How can AI help videographers?
AI Background Replacement
A simple example of how powerful AI tools can be used to enhance visuals.
With the advent of large language models such as ChatGPT and the buzz around AI imagery from Midjourney to Sora, I have to be honest, I was skeptical. I’m not one for ‘hype’ and once it died down a few things became clear to me.
The Video Production industry will be affected by AI.
Stock and product videos are likely to be a thing of the past.
‘Planned events’ such as weddings and corporate conferences are safe.
But there is also a whole array of complexity around this issue. AI video is now good, I mean really good. The level to which it will affect advertising is yet to be seen, and how companies will incorporate it into their production workflow is unclear. Now that I’m on the other sider of my hesitation I’m thinking of how I can incorporate these tools to support my video projects.
Background Replacement
Recently I filmed some promotional trailers for Phoenix Dodo Butterfly, a Norfolk based theatre production with national ambition. I wanted to film the interviews against a ‘rustic’ backdrop, something I had never done before. However, this thick canvas came creased beyond belief and with no iron in sight and tight timings I had to film and hope for there best!
When it came to the edit, I knew I had to find a way to remove the creases, traditionally you would have to rotoscope out the talent and re-paint the background to remove the creases (A good few hours of work). However on this occasion I graded my footage, exported a still PNG and with the power of Photoshops Generative Fill lightly re-created the background bit-by-bit. When dropping it back into Davinci I simply masked out the talent in the foreground so that they sat on top of my new backdrop and wallah!
This maybe took an hour at most to do all four, but I was amazed at the ease, accuracy and power of using these AI tools. For me I very much see it as a way to improve my workflow, and the quality of my work.
2. Video Storyboarding
AI Storyboard
This entire storyboard was AI generated and allowed us to communicate our ideas in new ways.
The second example is for a recent pitch deck, the job didn’t go ahead but the ability to include a storyboard within a video project proposal helped me to communicate my ideas to the client far clearer. If you’re like me and can’t draw to save your life, then storyboards have always been a luxury. I used to admire these companies that would plan out every shot with intricate detail and have the client sign it off because someone in their team had a magic hand, not me! Traditionally I write out shot lists to help me get my thoughts on paper, but the composition, feel and tone are all stuck in my head, which can be hard to communicate to cast, crew and clients.
For this pitch deck we used Midjourney’s AI Image Generation to create the storyboard we needed, based off a shot list we had created. Because the film relied on transitions, text and a theatre production which doubled up as VO, it was really important to storyboard such an intricate idea. The pitch deck and storyboard went down really well and showed me once again the advantage of using AI in my video productions.
Between these two examples, I have added elements to my videography toolkit helping me to produce better work overall. If you would like to learn about other ways you can utilise AI for your video productions then Lemonlight has a whole list of other useful cases.