Danny Sangra – new short film Nobody Needed
Easy on the Ais
Danny tells us his new short film ‘Nobody Needed’ was inspired by a recent incident when he was approached about making a new film. The person involved suggested they didn’t need to worry about casting actors, as AI could provide the voices, nor did they need a crew or scriptwriters as there were excellent AI tools that would take care of that. Danny’s response was that they were simply cutting out everything fun about making a film. Which perhaps suggested they didn’t really like the idea of making a film in the first place.
The conversation sparked the idea for this film, in a way that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened with ChatGPT. And Danny immediately thought of Robin Steegman as perfect to play an insurance exec keen to become an AI-assisted filmmaker. He wrote the part for her, knowing she’d hit the right notes of awkwardness in her delivery without being overtly comedic.
Danny carries through the idea of everything and everyone being replaceable by AI right through to the end credits. Who knows, perhaps we could one day replace the audience with AI, too. Though Danny is keen to stress that he’s certainly not against the tech, and frequently uses AI himself to push boundaries and to enable him to try new things. But sees it as an aid to creativity, rather than a replacement. And the danger of relying on it to do everything is that you lose the human element of creative work that makes it so meaningful, relatable, and pleasurable.
‘Nobody Needed’ was filmed in Amsterdam, with the help of production company Mrs Frank, and you can watch it for yourself here.