Amazon’s ‘House of David’ Creator Defends 350+ AI Shots in Season 2
▼ Summary
– The Amazon Prime series House of David season 2 used AI to create battle scenes and other visuals, as showrunner Jon Erwin stated the budget was insufficient for traditional VFX methods.
– AI-generated shots increased significantly from over 70 in season 1 to between 350 and 400 in season 2, covering scenes like crowds, fortresses, fires, and landscapes.
– Erwin described AI as a cost-effective tool that allows filming real actors and cameras to serve as a “hand inside a puppet” within a digitally created world.
– In contrast to Erwin’s positive view, many in Hollywood, such as Guillermo del Toro and Ariana Grande, have expressed strong opposition to AI-generated art.
– Despite backlash, AI adoption is growing in the industry, with companies like Runway partnering with studios and Erwin using tools from Runway, Luma, Google, and Adobe.
In the dramatic opening of Amazon Prime’s second season of House of David, the legendary hero defeats Goliath with a single stone, unleashing a sprawling desert battle. Armored soldiers clash on horseback amid swirling dust, creating an epic scale reminiscent of major fantasy productions. Showrunner Jon Erwin openly acknowledges that achieving this visual grandeur would have been financially impossible without artificial intelligence. He explains that the entire sequence was constructed virtually, at a fraction of the cost and time required by conventional visual effects methods.
Erwin’s production company, the Wonder Project, confirmed that season two incorporates between 350 and 400 AI-generated shots, a massive increase from the roughly 70 used in the first season. These AI-enhanced scenes extend beyond just crowd replication in battle sequences. The technology was also employed to generate imposing stone fortresses, hillsides engulfed in fire, and heroic figures gazing over misty mountain vistas. While these visuals lack the obvious imperfections of earlier generative AI, their origin is still discernible to a keen observer.
Erwin uses a compelling analogy to describe his filmmaking approach. He suggests placing a real camera and actor on set is like being the hand inside a puppet, the puppet itself is the expansive digital world built around them. This method allows filmmakers with limited budgets to achieve a scale previously reserved for blockbuster productions.
However, this enthusiastic embrace of AI stands in stark contrast to the sentiments of many Hollywood professionals and audiences. Acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro recently expressed a hope to pass away before AI art becomes mainstream, drawing a parallel between the “arrogance” of tech developers and the tragic ambition of Victor Frankenstein. Pop star Ariana Grande signaled her disapproval by liking a social media post that rejected AI-generated imagery entirely. Even major brands like Coca-Cola have faced significant public backlash for their AI-created holiday advertisements, with critics accusing them of hastening a creative decline.
Despite this vocal criticism, proponents like Erwin and executives at companies such as Coca-Cola argue that the opposition represents a shrinking minority. They point to growing industry adoption, including deals between AI firms like Runway and major studios such as Lionsgate to develop custom tools trained on studio archives. Erwin himself has utilized a suite of AI products from Runway, Luma, Google, and Adobe to bring the ancient world of King David to life, demonstrating a firm belief in the technology’s potential to reshape visual storytelling.
(Source: Wired)