In the last of this year’s YDA Week interviews we speak to VFX maestro Ed Ulbrich about how the artificial intelligence will impact creativity, both on screen and off.
Having worked on or led the visual effects teams behind features including Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, Michael Bay’s Armageddon, David Fincher’s Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, as well as James Cameron’s Titanic, the last two of which won Oscars for VFX, Ed Ulbrich knows a thing or two about technology.
Previously SVP of production, then EVP at Digital Domain and now running production for AI-focussed company Metaphysic, Ulbrich has a wealth of experience in the sector.
He has given a TED Talk about the VFX in Benjamin Button and is currently working on a new film by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, which utilises the creative power of AI.
Over the course of 50 minutes Ulbrich explains how a week in the AI space is equivalent to a year in the real world; why, as we move forward, the skills we need from people in the industry will be different to the skills we require now; how the paradigm of creative importance has flipped, and how the ripple effect of AI will be huge.
