened.

“It’s not a surprise that this transition took place: physical film was particularly inefficient. It’s heavy and it’s expensive,” says University of California, Berkeley marketing professor Eric Anderson. “What was more surprising was how this affected the assortments [of movies] offered to consumers.”

“With digital,” Professor Anderson continues, “it’s easier to have time for niche films, because one employee can manage all the screens in a theatre, and can effortlessly switch between one movie and another with the push of a digital button. Digital technology also gives the theatres more flexibility to stream big blockbusters even more. In a study conducted recently, it was interesting that we found these two effects together.”

The very first fully digital film, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, was screened in Los Angeles in 1999. But it took time for theatres to switch over, in part because the new equipment was so expensive.

A single digital projector could cost as much as $150,000 — an eye-popping sum for a theatre with eight screens to convert.

As a result, Anderson says, theatres “fought the change as much as they could until it was shown to them very clearly that the economics made sense.”

Initially, there was little urgency.

From 1999 until the early 2000s, relatively few films were released in a digital format — mostly big-budget offerings, such as Star Wars and Toy Story 2.

Converting came with a host of benefits: the film era required the creation of costly physical copies of movies. The number of times per day a theatre could screen a hit movie was limited by the number of copies they had.

Film also posed logistical challenges: each movie required several reels that were heavy and hard to manipulate, and the process of switching between movies on a projector was time-consuming.

As a result, theatres tended to show only one movie per screen each day. Digitization changed all that, making it effortless to offer more movie variety to consumers.

Still and all, the financial crisis of 2008 continued to slow the transition to digital by making it difficult for theatres to borrow the capital they needed to upgrade their equipment.

But Avatar “acted as a rallying point to get the industry to transition, which James Cameron pushed very hard for,” Anderson explains.

As the highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar was also the first 100% digitally photographed “film” to win an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

Not since George Lucas’ Attack of the Clones had a director tried to fundamentally change the cinema-going experience and, love him or hate him, James Cameron meant to do just that.

Cameron immersed audiences in the alien world of Pandora by incorporating ground-breaking 3D along with the digital Fusion Camera System to capture his vision, ushering in the final shift towards digital cinema for the majority of movie productions.

From that point on, the conversion process picked up momentum; 90% of movie screens worldwide had gone digital by 2015.

The true effects of the digital transformation became apparent and overall movie variety increased. Smaller theatres with four or fewer screens saw the most noticeable increases,  about 11%. In larger theaters, the percentage of screens devoted to blockbusters increased during weekend hours, but decreased on the weekdays, resulting in greater variety during these less-popular times.

In other words, theatres prioritized blockbusters during peak periods and “offered slightly more variety or more niche films during off-peak periods,” Anderson observes. “It’s a more efficient use of their screen space, given the ebb and flow of consumer demand.”

As filmmaker John Boorman noted in a 2023 article in The Guardian, “Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans was the only Best Picture Oscar nominee this year shot on celluloid.”

“For more than 100 years, films have been made of film,” Boorman observes. “Now, instead of a magazine being loaded on to the camera, a card is inserted that electronically records whatever the camera sees.”

“Today, most ‘films’ are made electronically,” says Boorman. “No film is used in the making of them — not the shooting, editing or projection. So they can’t — or shouldn’t — be called films.”

Change, as most of us know, is constant, and inevitable, if in the eyes of cinema purists, “regrettable.”

Perhaps the time has come to change the language we employ to describe what we see at the cinema, or on our screens at home.

Unless a new picture is actually made of film, it should not be called a film.

Perhaps, going forward, we should refer to it as a …

Most Anticipated Films of 2024’s First Six Months

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Summer blockbusters, action-packed thrillers, sweet rom-coms, and much-anticipated sequels are all on the upcoming movie slate for 2024.

2024 at the movies promises to be one for the books, especially with the long-awaited releases of a surfeit of films that were delayed for release until 2024, as a result of the strike of WGA and SAG-AFTRA members last spring and summer.

From dramatic biopics like Bob Marley: One Love and the Amy Winehouse film Back to Black to epic sequels like Dune: Part Two, as well as a surfeit of movies pushed back from 2023, this new year is already shaping up to be a wild year in film.

Here’s a list of the 26 most anticipated Hollywood releases set to hit your local multiplex in 2024, between now and the end of June.

Argylle (Feb. 2). Matthew Vaughn returns to the espionage genre in a new movie that follows a spy novelist (Bryce Dallas Howard) who, unbeknownst to her, is writing real-life events into her beloved books series. Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill and Bryan Cranston also star, alongside pop star Dua Lipa.

Lisa Frankenstein (Feb. 9). The campy, young adult take on the Mary Shelley classic sees a high schooler re-animate a corpse who turns out to be a love interest. The movie is the feature début from Zelda Williams and features a screenplay from Jennifer’s Body scribe Diablo Cody.

Madame Web (Feb. 14). Dakota Johnson leads this Spider-Man spinoff as a clairvoyant who becomes entangled with multiple superheroes.

Bob Marley: One Love (Feb. 14). The biopic of Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley comes from King Richard director Reinaldo Marcus Green and stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley, the film following the singer’s rise, and personal and political journey.

Dune: Part Two (March 1). This follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune was originally set for release in 2023. The sequel picks up with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) looking to avenge his family line. Austin Butler and Christopher Walken join the cast that is also led by Zendaya.

Road House (March 21). Patrick Swayze’s 1989 action flick is getting a 2024 re-do thanks to director Doug Liman, with Jake Gyllenhaal taking over the starring role as an ex-UFC fighter turned bouncer.

The American Society of Magical Negroes (March 22). Set for a Sundance 2024 début later this month, this featurefrom comedian and satirist Kobi Libii follows a young man who’s recruited into a secret society of Black people who are meant to make white people’s lives easier. Justice Smith leads this Focus Features project.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (March 29). After revitalizing the franchise with 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace and Paul Rudd return to team up with original Ghostbusters stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts as they attempt to save New York.

Mickey 17 (March 29). The new film from director Bong Joon-ho, his first since his Oscar-winning Parasite, stars Robert Pattinson as a “expendable” employee sent to colonize a foreign world.

The First Omen (April 5). Nell Tiger Free stars in the prequel to the classic Richard Donner film. The project kicks off when a young American woman moves to Rome in service of the church, only to encounter a mysterious darkness. Tawfeek Barhom, Sonia Braga, Ralph Ineson and Bill Nighy also star in the project, from.filmmaker Arkasha Stevenson.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (April 12). Godzilla vs. Kong filmmaker Adam Wingard returns with a film that teams Godzilla and Kong set to face off against previously hidden monstrous Titans. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens are on board as the human stars.

Challengers (April 26). Another holdover from 2023 pushed due to the actors strike, this Luca Guadagnino film stars Zendaya as a tennis star turned coach in a love triangle with competing champions. Josh O’Connor & Mike Faist co-star.

Civil War (April 26). This Alex Garland movie is set after the United States has fallen into a state of civil war, and follows reporters as they try to traverse the fractured and increasingly dangerous country. Kirsten Dunst, her husband Jesse Plemons, Nick Offerman and Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny co-star.

Idea of You (May 2). The beloved romance novel is turned into a romantic comedy. Michael Showalter directs and Anne Hathaway stars as a single mom who goes to a concert with her daughter where she begins a relationship with the lead singer of a beloved boy band (think Harry Styles). Nicholas Galitzine stars as the love interest in the feature which will stream on Amazon.

Fall Guy (May 3). This feature film version of the 1980s TV series follows a Hollywood stuntman who gets embroiled in a real-life crime plot that will require him to use his skills to save the day and the movie he is working on. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt co-star in this feature film directed by David Leitch.

Back to Black (May 10). Marisa Abela stars as the late Grammy winner Amy Winehouse in the biopic from Sam Taylor-Johnson.

https://youtu.be/MbvonXc8QjI?si=xElVFjFFSzC3ZPLl

IF (May 17). John Krasinski directs and acts in this feature centering on a young girl (Cailey Fleming) who can see imaginary friends (also known as IFs) and must help IFs who have been abandoned by their kids. Ryan Reynolds leads the Paramount feature that voice stars Steve Carell as an IF named Blue.

Garfield (May 24). Chris Pratt voice stars as the classic comic strip cat, who goes on a heist with his feline father (Samuel L. Jackson) and canine pal Odie (Harvey Guillén). Nicholas Hoult voices Garfield and Odie’s owner, Jon, while Chicken Little filmmaker Mark Dindal directs.

Furiosa (May 24). Nearly a decade after George Miller’s Fury Road was heralded as one of the greatest action films of all time, the filmmaker returns with a prequel centered on the early days of Furiosa, played by Anya Taylor-Joy.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (May 24). Set 300 years after the trilogy of Apes films, this new film, like the classic 1968 Planet of the Apes installment, is set in a time when apes have taken over Earth and humans are subjugated.

Ballerina (June 7). John Wick 4 grossed a series-best $440.1 million. Ballerina will be a new test of the franchise’s strength, with this feature spinoff movie starring Ana De Armas as a ballet dancer / assassin named Rooney.

Inside Out 2 (June 14). The gang is back in this animated follow-up to the beloved Pixar movie that follows the anthropomorphized emotions of a young girl led by Amy Poehler’s Joy. Joining for this round is Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke.

Bad Boys 4 (June 14). In many ways, Bad Boys 4 is a much-needed palette cleanser for those involved. For one, it marks Will Smith’s return to the summer blockbusters following his infamous Oscars slap in March 2022, the film arriving nearly 30 years after the 1995 original, directed by Michael Bay.

The Bikeriders (June 21). Disney opted not to release The Bikeriders amid the SAG-AFTRA strike. Focus Features will release this Jeff Nichols-directed movie focusing on the culture of a 1960s Midwestern motorcycle club, the film’s stars: Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer and Austin Butler.

A Quiet Place: Day One (June 28). Six years after John Krasinski launched a new franchise for Paramount, the studio is releasing its first spinoff. Set in New York City on the first day of an alien invasion, the feature originated from an idea Krasinski. Pig’s Michael Sarnoski directs a cast that includes Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou and Denis O’Hare.

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (June 28), Chapter 2 (Aug. 16). Kevin Costner’s multi-film western saga has been in the works since 1988, with the star-filmmaker putting at least $20 million of his own money into the project.

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The cinematic landscape of 2024 promises a kaleidoscope of experiences, from the grandeur of Hollywood blockbusters to the intimacy of independent gems discovered at film festivals.

As audiences prepare for a year filled with visual spectacles, emotional journeys, and thought-provoking narratives, the global film industry stands ready to captivate, challenge, and inspire.

Whether it’s the excitement of summer blockbusters or the anticipation of the autumn Oscar season, 2024 is poised to be a remarkable chapter in the ongoing saga of cinema.

Stories of a Life | Redux | Film | A Central Organizing Force In Tomlin Family Life

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Film has always been a central, organizing force in my relationship with both my daughter, Megan, and my son, Jude.

Our collective love of the cinema, attending film festivals and discussing what we saw following the various screenings we attended (usually at the Fresgo Inn on Davie, which was alive no matter the time of night or early morning) was, over the years, a central feature of our relationship — the relationship between son and daughter, and dad — that allowed us to delve deep into discussions of the meaning of life, and our collective responsibility to work towards creating a fairer and more just world for everyone.

Heart and deep caring for humanity was at the centre of our love of film, and at the centre of our loving familial relationship, informing the choices we made about how we would conduct ourselves in the world, and the projects and causes to which we would devote our time and our energies.

In the 1980s, when Cathy and I were going through a rancorous divorce, film brought us together.

When in Seattle — which we visited frequently, always staying on the non-smoking 33rd floor of the Weston twin towers — in 1984, we took in a screening of Garry Marshall’s The Flamingo Kid — the story of a working class boy (Matt Dillon) who takes a summer job at a beach resort and learns valuable life lessons.

Megan was seven years of age, and Jude 9 — both were uncertain about the efficacy of our trip south (without their mother’s permission — we called her upon arriving at our hotel), but the screening alleviated and, finally, repaired any of their concerns, and all went well that weekend. Fortuitously, too, upon our return, the divorce proceedings inexplicably moved forward into a more reasonable and thoughtful direction, reflective of all our collective concerns.

Whenever there was “trouble” in our relationship — generated, most usually, by their mother — film served to salve the wounds of dysfunction, allowing us to find our collective centre while healing the wounds that rent all of our lives during a decade-long, million dollar custody dispute.

Film spoke to us, made us better, took us out of the drudgery of our too often protean daily and, more often, troubled lives, and engaged us while putting our lives into a broader and more human scale perspective. Never once was there a film that we saw together when we didn’t come out of the screening feeling more whole, and more at one with ourselves and the world.

Such was true, at the screenings of Glenn Close and John Malkovich’s Dangerous Liaisons over the holiday period in 1988, or months later at the screening of Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams, which we took in at the Oakridge Theatre, a favourite and comforting cinema haunt of ours.

When Megan wanted some “alone time” with me, it almost always revolved around watching a film together, although as Megan matured (and as her love for film matured), Megan made it plain that she was present in the theatre to watch the film, not “share time” with me, choosing always to sit in a whole other section of the theatre (it drove her crazy in the times that we were sitting together in a theatre that I would check in occasionally with her, looking at her to determine how she felt about the film — talking during a film was an unforgivable sin, so that was never going to happen).

Some days, Megan would call and say, “Dad, take me to a film.” And because I was a film critic at the time, and had a pass to attend at any cinema in North America, off the two of us would traipse to see Kathy Bates’ Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) or Johnny Depp’s Benny & Joon (1993) at the old 12-theatre complex downstairs in the Royal Centre mall.

Other times, post dinner and after Megan had finished her homework, I’d say to Megan out of the blue, “I’m heading out to attend a preview screening of a film. Do you want to come along with me?” Megan would ponder my question for a moment before asking, “Which film?”

In 1991, one very long film preview screening we attended was Kevin Costner’s directorial début, Dances With Wolves, about which we knew nothing other than it starred one of our favourite actors, and off the two of us went.

At screening’s end (Megan and I actually sat together at this particular screening, which took place in the huge Granville 7 Cinema 7, cuz the preview theatre screening room was just packed), Megan turned to me, and said, “Dad, I knew this was going to be a great film.” And it was. “And, you know what else? It’s going to pick up a raft of Oscars this year, too, and be considered one of the, if not the, best films of the year.”

Jude and Megan also attended film festival screenings with me.

Almost inevitably, Vancouver International Film Festival founder, and co-owner of Festival Cinemas Leonard Schein was present with his wife Barbara, and at a screening’s end, Megan would make her way over to wherever Leonard and Barbara were sitting to enquire of him whether or not he intended to book the film into either the Varsity, Park or Starlight.

Following screenings of Neil Jordan’s 1992 putative multiple Oscar award winner, The Crying Game or, that same year, Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom, Megan marched over to Leonard, and asked him boldfacedly, “Well, what did you think?”

When Leonard indicated that he thought the films were not quite his cup of tea, both films would have difficulty finding an audience, and it was unlikely he’d be booking either film into one of his cinemas, Megan lit into Leonard with a passion and fury that I had rarely observed as coming from her, saying, “Are you out of your mind? Strictly Ballroom (or, The Crying Game) is a wonderful film, and just the sort of film that not only should you book, but that you MUST book — these are both groundbreaking films that will only serve to reinforce your reputation as an arts cinema impresario, but will also make you a tonne of money, and we all know that you’re all about the money. Either you book these films into The Varsity, or believe me when I tell you that there’ll be hell to pay when you see me next.”

And with that, Megan marched off.

At the 1990 Vancouver International Film Festival, I’d caught a screening of Whit Stillman’s directorial début, Metropolitan, in preview, and knew that this would be a film that Megan would love (and be astounded by, at the revelation of one of the characters, mid-film). I made arrangements to pick Megan up from University Hill Secondary at 3pm sharp on the day of the festival screening, we drove downtown, found a parking spot, and rushed over to The Studio Cinema on Granville to catch the 4pm screening of Metropolitan — which as I had predicted, Megan loved.

In early December 1993, on a particularly chilly and overcast day, at 10am in Cinema 2 at the Granville 7 theatre complex, I caught a screening of Jonathan Demme’s groundbreaking new film, Philadelphia — a film about which I knew little, and a film that knocked me out (along with the handful of film critics in attendance — the Vancouver Sun’s Marke Andrews and the late Michael Walsh, long the lead film critic at The Province, as well as the late Lee Bacchus, soon to join Michael Walsh as a film critic at The Province) all of us at the theatre for the screening.

Emerging from the theatre just after noon, making my way onto Granville, I looked for the nearest telephone in order that I might call Megan at school.

I called the office at University Hill Secondary, and asked them to find Megan and bring her to the phone. When Megan asked, “Dad, is everything all right?”, I told her about the film I had just seen, and that when it opened in January, I wanted to take her and Jude to a screening at the Granville 7. We talked about the film for a few minutes, with her saying about 10 minutes in, “I’m holding up the school phone, and calls coming in. Let’s get together after school. Come and pick me up, and we can continue our conversation. I’ll see you then, Dad. I love you.”

There are gifts we give our children. From my parents, it was what would emerge as a lifelong love for country music. For Jude and Megan, my gift was a love of music, a love of the ballet, and an abiding love for film.