Every Hollywood producer dreams of a world where all the choices that they make are the right ones.

In this unforgiving industry, a single wrong choice made in a movie production can make or break people’s careers.

Fundamentally, Hollywood still relies on the expertise of a few individuals to green-light projects and to ensure that they are undertaken in the best possible way. This process has not changed since the beginning of cinema.

When these few individuals get things wrong, the production company stands to lose huge amounts of money.

With some movie budgets now running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, the time has come for Hollywood to change the way it does business.

What is  Artificial Intelligence?

When you mentioned the term ‘artificial intelligence’ to the average person they immediately think of movies such as Blade Runner and Steven Spielberg’s AI.

While this is the direction that artificial intelligence is moving, this level of sophisticated computer technology is still decades away from reality.

Artificial intelligence or AI is a term that relates to all software that can ‘learn’ as it accumulates more data and is able to extrapolate more sophisticated user patterns or trends.

Our big data analytics software, LargoAI, is one example of an artificial intelligent system.

This powerful movie analytics tool can break down movies into their ‘ingredients’ and create an accurate pictures of what they are about. From this information, LargoAI can identify the strength and weaknesses of a particular film as well as its appeal to audiences.

As our system gains more and more data by analyzing an increasing number of movies and audience responses, it is able to learn to be more accurate in its predictions. This is what makes it an artificial intelligence.

AI And The Movie Business  

LargoAI can help refine movies in several ways:

1. From script to the rough cuts, it can suggest changes that will improve the audience reaction to the final movie.
2. It can choose the most suitable actors for a particular role
3. LargoAI can accurately predict the final movie gross from the script or movie cuts
4. It can help with target marketing to ensure the best return for a movie’s marketing budget

Predicted Gross

One example of this was when Largo predicted the gross of the movie Venom. Largo was able to predict a very accurate gross of $201 million when the movie actually grossed $213 million.

By having access to accurate gross predictions, Hollywood producers will be able to manage production budgets far more efficiently. So as this technology becomes mainstream, production companies will use it to gain an accurate prediction of a movie project’s potential at the script phase.

Improving Scripts

If a film script is deemed to be profitable enough then the production company can assign a budget that is reasonable compared to this gross prediction. This way they can establish an accurate profit margin.

Alternatively, for those movies that would not ordinarily be greenlighted, data-driven movie-making will be able to suggest changes to improve the script’s audience appeal. After which, they might then have sufficient appeal to get made.

Target Marketing

Another area that stands to benefit immensely from the implementation of big data is marketing.

Thanks to the huge amount of data being collected by companies on our user habits, big data analytics companies will soon have the power to implement incredibly accurate target marketing.

Rather than ads being placed on a broad platform such as in TV shows, target marketing will allow ads to be sent specifically to individuals to whom the film will appeal.

This might be via their social media accounts, in ads posted on the streaming sites they watch regularly, and so on.

As the artificial intelligence behind target marketing becomes more refined, eventually it will even be targeted at specific times of the day and in specific places to maximize its impact on the viewer.

Casting

Another area that will benefit immensely from data-driven moviemaking is casting.

In the past, production companies have wasted thousands upon thousands of dollars and lost even more at the box office because of incorrect casting choices.

The decision to cast Harvey Keitel in the role of Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now led to costly overruns and the need to reshoot several key scenes with his replacement.

This added immense pressure to the director’s already complex project while also nearly bankrupting his company due to the cost overruns.

Such a scenario now completely avoidable with the use of big data analytic movie making.

Each of the roles would be automatically matched to the most appropriate actor according to the data patterns identified by the AI system.

The examples above are the main areas of movie production that are set to benefit from the use of AI.

While pioneering companies such as Largo will led a revolution in the way that movies are made, every process in the industry is set to be transformed by the implementation of AI.

Everything from the way that actors and actresses perform screen test to the food that is provided on-site during production will be enhanced by AI.

Automated food ordering systems, for example, will be able to learn what kind of foods and drinks are being eaten and at what times of the day. These systems will be linked to providers via an app such as Food Panda and will be able to automatically reorder food and adjust film set menus according to preferences.

The sheer number of ways that AI has the potential to help the movie industry is phenomenal. All of these solutions are being developed as we speak by companies such as Largo.

If you wish to learn more about how data-driven moviemaking can help enhance your movie production then contact Largo today.