A warning— DO NOT take this article too seriously. We’re just trying to do some cool stuff during the Holliday season using AI (Artificial Intelligence) software to draw pictures of ARRI cameras vs. RED cameras, and ARRI shooters vs. RED shooters. Don’t attack us. Just enjoy these AI-generated entertaining photos about our beloved industry.

Cinema cameras designed by AI

Our recent article about the breathtaking AI rendering of the IMAX cameras filming the atomic bomb scene on Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer got hit by a lot of ricochets. Angry readers claimed that these pictures can’t be defined as art forms and that their time was wasted looking at fake (AI-generated) BTS footage, instead of the real stuff. If so, why do we feel the urge to write another article about AI images? Because it’s interesting, and AI is here to stay. No—We do not think that AI is art. In fact, AI has tons of limitations as the pictures in this article demonstrate. However, we are still curious to reveal how AI sees cinema cameras, and their shooters, by diving into the never-ending debate of RED vs. ARRI.

AI-generated photos of ARRI cameras

In order to let the computer output a picture of an ARRI ALEXA, we inserted this prompt in Midjourney: “Professional cinema camera with conservative artistic design, solid structure, a few buttons and a screen inside the camera, heavy structure, brand name: ARRI ALEXA, cinematic, artistic, hyperrealism hyperrealistic, hyperdetailed, exquisite detail, intricately-detailed, ultra-detailed photography, high-sharpness, award-winning cinematography, HDR, 8k –ar 3:2”. We got two results. One without a reference (just the textual description) and the other with a referenced image of a real ARRI ALEXA camera. Check them out below (The first is with the referenced image):

AI-generated photos of RED cameras

To describe the body of a RED camera, the prompt was: “Professional cinema camera with industrial cool design, made of aluminum, one record button, capable of filming 8k resolution, boxy and compact structure, brand name: RED Digital Cinema, cinematic, hyperrealism hyperrealistic, hyperdetailed, exquisite detail, intricately-detailed, ultra-detailed photography, high-sharpness, award-winning cinematography, HDR, 8k –ar 3:2”. Again, we got two results, with and without a referenced image of the camera. Check them out below (The first is with the referenced image):

BTW, we also tried to generate an AI image of the Sony VENICE. The prompt was: “Professional cinema camera with conservative design, lot of buttons, a screen inside the camera, heavy structure, a disconnected sensor, brand name: Sony VENICE”. Explore the slide below of the computer-generated VENICE:

AI-generated RED/ARRI shooters

Are there any differences between RED shooters to ARRI shooters? For fun, let’s suppose there are…. (don’t take this debate so seriously:-) We inserted these prompts: For describing RED shooters: “Tough and cool cameraman using a professional compact boxy style cinema camera holding it in his hands, to shoot a fast and aggressive scene for a high-end action movie with a lot of epic explosions. Michael Bay fast shooting style”. And for ARRI shooters: “An artist is filming with a big professional cinema camera on his shoulder, an epic dramatic scene”. Again, just for fun —Explore the AI-generated images of RED shooters:

And here are the AI-generated images of the ARRI shooters:

Discussion

Midjourney’s interactive bot uses machine learning to create pictures based on text, hence it goes out and finds described images to output a non-simple composite. In simple words, the bot searches and gathers pictures from the internet, and then puts them together. Obviously, AI doesn’t know what a cinema camera should look like. For instance, the buttons are located without any logic, as well as the interface. Moreover, AI thinks that the lens is a viewfinder, and doesn’t know where to locate the cinematographer’s eye. Also, AI can’t understand human fingers, and definitely doesn’t know how to locate those fingers on a cinema lens. Furthermore, it’s not familiar with the RED nor the ARRI brands, for now. There’s a possibility that those brands will be familiar with AI a few months from now. Moreover, every description outputs a wholly different result. Generally speaking (and for the fun), we described ARRI shooters as pedant artists, and RED shooters as tough and cool, in order to create an AI-based exaggerated caricature that shows the differences between them. To sum it up: In our opinion, AI can’t be defined as art. It’s not art. First, the characters lack humanity. There’s no true soul in the pictures. In addition, this definitely looks like AI-generated imagery rather than handmade with human artistry. Moreover, as explained, these images contain other images made by humans. So there’s a big and complex argument regarding legality and copyright. Nevertheless, it was a fun RED-ARRI comparison. Let’s know your thoughts about that:-) 

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