Accelerating Film Production with Dell AI Factory and NVIDIA
Filmmaking is an intricate and complex process that involves a diverse team of artists, writers, visual effects professionals, technicians, and countless other specialists. Each member brings their unique expertise to the table, collaborating to transform a simple idea into a captivating cinematic experience. From the initial spark of a story to the final cut, every step requires creativity, technical skill, and meticulous attention to detail.
However, even with such talented teams, the film industry has long grappled with numerous challenges that can hinder productivity, inflate budgets, and stifle creativity. These challenges range from managing escalating production costs and adapting to rapidly changing technologies, to navigating shifting audience preferences and distribution platforms. All while striving to balance artistic vision with commercial viability in an increasingly competitive market.
Enter AI, a game-changing technology that is transforming the filmmaking process from script to screen:
Preproduction:
AI tools help analyze scripts for narrative structure and market potential, while also assisting with storyboarding and budget optimizations.
Production:
AI optimizes shooting schedules, enables real-time visual effects rendering, and powers advanced camera systems for precise cinematography.
Postproduction:
AI is assisting editors by analyzing footage and offering suggestions for cuts, transitions, and color grading.
These AI-driven innovations are not only making high-end production values more accessible to independent filmmakers but also enabling established studios to push creative boundaries further. By automating routine tasks and providing data-driven insights, AI empowers filmmakers to focus more on storytelling and artistic vision, potentially leading to more diverse and engaging cinematic experiences.
One exemplary example of how AI is reshaping the filmmaking landscape is Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM), the renowned production house behind numerous groundbreaking franchises such as Mad Max, Babe, and Happy Feet. By using the
Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA
, KMM has integrated generative AI into various stages of production, transforming their workflow and enabling faster, more targeted content creation.
From challenges to AI innovation
KMM faced significant challenges in the evolving landscape of filmmaking. These included adapting to changing production models, managing increasingly complex visual effects, balancing creative vision with commercial viability, streamlining collaboration among growing teams, and keeping pace with rapidly advancing technology.
To address these challenges, KMM developed a cutting-edge generative AI platform built on the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA. This innovative solution integrates
Dell Precision AI-ready workstations
equipped with
NVIDIA RTX GPUs
for powerful computing and real-time rendering, alongside
Dell PowerScale
storage solutions for efficient file management and collaboration.
This technological ecosystem enables KMM to leverage generative AI across various stages of production, from rapid previsualization of complex sequences to real-time scene modifications and advanced postproduction tasks.
KMM’s generative AI leap in filmmaking
In preproduction, KMM faced the challenge of creating detailed previsualizations for complex film sequences, a process that traditionally consumed significant time and resources. To address this, KMM implemented Dell Precision AI-ready workstations equipped with NVIDIA RTX GPUs to power their generative AI platform for rapid pre-visualization.
The NVIDIA RTX GPUs enabled the KMM team to handle complex computations in real time, so they could explore and execute creative ideas with unprecedented freedom and efficiency, transforming the previsualization process from a time-consuming task into a dynamic, interactive experience. As a result, KMM was able to previsualize a 15-minute chase sequence for
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
in just 6–8 months with a small crew, a process that traditionally would have taken 1–2 years.
Figure 1. NVIDIA AI Workstations are designed for advanced visualization, design, and compute performance
In postproduction, KMM faced challenges with file storage, distribution, and collaboration among team members, which often led to bottlenecks in the workflow.
To streamline these processes, KMM integrated Dell PowerScale storage arrays to store, distribute, and enable real-time collaboration on production files, supporting generative AI tasks such as rotoscoping, compositing, and sound blending.
The Dell PowerScale system, with its 100-GB connectivity to back-end and nearline storage, enabled the team to pull sequences together for review in 30 minutes to an hour, a process that previously took days. This implementation resulted in a 20x performance gain in distributing production files.
The future of AI in filmmaking
As AI technologies continue to advance, you can expect to see more immersive storytelling through virtual and augmented reality, AI-driven narrative development based on audience preferences, and enhanced visual effects creation.
The key to unlocking this potential lies in the powerful combination of AI-ready workstations and servers. AI-ready workstations equipped with NVIDIA RTX GPUs, coupled with high-performance servers, will form the backbone of this transformation.
Yan Chen, studio architect at KMM, noted, ” Dell Precision workstations with NVIDIA RTX GPUs and Dell PowerScale let us use generative AI to realize directors’ creative visions at a speed previously unknown in modern filmmaking.”
Chen highlighted how this hardware integration is already accelerating film production processes by up to 50 times compared to traditional methods. This technological synergy will enable filmmakers to process vast amounts of data, render complex visual effects in real time, and collaborate seamlessly across global production teams.
Figure 2. Modern filmmaking, powered by innovation
For more information about how KMM is using Dell Technologies and NVIDIA to revolutionize filmmaking, see
Kennedy Miller Mitchell: Driving GenAI-powered innovation at the speed of creativity
.
借助 Dell AI Factory 和 NVIDIA 加速电影制作
电影制作是一个复杂而复杂的过程，涉及艺术家、作家、视觉效果专业人员、技术人员和无数其他专家组成的多元化团队。每位成员都将各自独特的专业知识带到桌面上，通过协作将简单的想法转化为引人入胜的电影体验。从故事的初始火花到最终剪辑，每一步都需要创造力、技能和对细节的细致关注。
然而，即使拥有如此优秀的团队，电影业也一直在努力应对众多挑战，这些挑战可能会阻碍生产力、增加预算和抑制创造力。这些挑战包括管理不断上涨的生产成本和适应迅速变化的技术，如 PyTorch、pandas 和 LangChain 等，以及驾不断变化的受众偏好和分销平台。同时努力在竞争日益激烈的市场中平衡艺术视觉与商业可行性，例如如何利用 NVIDIA 的 GPU 和 cuOpt 等技术来提高效率，或者如何使用 Stable Diffusion 和 Llama 等模型来创作新的内容。另外，Google 的 Jetson 和 Hugging Face 的 Python 库等工具也在帮助电影业人员提高工作效率。同时，Arm 和 Anaconda 等公司也在为电影业提供支持，例如 Siemens 的 DPU 技术等。
人工智能是一种改变游戏规则的技术，它正在改变电影制作过程从剧本到屏幕的过程：
预制作：AI 工具可帮助分析脚本的叙事结构和市场前景，同时还可协助进行分镜和预算优化。
制作：AI 可优化拍摄时间表，实现实时视觉效果渲染，并为用于精确电影摄影的高级摄像头系统提供支持。
后期制作：AI 通过分析素材以及提供裁剪、过渡和颜色分级建议来为剪辑师提供帮助。
这些 AI 驱动的创新不仅使独立电影制作人更容易获得高端制作价值，而且还使成熟的工作室能够进一步突破创意界限。通过自动执行日常任务并提供数据驱动的见解，AI 使电影制作人能够更专注于叙事和艺术视觉，从而可能带来更加多样化和引人入胜的电影体验。
AI 如何重塑电影制作领域的一个典型例子是著名的制作公司 Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM)，该公司为 Mad Max、Babe 和 Happy Feet 等众多突破性电影系列提供支持。通过
使用 Dell AI Factory 与 NVIDIA 结合
，KMM 已将生成式 AI 集成到生产的各个阶段，从而转变其工作流程，并实现更快、更有针对性的内容创作。
从挑战到 AI 创新
在不断演变的电影制作格局中，KMM 面临着重大挑战。这些包括适应不断变化的制作模式、管理日益复杂的视觉效果、平衡创意视觉与商业可行性、简化不断发展的团队之间的协作，以及与快速发展的技术保持同步。
为应对这些挑战，KMM 开发了一个基于 Dell AI Factory 的先进生成式 AI 平台。该创新解决方案集成了搭载
NVIDIA RTX GPUs
的
Dell Precision AI-ready 工作站
，可实现强大的计算和实时渲染，同时还集成了 Dell PowerScale 存储解决方案，可实现高效的文件管理和协作。
这一技术生态系统使 KMM 能够在各个生产阶段(从复杂序列的快速预可视化到实时场景修改和高级后期制作任务)利用生成式 AI。
生成式 AI 在电影制作领域的飞跃
在预生产阶段，KMM 面临着为复杂的电影序列创建详细的预可视化效果的挑战，而这一过程通常会消耗大量的时间和资源。为了解决这一问题，KMM 部署了配备 NVIDIA RTX GPU 的 Dell Precision AI 就绪型工作站，为其生成式 AI 平台提供动力支持，以实现快速的预可视化。
借助 NVIDIA RTX GPU，KMM 团队能够实时处理复杂的计算，从而能够以前所未有的自由度和效率探索和执行创意，将预可视化过程从耗时的任务转变为动态的交互式体验。因此，在短短 6 至 8 个月的时间内，KMM 便能够借助少量人员对
“Furiosa：A Mad Max Saga”
的 15 分钟追踪序列进行预可视化，而这一过程通常需要 1 至 2 年时间。
图 1、NVIDIA AI 工作站专为实现高级可视化、设计和计算性能而设计
在后期制作中，KMM 面临着文件存储、分发和团队成员之间协作方面的挑战，这通常会导致工作流程中的瓶颈。
为了简化这些流程，KMM 集成了 Dell PowerScale 存储阵列，用于存储、分发和实现生产文件的实时协作，支持生成式 AI 任务，例如 rotoscoping、compositing 和 sound blending。
Dell PowerScale 系统通过 100-GB 连接到后端和近线存储，使团队能够在 30 分钟到 1 小时内将序列拉到一起进行审查，而以前这一过程需要几天时间。这种实施将分发生产文件的性能提升了 20 倍。
AI 在电影制作中的未来
随着 AI 技术的不断进步，您有望通过虚拟现实和增强现实、基于受众偏好的 AI 驱动叙事开发以及增强的视觉效果创作，看到更具沉浸感的故事情节。
发挥这一潜力的关键在于 AI 就绪型工作站和服务器的强大组合。配备 NVIDIA RTX GPU 的 AI 就绪型工作站与高性能服务器相结合，将成为这种转型的支柱。
KMM 工作室架构师 Yan Chen 指出：“搭载 NVIDIA RTX GPU 和 Dell PowerScale 的 Dell Precision 工作站让我们能够使用生成式 AI，以现代电影制作中前所未有的速度实现导演的创意愿景。”
陈强调，与传统方法相比，这种硬件集成已将电影制作流程的速度提高了 50 倍。这种技术协同作用将使电影制作人能够处理大量数据，实时渲染复杂的视觉效果，并与全球制作团队无缝协作。
图 2、创新驱动的现代电影制作
如需详细了解 KMM 如何使用 Dell Technologies 和 NVIDIA 彻底改变电影制作，请参阅：Kennedy Miller Mitchell：以创意的速度推动由 GenAI 驱动的创新。