While the WGA strike continues, Deadline reports that Charlie's Masterclass in Sarajevo saw him firing more shots at the Hollywood system. The Bosnian Cultural Center's main hall was "packed out" to hear him speak, as part of the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Sporting a grey WGA-branded “strike” t-shirt, writer-director Charlie Kaufman[...] offered a strong condemnation of the current Hollywood studio system and urged filmmakers to find new ways to create work.
“At this point, the only thing that makes money is garbage. It’s just fascinating. It makes a fortune, and that’s the bottom line,” Kaufman said. “It’s very seductive to the studios but also to the people who engage and become the makers of that garbage, especially if they’re lauded for the garbage because they don’t have to look inward or think long about what they’re doing.”
Kaufman[...] continued to tell the audience full of local and international industry professionals to“make movies outside of the studio system as much as possible and think of ways to do that.”
“I have this pipedream of creating an organization of artists to figure out how to finance and support filmmakers who make things that have value."
He told the audience...
[...] that the wider discussion around the WGA’s “AI issue” is that “writers have been trained to eat and make the garbage too,” meaning writers indulge in and create work that he described as lacking creative ambition and humanity.
“As long as they are in that arena making that shit, then you might as well have AI do it,” Kaufman said.
[...]
“Once you give that up and allow the studios to use AI to write their screenplay, there’s no going back,” he said. “Then there’s no hope because AI can’t create a moment of humanity. As long as people are doing it and there’s that struggle, then there’s always a chance that something will come out of it that will be worth something to human beings.” (Source)
There's more, and you should definitely click through for the rest. Also check out the comments under the article; there are some valid points on both sides of this fence.
via r/kaufman
