Post-Cinema: The Age Of AI by Scott Billups (book review).
I thought when this book, ‘Post-Cinema: The Age Of AI’ by Scott Billups, arrived it would be a history of how artificial intelligence is infiltrating the film world. Actually, that’s pretty much the opening chapter, and it started much earlier than you think. I didn’t know Jim Cameron was after the rights for ‘Jurassic Park’, but Digital Domain, which Bullups was involved in setting up, beat him to the punch. CGI was still nascent, with only 9 minutes of CGI in the film, but it was a turning point. So was Cameron’s ‘Terminator II’.
From there, Billups explains that the introduction of computer graphics meant anyone with a home computer could start doing film graphics. I might question that, as the detail rendering was a longer process, but computers developed to have bigger memories and storage. It was inevitable that forms of AI developed alongside, but it was more prominent in the computer gaming world, and Billups became a fount of knowledge of which software to look up and learn online. He admits he’s a messy programmer, but the software can work with that. If you use the likes of Fortnite’, which uses the Unreal Engine, then you are already using an AI game.
If you thought AI was only a recent film thing, Billups points out he was using it in the first 2003 ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ film and even had mystified looks from the Henson Production company when he took his computer set-up to their studio.
By avoiding Netflix, I believe I’ve escaped manipulation in my film selection. As Billups points out, it watches what you watch and offers films of a similar tone rather than widening your choices. No doubt Netflix’s AI is trying not to give you a choice you won’t like but ends up controlling your taste. So much for free will, and I suspect if you want to make your own choices, find some way to turn it off or watch other channels.
I do like his tale of going to a convention where a team was creating a film at the tables and then soliciting film executives for money. Providing they can get a distribution deal, I can see the middle management getting pushed out, as they aren’t needed.
The histories of computer games and CGI in films are interlinked. It’s hardly surprising when you consider the historical context Billups presents.
For a software user from the start, Billups errs on the side of caution when it comes to handing too much power to AIs, and the list of the major users should make you stop and think as well, as you probably use most of them or have some aspects in your software already. At least there is an option to turn the AI off so far, or rather, not turn it on in the first place. More so when it comes to letting it choose your tastes. I suspect it started innocently enough by not giving you something you didn’t want, but do you only want to see what matches your current taste? I might not like a particular book when I review it, but that doesn’t mean that others see it as a reason to look for themselves.
All I’m really doing is giving my thoughts on the subject. Turn my review job over to an AI, and you’ll have no idea what criteria it is applying. If it is being governed by, say, the likes of Amazon, who wants you to buy the book, it will sway you with that in mind. I like Billups’ comment that an AI on seeing you liked ‘Breaking Bad’ would then suggest you would like ‘Peppa Pig’. I would ask, would the same happen in reverse, and would you want your kids watching ‘Breaking Bad’? Something I wish he had covered is how it selects where there’s a family watching.
Objectively, I still think a creative person needs to be at the heart of any film, and, if anything, AI provides a different selection of tools. If it is supposed to cut down on personnel, the number of CGI specialists involved in any film seems to be growing all the time. Should we be expecting a job slump?
In his concluding remarks, Billups suggests retraining in AI subjects to stay competitive in the film industry. That’s all well and good, and especially as this book is targeting the USA, it also means having enough money to go back to university and paying for these courses and assumes there are enough places and tutors. That might well open up more tutoring jobs as well, I guess, but even the teachers will need to keep up in the AI-changing world. I can’t help feeling the gulf will continue to grow.
I still think this is an important book from someone who is not only inside the industry but also at the beginning of introducing CGI into films. The fact that he is also worried about how quickly AI is infiltrating our society makes this book transcend the usual film book and required reading for anyone with concerns on the subject, which probably means most of you who read SFC.
I don’t think the current AIs out there are quite independent yet, but each country should certainly have regulations about how much they are put into society. I think that the choice system is still not very good. You only have to look at the Google AI and the number of wrong choices it gives on a word information search on people. I suspect we would be told it’s still on a learning curve, but you would have thought that it would have been more advanced than this before being put on the market. It also means we don’t know who did the program design or understandthe question criteria, so no one is accountable. Did I say you might come away from this book angry?
GF Willmetts
October 2025
(pub: Michael Wiese Productions, 2025. 218 page illustrated indexed large paperback. Price: $29.95 (US), £25.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-61593364-8).
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