For most of cinema’s history, production was scarce. Cameras were expensive. Film stock was expensive. Editing was expensive. Distribution was difficult. The means of making images belonged largely to institutions. Those barriers are collapsing. That means we are about to have more moving images than any human being could possibly consume. And when something becomes infinite, its value changes. When images become abundant, meaning becomes scarce. When everybody can generate style, having one becomes an act of rebellion. When machines can imitate polish, imperfection becomes interesting again. When content becomes infinite, point of view becomes precious. And when artificial intelligence is everywhere, human intelligence, human mistakes, human beauty, human ugliness and human experience may suddenly become culturally priceless. That sounds less like the death of cinema to me than the beginning of something. A new Renaissance.
