Can I use a largely empty frame with my subject on the side? Can I use dim lighting in a scene? Prospective scenes play out in editor Sumit Purohit ’s mind like a reel. As do questions. Finding answers to them used to be a laborious process earlier, as he would dig out references from old films and stitch them together to gauge their feasibility.
But that has changed in the past one-and-a-half months. “As a filmmaker, I need to tell stories visually. You always go back to visual references—paintings, old films and photographs—and you say, ‘Can I do something like this? Can I use this kind of light? Can a frame be like this?’ So, when I started using AI, I used it like that.
Because I paint, draw and have dealt with a lot of visual material in college, I know which artiste to refer to and I prompt that in AI,” he explains. ADVERTISEMENT The world of AI has become the filmmaker-editor’s favourite playground right now. Currently, Purohit is employing his favourite tools to create trailers to pitch his story ideas to producers.
“I have been meeting filmmakers and DoPs [director of photography], who saw these trailers I created and got very excited. Many writers have been asking me to teach them. If there was no AI and I had to make a pitch trailer, I would have gone through 100 old films to find scenes I want to use and then combine them.
” Contructing the world by word Only recently, Purohit created a scratch trailer to pitch a period drama that he wants to ma.