The Art Directors Guild slammed Martin Scorsese for his promotion of an AI tool for storyboarding. The crew union on Tuesday criticized a recent ad which Scorsese had filmed with startup Black Forest Labs.
Scorsese who is an advisor to the company, used AI to create a storyboard featuring a medieval street and lauded the AI-company’s model display of “cinematic intelligence.” The statement read,
“Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese is turning his back on the human artists who throughout his career have helped him create his most memorable works.”
The statement highlighted that the technology Scorsese touted as providing less “wear and tear on the crew” is built on copyrighted works from artists like those represented in the guild.
“Generative AI is only capable of producing this type of ‘cinematic intelligence’ by ingesting large swaths of copyrighted work, likely scraped from the internet without consent, credit, compensation or transparency.”
The statement claimed that Scorsese actions’ display “betrayal of the collaborative nature of cinema.”
What has Martin Scorsese said about Generative AI?
In early June, German AI startup, Black Forest Labs, behind the text-to-image model Flux announced that Scorsese would be joining the company as an advisor.
The company also shared a video on their website in which Martin could be seen using the website for creating storyboards. In a statement, Martin explained how AI can transform the storyboarding process,
“For 70 years, I’ve been creating my own storyboards. There’s always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew. There are some things you have to see and feel. I’m interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences.”
After Martin’s video was reposted on social media platforms, several users took to the comment section to criticize the Oscar-winning director. Many called Martin Scorsese a hypocrite for promoting AI, following his previous claims in which he claimed that Marvel movies are not real cinema.
The ADG with their recent statement, is bargaining on behalf of storyboard artists who through art, create visual sequences derived from written scripts to guide the filmmaking process.
As per a 2024 study commissioned by the Animation Guild and The Concert Art Assn, ADG’s members are among those most threatened by generatvie AI.
Martin Scorsese is yet to respond to ADG’s statement.
Edited by Soujanya Shapur