Hong Kong’s film industry is turning to AI to save time and money. Where do the humans come in?
- With realistic virtual locations, there’s no need to fly actors, crew to different places for film shoots
- Some veterans aren’t convinced AI can fix a stagnant film industry stuck with stale plots, same old faces
Roger Proeis is in Tseung Kwan O, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, and walking around a cavernous railway station unlike any in the city.
The station, complete with ticketing machines, escalators, seating areas and advertising billboards, is fake. The video producer created the whole set-up within his 5,000 sq ft studio using artificial intelligence (AI).
Proeis, 44, the Norwegian CEO of film production firm Votion Studios, is convinced that new technology is shaking up the industry, changing the way traditional filmmakers work and trimming costs too.
By creating realistic virtual locations, for example, there will be no need to fly actors and crew to different places, and audiences will not be able to tell the difference.
There are other ways the new technology can work at various stages of making a film, right through to the tedious stage of post-production editing and making technical fixes.
“Training AI models on extensive real-world data sets can save time and resources in creating accurate and immersive countless environments and production workflows,” he said. “AI can also automate tasks like video editing, colour grading and visual effects compositing.”