Integrating GenAI in Filmmaking: From Co-Creativity to Distributed Creativity

A new academic paper from researchers Pierluigi Masai, Lorenzo Carta, and Mateusz Miroslaw Lis challenges the dominant narrative around AI in Hollywood. Titled 'Integrating GenAI in Filmmaking: From Co-Creativity to Distributed Creativity,' the 33-page study, available on arXiv, argues that tools like Sora, Runway, and Suno AI represent an evolution, not a revolution. Using a sociomaterial and historical lens, the authors position Generative AI as the latest mediator in a long-standing negotiation between creative labor and technological possibility, similar to past shifts brought by sound, color, or digital editing.

The paper moves beyond the common 'human-machine co-creativity' framework to analyze filmmaking as a 'distributed' process where agency is shared across human experts and non-human actors. It introduces an analytical taxonomy of GenAI techniques to illustrate a key point: these technologies do not merely assist but actively reconfigure professional roles, production temporalities, and ultimately, film aesthetics. By linking these sociomaterial configurations to aesthetic outcomes, the research suggests AI could enable entirely new creative possibilities by fundamentally blurring the boundaries of traditional, linear production workflows.