"AI is really great at creating spectacle … a lot of eye candy can be very visually stimulating, but I wanted to see if I could test the limits in terms of storytelling, trying to connect with an audience through a character … a character who had been treated very callously throughout his whole life, yet a character who just refused to meet the world the same way the world was meeting him."
The film follows Marcel Dupont, a physically disfigured man who practices the waltz alone in his kitchen each night, hoping someone will eventually dance with him.
Gaudette views the poignant narrative as a direct counterpoint to critics who claim artificial intelligence cannot produce emotionally resonant stories driven by human imagination.
He stresses that the underlying story was his own creation, with AI serving simply as a tool within his broader creative toolbox.
Both filmmakers acknowledge that governments and industry leaders must address ongoing challenges regarding fair compensation for original creators whose copyrighted works are used to train AI systems.
Gaudette admits that traditional special effects jobs will likely be displaced by the new technology, though he anticipates new opportunities will arise.
"In the Hitchcock era, there would be 30 to 50 people sitting on a sound stage, and then CGI came along, and there was a lot of fear, a lot of disruption, and a lot of people laid off from their traditional jobs and replaced by computers," he says.
"But if you look at a Marvel film nowadays, there's 300 to 400 people working on those projects, so there's been a net addition in terms of the economy and employment."
