Film Producer Max Wiedemann: Tandem of Humans and AI

Mr. Wiedemann, new opportunities or dangerous risks: what does the development of AI mean for film production?

Max Wiedemann: AI is a very fascinating technology and is often described as a general purpose technology, i.e. a fundamental technological innovation that will change many areas. It's about keeping an eye on both – the opportunities and the risks - and managing them responsibly. Basically, I am enthusiastic about the many opportunities that are opening up, especially when it comes to the development of generative AI. We were all surprised to see that the technology is not only capable of taking over repetitive tasks and process optimization, but can also make a creative contribution. This makes AI particularly relevant for our industry.

Artificial intelligence is still barely visible in films

As Chief Business Development Officer at LEONINE, you deal with how AI can be meaningfully integrated into work processes. How do you go about this?

Wiedemann: There are now reliable studies that prove that the introduction of AI can achieve a significant increase in productivity and results across all employees and areas of the company. This quickly led us to the conclusion that we need to enable our employees to access this technology and use it for their work. This requires three things. Firstly, governance, i.e. clear and comprehensible guidelines that define which AI can be used, what it can be used for and what needs to be observed. Legal factors play a role here, as do ethical issues. The second point is training and further education: You have to organize workshops to familiarize employees with the new tools. We want to motivate them to use these tools in their private lives too, because the more you get to grips with them, the better you learn to understand them and can use them in a business environment. And it's also about providing employees with technical access to these tools.

How much AI is already in your films – and where exactly?

Wiedemann: AI is still barely visible in the films themselves – it's still a relatively young discipline. When you make films professionally, secure rights chains play an important role, as does the visual quality, which has to be on a par with traditional production. We are only now slowly reaching a point where we can use AI elements in our productions. At the moment, for example, they play a role in finding material, in dealing with material, in research, in pre-visualization, in presentation – these are areas in which we are noticing that AI is already creating real use cases, but this is just the beginning.

When is the use of AI ethically justifiable for you, and when is it not?

Wiedemann: The best compass for this decision is natural intelligence – common sense. We wouldn't do anything with artificial intelligence that we wouldn't do with humans. Just because you suddenly have more options with AI doesn't mean that everything you can do is right. If we were shooting a series and we were talking about a possible sequel, would we have the rights granted to us to continue the series exclusively with digital avatars of the actors? No. From today's perspective, I don't think that would be ethically right. Would we have the rights assigned to us to continue the series with the help of AI if an actor died during filming? Yes, I would be fine with that. In this case, you have to weigh things up: If you couldn't do that, the work and funding you've invested up to this point would be in vain for everyone involved. And there have already been cases like that, such as with THE CROW or FAST & FURIOUS.  

Where do you come up against limits when using AI in film production?

Wiedemann: AI doesn't work without errors and you have to take a very close look at its work. At the same time, however, this boundary is constantly shifting because development is progressing quickly and dynamically. I'm surprised at how well some things already work, but I'm also sometimes surprised at how badly some things work.  Discovering what the technology can really do is an ongoing task that will never be completed. But there are also constants. One of them is that you can never blindly rely on AI. You absolutely need a human in the driver's seat. Because only the tandem of human and machine is particularly effective. You need a human who knows what they are doing, who can prompt the AI correctly and who can evaluate and classify the results correctly.

The call for regulations when using AI is partly superfluous

What would you need as a film producer to feel legally on the safe side when using AI?

Wiedemann: It is important that, despite all the discussion, we first look at what is already regulated and where there are actually gaps in the regulations. In many areas, I keep noticing that there are calls for regulations where there are actually already quite good regulations. For example, performers are often concerned that their likeness or voice will be scanned and used in productions without them having been hired to do so. However, the current legal situation does not allow this at all. There is the right to one's own image and the right to one's own voice. The issue of training data is currently still a gray area. What are tools trained with? We need to weigh things up carefully here: On the one hand, you want and need to protect copyrights, but on the other hand, you must not prevent this innovation

You can now look back on a list of over 160 film and television productions. Which project do you particularly remember?

Wiedemann: It's usually the experiences in life that you have for the first time that are particularly memorable. Looking back, I often associate the projects with particular milestones in my career with which my business partner Quirin and I broke new ground. And there were many of them, starting with “The Lives of Others”, our first feature film. That was, of course, an interesting journey that took this film across the entire globe all the way to the Oscar. Other important moments include our first Netflix production “Dark” and several series and feature films with which we redefined something in one way or another. For example, “4 Blocks” or “The Pass”, where we succeeded in giving the respective genre a new color, or the great cinema comedies such as “Friendship”, “Männerherzen” or “Willkommen bei den Hartmanns”, each of which has taken the genre a step further. But also internationally ambitious projects such as “Werk ohne Autor” or “Girl You Know It's True”. In retrospect, we are a little proud of this, together with the great creatives with whom we were able to realize these projects.

Together with Quirin Berg, you founded your joint production company Wiedemann & Berg Film in 2003. What has happened in the industry since then?

Wiedemann: The past 20 years have been a very intensive period characterized by dynamic changes. There have been many of them, starting with the digitalization of film production through to changes in distribution channels. When we started, there was no iPhone. The entire mobile sector didn't exist. There was no streaming yet, YouTube was just getting started. New forms of production have also become much more relevant: the horizontally narrated series, genre productions, the global exploitation perspective. The fact that we can make productions from Germany that are also successful on the international market was simply not a reality when we started out. And then there are the many technological developments, most recently AI, which has been on the horizon for the last two or three years. If there's one thing that characterizes the film industry, it's that nothing is more eternal than change.

Paramount+, Sky, Telekom: budgets for German film productions have been cut back

Many streaming providers such as Prime Video and Netflix are increasing subscription prices or have recently started allowing advertising. The financial pressure seems to be increasing – are you feeling the effects of this?

Wiedemann: A few years ago, with the emergence of streamers, we saw that there was a strong revival in the market and that a lot of new productions were being realized. This all took place during a phase of low interest rates and growth, which has turned around to some extent. Interest rates have gone up and profit in the here and now has become more important than the growth of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. The whole market has felt this. Some providers, such as Telekom, Sky and Paramount+, have scaled back their commitment to German in-house productions. However, despite all the changes, we must not forget that the fictional story is still intact. The forms and channels of exploitation are changing, but people still want to see in-house productions from Germany. This motivates us to continue, even if the broadcasting channel and format are now partly different. The challenge today is to ensure that the subscription fees of the new providers also find their way to an appropriate extent into German productions that are realized in Germany and that the success also reaches the production companies. But here, too, we are on the right track with the funding reform.

What productions of yours can we look forward to in the near future?

Wiedemann: The Munich Film Festival is currently taking place, where we are celebrating the premiere of two productions. On the one hand, our feature film “Alles Fifty Fifty” by Alireza Golafshan will be shown here for the first time and will be released in cinemas on August 29. We are also presenting “Spieleabend” by Marco Petry, a great film that we made for Netflix and which will be available to stream there from July 12. With Simon Verhoeven, we have just shot the next big movie production. “Old White Man” will be released in cinemas on October 31 and sheds light on the social discussion about wokeness and political correctness with a wink and, in my opinion, can hit a real nerve. And we are delighted to be continuing our successful series “Crooks” by Marvin Kren, which we are allowed to continue for Netflix.