Weeks after kicking the hornet’s nest in Hollywood, Seedance 2.0 has entered the Chinese conversation on filmmaking – this time on a very different footing. Instead of causing controversy, the AI video creation tool has dropped an AI short film with Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯), putting China’s most respected auteur director into a conversation between the man himself and the man in AI form.
Seedance 2.0 was released by ByteDance in February this year as an answer to holes in AI’s ability to generate video. While previous models handle the task with a lack of detail and unconvincing attempts at realism, Seedance 2.0 creates near-perfect images of actors or IPs and can place them in dynamic situations, handling complex action and continuity across scenes.
If you were an aspiring filmmaker without a filmmaker’s budget, this technology would look very exciting to you. Jia Zhangke, as a director not known for flash budgets, makes a great pairing to get this message across. But price isn’t just what’s at stake here, ByteDance are attempting an entire perception shift: Seedance isn’t just a tool for making elaborate memes, it’s a tool that serious filmmakers can employ.
To demonstrate that, the Jia Zhangke AI short film walks the two Jias through the director’s cinematic world. They revisit iconic scenes and recreate classic moments with – it must be said – impressive skill. It’s part homage, part technical showcase.
Jia Zhangke, AI film, and the question of authorship
Still, there’s a big question left unanswered – the same one that hangs over all AI-generated art: authorship. How much of an artwork is truly its creators if AI has a hand in its making? The film closes with a subtle reflection on authorship. When the AI Jia suggests ‘going to see the new era,’ the real director responds: ‘This is my work.’ The message positions AI not as a replacement for filmmakers but as a tool for expanding creative possibilities. Technology may change how films are made, but authorship, Jia suggests, still belongs to the human behind the camera.
