Romain Gavras Is Bummed About Those AI Versions of “Storm”

Anyone who caught Yung Lean’s MTV VMAs performance of “Storm,” his short film with director Romain Gavras’ audiovisual project Gener8ion, is no stranger to the complex choreography that went into the project. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped a bevy of copycats from “recreating” the film with AI, subbing in Yung Lean and the video’s crew of young male dancers for dogs, babies, grandmothers, Elon Musk, Jeffrey Epstein, and even Hitler.The trajectory appears to have left no one more disappointed than Gavras himself, who told Vulture that the AI copies “made me sad for all the people who put in so much work on our video.” Per Gavras, the budget on the original film was “very, very, very, very low,” and he worked for free. Dancers were selected through a two-month casting search, and rehearsed with choreographer Damien Jalet for three days; it took Gavras about 15 tries to nail the unbroken take, captured on 16-mm film.“A trend like this can make even good work look lame,” Gavras added. “Part of me wanted to quit filmmaking, move back to Greece, and become an olive farmer.” Although Gavras emphasized that he never intended “Storm” as a commentary on AI, he felt like AI companies took ...