Actor/Screenwriter/Producer/Director Blayne Weaver: It kind of comes back
to me of it's not just the movie right making the movie is the experience and the
process and the human beings who put their fingerprint on every little section of the movie.
Film Courage: Blayne, what AI tools have you started using?
Blayne: Oh, zero. I've never touched one. I honestly I keep getting ads on my social
media and I'm keep like Xing. I wouldn't even know what I would use them for, that's
how ignorant I am of it and I try to maintain that ignorance as much as I can. I know that
there are some writing tools and things that are being used and I know…it's
scary and I don't like it. I don't know, what what tools do you use out of curiosity?
Film Courage: Well ChatGPT, I have tried and then a few illustration programs which I'm just
skimming the surface. I claim no proficiency with them and do you challenge like do you ChatGPT do
you put in an idea and just see what comes out or what what they what it creates and sure sure yeah
absolutely I have tried from asking it questions on a price for something and basing it on the
fact that they it's not since I think 2020 or 2021 since it's been updated yeah but you can ask any
type of question and you get a very interesting answer back and and there's always disclaimers
usually if it's a certain yeah this is an AI and and no generalities are made or different things
but you can put in an idea I did try a few story ideas and said please write this story here are
going to be some of the parameters to the story here's the character I was surprised at what was
spit back and I mean it was instantaneous yeah so that part is scary I will say that the story
that was spit back missed the human element it didn't have little quirks and idiosyncrasies for
the character was perfectly written but it wasn't let's say didn't didn't have a quote-unquote voice
of an author right okay so what I think about it is I think that it will absolutely get to a
place where it could be used to replace writers I think that's absolutely true I think it's because
screenwriting right now especially is structure based there is a paint by numbers scenario that
80 percent of films adhere to and if you can have that structure and you can have the hero's
journey and the the familiar themes that we've been using basically since Socrates or whatever
then there will will be a way for AI to figure out enough human foibles in order to make it work
that terrifies me I don't want that and I feel like that's one of the reasons why the writer
skill is striking right now I think that is a incredibly good reason to to strike and I feel
like there's a lot of legitimate rules that can be put into place to ebb that growth because I don't
think we need it I think it should be resigned or sorry a reserved for things to play with on
the internet of like what if I ask at these questions let's see what it comes back with
but that's just my opinion I feel like tricking us into believing that artificial intelligence
is human is really just about finding the right balance of weirdness and neuroses
because people are weird but it won't have the dramatic important Human Experience that
I feel like drama demands but it may be able to fool us into thinking that that's what it is
you talk about people being weird so that weirdness in a character that's in a TV
writer's room and you have writers fleshing out why would this person do this let's have
it this happen is AI really do you think at a stage where it could become that weird or is
that only something that comes from being human I mean I'd like to say that it's just something
that comes from being human I'd like to say that I'd like to believe that what I worry about is
I mean look I think it was last week that a bunch of the had people scientists about AI
wrote this letter saying that it's in a major threat to humanity and if they feel that right
if they're so concerned with AI being a threat to an existential threat to humanity how much of a
shorter trip is it to them being able to write a good sitcom I don't know I don't like it I don't
like the idea of it being able to put people out of work I'd like to believe that no computer could
ever do the work that I and my colleagues do but that being said I think that's one of the reasons
that it's so dangerous is how much of what we write affects people how much of what we write
makes changes what people think or convinces them to do this or not do this or I always think about
when I was a kid I grew up in the South and I knew not to be racist because of different strokes
I was probably six when I'm watching the show and I there was a bad kid and he was the racist
kid and I'm like okay that's a bad guy I'm not going to be the bad guy despite whatever hate
I might have been surrounded by extended family or school or whatever that taught me something
and I don't like the idea of an AI generated thing deciding what lessons Humanity should be learning
does that make sense it does yeah I don't I don't like that so I hope I hope we can put a pin in it
and just like take the creating of drama out of Hal's hands so we can just do it ourselves
have you thought about venturing into it to see the capabilities and maybe realizing that
some of the fear is unfounded or or maybe you would see that actually it's more terrifying
than you realize what it's I'm just not that into it I'm not that interested in it to be
honest with you like I'm concerned about it but like like I said this thing of all the
scientists signing that letter that's concerning for me like I don't want to play with it I don't
want it to know where I don't know what Ai and GPS and cookies and all these things combined I
don't need artificial intelligence knowing where I live and what my social security
number is but I don't know it's mostly just that I don't understand it and I fear it
so I'll wait until somebody more savvy than I am says hey what this is great for this and as long
as it's not getting away without having to do my homework I'll probably get on board at that point
do you edit your own films no I don't I but I'm always right there I tend to sit like annoyingly
close to my editor and then second guess at every single step no I very much enjoy the
editing process and working with great editors who are intuitive and talented and they I've been
lucky that every editor I've worked with has made me better at what I do so okay you said
intuitive so what if there was an AI program that was almost as intuitive as a live body
who had years of experience and I believe that that's I mean if that's not here then it's soon to
be here that makes sense again I just I mean look you you want to break it down to the very basics
of who I am right I'm a union guy I'm a worker I'm we're striking right now for the writer's
Guild the last thing I'm interested in doing is taking work away from one of my crew members who
I would always say the editor is one of the key key components of making a great film so it just
I don't love it but I also know that we're cutting Corners now in technology that we couldn't do
before we were talking about the digital cameras we we had a zoom lens on this film which is the
first time that I not had a giant box of prime lenses this one he would just zoom the lens it was
like all right and so we got that for a lot less than it would take to get the the Primo lenses
right okay so what's the difference between me cutting that corner and me cutting the corner with
maybe I only bring on an editor at the end of the process instead of the beginning I don't know it
just makes me uneasy I like having a person that I can bounce off of and we can talk and and at the
end of the day it kind of comes back to me of like it's not just the movie right making the movie
is the experience and the process and the human beings who put their fingerprint on every little
section of the movie and so when this film is finished it won't just be a bland Weaver picture
it'll be Blayne and Dave and Jeremy and Mike and all these guys who put this movie together and
made it it's ours right because we each weighed in and fought our fights and compromise when it
was time to compromise but we we made this thing together and it just doesn't sound fun to me.