Recommendations of the Editorial team
A somewhat strange headline week for one of the giants of world cinema: A day after appearing on the cover of Charli XCX’s new album, Martin Scorsese has announced his investment in an AI start-up called Black Forest Labs.
According to the New York Times, Scorsese signed on as a partner and advisor to Black Forest Labs last year. The collaboration was made public today with a press release and a video showing Scorsese using the company’s image generation tool called Flux to storyboard his next film, “What Happens at Night.”
The film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, follows a couple as they travel to a small European town where they want to adopt a child. The video shows Scorsese using the AI tool to visually imagine what the city could look like.
Creativity through AI
“I am interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling – and how it can push the boundaries of creativity to deliver deeper and richer experiences for audiences,” Scorsese said in a statement. “Remember: cinema is a young medium, just around 125 years old. So we have to be open to how it can evolve.”
Scorsese’s use of Flux appears to be limited entirely to storyboarding – the phase in which filmmakers plan out their shots in pre-production. Although Scorsese has been storyboarding for decades, he acknowledged in his statement that “there has always been this problem of how to convey what you see in your head to the cast and crew.”
Flux allowed him to “share what I envision more clearly and efficiently with my creative team” – a process he described as “creativity liberating.” The tool also helped production save costs and “move faster without sacrificing quality or craftsmanship.”
Controversy was foreseeable
Still, Scorsese’s advocacy for an AI product will almost certainly cause controversy. The use of AI in film – and in other creative industries – is a deeply controversial topic: many creatives see it as an existential threat and a breeding ground for mediocrity. At the Cannes Film Festival, for example, Guillermo del Toro complained about living in a time when people believe “that art can be made with a fucking app.”
But many Hollywood heavyweights have already gotten involved in AI in some form. James Cameron sits on the board of directors of Stability AI, which has developed another text-to-image generator. (Black Forest Labs’ CEO formerly worked at Stability.) And Peter Jackson has integrated AI technology into his creative process, recently comparing it to “a special effect.”
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