While the recently released horror film Together has mostly drawn positive reviews from critics, the movie’s last shot has led many viewers to question whether director Michael Shanks used AI to create it. Now, the Australian filmmaker has given a definitive answer to fans’ questions about it.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Michael Shanks says no AI was used while making Together
During his recent appearance on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, Shanks revealed that he and his crew did not use AI at any point during the production of Together.
Addressing questions over whether he had used AI to craft the film’s final shot, Shanks noted, “The amount of screenings I’ve gone to now, and people come up to me and say, ‘Was that AI at the end?’ It’s just so crazy that people assume AI is now the cause. We’ve used absolutely none of it on this film.”
The director then expressed disappointment in people associating every distinctive piece of art with AI nowadays, stating, “As a VFX guy, as somebody that’s worked with all these teams that put in so much work, it’s so frustrating now that people look at something that looks interesting or good, and they [assume] just a computer made it. It’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, no.'”
The film scene of the movie sees Alison Brie’s Millie and Dave Franco’s Tim physically merge with one another. In the interview, Shanks broke down the intricacies behind filming such a complicated scene without using AI, disclosing that the Together crew first narrowed down the facial features they’ll need from Brie and Franco’s characters for the final image.
“After we shot the scene with Alison, we moved in Dave, with a bunch of dots on his face,” Shanks clarified before adding, “Gen has taken his jaw and his lips and stuck that onto the bottom [of the face]. It’s really a combination of makeup and, you wouldn’t call it CGI, because nothing’s computer-generated, but it’s compositing.”
Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on ComingSoon.
