I’m headed to a conference for video pros at the end of this month and nearly every presentation includes some version of “streamline your workflow with AI”. I also recently signed up for a couple free AI video software demos and have received multiple emails with titles like “Why Pay for an Expensive ____” and “Make Pro Videos for Less”.
This is nothing new. Really. Since I was a baby filmmaker there’s been someone who doesn’t work in movie making saying that what we do is so easy that either a monkey or a child could do it; it’s a great marketing one liner. And in some ways it’s true – anyone can point a camera and hit ‘record’. Anyone can string together a series of clips with music – it’s so simple even a computer can do it.
But I ask you this: what makes you stop doom scrolling and watch? Or care about what you watch enough to take action? It’s a special “how” of message making that can be difficult for computers to catch. We’ve all seen how algorithms lean into any controversy. And many of the platforms that use these algorithms don’t distinguish between someone watching for a few seconds or for the whole video. That’s because telling a story that is both accurate and compelling still requires a human touch.
Moreover, there is the experience that our clients hire us for. Saavy clients don’t want a video that just shows the most popular clips about their work – they want a customized message built on their expertise that’s going to stand out from the rest. A video that was fun to make together. A video which features their own unique perspectives, products, and services.
What I’ve found in experiments with auto AI tools for video making is that they save time on some tasks and consistently get the small, important parts wrong. Whether it’s the auto transcription that continuously misspells our clients name or city, or the AI stills generator that makes a certain race of people’s mouths into garish grins no matter what prompts we give it, or the auto editor that only cuts on the beat and never incorporates the syncopation in the melody…the final visual product always requires a human touch to finesse it.
These tools do save us some time – often time spent on mundane tasks that we’re happy to outsource to a machine. They do not replace the human touch of filmmakers. AI can’t be the Director who coaches on camera talent to their best delivery. AI doesn’t sit on set with the Cameraperson who knows how to customize the lighting for specific faces. AI can’t know the nuances of moving from rough cut to final cut like the Editor. Our Editor who remembers the last project and which changes were requested by the on the ground team and which were from the executives – and how to craft the revisions that will satisfy both.
Over the next months and years, we’ll lean in to working with AI and encourage our clients to do the same. We’ll also build new processes that lean in to the special skills that humans have. And we’ll continue to plan, film, and edit the videos that you want us to make, not the ones the machines think you want.
