"New ideas are born from problems": Timur Bekmambetov on computer shooting, screen life and the future of cinema

- This year you are the head of the jury of the Moscow International Film Festival.

Of course, you already had the opportunity to see some pictures of the show (interview was recorded on October 5 -

- I have no right to talk about the films of the competition.

I can only say that there are many films and they are different.

And we will try to develop a view that would correspond to the tradition of this festival (each festival has its own style, its own worldview).

I understand my task now as follows: to preserve the look at cinema that the Moscow Film Festival has always had.

- How did the pandemic affect the festival?

- It's sad.

Each time we sit in a half-empty room, because only part of the room is allowed to fill.

And even realizing that these are all the results of the restrictions associated with the pandemic ... There is no feeling of a full hall.

This is sad.

- The coronavirus and self-isolation have launched the screenlife format you have invented.

Aren't you afraid that now the viewer will quickly get fed up with him?

- I have no such feeling.

You know, probably, when cinema appeared, one could also say: "People will get fed up with cinema and return to the theater."

But this did not happen, people go to the theater and to the cinema.

I think this language will take its place in the general cultural field.

If you spend six to eight hours a day looking at a phone or computer screen - this is about half of your life - accordingly, half of all content in the world will be about how we live in screens.

It is there that the most important events of our life take place.

There we realize ourselves, there we suffer, communicate, achieve success or fail.

To learn something about us today, you need to look into our screens.

This is screenlife.

- Within the framework of the festival, you present a screenlife program.

Were there those who found new ways, new solutions, new forms within this format?

“We have selected these films to tell people what cinema is.

And this is probably one of the features of the MIFF 2020: for the first time at the festival there is a whole panel, a whole section dedicated to screenlife.

By and large, the films included in the competition program are interesting and varied.

And it, in general, confirms my feeling that in the last 15-20 years there have been no major changes in the language of cinema.

All that I see on the screen today are wonderful stories told by talented people and similar to the stories that were told five, 15 and 20 years ago.

The stories told in traditional film language cease to amaze.

It is a fact.

• Shot from the movie "Search"

• © kinopoisk.ru

- You are one of the few people looking for new formats.

First, the screenlife.

Then, your new film, V-2.

Escape from Hell ”, was filmed in two formats - vertical and horizontal.

- Yes, traditional.

The film will be shown in cinemas, on the big screen, but it can also be watched as an Instagram video on the phone.

This is not only due to the fact that today we consume 80% of the content on our phones (and I want as many people as possible to see the film).

It also has to do with the idea and image of the film.

Because it's about a person who did not give up, did not fall.

I survived.

In the most difficult circumstances, being in a concentration camp, this man managed to hijack an airplane, save ten more and fly home.

It held out and did not break, and this word “survived” literally means a vertical format.

In a sense, this is a metaphorical gesture.

Another amazing thing was invented by us.

For the first time, probably, in the history of cinema (I don’t know, I have to check) we did this.

In the film, we spend 30 minutes in the sky and in air battles.

It will be great fun for boys and maybe less fun for girls.

Undoubtedly, many of these stunts could not have been filmed on real aircraft, so most of them were done using CGI.

And for the first time in history, we filmed battles in the sky inside a computer game, a simulator of World War II battles.

Our partners found a way how we could shoot real battles for a film inside a computer game.

The players flew, fought, and performed flight missions.

Just as the actors play in front of the camera, they also played in their planes, fighting in the sky.

There were doubles.

Then we edited the scenes of air battles from this.

Naturally, all the data from the game was transferred to more professional computers, where it was all re-rendered, brought to the quality of a movie image of a big blockbuster.

New ideas are always born out of the problems you face.

Now, I ran into the problem that people watch movies on their phones, and we shoot them for TVs.

Accordingly, the decision was made: let's shoot vertically.

I needed to film 30 minutes of battles in the sky, but there was no way to get up on airplanes what I had in mind.

So I did it in a computer game.

There is a problem - you find a solution.

This is how the creative process moves.

- And real pilots took part in your battles or ...

- Gamer pilots.

There were real pilots, consultants who followed the process.

And they said one very interesting thing: "You have the biggest problem - that the pilots of your airplanes fly ten times better than the pilots who flew on real airplanes during the Second World War."

I asked: "Why?"

They say, “Because the very best pilots in World War II had 600 flight hours (approximately), and pilots who play computer games had six thousand flight hours.

They just fly a lot more.

First of all.

Secondly, they are not afraid to crash, because in a computer game it is not so scary. "

I'll give out a secret: the main character "in the sky" was dubbed by a girl.

The female player flew for Pavel Priluchny.

- At what stage is the production of the film?

When can we see the tape in theaters?

- Of course, the pandemic also affected the production process.

The film will be released next year, I think, for the May holidays.

• A still from the film “V-2.

  Escape from Hell "

• © filmpro.ru

- Tell us about your use of artificial intelligence in making films.

- I have an international patent for a technology that allows scripts to be converted into an animated film using a computer.

That is, you write a script, download it to your computer and get a cartoon at the output.

There, artificial intelligence is involved in the creation of the motion picture.

That is, the computer has studied all the films in the history of cinematography, understands the language of cinema and can turn a literary language into a cinematic language.

We recently had an interesting confusion related to artificial intelligence.

We made a show in which young authors present their projects to investors and put it up on YouTube.

The guys from YouTube said that they really like it, they are ready to support such a project.

Because we're actually helping people create content for their platform.

And suddenly, when we published all this, the YouTube algorithm began to ban our show, the advertisement of our show.

The algorithm has banned, said that the content is undesirable.

We contacted the YouTube office in Moscow.

They called, apologized, said: "Yes, this is what happened, the algorithm that moderates the content, you were classified as some kind of unwanted content."

We say: "What can we fix?"

They say, "We don't know."

Then they said: "We manually corrected everything, let's post it again."

We posted it again - and he banned us again.

This happened three times.

Three times, YouTube employees tried to come to terms with their algorithm.

And now, probably for the first time in the history of mankind, a dispute is brewing, up to a judicial showdown, between the authors of the project and the Google algorithm.

We have no complaints about people, they are wonderful.

But they can't handle their artificial intelligence.

- Returning to self-isolation.

During a pandemic, everyone tried to engage in their own development.

It seems that time has appeared that can be spent on yourself.

How did you self-isolate?

Have you got something for yourself personally or professionally?

- Not much has changed in my life.

Except that the opportunity to travel was taken away from me.

In principle, like many others, I spend most of my life in the online space, in online communications.

Whether I am in Paris, or Los Angeles, or Kazan (where I have been for the last months), it does not affect my life in any way.

I think many people have realized that there is no need for them to get into the car, drive to work many kilometers away, burn gasoline, worry, lose nerve cells in traffic jams.

Because, in principle, they can do their work at home.

And an even more significant discovery is that they are basically unnecessary.

Now, I suppose, a huge number of people are faced with the dreaded question: Do you need me for anything at all?

After all, a huge number of tasks are solved by machines and programs better than people.

For all of us, this is an important moment now.

We need to figure out what we live for.

And it's not a matter of food.

I am not sure about the satisfaction of our ambitions, pride.

Psychologically, it will be difficult to understand what everything is for.

Why get up in the morning, go.

Where? Why?

What to do, what will happen tomorrow?

And what is the general meaning of human existence?

This will be a big, big question for millions of people.

- I think creative people will help to find ...

- First of all, I think the birth rate will increase.

And secondly, yes, you are absolutely right that creativity is the only thing for which it makes sense to live.

And not only for professionals, but also, in principle, for those who create an endless amount of content for Instagram, YouTube and many other platforms where you can share your ideas and realize yourself.

I think this is where this is going and what most people will do: create and consume each other's content.

Watch the full version of the interview with Timur Bekmambetov on RTD.