Los Angeles, Apr 10 – Filmmaker James Cameron says his approach to incorporating AI is not about reducing workforce numbers but about significantly speeding up production timelines, allowing more room for creative output.
Cameron, who now serves on the Board of Directors at Stability AI, is preparing to release the third chapter of the Avatarfranchise later this year.
“This isn’t just a theoretical concept. If we want to keep making the kinds of movies I’ve always enjoyed – the ones I make and love to watch, like Dune, Dune: Part Two, or my own effects-heavy, CGI-intensive films – we have to figure out a way to cut production costs by half,” said the 70-year-old director during the Boz to the Future podcast.
“But that doesn’t mean laying off half the crew at the effects studio. It means helping them complete each shot twice as fast, which shortens the production cycle and lets the team move on to new and exciting work more quickly. That’s the direction I see this heading.”
On his decision to join the Stability AI board, Cameron said his goal was to gain a deeper understanding of the field and the developers driving it.
“I wanted to get a handle on the space, understand what developers are aiming for, what their development timelines look like, and what kind of resources are needed to build specialized models. My intention was to find a way to weave AI into the visual effects production pipeline,” he explained.
Avatar 3 is scheduled to hit theatres this December.