- With AI in Ping-Pong: Digital Avatars and Co. in the Film
It sounds like science fiction: Actors' avatars are appearing in romance films, comedies, or action movies. In Potsdam-Babelsberg, this is already a reality - at least in the so-called Volucap Studio. Here, people are scanned, and their digital clones are then offered as background extras, for example. Central to this is artificial intelligence (AI).
Due to the rapidly advancing technology, actors and screenwriters in Hollywood went on strike last year. In Germany, AI is currently a big topic in collective bargaining. Where does the German film world stand?
AI in the "Matrix" blockbuster
Ask Sven Bliedung von der Heide, the founder of the Volucap Studio in Babelsberg, and he speaks of an "AI-ization" of the industry, similar to digitization. AI was already used in scenes for the Hollywood blockbuster "The Matrix Resurrections" (2021) with Keanu Reeves. At the time, the team around Bliedung von der Heide had even set up an underwater studio for recordings and created so-called deepfakes of actors.
The work in Volucap functions as follows: 42 cameras scan a person from all sides - their face, movements, and the rest of the body. Using AI, a 3D avatar of the actor is then generated from the image data. For Bliedung von der Heide, this is a crucial step for the future of the industry. However, many filmmakers also look at this development with concern.
Digital avatars make actors anxious
Therefore, they want to co-determine the use of AI in collective bargaining with the trade union Verdi and the production alliance. The goal is a collective agreement with shorter terms and, of course, to maintain the work of filmmakers, says Heinrich Schafmeister from the Federal Association of Actors (BFFS). He sits at the negotiating table as a BFFS delegate. "We are currently going through the cases that could arise through AI - both for filmmakers in front of and behind the camera."
According to the actor, the same questions always arise: "Do we want this at all? Under what conditions? What is the exact case? What does the consent look like? What does the remuneration look like?" In general, it is about four areas that should be regulated by labor law, including that of digital replicas - i.e., avatars. For actors, this is fundamentally a "highly problematic issue," says Schafmeister. Actors do not want to be reduced to puppets of AI.
AI changes the dubbing industry
Many colleagues have great fears and uncertainties, says the 67-year-old. "We are now trying to get ahead of the wave in the film/TV area, but in the dubbing area, we are already behind the wave." Because there, human actors are increasingly being replaced, according to his statements. "The development in the dubbing industry triggers all others, because actors basically do everything: they stand on the stage, shoot films, synchronize," says Schafmeister.
Bliedung von der Heide and the production alliance can understand the concerns, as they say. "But who can deny that there are many opportunities in the use of artificial intelligence? It must be about shaping framework conditions and putting the competences of people in the foreground," finds Björn Böhning, spokesperson of the production alliance, which represents the interests of hundreds of production companies in Germany.
One must dare to shape it. According to Bliedung von der Heide's view, AI systems in film will in any case emerge in the USA or China. It would be a shame if Germany were the last in line.
Local production companies see advantages in Artificial Intelligence, according to their own statements, and are already using it at various levels. At the same time, ethical and legal challenges are in focus. Copyright questions and the protection of creative work are central and belong to the core of the evaluation of AI uses, a spokesperson for the film company UFA said.
There, AI is used before, during, and after production. Tools, for example, help to make license plates unrecognizable in post-production or speed up the editing process. At Constantin Film, AI is tested in all areas and at all levels, as a spokesperson said. Within the Bavaria Film Group, a working group is testing and evaluating new AI tools. The goal, according to Marcus Ammon, Managing Director of Content at Bavaria Fiction, is to enhance and strengthen the skills of employees through AI technologies, not to replace them.
Workshops for screenplays and AI in high demand
A similar approach is taken by Taç Romey. He is a professor of serial storytelling at the Academy of Television and Film in Munich and gives workshops on how AI can help write screenplays. His courses are in high demand, even from larger production companies. Romey's approach: "We engage in a dialogue, a ping-pong with AI." He never takes the generated suggestions one-to-one, but only lets himself be inspired by them.
AI can help in many ways with screenplays, for example, with the so-called logline, which tells a series idea. There are now professional programs with different models that can support writing, the professor said. He can only advise screenwriters to deal with AI.
"It will become more and more important that one masters the tools and knows how they work and can use them." Actor Schafmeister sees it similarly. As an industry, we must try to shape the development of AI. "None of us can look into a crystal ball to see how it will all develop. But if we just sit next to the crystal ball and put our hands in our laps, it won't get us anywhere."
In the context of the rapidly advancing technology, discussions about the use of AI in collective bargaining are ongoing in Germany's film industry, aiming to regulate the use of digital replicas, or avatars.
The digital avatars generated by AI in the film industry are causing anxiety among actors, who fear being reduced to puppets of AI, leading to discussions about the ethical and legal implications of this technology.
