Essay Sample on Artificial Intelligence In Film Composition

Introduction

Artificial intelligence is not a technology that is perceived to come, it is here, and it is going to change the world. Every beautiful thing humans love about civilization is an outcome of intelligence, therefore integrating human intelligence with artificial intelligence technology can impact civilization in ways mankind has never seen before. Ideally, artificial intelligence, according to Music Ally (2016), has already become one of the most groundbreaking and defining technological discoveries of the 21st century. From smart home devices like SIRI to smart cars and drones, artificial intelligence seems to be progressing rapidly now more than ever. But what really comes to one's mind when artificial intelligence (AI) is mentioned? While most sources especially science fiction often portray AI as having robotic-human characteristics, AI has the capability of performing anything from computing complex tasks to Google's search algorithms with perfection. Nevertheless, when people think about AI, they tend to alienate the crucial parts and often concentrate on those areas such as data-driven optimization and high-level computation where humans can easily be overtaken. Yet presently, there are different studies pointing to the emerging potential for AI in creative industries. One such area happens to be a musical composition (Fernandez, 2013). The music industry is entering an era where artists and songwriters, as well as film composers, rely on AI in various forms; from algorithmic composition to granular musical transitions. Sadly, any discussion about AI's potential role in music spawns the question of AI suddenly rendering human composers and artists obsolete. In some cases, possibly; especially in terms of quality and efficiency. However, in most cases, AI can be a creative tool for film composers to utilize rather than compete against.

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As creative people, especially music composers, it is often hard to welcome the idea that intelligent machine can create content that shows artistic value, but the fact is, AI has enabled film composers and other composers in the music industry to generate unlimited content with a minimal effort. According to Gautam and Soni (2018), it can be hectic and sometimes impossible for film composers to generate content effectively that transforms dynamically to reflect on all the possible behaviors, movements or the expressions of a character in a movie. In particular, film composers have a certain level of constraints and limitations that may hinder their efficiency in film soundtrack composition. For example, human composers oftentimes face difficulties when generating effective transitions between cues, limitations in terms of music variations an individual composers would prefer to create and the problem of the level of adaptation a film soundtrack composer can put into his piece.

Music transitions, for instance, are very crucial techniques especially when it comes to film composition as they enable film composers to bridge two different musical cues. Wiggins (2007) states that great music composers, as well as artists, tend to compose their soundtracks with transitions that are smooth and can be musically meaningful to the audience as possible. According to Eigenfeldt et al. (2016), this means that the instrumental, harmonic and melodic content of a musical cue of a given scene should precisely and gently morph into the cue of a different scene. For example, in a movie scene, when one needs to shift from a cue of a romantic scene to a cue of another scene that is a bit tense and involves gunshots, the instrumental, melodic and harmonic content of the romantic cue should smoothly transition into that of gunshots without interrupting the viewer's imaginations. However, the smooth transition as stated by Chamberlain et al. (2018), will need the film composer to have loads of different transitions which can affect the compositional workload of the composer. According to Gomes, Silva and Chambel (2013), one way of minimizing the number transition needed between cues is by composing the music in a unique way that allows same transitions to be used at different points in the cue. Nevertheless, this method would immediately minimize the musical possibilities available to the film composer. The transitions between different cues should be smooth to the level that they achieve the natural sound needed.

Similarly, artificial intelligence is useful in overcoming the limited adaptation level in human composed soundtracks in movies. According to Hedemann, Sorensen and Brown (2008), film composers have several options when transitioning from different cues and different scene. One, film music writers can easily transform one cue to another given some reasoning or logic. As an example, the film composers can change their music from the romantic cue to the gunshot cue if the character in question is attacked. Secondly, the composers have the freedom of adding different instrumental layers depending on the state of the character and the events of the movie scene. For example, a very light guitar can portray a calm and romantic environment. Percussion instruments can be added in a gunshot scene if the character is wounded or brass and string instruments when the character is in distress to make the events more dramatic. However, as Hedemann, Sorensen and Brown (2008) state, the level of adaptation needed for these techniques is quite high and may allow limited musical parameters. In movies which are considered to be linear experiences and the film composers already know about the next event, the composers are tasked to achieve the highest level of granularity in the mapping between visuals, storyline and most importantly music. This according to Blumstein, Davitian and Kaye (2010), should be done following a change in melody, harmony, and instrumentation at a minimal musical level. To illustrate the level of adaptation needed in film composition, one must understand that different characters in a movie come with their own theme. For instance, if a character in an action movie with their own theme suddenly bumps into other three characters each with their own theme, the adaptation requires that the background music should smoothly integrate these characters' themes at a very granular level. For this reason, AI in film composition is crucial as the deep level of adaptation required is impossible to achieve in human composed scores.

The advent of Artificial Intelligence in Music has enabled the film composers to provide the necessary amount of musical variations needed to keep the viewers engaged. In some films, viewers often experience listening fatigue as some soundtracks in these movies gets repetitive after a period of time, therefore, rather than reinforcing the visuals and the storyline, the music becomes annoying. According to Kirke and Miranda (2017), overcoming this situation can be demanding for film composers since a typical situation for a background soundtrack would require a continuous variation of music instruments used between cues for it to be continuously fresh and interesting as well. This dictates that the unique variations in musical parameters such as pitch chord and note duration must be utilized constantly (Chamberlain, De Roure and Willcox, 2017). Since music variations need to be continuous in order to minimize the listener's fatigue, it becomes impossible for composers to achieve without employing artificial intelligence.

Apart from eliminating some limitations that may hinder composers' efficiency in film soundtrack composition, Blumstein, Davitian and Kaye (2010) state that film composers often use AI technology to manipulate sounds to generate non-linear analogues to trigger emotional responses. Most music used in most movies are linear and are easy to compose as they follow a linear pattern that includes a beginning, development and an ending. Ideally, linear music work well in movies since most of the films has a fixed structure. This is important especially for the film composers who have to write soundtrack since they can generate cues in different scenes which are blended with screen images on different unique moments. However, with artificial intelligence, film composers have found a way of manipulating non-linear sounds in movie soundtracks especially in horrors to evoke particular emotions. According to Le Groux and Verschure (2012), some movies like drama conceal noises of all types, numerous frequency transitions, and musical sidebands, while horror movies, on the other hand, stifle abrupt frequency as well as musical sidebands but more noisy screams. This indicates that AI is used in movies to generate some types of nonlinear sounds that are employed to induce fearful reactions while some like in dramas are used to evoke more emotional, dramatic responses.

Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have made film composition easier and faster than ever because human composers are now doing half the work. According to Chamberlain, Kallionpaa and Benford (2017), listeners and viewers who love music are always motivated to listen not because of the composer but due to the qualities that make it interesting and functioning. This means that most film viewers would not mind listening to a collaboration between artificial intelligence and human composers. For instance, Chamberlain, Page, De Roure and Klyne (2016) state that everyone enjoys performing or sometimes listening to musicians perform, but in the real sense, these people love to hear machines perform; currently, most people prefer listening to recorded music to live performances. Film composition can be a challenging task, especially to human composers as they create music following a specific theme under certain conditions. With the assistance of artificial intelligence; however, film composers can now create different musical variations much easier and faster, therefore speeding the film production process. Ultimately, music lovers are inclined to listen to musicians or machine performers irrespective of who organized the music.

Artificial intelligence and the use of machines is making a significant impact in almost every facet of the society in unforeseen and unpredictable ways resulting in a mixture of excitement and trepidation. One such uncertainty revolves around the question of unemployment. Indeed, technological advances in the recent past in artificial intelligence have found their way into many previously human-dominated enterprises, and conceivably according to Phalip, Morphett and Edmonds (2007), film composers may not be spared this time. As Puerto and Thue (2017) state, during the next few years, possibly the next three decades, many human-dominated jobs might reduce significantly paving the way for robotization. In particular, those jobs that less directly address issues regarding humanity and those that do not require originality of thinking will not prevail, and that is the reality for film composers as well. With AI composing music as good as human composers but in a much lesser time, most people would opt for AI since the conventional process of educating film composers to artistic maturity is a costly as well as a timely enterprise (Chamberlain, De Roure and Willcox, 2017). Even without AI, for instance, there are only so many film composers from any minority group who were able to acquire an early chance and the right opportunities to develop their skills as composers. Similarly, in the case of human-AI transition, the idea of composer uniqueness will crumble rapidly, and only a few composers will be biasedly presented and valued. Truthfully, depersonalization of film composition is on the way, and it is not necessarily for the continuity of composership.

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