‘The Brutalist’ AI reaction, explained

Brady Corbert’s barbarian is one of the most Prominently featured films This year’s awards season, including Oscar hopes for a Best Picture nod. Set in the aftermath of World War II, it tells the story of László Toth (Adrien Brody), a fictional Hungarian-Jewish architect who is forced to immigrate to the United States without his family.

The film’s commitment to composition is evident not only in its depiction of cinematic brutality, defining the postwar period. architectural movement, But also as a tribute to the American cinema of the time. Almost completely shot Vistavision (A format widely abandoned with the emergence of the 1960s 70 mm And cinemascope), barbarian makes an event out of its theatrical screening, splitting its massive runtime of three hours and 34 minutes, with a 15-minute in-roll intermission.

It is perhaps a return to the cinematic spectacle of the mid-20th century that has made some scenes barbarianUsing AI speech-enhancing software as some kind of betrayal to the craft and not as another tool available to filmmakers to increase the impact and credibility of their storytelling. There is concern over the increasing use of AI in the film industry are not unique to barbarianWith recent controversies including terror Late night with the devilNetflix’s sci-fi anime short The dog and the boyAnd Marvel’s sneak attack.

But what actually happened and how barbarian Use AI?

how did barbarian Use AI?

while talking to RedShark News, barbarian Editor David Janso explained that the team used Software by Ukrainian AI company Respeecher To improve the Hungarian pronunciation of Brody and co-star Felicity Jones in the film.

In the interview, Jancso, himself a Hungarian speaker, talks about the difficulties of sounding native in his language. Hungarian is a Uralic language, a linguistic branch that also includes Finnish and Estonian, and some of its sounds are challenging for Anglo-Saxon speakers, even the most talented artists in the world.

What does Respecher actually do?

of the speaker Voice conversion system What a person sounds like – creates a database of their language, accent or other specific characteristics (such as a lisp), then allows an actor to perform their lines as the tool changes their voice is in the barbarianIn the case of, according to Jancso, the AI ​​speech enhancer was only used to change the sound of certain characters that the actors found challenging to pronounce. According to Janso, Brody and Jones were aware of the changes, and most of the correct pronunciation was read by the editor himself.

“Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me speaking. We were very careful to keep their performance. It’s mainly changing characters here and there. You can do it yourself in ProTools, but We had so much dialogue in Hungary that we really needed to speed up the process or we would still be in the post,” Janso told the publisher.

In his interview with RedShark News, Janso said that these changes would have been made regardless, but that Respiture’s AI tool significantly accelerated the process, saving production time and money, which is particularly important. was important at barbarian was completed on a budget of $10 million.

One need only look at the body of Respiture’s work to know this barbarian Far from the first film to use AI tools in its post-production. Enhancing speech for Hollywood productions has been the Ukrainian company’s bread and butter, and the company is credited with Restoring the voice of Darth Vader for Obi-Wan Kenobi series after actor James Earl Jones retired, as well Recreating the voice of French singer Edith Piaf To “narrate” his own biopic posthumously, that is Still in the making.

Beyond the film world, Respicher is using his technology To help preserve the endangered Crimean Tatar languagewhich faces increased repression under Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

did barbarian Use AI for something else?

Not only used for sound enhancements, however, AI was also employed to create some of Toth’s architectural drawings and the buildings displayed in the Venice Biennale sequence at the end of the film, according to Jancso, although he did not specify (from this article at the time ) which AI tool was used and whether the drawings were fully AI-generated.

“Talking about AI is controversial in the industry, but it shouldn’t be,” the editor told RedShark News. “We have to have a very open discussion about what tools AI can give us. There’s nothing in a film that uses AI that hasn’t been done before. It makes the process a lot faster. We use AI to create small elements. Details that we didn’t have the money or time to shoot.”

There are growing concerns about the use of generative AI at the expense of filmmakers, from screenwriting to acting to music production. It was one of the main provocative topics of 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) And Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) Strikes in 2023. After months of negotiations, the strikers arrived Temporary Agreements which aims to regulate the use of AI in the film industry.

These revelations will have an effect or not barbarianThe status of the Oscars remains to be seen — the nominees will be announced on Thursday, January 23. But they have sparked a new conversation about the use of AI in film and TV production, whether production teams were ready to find themselves inside. This or not.