Hollywood veteran Allan McLennan on AI as a production tool, micro-programming, and the industry's cautious optimism

Summary

Allan McLennan, an executive at the Hollywood Professionals Association, offers a measured take on where the industry stands. The SAG-AFTRA strike cost more than $460 million a day at its peak, by his estimate, but the industry's creative appeal remains intact.

AI as a production tool

AI has been embedded in production workflows for roughly two decades. The current shift is one of depth, not arrival. The practical value today is in efficiency: AI allows editors to review five or six cuts quickly during live shoots, compresses post-production timelines, and brings down budgets. Lower budgets let studios greenlight more productions within the same spend envelope rather than concentrating risk in a single $200 million film.

One concrete capability McLennan points to is real-time upscaling, using AI to bring content to 4K and UHD on the fly. He also flags a persistent quality-fragmentation problem where content drops to lower resolution during advertising breaks and then jumps back up, breaking audience engagement. AI-driven level-setting is one way studios are beginning to address that.

On whether AI could reverse the trend of productions leaving Los Angeles for cheaper locations in Prague, Rio, or Johannesburg, McLennan is cautious but directionally positive. Production costs in those cities can run at 80% of LA rates, a structural pull that will not disappear. AI can enhance and extend what is produced anywhere, but it does not eliminate location economics.

Labor

Workers who learn the new tools will continue working. Those who do not will be passed by. McLennan draws a direct parallel to the digital transition from film, where a smaller community of film practitioners kept working but the mainstream moved on. The historical pattern suggests adaptation rather than extinction, though only for those willing to move.

Micro-programming

McLennan sees micro-programming, short-form content running 90 seconds to three minutes, as the natural extension of the creator economy that YouTube accelerated in 2004 and 2005. The average viewer of a micro show watches four to five segments consecutively, suggesting the format drives meaningful session depth despite its brevity.

On whether Hollywood can engineer more Barbenheimer-style cultural moments, McLennan is warm but realistic. Communal experiences like the Sphere and live events are pulling audiences together in ways that passive streaming does not. The appetite for shared cultural moments is real, but manufacturing them deliberately is harder.