Director Lu Chuan Compares AI to 'Pre-Prepared Dishes' While Using It for Five Films
Chinese director Lu Chuan shared that he is using AI to simultaneously prepare five films, accelerating stages like concept design and storyboarding. However, he compared AI-generated content to "pre-prepared dishes" that lack the beautiful, unpredictable human errors essential to art. This highlights how established filmmakers are practically integrating generative AI to drastically reduce pre-production costs and timelines. It also underscores the ongoing philosophical debate regarding whether AI's flawless outputs can truly replicate the emotional depth of human artistic imperfections. Lu Chuan noted that over 95% of short films and advertisements in the visual commercial sector have already been replaced by AI. Additionally, his production company is partnering with Chinese AI startup MiniMax to develop AI-generated web dramas and theatrical films.
## BACKGROUND
Generative AI (AIGC) has increasingly been adopted in the entertainment industry for tasks like text-to-video generation and concept art. MiniMax is a prominent Shanghai-based AI startup known for developing multimodal models and video-generation services like Hailuo AI.