In part 1, I explained to you what visual literacy is.
In today’s part 3, I’m going to explain WHY you NEED to become a visually literate viewer before the *use of* what we’re being told is artificial intelligence (It’s not) destroys modern civilization completely.
It’s not just for your sake, but because it’s literally killing people and tearing apart families that you’re not aware of in a sector that produces a product that makes life worth living for. My sector, my profession, and my lifelong passion of film and television entertainment is being obliterated.
Yet, people sit back and do nothing, so, I’m going to give you a six figure college education’s worth of knowledge for free in the hopes that one of you is actually paying attention and cares.
Before we get started breaking down this famous scene from Dead Poets Society, shot by shot, I want you to remember the 3 most important questions to ask yourself in visual literacy:
Where is the camera? As in what type of shot do we have (Single Close up, 2 shot Wide, 3 person Mid Close up, etc)
Why is it there? As in what’s it doing, what type of camera movement (Following, Narrative, or Voyeuristic)
What type of lens does it have? As in why are they framing it with the lens affect it has)
“O Captain! My Captain!”
I chose this scene for two reasons. First, it’s about what makes us human and humanity needs a reminder of that and our ability for pure creativity.
This second is because this scene is iconic because of how well written it is by Tom Schulman and because of Robin Williams performance, but I would argue the magic of it also has everything to do with the visual directing of our subconscious by Peter Weir, an incredibly underrated Director.
I want you to also notice the colors of the room, the actor’s costumes are earth tones of green, brown, red. The lights are warm (Incandescent practicals overhead that actually mimic the sun than artificial) expressing nature or what’s natural, of what it is to be human!
Shot breakdown below:
A) Ramping in Close Up of “WORDS AND LANGUAGE,” Normal lens. - Tracking Camerawork
B1) Wide Shot. Professor Keats is in command with the students looking UP at him, but it’s very formal. It’s out of respect but because he’s the teacher, in their subconscious he’s small in their eyes still, just the crazy English teacher. We know this because of the Wide Angle Lens that makes things smaller as they’re father away. The camera is locked off (not moving) as if we’re a student in his class -Voyeuristic Camerawork
B2) “HUDDLE UP” The camera doesn’t change but the blocking does as Professor Keats bends down and his presence literally gets both bigger in lens and as he now commands the room because he’s willing to ditch his authority and get to their level as a fellow person, thus it becomes almost a new shot within a shot. We’re no longer in a class, we’re in the camp fire as cavemen relearning what it is to be human again. It’s intimate, claustrophobic, secretive. -Voyeuristic Camerawork
C) “BUT POETRY” Close Up. Normal/slightly telephoto lens with a shallow depth of field because the focus is on Keating. Now the angle is high, we’re looking down on him or I should say that he’s looking up, praying to god to breakthrough to these kids. - Tracking Camerawork
D) Close Up. Telephoto lens with a shallow depth of field. This student is fascinated but twitchy and that’s more apparent in the telephoto lens. - Narrative Camerawork
E) Close Up-2 shot, Normal/slightly telephoto lens with a shallowish depth of field, this student is interested but not sure if he fully believes what Keating is saying. Narrative Camerawork
F) Mid Close Up - 4 shot. Wide-ish lens. These guys are hesitant, resistant but even they are starting to be interested and free their shackles of thought. Narrative Camerawork
G) Close Up. Telephoto lens. This guy thinks Keating is full of shit literally looking down on Keating. The guy behind him, the crew cut guy not in focus who believes he shouldn’t agree with Keating but starts to lose faith in his friend because of the performance. Narrative Camerawork
H) Normal/slightly telephoto lens with a shallow depth of field the same as Keating. We’re not looking down or up, Neil is at the level of Keating. This is the money shot. We have found a new follower, a new disciple, poetry is saved. Narrative Camerawork
I) Normal/slightly telephoto lens with a shallow depth of field the same as Keating and Neil but still looking down, yet the expression he has usurps what a low angle looking up says because he’s now starting to feel unsure of his belief…more visual foreshadowing. Narrative Camerawork
Every scene has two objectives. The first is the outside objective. Professor Keating is trying to breakthrough the establishment through his students, but they’re resistant because of everything they’ve been taught. He succeeds through Neil and plants a seed in skeptical Todd (Young Ethan Hawke).
The internal objective is the emotional. Professor Keating wants to be loved and respected to feel his teaching style is accepted. It’s for a noble reason, but every human action has a simple internal emotional objective.
He only needs one student for it to work, to believe that what he has to teach isn’t just about preparing these young men for vocations or a necessary liberal knowledge obligation for conversation, but a calling to greater meaning to be a human. To ensure our species purpose of survival. He succeeds with Neil, but if you watch the entire film, you know that it’s also foreshadowing something tragic later on and something hopeful with Todd.
Artificial Intelligence as it is now, non-sentient, a simple caricature of intelligence, could never create something wholly human and original as this scene let alone the entire film.
The River Dam
What I wrote earlier about AI killing people is not an exaggeration, although what I should say is that it’s the tech Oligarch’s use of AI that’s causing people to kill themselves. It’s comes from personal experience of having friends that are no longer with us because they lost hope for employment in an industry which has been eradicated over the last 3 years after they spent their entire adulthoods building their careers from scratch and through great difficulty and at great cost only for it to be ripped away by Executive suite failures.
I’ve had multiple friends who’s family’s are being torn apart from divorce because they can no longer afford to feed their families and have been unable to get into other sectors because everyone thinks we’ll just leave when the industry comes back, but it’s not coming back.
Film and TV production work is down nearly 40% domestically since 2022, but I believe the idea that 60% of the level 2022 still remains is also incorrect just as this graph from Statistica below is misleading as well.
It looks as if things are rising, but those are productions mainly in Canada only. NYC where I live is dead with 25% of what it had in the peak of 2019. What killed it?
The lack of work is not just from the WGA and Actor’s strikes, or the end of the streaming wars decreasing work, or jobs leaving the US that is the cause of this dam stopping the flow of production jobs.
It’s about the uncertainty of AI’s impact on the cost of production and where the eye balls are going. It’s about the rise of Individual entrepreneurship with Podcasts, YouTube channels, and Patreons.
On the surface, having the ability to create your own ecosystem sounds great because you’re in control but just like the lie of cord cutting, this idea of being an influencer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For one thing, there’s no Union or company to get health insurance from. Also, you still have a boss and it’s called the algorithm which gate keeps what is popular and it’s demanding. Influencers I know live their life having to come up with almost daily videos or multiple videos around the clock.
Then there’s the cultural impact. If all we’re watching is “content” then we’re going to just get dumb. Who’s making the actual art?
Do Audiences really want to see AI generated art?
This all comes down to money, it always does, but we’re being fed a product nobody wants to consume. AI art is built upon theft of pre-existing materials.
The tech world likes to tout all of the things that AI can do now with minimizing what human beings still can. I’ve never seen an original picture or video, or read a book or a poem by AI that a human being couldn’t do.
AI can do what’s already been done by us faster, but not better, and certainly not more original. Originality comes from having novel experience. Originality isn’t an impersonation and all AI can do right now is a caricature, sometimes very convincing and sometimes not so much.
Last week, I asked my small following on Instagram if they believed movies have become lazy? I rarely get more than a handful of people voting on these polls, but this one I had over 20 people from all walks of life voting and it was unanimous.
What scares me is not AI getting better, it will, what scares me is the dumbifcation of audiences and what the visually illiterate think is good because they don’t know what good is anymore.
For example, I love the Lord of The Rings Trilogy. Most people rightly believe that it feels like Tolkiens universe come to life and is a mater class in practical effects mixed with CGI. Yet, The Hobbit Trilogy that followed was utilized much more CGI that lacked the magic of Peter Jackson’s earlier more practical adaptations because he had less time to make them.
The same fanboys that cry about too much CGI (and then still go see a film just to bitch about how bad it was and encouraged studios to make more bad films because they still make money) will praise the below AI nonsense of an “adaptation” of JRR Tolkien’s biblical manifesto, “The Simiarillion.” They also got skirt this little issue of violating Intellectual Property of the Tolkien estate…again, pure theft.
Think about everything I’ve taught you about visual literacy, what does this trailer below tell you with its visuals? This isn’t art, it’s some AI prompt monkey kid that the comment section fawns over while simultaneously bashing The Rings of Power series which for all its flaws employs thousands of people and is watchable in comparison. At least it’s made by actual artists.
What you eat is what you become. So too is what you read and what you see. How do you determine what is healthy for culture? Does the below commercial really seem like an upgrade to commercials we’ve seen before?
There’s absolutely nothing human about this. It took very little effort because someone typed up some prompts and did some light editing. It’s anime look is stolen based off other artists work. It sucks and was made by a 10 figure company that could have employed a ton of talented people that really need work right now.
It’s rape even if they didn’t touch you.
The United States is the only country in which we don’t have Federal Deep Fake laws. Every time you share an AI video or picture of someone without their consent what you actually are doing is stealing someone’s likeness without their consent. Would you like that if it was happening to you?
During this last Super Bowl, Kanye West did something despicable and heinous and deeply antisemitic when his commercial led people to his website wear he sold a black Nazi swastika on white shirt.
In turn, these incredibly wealthy, ultra-famous, and extremely busy Jewish celebrities got together the very next day to make this video.
I hope you can understand my sarcasm from before, because obviously they didn’t make this. To get everyone in the same room on that short notice would be a near impossibility which is one way to spot AI…basic logistics.
My issue with this video is the same as Scarlett Johanson’s. Somebody made this and circulated it, fooling not just boomers and Gen Xers, but even Millennial’s and younger into thinking it was real and suffered no consequences for creating it.
I’m sure there’s already digital rape of people’s likeness’s out there, I’m sure of it, but don’t want to search to find out. Not badly photoshopped images, but accurate depictions of someone’s face, body, and voice.
Here’s why you should care….if they can do it to a celebrity, they can do it to you, your spouse, children, etc without repercussions.
Imagine you have a teenage daughter and some teen boy takes a picture of her which essentially has the ability of a full body scan at this point. He could then have an AI create what she looks like naked with shocking accuracy and creates a porn of her and circulates it around school calling her a slut.
While not physically touched, how is this not rape? Do you think this girl will ever be the same after this? Is this not a violation of her bodily autonomy? Sure the school could expel him sexual harassment, but could they arrest him? The act of creating a digital representation of someone without their consent is still technically legal right now. A lawyer couldn’t make a case based on that aspect.
Now, imagine this scenario with pedophiles. Then imagine a new problem, what does it do to a child and humanity to never have a real relationship when he or she or they could have a relationship designed for them based on someone they find attractive.
How to spot artificial intelligence?
The best answer I can give you to this is VISUAL LITERACY. That’s why I wrote all of this because it’s getting harder and harder too spot it, but I have a 6th sense out of seeing these things because I’ve trained my eyes to notice when something is out of the norm and can break it down. Ut doesn’t take much for you to as well.
It requires you to be a conscious viewer, to be as my Oscar winning professor, Paul Sylbert used to tell us, to “be a noticer.” Notice things, pay attention to the details because they all inform us grammatical information. Language is largely visual, so listen with your eyes because stories are being told to you everyday through images horizontal and vertical.
I think Artificial Intelligence can be a great tool to help artists make more original and better art, but we have to set guardrails on this and by not creating laws in the interest of human beings the question becomes, who then does it serve?
Stay vigilant, stay conscious and remember to always ask yourself…Where is the camera? Why is it there? What type of lens does it have?
Thank you for posting up this 3 part series, Adam.