AI Guidelines

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly becoming part of filmmaking workflows, especially in the animation and VFX spaces. It’s new technology, it is evolving fast and it is impacting the film industry in a number of ways. 

Some of the positive ways that AI is helping filmmakers is with productivity - helping to speed up tasks, summarise research and automate repetitive processes. 

There are also negative impacts - AI has a huge environmental footprint, it is perceived as a threat to some of our creative jobs and many tools have been trained on material without the express permission of people who created it, risking the exploitation of creative maker’s work. 

Here at 48Hours, our goal is to support filmmakers to make films and build their communities. We want people to create exciting, original work while respecting other creators.

We think filmmakers should use all the tools at their disposal to create their films, and AI is a powerful new set of tools, with the potential for some great innovations. We recommend you use it to help with productivity and efficiency but encourage you to hold onto your creative agency

The important thing is to remember why you are doing 48Hours. It's supposed to be a fun weekend where you take creative risks, learn a lot, collaborate with other awesome filmmakers, and hopefully end up with a finished film you can be proud of. 

Can I use AI tools in 48Hours?

48Hours requires that you must have all the rights to all the material that appears in your film (rule 8). This has implications for the use of AI.

There will already be AI tools embedded in your editing, graphics and animation software and lots of these will mean that you can create better content more efficiently - speeding up post workflow.

As long as they don’t breach copyright, you can use these tools in your 48Hours film.

But how do you know if your ai tools are going to breach copyright and get your film disqualified? Well cutting something out more efficiently is fine, but things get trickier when we get to generative AI.

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMS) are artificial intelligence that is able to create new text, images, video, audio, or other data. It does this by learning patterns from data sets that are input into it to train it. Things like ChatGPT and Midjourney are examples that are widely used.

So can I use Generative AI in 48Hours?

The big problem for 48Hours is that the content used in the data sets that is used to train generative AI models may not be cleared for use. There is currently a lot of legal action happening as media companies and content producers file lawsuits against generative AI companies. Many of the lawsuits involve allege copyright infringement - in short, the complaints claim that AI companies illegally train various large language models on copyrighted content from media companies and creators. Most of this is happening in the US which has a ‘fair use’ clause in its copyright law, something we don’t have in NZ. 

It’s going to take a lot of time and all the lawyers will make a ton of money untangling this.

Because there is such a grey area around the copyright situation with vmaterial used to train generative AI, we can’t accept the use of generative AI in your 48Hour film unless you can prove it was trained on cleared data. If the AI tool doesnʻt specifically state this in their own information you should assume it isnʻt ok to use.

This really applies to your scripting, your music and any imagery you use, but don’t forget that you also need your actor’s releases - so you cannot include any deep fakes of famous actors in your film either. 

There are some generative tools that are safe to use such as Adobe Firefly, which is trained on Adobe’s stock library and public domain material. 

There are also some AI tools listed on Fairly Trained, a non profit certification licensor that confirms generative AI's have been trained on cleared material. 

You can also train an AI with material you own.

Will using AI be accounted for in the judging process?

We ask that you declare the use of AI in your wrap-up form so that we have transparency about how it is being incorporated into your work. You might consider adding info into your credits for your audience as well. 

We will ask you to declare this in the online wrap-up form and we will pass this information onto the judges. Originality and innovation are part of the criteria so using generative AI will have an impact on your film and how it is judged. You can read our judging criteria here.

Please note that to be eligible for the best script, best song/score and best performer awards, you won’t be able to use generative AI for writing, composition or performing.

If it's handmade - show us

If you're an animator and you want to show off that your process is handmade then why not add some bts images into the credits? Animation studio Laika often adds timelapses of complex stop motion shots into their film's credits so tha audience can appreciate what's gone into the making it. 

What other information is out there about AI usage?

Most of the film guilds and funders in New Zealand have been releasing guidance about AI. This information is really extra for experts but will be useful if you want to make content outside the 48Hours competition.

The Writer’s Guild have released their AI Advice Handbook for Screenwriters

Read the NZ on Air AI Guidance

Read the Actors Equity advice for voice artists

And finally

48Hours acknowledges that as AI continues to develop, the response from the film industry evolves. We know that AI use will be an ongoing dialogue and are keen to hear from our community about your thoughts.