ASR and AI
INT. ART GALLERY - NIGHT
Soft classical music plays. The gallery is full of wealthy patrons sipping champagne and admiring oversized paintings.
JASON (60s, serious businessman) stands before a large, abstract canvas — bold colors splattered with chaotic grace.
A GALLERY ASSISTANT (Female, 20s, chipper) hurries over, sensing a sale.
ASSISTANT
Stunning, isn't it? It's part of our "New Voices" exhibit. Very exclusive.
JASON
Exclusive is exactly what I’m looking for.
ASSISTANT
It's $5000 plus tax and handl…
JASON
I’ll take it!
Jason holds out his credit card. The assistant whisks it away to the desk.
MOMENTS LATER —
The GALLERY MANAGER (Female, 40’s, dramatically wrapped in a shawl) appears beside Jason, holding out a Certificate of Authenticity.
Jason reads the Certificate - it reads “Connection, A Piece by New Voices AI INC.”
JASON
AI? I thought you said this was exclusive. I’d like a refund please.
MANAGER
So sorry sir, all sales are final!
Thank you for tagging along with me on that scene, script writing was my first love in film school. Hi! I’m Abby Mutschler, the VP of Post-Production at ASR Media. I’m challenging you today to put yourself in the shoes of our friend Jason. Believing you are getting an exclusive work of art worth the price of $5000, only to find out it was really created by code.
The development of AI has affected all industries, and the artistic and creative sector has been at the very center of the conversation. Raising so many questions like - Is AI art…art? Is graphic design at risk? Can AI enhance creative fields? Can or will video production be entirely replaced by AI? The short answer to all of those questions is that although AI has significantly developed over the past few years, it simply cannot recreate the creative human touch. AI at its core is underdeveloped and can really only be used as a tool rather than a replacement within creative production.
Here are two examples of video one filmed by ASR and one created by AI - The AI video was created describing the ASR example in the description:
This AI video was created by a high-powered AI generator that took approximately 7 minutes to create. Even if that is a shorter time than an ASR crew filming your location, we can clearly see the visual quirks and errors. More importantly, there is a clear lack of human connection we instantly get from the real shot. AI is many many years from being “unrecognizable” by the average audience. Especially as Gen Z and Millennials age into one of the largest consumer bases, they are an audience that can easily identify AI. Once AI content is identified, like our friend Jason - disappointment and distrust can settle in quickly. For any organization, trust is one of the biggest marketing goals. In a world filled with options, a trusted brand that stands out as reliable and authentic creates long-term customer engagement and success. For a non-profit or service related industry, that trust is even more important when human connection is at the very center of those sectors. At its very worst, AI can create very laughable to embarrassing results:
AI isn’t the big bad evil boogeyman though. As a tool, AI can actually improve workflows and save time and cost. In video production, for many years the removal of an object from the background was a mind numbing task that would take an editor a full day to “key” out. Now, with the help of AI, we are able to separate the foreground from the background easily, facilitating the ability to make quick cleanup edits that would have taken us many more hours, leading to longer delivery times and higher post-production costs for our clients. ASR Media prides itself on quick delivery that does not sacrifice quality, and AI can help us with that mission. Here is an example of a shoot where the location created a pretty drastic shadow. With the help of AI, I was able to remove this shadow in 6 minutes, where in the past this same task could have taken me 6 hours.
At the end of the day, ASR does not shy away from the use of AI tools. However, we understand that we would never sacrifice quality for our clients just to save time using an AI generator. AI as a tool is an advancement, AI as a replacement is a downgrade. Here at ASR Media, even though we specialize in corporate, commercial, and non-profit video, we see ourselves as artists - using the art of video to paint your brand’s story with light, angles, music, graphics, and intentional editing. I think we can all agree we never want AI to be intentional (that’s when they become our overlords and society collapses - just kidding! Maybe 😉)