The "From Imagination to Visuality: New Possibilities of Production with Artificial Intelligence" panel, within the scope of TRT's script development and co-production platform "TRT 12 Punto", organized for the 8th time this year, was held at Cinema Feriye.
In the panel where producer and director Nurullah Yenihan and producer, director and post-production specialist Selman Ecirli spoke, the current use of artificial intelligence in the cinema, advertising and animation industry, the new opportunities it brings, difficulties in production processes and predictions for the future were discussed.
Ecirli said that artificial intelligence is not simple and low-cost in professional production, contrary to popular belief, and that it involves high costs and various difficulties.
"Artificial intelligence does not make decisions on its own, we give it a vision."
Stating that there is a widespread prejudice that artificial intelligence production will be "cheap, simple and bad" due to the practical experiences gained by individual users through applications on mobile phones, Ecirli said, "We really work day and night. We spend a lot of money and time and burn the brains of many young people. Because it requires a lot of trials and repetitions." he said.
Ecirli underlined that artificial intelligence should be positioned not as a goal in the cinema and advertising industry, but as a "tool" whose boundaries must be sharply drawn, and presented examples from their own activities and the advertising projects they have implemented.
At the same time, Ecirli stated that artificial intelligence allows shooting scenes that were considered impossible by expanding the limits of budget, time and space, and said, "We used to complain that 'there is no budget, time, team or technique'. Artificial intelligence has expanded these limits to a certain extent." he said.
Selman Ecirli pointed out that basic professional knowledge such as cinematography, framing, light and photography is still mandatory in order to make the right directions to artificial intelligence and said:
"Artificial intelligence does not decide on its own, we give it a vision. When you say 'Come on, make an advertisement for us', nothing comes out. This is just like saying to a person, 'Go and buy something from Eminönü'. It needs to know when to go, its budget, what to buy. Artificial intelligence requires very good information from you. For this reason, there must be a director in charge of the work, to manage everything from costumes to venues, from lighting to framing."
Also touching on the effects of artificial intelligence on human psychology, Ecirli said, "Are you the boss of your job or a worker of artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence forces you to operate and produce more work well above your normal capacity. This can cause you to wear yourself out without realizing it." shared his opinion.
"As Türkiye, we must quickly adapt to this change"
Blackmartı Animation Studio founder Nurullah Yenihan shared images from the movie "Nasreddin Hodja Time Traveler: Magic Lamp", which is a co-production with TRT and will be released soon, at the panel.
Yenihan stated that they used a hybrid method that brings together classical animation techniques and artificial intelligence for the first time in Türkiye and said, "We took the animations prepared by our animators and performed the visualization and rendering processes in artificial intelligence." he said.
Yenihan said that cinema films produced entirely with end-to-end artificial intelligence are inevitable in the future, and stated that this situation will close some business areas and create new areas of expertise.
Giving examples of the technological transformations experienced in cinema throughout history, Yenihan made the following evaluations:
"In 1993, when Steven Spielberg used CGI technology for the first time in Jurassic Park, the stop-motion animation industry was shaken. Now, a similar transformation is taking place with artificial intelligence. As Turkey, we must adapt to this change quickly. India and China are progressing very quickly in this regard and are about to take over the market. In China, they are currently producing a 60-minute realistic artificial intelligence movie with a budget of 18 thousand dollars, and we are exposed to these movies. If we miss this train, we will completely lose the market and become just followers." We can't get ahead of this technology, so we have to adapt."
Nurullah Yenihan said that he foresees that the process, which started with the rental of the actors' face and voice rights, will evolve into a cinema world in the future, produced entirely by artificial intelligence, in which digital phenomena and actors who have never actually lived will play the leading role.
New opportunities for university graduates
Yenihan also stated that artificial intelligence technologies have become a great advantage for young university graduates studying animation.
Yenihan pointed out that while separate experts were sought for each department in the classical system, artificial intelligence highlights "generalist" profiles that understand a little bit of every field such as editing, directing, storyboarding and modelling, and continued his words as follows:
"In order to do professional work in artificial intelligence, you need to have knowledge in every field. You need to synthesize editing, directing, camera and lighting knowledge. This opens the way for our young graduates who receive broad-based education at universities. While we used to have difficulty in working with new graduates who knew a little bit of every field, now we have opened all our doors to them. Because this versatility in production with artificial intelligence provides great efficiency."
In the last part of the panel, the speakers answered the question of whether artificial intelligence can replace humans in the future and emphasized the indispensability of the human element and storytelling.