In the closing months of 2024, the following has happened:
- Ridley Scott revealed that AI can now achieve what used to take 10 people 10 weeks, in just one week, and he plans to integrate it into his process.
- Robert Zemeckis credited generative AI for making his latest film, Here, possible within a $50 million budget.
- James Cameron joined the board of Stability AI, led by an ex-Weta VFX CEO.
- Lionsgate partnered with Runway to create custom AI models from its library.
- Disney launched an AI department, while Blumhouse partnered with Meta AI for cost-effective video generation.
- Coke made 3 infamous AI-generated commercials – and they were fairly imperfect.
- An independent 9-person team created an 87-minute AI-driven animated feature: “Where the Robots Grow” for just $780,000.
Needless to say, AI is both a lightning rod for controversy and a catalyst for transformation in the film and television industry. As Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel solemnly proclaimed in the opening prologue of The Lord of the Rings: “The world is changing.”
To explore how AI is changing filmmaking on both a creative and technological level, I spoke with two industry-leading experts: Yan Chen, a Hollywood veteran and studio architect, and Alex Timbs, Business Development & Alliances Manager, Media & Entertainment at Dell Technologies ANZ.
AI is increasingly being used in rendering and simulation processes in film. How do you see this impacting the balance between technical efficiency and the creative freedom of filmmakers?
YC: AI can automate repetitive tasks and allow the storyteller to ideate faster, iterate on concepts more efficiently, and significantly reduce the time it takes to bring a creative vision to life so we can expect its role to grow. For instance, AI models can automatically generate assets, textures, and animations in visual effects (VFX), animation, and real-time game-driven production.
This doesn’t replace the role of human creatives but enhances it, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks like storytelling and creative decision-making. We’re seeing workflows where AI-generated elements serve as a foundation, and artists fine-tune and add their creative touch to the final product. In essence, the evolution of AI in media is shifting from a tool that aids in efficiency to one that accelerates creative ideation and execution
Q: In what ways has AI expanded the creative possibilities for visual effects in modern films? Can you share an example from the new movie you’re working on that highlights this potential?
YC: AI has unlocked a new level of creativity and efficiency in visual effects (VFX) for modern films. Traditionally, VFX required extensive manual work, frame by frame, to create realistic environments, characters, and effects. While this led to incredible results, the process was time-consuming and resource-intensive. AI is now revolutionising this space in several key ways. A great example is automating repetitive tasks such as rotoscoping, motion tracking, and clean-up work, freeing the artist to focus on the more creative aspects of their work.
However, one of the most valuable and recent use cases is Generative AI, which has empowered creators with models that automatically produce assets based on a given input. This could be anything from backgrounds to textures, enabling filmmakers to explore ideas with a high degree of context and quality while creating useable assets in a fraction of the time it took historically. This also makes it easier to produce content at scale, which is vital for projects that require quick turnarounds or involve episodic content.
Looking at some of the craft-specific uses of AI during some recent productions I worked on, starting with the conceptualisation of the characters and environments. A process similar to concept art can be employed for storyboards where rough sketches or 3D renders can be fed into Stable Diffusion (or other models) to generate storyboards.
Other uses include:
- 3D Character and Asset Generation, where the 2D concepts are mapped onto generic 3D characters with rigs to create moving 3D mannequins of the concepts.
- AI Voice Generation, where AI is used to train each character’s voice so that typed script dialogue can be verbalised by AI.
- Previs and Layout, where videos of the captured (filmed) body motion are run through AI motion capture. The motion capture is then fed into 3D.
- Animation, where further facial performance capture and AI are used to map the video performance to the 3D character.
We often use AI to simulate various visual styles to allow for faster ideation and iteration of the look of an environment or character. This allows VFX teams to test multiple scene variations quickly, adjusting lighting, textures, and effects dynamically, making creative experimentation much more feasible.
Overall, AI is not just a tool for doing things faster—it’s expanding the boundaries of what’s creatively possible in visual effects within a short timeframe. It allows us to experiment with looks and techniques we would never have considered. It pushes VFX into creative realms we haven’t yet imagined, allowing filmmakers to create more immersive, stunning visual experiences.
Q: Given your experience in Hollywood, how do you think the industry’s acceptance of AI has evolved, and what are the next big hurdles in AI-driven filmmaking?
YC: The acceptance of AI in Hollywood has evolved significantly over the past few years. Initially, there was some resistance, mainly due to concerns about AI replacing creative jobs and disrupting traditional workflows. However, as technology has matured, there’s been a growing recognition that AI is more of an additive and collaborative tool than a replacement for human talent. Filmmakers, studios, and production teams now see AI as an enabler that enhances creativity, speeds up production, and optimises costs.
One of the key shifts in acceptance is the realisation that AI can take over mundane and repetitive tasks, allowing creatives to focus on higher-level aspects of storytelling and artistry. For instance, AI tools are now widely used in pre-production stages for script analysis, scene breakdowns, and even casting predictions based on historical data.
In post-production, AI has quickly become invaluable. Whether it’s automating visual effects (VFX) workflows, generating CGI elements, or enhancing sound design, AI tools are now commonly integrated into the pipeline by virtue of commercial 2D and 3D applications, adding AI-driven features all the time. There’s also increasing use of AI to optimise distribution strategies by predicting audience preferences, which is crucial in today’s data-driven streaming landscape.
There’s still hesitation around relying too heavily on algorithms for creative decision-making. Finding the right balance between human input and AI-driven automation will be key in building more trust within the industry.
Data privacy and ethics are obstacles to the wider adoption of AI. As AI relies on vast amounts of data and moves towards more AI-driven production models, the question of data ownership and privacy becomes more prominent. Filmmakers and studios will need to navigate the complexities of using AI responsibly, particularly when it comes to deepfakes, training data and sovereignty, digital doubles, and the recreation of actors or their likeness through CGI.
This ties into the final gap I see, skillsets and education. As AI tools become more embedded in filmmaking, there’s a growing need for upskilling. Many filmmakers, R&D and production teams are not yet familiar with how to best use AI tools to their advantage. Training and education will close this skill gap and ensure the industry fully capitalises on AI’s benefits.
Hollywood needs to address these hurdles and create an environment where AI is seen as a trusted creative collaborator if it is to realise the total value of this new and rapidly evolving technology.
Dell Technologies has been instrumental in providing AI solutions for the entertainment industry. How do you see the role of AI evolving in the media space, particularly for content creation?
Alex Timbs: The first thing to remember is that technology is different in the media and entertainment industry. It is more than a tool and provides the canvas on which artists express their creativity, leveraging technical innovation in software applications and powerful hardware to accelerate creative outcomes. AI solutions offer an enhanced paintbrush, if you will, allowing artists a much broader digital pallet.
It’s also important to highlight how AI reduces creative and financial risk, as artists can share a more polished creative vision, bringing more certainty to make decisions and investments. One great director said, “It allows me to make the film before I make the film”.
If we think back to how the creative process evolved when we moved from film SLR cameras to digital SLR cameras, there was a sense of the unknown. With the film camera, people were worried about wasting film and incurring costs from a failed shot. With the digital SLR and GenAI, you can take lots of risks to distil the creative vision without incurring a high cost of failure.
AI is already proving to be a transformative force in media, and its role will only grow in content creation. The key evolution lies in AI’s ability to automate repetitive tasks and amplify the creative process through rapid ideation. Tools like generative AI enable media professionals to significantly reduce the time it takes to bring a creative vision to life.
AI-driven content personalisation is becoming a pivotal tool for media companies. By analysing vast datasets of user behaviour, AI can help create tailored experiences for viewers—whether it’s recommending specific content or dynamically adapting storylines in real-time. We can envision a future where content elements are created at the point of consumption, even in the living room.
In essence, the evolution of AI in media is shifting from a tool that aids in efficiency to one that actively participates in creative ideation and execution. The potential for enhanced collaboration is immense; we’re only scratching the surface.
What are the most exciting innovations Dell Technologies has brought to the table for filmmakers and studios in terms of AI-powered tools?
Alex Timbs: The Dell AI Factory, which we launched earlier this year, is a portfolio of services from device to data centre to cloud and an open ecosystem of technology partners to create AI applications that meet their unique needs. Like physical factories fueled the Industrial Revolution, AI factories are driving the AI revolution. However, it’s more than a technology infrastructure, the Dell AI Factory is a strategy, framework, and services designed specifically to help companies accelerate AI adoption within their organisations.
Media companies are looking for value and don’t want to have to architect solutions from the ground up, which is why the Dell AI Factory is the “easy button” in a world of choice, complexity and cost.
Most of our media customers are beginning their AI journey, so it is helpful to think about their unique needs when considering what AI solution is right for them. For example, many individuals, exploratory and small workgroup setups can start with NVIDIA-powered workstations using local SSDs. As projects involve more personnel and collaboration, easily shared storage becomes critical, even when datasets are small. Shared flash storage enables efficient collaboration and parallel processing in AI tasks, independent of the capacity needs, which is where our PowerScale F-nodes shine.
What were some of the unique challenges Dell Technologies helped to solve when working on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and how did AI solutions help overcome those challenges?
AT: Dell Technologies infrastructure was used across a number of key production processes including film rushes – after you shoot the scene, you take the film plates and process them quickly in reels. Using AI to rotoscope the image, composite and put all the temporary VFX elements into the scene as quickly as possible. This gives George Miller (the Director) the ability to edit and cut the sequences with greater context.
Additionally, our solutions were used to finetune AI models, generate looks, create film assets and overall power an AI and real-time driven pipeline that achieved groundbreaking efficiency. To do this huge amount of work quickly, storage power was needed. Dell Technologies PowerScale provided 100GB connectivity to its back end and nearline storage capabilities allowing the team to pull sequences together for review that day. Previously something like this would have taken days, but with the improved speed, it only took thirty minutes to an hour.
Overall, the biggest impact that Dell Technologies had on the production of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was cutting down on time. With Dell Precision workstations featuring NVIDIA RTX GPUs and Dell PowerScale, the production was able to use GenAI to realise the directors’ creative visions at a speed previously unknown in modern filmmaking. Operating about 50 times faster than previous, more traditional methods.
The 15-minute chase sequence in particular used Precision workstations and NVIDIA GPUs to pre-visualise, refine, and augment the camera shots that would be needed, helping to produce great results in a fraction of the time it usually would.
AI in filmmaking is a hot topic, but concerns about its impact on jobs and creative roles remain. How do you address those concerns while embracing AI’s potential?
As an industry that has always embraced technological advancements, from the introduction of sound and colour to the digital revolution, it’s understood that AI will help drive efficiencies in time and budgets while giving artists and filmmakers more opportunities to be creative. The introduction of AI creates new roles and opportunities for people to develop their skills. Part of the upskilling process includes educating the industry on the benefits of AI and encouraging them to adopt AI as another tool they can use to make bigger and better movies.
Looking five years ahead, what do you think will be the biggest change in filmmaking brought about by AI?
Yan and Alex spoke of 3 top industry advancements:
Real-Time Virtual Production
“AI can assist in rendering complex environments, managing lighting, and even generating lifelike characters on the fly,” they explain. This enables directors to see near-final scenes during filming, reducing post-production delays and costs while allowing real-time experimentation to refine creative visions.
AI-Generated Content
“Digital actors powered by AI will emulate human expressions and movements,” they say, “opening new storytelling possibilities.” AI tools will also create intricate environments and populate crowd scenes with minimal manual input, blending seamlessly with live-action elements.
Accessibility for Indie Filmmakers
“AI will lower barriers for creators without large budgets, making advanced techniques like VFX and 3D modelling accessible,” they note. While big studios will still dominate in scale and quality, AI’s accessibility will amplify diverse voices and stories across the filmmaking landscape.
How do you see the collaboration between tech companies like Dell and the entertainment industry evolving as AI becomes more integrated into production pipelines?
YC & AT: As AI continues to revolutionise the media and entertainment industry, the collaboration between tech companies, like Dell Technologies, and the creative sectors is becoming increasingly vital. These partnerships will drive the integration of advanced technologies into production pipelines, creating more seamless, efficient, and innovative workflows.
Looking ahead, I see this collaboration evolving in three key areas: infrastructure, AI-driven production tools, and co-development of cutting-edge solutions tailored to the industry’s unique needs, e.g. via strategic partnerships with key players like NVIDIA and Hugging Face.
Infrastructure is the foundation of AI integration and this is where companies like Dell play a crucial role. AI and machine learning require massive computational power, highly performative and scalable storage solutions, and high-performance networks to process vast amounts of data. Dell’s expertise in providing robust, scalable infrastructure will enable studios, production houses, and independent creators to harness the full potential of AI.
As content creation increasingly moves toward real-time production, high-resolution rendering, and collaborative workflows, reliable and high-performance technology partners are essential. Dell’s ability to deliver cutting-edge hardware and software solutions will ensure that production teams can handle the demands of modern AI-driven processes.
By working closely with filmmakers, animators, and VFX artists, Dell and its partners are always looking to ensure our solutions align with creatives’ needs.
We’re already seeing how real-time game engines and virtual production pipelines are reshaping the way films are made, and this trend will accelerate with deeper tech-industry partnerships. AI will play a central role in powering these new pipelines, from pre-visualisation to on-set virtual environments, enabling directors and crews to iterate and make creative decisions more fluidly.
Dell’s role in this evolution is to ensure that the technology behind these AI-driven systems is powerful, reliable, validated and capable of scaling to meet the increasing demands of complex production environments.
Finally, there is tremendous potential in the co-development of bespoke AI solutions tailored to the media and entertainment industry’s specific needs. This goes beyond providing hardware or off-the-shelf software—tech companies like Dell collaborate with entertainment companies to create AI-driven tools to streamline creative workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance the storytelling process. The Dell AI Factory is the foundation for future innovations in this fantastic industry.
AI Cometh
With AI’s rapid rise, one thing is clear: it’s both a tool and a test. For every efficiency gained, there’s a question of ethics. For every creative door opened, there’s the risk of standardization.
Yan sums it up best: “AI is not just a tool for doing things faster. It’s expanding the boundaries of what’s creatively possible.” But the challenge, as Alex adds, is ensuring those boundaries don’t erase the people behind the process.
The filmmaking landscape is changing—rapidly, irrevocably. The question now is whether the industry can reap its supposed benefits and navigate this transformation responsibly.
For more about Dell’s AI factory as well as its filmmaking prowess, head on over to Dell’s official website.
