Welcome to Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering examines 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? Rendering wants to hear from you: jkanter@deadline.com.
When British comedy titans like Ricky Gervais want to make their material funnier, there’s usually one man near the top of their wishlist: Nigel Williams.
The respected TV comedy editor has made a career out of fine-tuning series like The Office and Derry Girls, meaning collaborators usually listen to his wisdom when it comes to luring every last laugh out of filmed footage.
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One of his recent innovations fell on deaf ears, however. Williams was experimenting with artificial intelligence to ensure that the punchline in a scene could land with maximum impact.
The editor turned to Flawless, AI dubbing technology deployed on films like Fall, to drop automated dialogue replacement (ADR) into the mouth of an actor while they were facing the camera, thus avoiding the need to cut to the back of a head or a wide shot. “It’s always better to stay on faces for zinger lines,” he tells Deadline.
Williams was amazed by the results. His producers were astounded, but horrified that it had been achieved using AI. The fix was eventually ditched because of a common industry condition: AI ickiness.
Williams went public, penning a letter to Insiders: The TV Podcast, in which he recounted the conundrum. He has not named the production out of respect to his employers, but says his letter sparked an animated dialogue among his contemporaries.
In an interview, Williams says AI should be embraced if it makes comedy funnier. He is not advocating for AI-generated scenes, like the viral clip of Michael Scott introducing Dunder Mifflin to Claude. He thinks permission from performers is essential, as well as transparency about how and why the technology is being used.
Williams acknowledges that there are fears about dubbing fixes being the thin end of a wedge that could lead to actors being replaced, even if Flawless’ AI only manipulates the face from the nose down. He understands that new technology needs to “settle” in the minds of industry creatives.
But ultimately, Williams believes AI can be an extension of editing trickery that has existed since the dawn of filmmaking. Once, in an effort to get ADR to fit into the mouth of an actor, he played a scene backwards so that the words lined up with their lip movements. “Editing is one big cheat,” Williams chuckles. “If AI can make production better, why not use it?”
Others agree. Responding to his letter on Insiders: The TV Podcast, Derry Girls producer Jimmy Mulville said the AI fix was a “human editor using his ingenuity to be creative.” Mulville added that industry squeamishness needs to be addressed with “more education about what [AI] should and shouldn’t do.”
Comedy often flows from saying the uncomfortable bit out loud. In talking about using AI to cheat his way to chortles, Williams is, at the very least, honoring this spirit.