Reviewing Intelligent Cinematography: AI research for camera-based video production

This paper offers a comprehensive review of artificial intelligence (AI) research in the context of real camera content acquisition for entertainment purposes and is aimed at both researchers and cinematographers. Considering the breadth of computer vision research and the lack of review papers tied to intelligent cinematography (IC), this review introduces a holistic view of the IC landscape while providing the technical insight for experts across across disciplines. We preface the main discussion with technical background on generative AI, object detection, automated camera calibration and 3-D content acquisition, and link explanatory articles to assist non-technical readers. The main discussion categorizes work by four production types: General Production, Virtual Production, Live Production and Aerial Production. Note that for Virtual Production we do not discuss research relating to virtual content acquisition, including work on automated video generation, like Stable Diffusion. Within each section, we (1) sub-classify work by the technical field of research - reflected by the subsections, and (2) evaluate the trends and challenge w.r.t to each type of production. In the final chapter, we present our concluding remarks on the greater scope of IC research and outline work that we believe has significant potential to influence the whole industry. We find that work relating to virtual production has the greatest potential to impact other mediums of production, driven by the growing interest in LED volumes/stages for in-camera virtual effects (ICVFX) and automated 3-D capture for a virtual modelling of real world scenes and actors. This is the first piece of literature to offer a structured and comprehensive examination of IC research. Consequently, we address ethical and legal concerns regarding the use of creative AI involving artists, actors and the general public, in the...