Director Todd Rohal on Using AI in His Film

AI in Filmmaking Sparks Debate at TIFF

Todd Rohal's provocative, X-rated film “Fuck My Son!” made waves at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section. The dark comedy, which follows a mother's attempt to coerce a kidnapped woman into sleeping with her son, elicited the expected mix of laughter and discomfort from the audience. However, a different kind of discussion emerged after the screening.

Following the premiere, online commentary on platforms like Letterboxd and social media began to focus on the film's use of generative AI, a hot-button issue for many film enthusiasts. Anticipating this, Rohal had included an explainer in the press notes, but he chose to share a more detailed breakdown directly with the public to ensure his message was clear. Below is a summary of his statement on the how and why behind the film's use of AI.

A Director's Note on VFX and AI

Rohal begins by clarifying the distinction between traditional VFX and his use of AI. For complex effects like blood, smoke, and wire removal, he relied on professional VFX artists from studios such as Suplex FX, Teaspoon FX, and Lightbuddy Studios. He allocated his entire post-production budget to these artists.

He then took on the remaining 200-plus VFX shots himself, working from his home office. This is where a mix of traditional software like After Effects and Blender, along with generative AI tools, came into play. Rohal provides a transparent guide to exactly where AI was used.

The AMC-Style Cinema Rules

One of the first instances of AI appears in a pre-movie bumper spoofing the AMC “Movie Lovers” rules. Rohal used AI to generate imagery mimicking film noir, sci-fi, and vaudeville tropes. He felt this was a fitting use of the technology, reflecting how major chains like AMC might use AI themselves. It served as a commentary on the state of cinema, where digital tools are used to evoke the analog glory days.

Perv-O-Vision Audience Shots

The film features a fictional technology called “Perv-O-Vision,” supposedly presented by a Christian tech company. Rohal used AI to create the audience shots for this sequence, reasoning that such a company would logically use AI for its promotional materials. Interestingly, he notes that it would have been easier to film friends for these shots, as the AI platforms restricted the use of words like “Pervo,” forcing him to manually composite the text onto the generated images.

Bringing the Meatie Mates to Life

The most intensive use of AI was for the “Meatie Mates” characters. While the initial 2D animation was hand-drawn, their transition into “real” 3D characters was a complex, multi-step process involving AI. Rohal wanted them to resemble a modern, low-budget children's show. He experimented with various tools, ultimately settling on a mix of Midjourney, Kling, Sora, and Flux.

He trained the AI models using his own drawings and photos of meat from a local butcher. However, the technology wasn't advanced enough to handle the full animation pipeline. Rohal spent months painstakingly stitching the AI-generated elements together, separately compositing their mouths and eyes in After Effects to create a functional workflow and sync them with dialogue.

Other Creative and Practical AI Uses

AI-generated imagery reappears in other parts of the film, often as callbacks to the main sequences. For example, the Perv-O-Vision audience shows up during a sex scene, and a character’s mental breakdown is depicted with a chaotic mix of AI-generated nonsense, meat imagery, and clips from the films of exploitation director Doris Wishman and artwork by Marcin Pospiech. Rohal clarifies that apart from these specific instances, all other effects were created either practically by legend Robert Kurtzman or by the previously mentioned VFX artists.

On a more practical note, Rohal humorously adds that he also used AI to help him complete K1 tax forms for his 35 investors and file LLC taxes, tasks he was otherwise unfamiliar with. He concludes by hoping this breakdown provides insight and invites further discussion on the topic.