Forum on Artificial Intelligence

in this forum of short essays, Craig Erpelding, Jack Beck, J. D. Swerzenski, and Thomas Brecheisen explore the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in screenwriting, postproduction, and teaching. AI language models and tools have emerged as valuable assets to assist in script development because they offer ideas and provide informative feedback. Beyond scriptwriting, AI creates new opportunities for characterizations, and AI tools have useful applications in video editing and film education. The four essays examine the capabilities of AI language models as a development and scriptwriting tool, the impact of AI on characterizations in film using a Chionian perspective of voice–body duality, Adobe's AI-powered Text-Based Editing tools, and the integration of AI tools in film education, highlighting the potential benefits of enhanced student engagement and immersive learning experiences while also addressing the challenges of maintaining ethical standards and human creativity in the face of technological advancements. —Forum editor Thomas BrecheisenThe advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) language models, such as ChatGPT, has impacted the creative industries, including movie development and screenplays. This discussion considers the capabilities of ChatGPT as a tool for scriptwriting, looking not only at its ability to write scripts but also at its potential to assist in script evaluation and feedback. It explores research on AI's capacity to generate outlines based on concepts, loglines, synopses, and character descriptions, while also looking at its ability to conform to various film and television structures. It considers how users might optimize the performance of ChatGPT in their writing process. At the time of this article's inception, Hollywood unions were embroiled in heated negotiations between writers, actors, and studios, some of them involving the impact of AI on the industry. This author feels that as of 2023, current AI engines do not have the ability to replace human creatives in screenwriting. However, based on advances in AI in music, songwriting, animation, and other creative realms, AI could have a significant impact on the future of filmmaking.First, what is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is a conversational assistant application that operates on an advanced generative AI engine—specifically, at the time of writing in July 2023, the GPT-3.5 architecture. It is pre-trained on a massive dataset containing diverse text sources to develop a deep understanding of human language patterns and contextual meaning. When a user inputs a prompt or a question, ChatGPT processes it and generates responses by predicting the most probable continuation based on its pre-training, creating coherent and contextually appropriate responses. The interface allows for multiple conversation lines and has a progressive memory of information within a conversation line. As of July 2023, the extensive GPT-3.5 architecture pre-training of the engine seemed to be based on broad Internet searches, social media, and global hot topics, as will be described here.ChatGPT's understanding of the movie and screenwriting context allows it to respond accurately to prompts such as "Write a dialogue between two detectives investigating a murder case" or "write a scene for a movie using the following characters . . . " When a prompt is typed into ChatGPT, such as "write a feature screenplay," the content of the screenplay generated by ChatGPT is configured based on the knowledge and patterns it has learned from the vast amount of text data on which it was pre-trained with GPT3.5, which has a historical limit to 2021.Scripts generated may include elements, themes, and plot points commonly found in typical, contemporary feature screenplays. Thus, scripts from ChatGPT result in what one might call "cliché" characters, dialogue, conflicts, settings, and story arcs. In the author's research, typing "write a feature screenplay" into ChatGPT in July 2023 resulted in a movie outline called The Enigma Equation, which focused on underground societies pulling the strings of government to affect human culture while exploiting the influence of mass media. This is very similar to hot topics and sentiments found across the Internet and social media at the time of the engine's most current historical pre-training boundary.The language capabilities of ChatGPT enable it to produce scripts that incorporate defined plots, developed characters, and systematic dialogues. By leveraging its vast pre-trained knowledge of film scripts and narrative structures, it is entirely possible that ChatGPT could deliver compelling and professional-grade cinematic stories that cater to various genres and styles.When prompted to write a romantic comedy script, ChatGPT attempts to create a heartwarming storyline with witty dialogue and relatable characters that align with the genre's conventions. The author prompted ChatGPT to write "the scariest opening scene to a horror film" it could imagine, and the engine created a short scene that could understandably be the blueprint for a good opener that squarely fit within the genre. Similarly, the author prompted ChatGPT to write and rewrite scenes based on tone, such as "dark and vengeful" and then "whimsical and goofy fun," which did provide results, albeit clichéd.Thus, through its generative AI capabilities, it seems that ChatGPT can create sample movie scenes that evoke specific emotions, fit various genres, adopt distinct styles, and set appropriate tones. This feature could benefit writers and filmmakers in exploring creative possibilities and in experimenting with different elements in the scripting and development phase.According to the author's experimentation, as of July 2023, the engine seemed to have difficulty generating scripts longer than a few pages and containing more than one location. Formatting, which is vital to the industry for a variety of reasons, seems to be something the engine is not capable of. It does understand the difference between action, slug lines, and dialogue and even incorporates "Fade In" and "Fade to Black." However, it does not utilize Courier New font or appropriate tabs; it does not capitalize important sounds, is inconsistent with character names from one scene to the next, and overuses parentheticals. Additionally, while the engine seemingly could write serviceable dialogue, it does not write action blocks visually, as would be expected in a screenplay. Rather, it generates these blocks more as prose in a novel.It is important to note that while ChatGPT can generate coherent responses, it does not have consciousness or creativity like a human screenwriter. When the author asked more nuanced creative deliverables of the engine, it identified its inability to generate a response, "as it would require extensive creativity and storytelling skills." Moreover, ChatGPT can sometimes produce content that is repetitive, nonsensical, or off-topic, especially when the prompt is ambiguous or lacks clear instructions.In the case of The Enigma Equation, the author requested ChatGPT to write each scene of the outline, resulting in scenes that when strung together as a full screenplay lacked continuity, left huge gaps in plot, forgot or stranded characters who had been introduced with some importance, and more. Therefore, users will often need to provide more specific and detailed prompts to guide ChatGPT and refine the generated content to meet their specific narrative requirements. There is a "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" function when ChatGPT re-generates a response that seems to help guide results to a more satisfactory place.While not particularly good in quickly or easily writing serviceable screenplays for the industry, ChatGPT might serve as a valuable tool for script evaluation. Writers can use ChatGPT to analyze scripts for strengths and weaknesses, identify potential plot holes, and assess the overall feasibility of a project. The author found that typing "evaluate this screenplay" and pasting in the text of the script, even when feature-length, resulted in both positive and negative feedback, such as commending a "well-defined plot" and noting that a character's "motivation for exploring the woods is not clearly defined." Thus, evaluation tools in ChatGPT could streamline early stages of internal script reviews.ChatGPT can quickly generate outlines for loglines, synopses, and character descriptions, aiding writers in structuring their concepts. A writer can request an outline for a logline based on a sci-fi concept, and ChatGPT will deliver a concise and attention-grabbing summary that highlights the movie's unique premise. The author tested this on a variety of concepts in this genre with positive results. With key details about the plot, characters, and setting provided, ChatGPT did create seemingly well-organized outlines based on the provided information.Based on experimentation, it seems the pre-training of ChatGPT includes well-known movie structures such as the traditional three-act structure, Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat!" Beat Sheet, Syd Field's Paradigm, and the 15-Minute Movie Method. According to ChatGPT, it also can combine elements from various structures or create new storytelling frameworks, allowing for more unique and original narrative approaches. At the time of writing, this was not tested or researched.Ultimately, the results of the author's current study show that ChatGPT may be a valuable tool for generating ideas and providing inspiration for screenplays. However, the author's testing leads to the confident conclusion that human creativity, critical thinking, and editing are indispensable to processes necessary for crafting a compelling and polished feature screenplay.The topic quickly becoming more topical is the increasing utilization of AI in film production. A growing concern is how AI can negatively affect the industry. The 2023 SAG strikers fear a future of actors being replaced by AI 3-D replicas. A recent Black Mirror (Netflix 2011–present) episode, "Joan Is Awful," involves a Netflix-like company, Streamberry, using a quantum computer and CGI to create virtual actors in automatically generated storylines for broadcast. Before and still today, AI characters abound. Recent feature films Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie, 2023) and The Creator (Gareth Edwards, 2023) both sport Earth-destroying AI.However, what is a threat to some remains a wellspring of content for the screenwriter. It is intriguing to film historians and theorists how characters can be very much like humans, but not. This offers a lot of creative possibilities, such as unexpected heroes, maniacal villains, and hapless victims. AI portrayal often reflects societal fears, ethical conundrums, fascination with technological advancements, and philosophical questions surrounding the nature of consciousness and humanity. AI characters seek self-realization, rights and freedoms, and human desires (OpenAI)—all core story content.This author's particular fascination prioritizes the creative challenges and opportunities involving vocalization and AI characters. In sync dialogue, humans are simple and boring: if the onscreen character's voice is heard, and the mouth is moving in sync, audiences have a match. To do things in a more interesting way, filmmakers need horror, supernatural, animation, or AI.A study of AI characterizations might begin with the following overview of the character types and tropes: Malevolent—The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984), including SkynetBenevolent—Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977), R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)Sentient—Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014), Ava (Alicia Vikander)Companion—Her (Spike Jonze, 2013), Samantha (Scarlett Johansson)Dilemma (Ethical)—The Artifice Girl (Franklin Rich, 2022), Cherry (Tatum Matthews)Augmentation—Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008), Jarvis (Paul Bettany) and the suitDystopia—The Matrix (Lana and Lilly Wachowski, 1999)Comedy—Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings, 2005), Marvin (Warwick Davis and Alan Rickman)AI runs the gamut of bodily categories. There is the android with human qualities and appearance, but with mechanical and artificial designs, emphasizing the contrast. Data (Brent Spiner) from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paramount 1987–84) and Ava from Ex Machina are two that are well-known. Data wishes in many ways to become more like his human colleagues while Ava contemplates killing and then kills her human creator, representing the full spectrum.What is not obvious is that even basic human character sync involves the "contract of belief" because as theorist Michel Chion explains, "the process of 'embodying' a voice is not a mechanistic operation, but a symbolic one . . . provided that the rules of a sort of 'Contract of Belief' are respected" (Audio-Vision 129). A contract of belief exists when filmmakers provide clues or codes that there is a certain source-body for a voice. Embodiment is the translation from Chion's mise-en-corps—putting into a body. The spectator/auditor attaches the voice and body; there is a separation, and an individual creates a suitable, desired union. The audience sees Data talking but remembers it is still an illusion. It is not Data talking; the sound is sourced from a speaker centered behind the screen. Data is not right of frame, but colored, light, rapid stills represent Data. The image sources no sound. Here sync is a fiction; it is a ventriloquism. But this all takes on greater meaning as examples move more into objectified bodies.There are AI avatars. In Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982), Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Yori (Cindy Morgan) are programs written by users that are personified inside the computer. Flynn (Jeff Bridges) enters as a human, becoming Clu. In TRON: Legacy (Joseph Kasinski, 2010), audiences see the AI face de-aging of Jeff Bridges, ironically in a computer controlled by the evil AI MCP, personified in Sark (David Warner), also the CEO, and so on.Some films explore the idea of transference of AI consciousness or intelligence between different bodies or forms. Jarvis, the AI brain computer for Iron Man, is transferred into human form with Vision.Another offshoot of the android is the cyborg—a person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements. In Terminator 2 (James Cameron, 1991), the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) can trick the T-1000 by disguising his voice as that of the boy, John Connor (Edward Furlong). Moreover, the T-1000 can shapeshift to and disguise his voice as John's foster mother. The body–voice presumption can be manipulated with technology, both within the film and in postproduction.Additional sound theory terms about voice–body are worth engaging here. Synthesis is the combining of visual and sound as one, in ways that include sync and other means. It is the grand attempt at uniting the two senses in the cinematic experience. Synchresis is an oft-used Chionian term: "mental fusion free of logic, occurs with sync" (The Voice in Cinema 129). If you present any sound seemingly sourced by any subject, the observer will (willingly) believe they are together, sync or not. Chion argues that synthesis is symbolic in that it often avoids vocal phonation in favor of the body—consider the breathing diaphragm, abdomen and core muscles, gesturings, glances, and throat or larynx and the particularly exaggerated machinations of AI robots.Robots can provide a loose sync but often effectively do not create attachment through source as much as through behavior and design. TARS (Bill Irwin) from Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014) has a tinny voice, as though it reverberates off its body. The robot has no mouth but aspects of eyes (monitors at eye level) and arms (integrated into a monolithic-inspired design). In Star Wars, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) also has that odd quality of a masked voice in a face that does not move or express. But all the exaggerated gesticulations and mechanical joint sounds are the sync substitutes, and audiences have the contract and assign voice to the body—synchresis. Note that R2-D2 emits merely sound effects that are quite linguistic and well-chosen; plus, there is the swiveling head as the robot considers what to do (with associated mechanical flourishes for contract). In the scene where R2-D2 tries to convince C-3PO to follow him on Tatooine, R2-D2, uncertain, contemplates, looks both ways and at the lens, blurts a curse-effect, then exerts one more insulting final scream of desperation—no "moving mouth" sync, but quite effective dialogue nevertheless.The quasi-embodied AI requires a greater reach, a gap that is expressed by Chion as the cinematic duality. He explains, "The sound film, for its part, is dualistic. Its dualism is hidden or disavowed to varying extents . . . the physical nature of film necessarily makes an incision or cut between the body and the voice. 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