Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525212
Harry B. Miller III. 50 C I N E M O N T A G E T E C H By Jennifer Walden F or trailblazers, the way forward is not a clear-cut path. Progress re- quires perseverance because it's impossible to see what lies ahead — be it good or bad. For those blazing paths in AI, there's the anticipation of discovery. Where will this road lead? Will it help to accelerate our way of thinking and work- ing? For the f ilm industry specif ically, can AI help streamline creativity, help people get from concept to final content more efficiently? Recently, there's been much focus on AI for the sound industry, particularly AI sound generators (be it for voice, sound effects, or music). But AI is reshaping the sound industry in other ways, like using procedural audio for sound design — something the game audio industry has been doing for years with great success. And using AI to automate the creation of soundtrack versions (e.g., creating a down- mix from Dolby Atmos to 5.1 or stereo). E d i to r H a r r y B. M i l l e r I I I h a s b e e n working professionally in the film industry since 1984, cutting both picture and sound up until 2013 — his last sound editor credit was on "A Good Day to Die Hard" (2013). Throughout his career, he's experienced technological advancements in both fields, like the industry-altering switch from analog to digital. On "Waterworld" (1995), of the 40 people in the sound department, Miller was the only editor working on a computer-based editing system. "It was all on film. They'd change picture and we'd have to conform the mix to the newest cut, but it was very labor-intensive because you're working with 2,000-foot reels of NOISES OFF WHAT WILL THE COMING AI REVOLUTION MEAN FOR THE SOUND COMMUNITY? mag film, winding them back and forth. You might have four tracks of mag in a synchronizer and you're winding through trying to see what's going on. I didn't miss it when film died. I was totally happy when I started seeing people working on Pro Tools," he said. Miller knows that changes in the film industry are inevitable, and adopting new technologies is part of the job. He and visual effects editor Asher L. Pink are co- chairs of the Motion Picture Editors Guild's Emerging Technology Committee — a team responsible for "keeping apprised of the advances with artificial intelligence and other new technologies, and advising the board and National Executive Director of developments that could impact our mem- bers' work," according to the Editors Guild site. They recently gave three presentations on "Emerging Technologies" — a general membership presentation, a presentation to sound occupations, and a presentation to picture and other occupations. Part of the committee's responsibility is figuring out how AI and machine learning will redefine what an editor does, and what new tasks will be created as other tasks become automated. For example, with dialogue, they noted that any AI-generated voices used as placeholders will need to be replaced in post by an actor because of SAG rules. Someone has to keep track of those temporary AI-generated dialogue lines to ensure that not a single one makes it into the final. "That's a new task that the dialogue team is going to take on. So even though there may be fewer tasks for actually setting up the recording, there's this new task of keeping track of the AI voice-generated lines. That's just an exam- ple of a replacement task. One task goes away; another task goes in," said Pink. For an ADR recordist /editor, would recording and cutting temporary lines (that would be replaced) be preferable to keeping track of AI-generated dialogue lines in a spreadsheet? What would be more efficient? If working with AI-gen- erated voices for temp dialogue meant working eight-hour days instead of 10-hour days, would this be a task you'd willingly automate? Miller said, "As a committee, we're confident that artificial intelligence and emerging technologies can make our lives easier. Some newer plugins that reduce noise in dialogue tracks are amazing, yet they don't replace a sound editor. An editor still has to cut the dialogue, change parts of performances for clarity, smooth out