How Albert Dupontel used AI for Mom must be burned
The director admits to having used AI as an editing tool, but also sees in this technology a social subject that he would like to explore in his next film.
Returning to the cinema with Mom must be burneddirector Albert Dupontel talks about his vision of artificial intelligence and how it can help filmmakers today.
“AI is terrifying, but when it comes to adjusting cuts, it’s still really practical“, he confides during a long interview with our colleagues at Brut.
Without hiding behind his little finger, the director admits to having used AI on Mom must be burnedparticularly during assembly:
“I cut sequence shots, I shortened shots, I plucked takes and I mixed it all up, and with AI, it’s no longer visible. Whereas before, frankly, I couldn’t have done otherwise, I would have gotten stung, my sequence shot was ruined. So what helped me amplify my sequence shot was AI stuff.”
He explains that everything had been anticipated in advance, during filming. The special effects supervisor, Cédric Fayolle, spent an entire day scanning the set so that he could then adjust the cuts on demand and make connections without difficulty.
“AI helped me with that. There is his own job, and then there is this rather frightening technological tool. But there is no AI creation on the film… except the baby photos. I couldn’t have the photos, so the AI gave us a baby at 6 months, at 1 year, at 2 years… This sequence is AI and I think it shows..”
For the director, we have to see artificial intelligence “like a luxury patch“, which makes it much simpler to adjust the best takes during editing.
But beyond this technical evolution in the service of staging, Albert Dupontel sees a profound upheaval in society, a philosophical mutation that he would like to explore in his next film. “I’m preparing something new and I’d like to talk about AI“, he reveals to Brut, before detailing his idea:
“I would like to be ironic about that… because what does this story of artificial intelligence mean? This is because there are many people who are more tempted by the virtual than by the real. This is also the principle of social networks. Everyone sees what they want to see. I imagine a heroine who is in the middle of emotional dysfunction, in the middle of a divorce, and all of a sudden, there’s an AI character who falls in love with her and she’s like: what the fuck am I doing? It would be a comic attempt, but to tell philosophically about this temptation that we have (to go towards the virtual).“
For now, this next film by Albert Dupontel still remains in the project stage. Mom must be burned is currently in theaters.
