DHAHRAN: When Samford University's William “Wink” Winkler arrived in Saudi Arabia earlier this month to attend the 10th Saudi Arabian Film Festival in Dhahran, he found himself discovering new ground in film and technology.
At the invitation of the American Chamber of Commerce and the US Consulate in Dhahran, the digital arts lecturer used his extensive knowledge and experience to hold a masterclass on artificial intelligence in filmmaking.
But during his week-long visit, Winkler also gained new perspective on Saudi Arabia's film industry, the burgeoning local talent, and how advances in AI are changing the way movies are made in the Kingdom.
“We've found that the Saudi people are passionate and driven,” Winkler told Arab News, “and they have a great story to tell, a uniquely Saudi story, and as they start to embrace new emerging technologies, that will serve them well.”
William Wink Winkler
While AI is still considered an emerging technology, it is evolving rapidly. In the past two years alone, generative AI programs have evolved from generating awkward text and surreal images to creating writing and images that look human-authored.
As a giant aggregator of sorts, AI can instantly sift through vast amounts of data, identify patterns using existing scripts and screenplays, and generate curated story ideas.
While the creative aspects of AI are still incomplete and have caused some unease among screenwriters, the technology has many other, more fundamental uses in the filmmaking process.
Digital arts instructor William Wink Winkler says AI can make his job easier by automating some of the more arduous and time-consuming parts of the filmmaking process. (Courtesy)
For example, in pre-production, AI can help streamline location scouting by analyzing images and videos in real time and suggest settings based on prompts, and it can also speed up casting times by instantly analyzing audition tapes to identify the best actors for specific characters.
Post-production is another area where AI is transforming filmmaking, with automated editing tools that can analyze footage and accurately suggest edits on the fly based on factors like composition and pacing.
It also assists with traditionally manual tasks such as color grading, sound design and visual effects.
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• AI can instantly sift through vast amounts of data and generate story ideas using existing scripts.
During pre-production, AI can help streamline location scouting and shorten casting times by analyzing footage.
In post-production, AI can automate editing and assist with color grading, sound design, and visual effects.
Many filmmakers are already using computer-generated imagery (CGI) to digitally create assets, characters, or effects that can't be captured by camera, and this advancement has automated parts of what is often a laborious and time-consuming process.
CGI has also benefited from recent advances in AI with more curated algorithms that can generate realistic characters and create fantastical environments out of thin air, reducing the need for large-scale live-action effects and location shoots.
But AI in filmmaking is not without its problems: the tool will undoubtedly eliminate many jobs in the industry, and machine-generated stories may seem less authentic, lacking depth, empathy and humanity.
AI Art by Omar Alabdulhadi
“Movies can create emotion because they evoke emotion and they're told from a human story,” Winkler said, “and humans feel emotion and deal with real human problems. Computers don't.”
“All a robot can do is read what is written and repeat it. But a robot doesn't actually know what to say or how to say it. All it can do is try to reproduce what a human has said before.”
There are also ongoing concerns about data protection and bias in AI algorithms, which has long been an issue on social media as algorithms simply mimic existing ones.
William Wink Winkler and Travis Blades, an American expert who flew to Dhahran to run a workshop for the Saudi Arabian Film Festival. (AI Art: Omar Arabdulhadi)
AI systems have a tendency to perpetuate and amplify demographic and racial biases, which can lead to non-inclusive and discriminatory outcomes, such as only generating characters that are conventionally considered beautiful (often slender, blonde, and fair-skinned).
Another consideration is the ethics of plagiarism, where AI takes from existing human-created work and generates entirely new work without giving credit.
Winkler believes that thoughtful discussion leading to strong regulation is needed to manage the potential for plagiarism and amplification of harmful bias by AI systems and their users.
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“There will always be evil people. We can fight them, as we have always done, through rules and regulations,” he said.
“I think creating communities and discussions from the small local level to the larger governance levels creates guardrails for what's going on. The more ethical, morally good people we can get involved in fighting evil, the better.”
Sora is a groundbreaking text-to-video AI model developed by OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, that converts written prompts into dynamic videos.
With just a few descriptive text inputs, this technology can instantly generate high-quality videos with detailed scenes and complex camera movements.
Surreal AI art collage by Saudi Arabian creator Omar Arabdulhadi. (Courtesy)
But there are concerns that programs like Sora could be misused to create “deepfakes” – digital forgeries that take likenesses of people and fabricate images in which they say or do things that never happened in reality.
These fabricated images look and feel so real that it can be difficult to tell what is real and what is not. In addition to the obvious reputational risks, such deepfakes can also undermine trust in institutions and spark conflict.
In the world of film, this technology could also lead to job losses: Why would a studio hire a human actor if AI could make a digital likeness do or say anything without rehearsal, presumably even better than the original?
This image is part of the short film series “Salt” by Fabian Stelzer and produced by Stable Diffusion. (Courtesy)
Winkler believes Saudi Arabian filmmakers will use AI for good and noble purposes, but encourages them to start simple.
“I think the place to start is not actually with AI,” he says. “Get a diary, some paper and pen, and start recording. Get stories from your mother, your grandmother, your grandfather, your great-grandmother, your great-grandfather.
“Everyone's ancestors did great things, and they should be recorded and shared.”
Surreal AI art collage by Saudi Arabian creator Omar Arabdulhadi. (Provided)
One Saudi Arabian creative dabbling in AI is Dhahran resident Omar Al Abdulhadi, who believes the technology is not yet ready, but is hopeful that the market for creative industries will thrive and grow.
“All those who are against AI will accept the fact that AI is the future,” Al Abdulhadi told Arab News, acknowledging that adoption of the technology seems inevitable, but with proper regulation and careful use, AI is not necessarily a bad thing.
Winkler agrees, and he believes Saudi Arabia is ideally positioned to help grow this emerging industry, with a young, digitally native population that positions its creative talent to be future leaders in the sector, he said.
“This technology is not available right now, but it will be available soon,” he said. “I don't have the team or the time to do it, but maybe Saudi Arabia could make it happen and change visual effects forever.”
