Welcome to Rendering, a new Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering will examine how artificial intelligence is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill.
Got a story about AI? Want to tell us about the next big innovation or why AI robbed you of opportunity? Rendering wants to hear from you. Get in contact: jkanter@deadline.com.
This week: Why a majority of production designers fear being replaced by artificial intelligence.
When Emerald Fennell was bringing Saltburn to life, it was the details that mattered. Suzie Davies, the production designer who weaved the Catton family’s idiosyncrasies into Saltburn’s set, helped Fennell figure out what made them real: the smell of dog hair; ring stains marking the furniture.
Watch on Deadline
In an episode of Deadline’s The Process last year, Davies described this process as capturing “human essence” in the worlds she helps directors build. There is an irony, then, that production designers like Davies are fearful of being replaced by machines.
Davies belongs to the British Film Designers Guild (BFDG), which conducted research among its 650 members about the looming threat of AI. The results, shared for the first time with Deadline’s Rendering column, reveal that 66% are fearful their job will cease to exist in the coming years. Jonathan Paul Green, a seasoned production designer and chair of the BFDG, said members believe that cost-cutting — not creativity — is the reason why producers are embracing artificial intelligence.
Those most at risk in the production design discipline include concept artists and graphic designers, Green said. He pointed to the example of directors using AI to generate images that explain their vision to colleagues. Green acknowledged that this is not dissimilar from bookmarking an image on Pinterest, but the danger comes when a director decides that the AI design will suffice.
“AI can manipulate an image to suit exactly the framing, composition, color, and tone of what you’re trying to portray,” he explained. “The sheer speed of progress is really scaring people, because things seem to be improving in quality exponentially and very, very quickly. And so that creates a lot of uncertainty.”
Right now, Green said productions are still navigating how to use AI. He is aware of some studios banning the technology on-set for fear that it could create copyright issues because there is no way of knowing what IP it might be regurgitating. Other studios are using internal AI models to squeeze value out of the work that goes into a project.
“I was talking to a concept artist recently, and he told me that one of his contracts with a studio stipulated that his work would be available to them to train their AI system,” Green said. “On the one hand, it is good because they’re being transparent. On the other hand, it’s very annoying to think that, if you were to design a concept for a sci-fi series, they could just replicate and use your ideas.”
He continued: “Much like if they scan an actor and have the rights to their likeness, why would they need to employ you again if they own you? Why would they need to employ a great concept artist again when they’ve owned that person’s original designs?”
The BFDG is in regular conversation with the Art Directors Guild in America over these concerns, but unlike its counterpart, it does not have the power to insert protections into contracts. But it’s not all bad news: some 35% of BFDG members think AI could be a valuable tool for their work, and the guild advocates for re-skilling. Other roles are likely to be protected. “AI is never going to be able to turn an image into a usable physical set,” Green said.
As Davies recalled during her experience on Saltburn, diligent work went into prep, but it was only on-set that a spirit of “playfulness” helped bring to life a world in which “cigarette butts, Wotsits and iPod nanos” sat alongside Fennell’s Caravaggio references. All the AI in the world cannot recreate these human imperfections in storytelling.