“I’m completely hooked on AI.”
The Bucheon International Incredible Film Festival (BIFAN) established a brand new ‘AI category’ at its twenty eighth event held from the 4th to the 14th.
Along with workshops, conferences, and film screenings, the AI Film International Competition category ‘Bucheon Selection’ awards ceremony was also held. The scope expanded beyond viewing to incorporate experiences and awards. Artificial intelligence (AI) has shaken up the film festival landscape.
Shin Chul, Executive Director of BIFAN, said, “The response from actual film majors and industry professionals was also enthusiastic.”
I assumed there can be lots of opposition to AI, but as an alternative, the dominant response was that AI lowered the constraints and barriers of the present film production process. He said, “AI approached existing filmmakers as a ‘re-education in creation’ and most of the people as a ‘recent experience’.”
It’s identified that AI creation has already gone beyond the transitional period and is establishing itself as a component of artistic creation. Director Cho Yang-il emphasized, “It is crucial to experience more and discuss more in the method.”
This was clearly demonstrated within the ‘AI Workshop’ conducted in the shape of a hackathon. Only 48 hours got to form a team, learn AI tools, and create a movie. Excluding the extra processes, the actual time spent on producing a movie with AI was about 10 hours.
The tools used were also diverse. AI was utilized in various ways, comparable to ‘text-image,’ ‘image-video,’ and ‘scale-up.’ The important thing to the method was to cut back time and effort.
Particularly, he emphasized the undeniable fact that the time for ‘learning’ has been reduced. XR curator Kim Jong-min identified, “Previously, even in case you desired to make a brief film, you needed to at the very least study a related major.”
“As we have reduced the period of time we spend on AI production, we’ll find a way to place more effort into communication and constructing AI communities,” he said. This implies we’ll find a way to focus more on the unique purpose of creation.
BIFAN also said that extensive discussions are needed. “Since film festivals are often held yearly, the nominated works within the Bucheon Selection AI category this yr had no alternative but to make use of ‘previous versions’ of tools,” he explained. “Technological development is so fast that we want to designate ‘versions’ of AI tools with a view to run a good film festival,” he said. “As such, an increasing number of sophisticated discussions are needed for AI film festivals.”
Copyright issues weren’t a spotlight of the event, but everyone agreed that it was one of the necessary.
Particularly, he said it was necessary to “transcend the present copyright framework.”
Curator Kim Jong-min explained, “The concept of copyright isn’t absolute, but relatively an idea that emerged as a ‘safety device’ for creators within the strategy of industrializing cultural content.”
“Concerns about AI creations normally arise from ‘AI’s contribution’ and ‘learning and utilizing existing content,'” he said. “But in case you give it some thought, actual movies are not any different. The copyright holder is represented by the director, but there are a lot of more individuals who contributed to the actual creation.” He also emphasized, “People don’t create something from nothing,” and “They can’t help but be influenced by existing content.”
Particularly, when making a movie using AI, it’s unimaginable to investigate all contributions and learning data and share ownership. Due to this fact, he emphasized that creators have to form a community and redefine and discuss recent concepts suitable for the AI content era.
And he said that not only AI, but in addition art has grown together with the event of technology.
From silent to sound, from black and white to paint, from analog to digital, from 2D to 3D and 4D, and now to AI. Technology has expanded the ‘range of image expression’.
As an easy example, computer graphics (CG) were initially accepted as an innovation within the film industry. Works like ‘Terminator 2’ had a big impact on the time.
Director Cho Yang-il explained, “Technically, what has modified attributable to AI is the camera work,” and “even the identical ‘explosion’ can now be focused and directed from closer, more realistically.” Which means even parts that humans couldn’t capture before can now be filmed.
In other words, which means that works that break away from the stereotypes or spectrum of existing film production can emerge.
In truth, the short film ‘Noise’ produced on this workshop features scenes expressing the within the body. Previously, separate special filming or CG work would have been required, but this was made possible through prompts.
He further emphasized that that is “connected to the creator’s ‘escaping vested rights’.”
It’s in the identical context because the emergence of OTT and video streaming. In the present media market, investment and broadcasting channels were necessary, but now the ‘fun and quality of the work’ is way more necessary. Creators have more opportunities to present their works, and viewers have more opportunities to decide on interesting works.
Nevertheless, when it comes to technology, there’s also an inclination toward more vested interests and bias, he analyzed. It’s because most AI tools reflect Western culture. For instance, on the Venice Film Festival in September last yr, a big language model (LLM) reflected the story of an experiencer and the flow of life and created it right into a video creation.
Curator Kim said, “It was clearly an incredible technology that moved the on-site visitors to tears, but I personally couldn’t completely empathize with the result.” He said, “The absence and bias of learning data were the explanations, as was the variation of Seoul’s night view like a Western painting and the failure to represent Korean scenery from the 70s and 80s.”
In other words, the position is that AI movies should move beyond ‘creative discussions’ to ‘technology discussions’ comparable to constructing data on the national level. The reason is that if we remain at the extent of pros and cons of AI adoption, we are going to obviously fall behind in necessary future debates.
Shin Chul, Executive Director of BIFAN, said, “ the entries within the AI sector this time, I noticed that change and innovation have truly begun,” and “AI will show different facets depending on the way it is used, similar to the fireplace of Prometheus.”
He concluded, “Just as the appearance of the camera ushered in an entire recent dimension of art, comparable to abstraction, it seems clear that AI will bring about yet one more change.”
Meanwhile, on the Bucheon International Film Festival, an AI experience zone was arrange, where you could possibly check out Runway’s latest video creation AI, ‘Gen3-Alpha’. Anyone who experiences the strategy of making a scene from a movie in only a couple of minutes with only one sentence will likely feel something near shock. It was an experience space where there was no need to elucidate what ‘AI innovation’ was.
BIFAN said that they’re preparing various workshops and plans in order that more people can experience it in the long run.
Reporter Jang Se-min semim99@aitimes.com
