From Eno to eternity
Forget director’s cut, here comes spectator’s cut. In a recent interview with filmmaker Gary Hustwit in The Quietus, he asks “Why do films have to be the same every time?”
I’ve often thought this, and on one level they’re not. Well, the film may remain the same but each member of the audience is different, and as we grow older, we bring different baggage to watching the same film again (and how and where we watch it, and who we watch it with).
Gary Hustwit was talking of his new generative documentary about musician Brian Eno, simply titled Eno. Using a software engine called Brain One, the film will play a different narrative pathway each time it’s played.
The basic structure of the film is similar (it will always be about Brian Eno), and 25% of the film is always the same but the other 75% will always be differently edited film, using different footage.
Hustwit explains how Eno himself has said there’s always multiple truths about people, and the film goes towards showing that.
With AI, hopefully we’ll be able to take things further. We’ve all seen films and cried at some point, usually at a sad ending, wishing it could have turned out differently. Han Solo getting killed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Dustin Hoffman dying at the end of Midnight Cowboy, Sophie having to make that Choice, Debra Winger dying in Terms of Endearment, Briony falsely accusing Robbie of a crime he didn’t commit in Atonement and Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling not getting together at the end of La La Land are just a few examples of films where we’d like things to have worked out differently.
With AI, they’re bringing back dead movie stars like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, why not change sad endings of films into happy endings? Viewers will be able to pay to have an ending of their choice generated for them. Want Rhett Butler to stay with Scarlett O’Hara (Gone With the Wind)? Jack Burton to stay with Gracie Law (Big Trouble in Little China)? Sure, pay £10 and AI will auto-generate the ending of your choice.
If we take it further, why not also change the actors so it’s Emma Stone instead of Vivien Leigh, or, why not, yourself – or long dead loved ones – instead of Brad Pitt? Then we’ll all be the stars in our own tailor-made movies.
Previously on Barnflakes
Resurrecting forgotten movie stars
The Film Remains the Same
Top five musical Brians