Martin Scorsese, 83 years old, director of Goodfellas, Raging Bull, and Killers of the Flower Moon, has signed on as an adviser to Black Forest Labs, a German AI startup that makes the FLUX image-generation model. He used it to storyboard scenes for his next film, What Happens at Night, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.
The Art Directors Guild, which represents storyboard artists, responded on Tuesday with a statement calling it “a betrayal of the collaborative nature of cinema.” The union said Scorsese was “turning his back on the human artists who, throughout his career, have helped him create his most memorable works.” It noted that FLUX generates images by ingesting copyrighted work without consent, credit, or compensation.
Scorsese’s explanation was, characteristically, framed in terms of craft. “For 70 years, I’ve been creating my own storyboards,” he said. “There’s always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew.” The tool, he said, lets him “share what I’m visualizing more clearly and efficiently.” He added that it saved production time and was “less wear and tear on the crew.” He compared it to using 3D on Hugo and de-aging technology on The Irishman.
Breitbart called the union Luddites. Twice. With some enthusiasm.
The union is not wrong that storyboard artists lose work when a director generates reference images in seconds. Scorsese is not wrong that he has been communicating his visual ideas to crews for seven decades and found a faster method. Both of these things are true simultaneously, which is why the debate has been going nowhere since 2022 and shows no sign of going anywhere now.
What is new is the name attached. Scorsese spent his entire career as the most forceful living advocate for human craft in cinema. He founded a film preservation organization. He wrote essays. He went to Congress. He told anyone who would listen that movies were not “content.” The AI startup whose investor includes his own talent manager’s venture fund now has his face on the press release.
Guillermo del Toro said he would “rather die” than use generative AI. He has not changed his position. The two directors have not, as far as anyone has reported, spoken recently.
When the most famous defender of human craft in cinema becomes the face of an AI company, what exactly is the argument against it now?
Sources
Breitbart: Nolte — Luddites in Art Directors Union Attack Martin Scorsese for Using AI
Breitbart: Nolte — Luddites Weep as Scorsese and Spielberg Embrace AI
