As artificial intelligence becomes more refined every day, its use cases are becoming countless. Additionally, Google’s new video generation tool VEO makes content creation easier and more accessible than ever.
But despite the effectiveness of new AI-powered video and content generation tools, film and television experts aren’t holding their breath. Technology completely overturns the industry. AI can increase the efficiency of television and film producers, but creating content in this industry has become extremely expensive thanks to the streaming war.
“Currently, content is narrowed down and creating great content costs a lot of money. If you’re making traditional film and TV length content more productive, it’s expensive and more expensive.” “You can’t really rely on AI.”
The reason for the cost of content has risen so dramatically is the battles of Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and more. According to Jennifer Turner, former executive vice president of Tristar TV at Sony Pictures Television.
While there, she managed the development and production of a new premium TV series for cable and streaming platforms. Over her career, she worked on hit shows such as Gray’s Anatomy, The Desperate Housewife, The Lost, Friday Night Lights, and Good Doctor.
“The cost of acquiring (intellectual property), talent attachment, and production scope and size have increased dramatically to the streamer’s goal of attracting customers,” Turner told Fortune. “It was a growth strategy. Now it’s focused on profitability.”
Rob Rosenberg, former executive vice president and general counsel (Paramount subsidiary) of Showtime Network, explained that when some of the streamers come online, they overpay the project to win in competitive bidding situations. This led to the occasion of paying ten times the amount that they could have paid to win the project.
“When a single episode of a series like Lord of the Rings, Citadel, and Stranger Things started to cost more than many feature films, someone should have pumped up the brakes, called timeouts and reassessed whether these costs could justify them (returned investments),” Rosenberg said. For example, one episode of Stranger Things costs $30 million, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2022.
However, streaming giants like Apple continue to pour money into content knowing they can still “lose” the fight. A recent report from the information shows that Apple has lost more than $1 billion a year by spending more than $5 billion on streaming since its launch in 2019.
How AI can help you make movies and television?
AI has already made that mark in the television and film industry, and again this year it has indirectly received an Oscar nomination. Emilia Perez and the Brutalist both used AI to change their voices, and Adrien Brody won the Academy Award for Best Actor despite completing the Hungarian accent. According to a BBC report, the tech has also been used to reverse Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford.
AI can be used for visual and audio effects in television and films, but technology is still limited, Turner said.
“We’re a path from AI to completely replace feature films,” she said.
Meanwhile, the use of AI in film and television production has recently become a controversial issue. Over 11,000 Hollywood film and television screenwriters have taken a strike in 2023 against the use of technology in the industry.
Rosenberg emphasizes at this point that AI is just another tool used to develop content such as CGI.
“The industry relies on the promise of efficiency from AI streamlining workflows and automating labor-intensive tasks, but it has yet to generate proof of concepts that will cause everyone to jump in,” he said.
