David Fincher used AI in Se7en’s 4K release for ‘stupid sexy fix’

In 1995, a few years after the disastrous failure of his first feature film “Alien 3,” David Fincher released his second feature film into the world and proved that he was not only a great filmmaker, but also One of the most promising new voices in the industry. That film was “Se7en,” starring Morgan Freeman as veteran detective William Somerset and Brad Pitt’s eager detective David Mills. The two are brought together to investigate a series of brutal and twisted murders inspired by each of the Seven Deadly Sins, thanks to… The ending scene is frankly iconicSe7en has maintained its reputation as one of the greatest crime thrillers of all time.

newly, Fincher was interviewed by Collider’s Perry Nemiroff About the film 30 years later, and the changes made to the new IMAX and 4K physical media releases. Nemiroff noted that Fincher had previously stated during a talk at Tribeca that he wouldn’t make major changes to his films for 4K releases, but he was curious if there was anything he changed in “Se7en.” This is where Fincher’s attention to detail really kicks in as he discusses solving a problem that it’s doubtful anyone else would notice. It’s a scene in which two actors meet in a bar to chat, and although there are 14 or 15 takes per scene, “when you’re casting actors who represent a lot to you in terms of performance, every now and then, you’ll have technological irregularities.”

The result was what Fincher called “an unwanted, unearned camera move where the character moved, and then the camera moved to follow them but followed them too late and overtook them and we ended up seeing more of the tape than intended.” This simple error must have been bothering him for years, because he jumped at the opportunity to fix this scene using AI.

Fincher told Nemiroff that the performance in the scene was too good to use other takes, which is how the pan ended up in the final edit in the first place, but he was determined to make it work. “We did the background, but first, we cut out one of the actor’s shoulders, and he’s wearing a black leather jacket, and there’s no data,” Fincher explained. “We don’t know how that shoulder relates to the sleeve and what kind of soft wrinkles and deformation of the leather there is in that jacket.” So, Fincher asked if footage from other shoots from the day could be used to “restore” the jacket, so he could get rid of the sweeping shot. He continued:

“We took three or four different shots from earlier, which had a jacket on it that we liked, and then we brought it in, and then we had it broadcast the AI, and then we picked up the background from where the camera landed and we just composited it so it ends up being the most exciting fix in the world because “If you see it, we haven’t done our job and you probably won’t see it but you look at it and you just think to yourself, ‘It’s so nice that we can fix this kind of thing today.'”

People reading this title will probably frown at even the mention of “artificial intelligence,” but as it stands A filmmaker with a history of vocal opposition to technologyThis certainly seems to be an example of using AI as a tool, not as a means of replacement. He also added that while working with cinematographer Darius Khondji, there were mixed and matched moments of raw stock used in the same scene. In restoring the new version, AI was used “at least to make the focus in the eye on the soft side, but not completely useless,” he explained.

But will anyone notice the changes? We’ll have to wait and see when people check out “Se7en” on IMAX for the first time starting today, or via The 4K Ultra HD version will be released on January 7 and can be purchased here.