OTT streaming giant Netflix has bought ‘Good Will Hunting’ star Ben Affleck’s AI-based filmmaking startup, InterPositive. The deal includes taking over the 16-person team of engineers, researchers, and creatives at the Hollywood actor’s firm.
In addition to the deal, Affleck will also serve as a senior advisor to Netflix for the AI-based tool for filmmakers. This comes after they backed out of a $72 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and claimed they would make more profit by doing so.
What is InterPositive?
InterPositive is largely an artificial intelligence-backed post-production tool for filmmakers. Started in 2022, away from the public eye, Affleck developed an ‘artist-first’ AI technology that processes and enhances raw footage from ongoing productions to make complex post-production tasks easier.
This ensures that the raw footage and subsequent production align with the Director’s vision and creative liberties. The tool can reframe shots, manipulate backgrounds, correct lighting, and even make colour adjustments. It uses AI to remove visual errors, such as editing out stunt wires, along with fixing missing shots or background elements that may hinder consistency.
The tool, while relying on AI, stood for ‘restraints’ that kept the final creative liberty with the filmmaker, and not as a means to replace them. The tool does not produce generative content or text-prompting; it is not going to make a movie from scratch if a user types something into it.
InterPositive began filming a proprietary dataset on a controlled soundstage “with all the familiarities of a full production,” according to Affleck. “I wanted to build a workflow that captures what happens on a set,” said Affleck, as per an account provided by Netflix to Variety.
What is Netflix’s take on AI filmmaking tool
Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said InterPositive’s AI technology will provide its partners “more choices, more control and more protection for their vision,” reported Variety.
Bajaria, in a statement, then shared that they emphasise creative freedom and that the deal is not a replacement of writers, directors, actors, or crew. “Ben and his team at InterPositive are part of a long tradition in our industry of artists leading the way in how innovation is used in storytelling. Their work is about giving filmmakers more choices, more control and more protection for their vision,” read the Netflix statement.
Elizabeth Stone, chief product and technology officer at Netflix, further re-emphasised their support for innovation, technology, and creativity. While InterPositive’s existence was largely unknown to the larger part of the world, this move marks a huge milestone for both Affleck and the streaming giant.