Over the weekend I saw a friend who is also studying media. He specialises in editing, and after mentioning I am taking an AI and media subject, he mentioned AI is used in editing software. Over this semester we have spoken about and put into practice AI for creative media. I thought it would be interesting to investigate how AI assists the more practical side of production, particularly editing, as this is the phase of assignment 4 my team is up to. Although, we are creating an audio project and therefore are not using video editing software.
For video editing, I primarily use Final Cut Pro X for editing my media projects. My friend explained FCPX uses machine learning for frame interpolation to get footage to run at a higher frame rate. After some research, I found FCPX also uses frame interpolation for footage that has been slowed down (Seymour 2024). Whilst I don’t adjust my frame rate very often at all in post-production, I do use slow-mo rather frequently, so I decided to test the capabilities of machine learning slow-mo in FCPX. I slowed some footage down to 25%. Whilst it didn’t look as smooth as footage shot at a higher frame rate and then slowed down, it certainly looks better than footage slowed down without frame interpolation. As someone who is often shooting on iPhone, and therefore has limited frame rate options, I will definitely use this feature in the future.
Another feature I found is AI, and have coincidentally used before, in FCPX is Enhance Light and Colour. This is a colour grading feature which analyses and enhances footage when applied (Seymour 2024). I tried to use this for a previous assignment in another class. For my other class we shot a promotional video. I forgot to do a white balance correction before shooting a particular shoot resulting in my footage looking like figure 1:
Figure 1: Original footage
Figure 2: Graded with Enhance Light and Colour feature
Figure 3: Graded by me
Figure 2 seems to be too pink in tint and the exposure is too low. Whilst the one I did myself, figure 3, is not perfect, I do think I did a better job. However, I can appreciate when this technology hopefully advances enough to correct footage to a satisfactory level, it will be a very beneficial. Using AI in the more practical side of production marries to the concept of AI being a tool rather than something taking over work, which has been discussed all semester. Despite its downfalls, having AI in user friendly editors like FCPX makes achieving higher level outputs possible whilst shooting on iPhone.
References
Seymour M (2024) AI: the battleground for Final Cut Pro vs. Premiere Pro vs. Resolve, fx guide website, accessed 13 October 2024. https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/ai-the-battleground-for-fcp-vs-premiere-pro-vs-resolve/