David Fincher Reveals ‘Thrillingly Stupid’ AI Fix in Se7en 4K Release!: “if you see it, we didn’t do our jobs”

Using AI in filmmaking is controversial because it could replace human jobs and creativity, raising concerns about actors, writers, and crew losing work. Some worry that AI might make creative choices that lack the emotional depth and personal touch of human filmmakers. There’s also a fear that relying too much on AI could lead to repetitive and less original films.

While these concerns are understandable, one positive use of AI is for fixing mistakes in older films without affecting new releases. David Fincher recently explained how he used AI to fix a small camera error in a bar scene for the 4K and IMAX release of Se7en.

The camera had followed a character too late, showing more of the bar than intended, and Fincher took the opportunity to correct this mistake in the updated version of the film.

Fincher said the performance in the scene was so good that he decided to keep the take with the camera mistake, even though part of the actor’s shoulder was missing. It was hard to recreate the missing shoulder and jacket wrinkles, so Fincher asked if footage from other takes could be used to fix it. This allowed him to fix the camera error and keep the scene looking right.

We took three or four different shots from earlier, which had a jacket in them that we liked, and then we input that, and then we had it spit back out AI, and then took the background from where the camera landed and just composited them together. So it ends up being the most thrillingly stupid fix in the world because if you see it, we didn’t do our jobs. And you probably won’t see it. You probably won’t be aware that it’s happened. But you look at it, and you just think to yourself, ‘It’s so nice that we can fix that kind of stuff today.’

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