Saida Iltizari, who was recently appointed Netflix’s UK director of unscripted, told an audience at London’s SXSW on Tuesday that she doesn’t want to use AI in unscripted television.
Describing Netflix as a “technology-forward company,” she said she was “very relaxed about people using AI as a tool to bring ideas to the table,” calling it a “really great tool” and adding, “We should use it.”
But she issued a warning. “I think where we have to be careful is where we use AI on camera and in our programming. I’m not saying never, but we don’t really want to use AI in unscripted television.”
“There’s one particularly interesting thing about the situation right now, as AI gets bigger and bigger, and that’s that it’s difficult now to distinguish what’s fake and what’s real, and it’s going to get even more difficult in the future. So, unscripted television, where you experience real journeys in real situations, “I think unscripted television that shows real people suddenly becomes even more important because this is content that you can trust to be real and these are real people going through whatever their real reactions and journeys are, and I think that gives us even more power,” she continued. The world of AI is less than that.
“I think realism is always our watchword. And when you’re in a kind of hodgepodge multimedia world where you don’t know what’s going on, real people in your stories become really, really interesting. Maybe on other platforms, there’s not as much rigor, where things are happening and you don’t know what’s real and what’s not.”
Speaking at Deadline’s Reality TV Summit UK, Iltizari said he has been “very busy” since joining the streamer three months ago. He previously worked as an interim unscripted director at the BBC, where he directed the British version of The Traitor.
“I can’t speak to what’s coming up, but we have some really big, exciting, bold things coming up and I’m really looking forward to seeing you there, but I want more,” she said.
Speaking about her priorities, she said, “I think the important thing is to continue to surprise and delight with each series.”
Crediting Netflix’s scripted shows like “Adolescence” and “Baby Reindeer,” she said, “I think my job is to make unscripted shows that are just as compelling as scripted ones.” She added, “When you look at what’s working at Netflix and how well screenplays and documentaries are doing, you see that it’s all about people and stories.
“If you think about what a script is, with a script you create a world, you bring the world to life, you fill it with actors who are characters who go through some kind of obstacle or transformation or some kind of storyline. There’s a big, compelling (plot) that pulls you in. You’re involved in the story. You’re following the beats of the story, and it’s emotionally satisfying to watch.”
“That’s what it means to be scripted. To me, unscripted is exactly the same. But instead of actors trying to be real, you have flesh-and-blood people. I think that’s our big creative magic lever in unscripted. So we want a prestige reality format that feels like a scripted drama. So you can build a world and make that happen. Really recognizing the world. The world needs a lot of production, and the structure of that world needs a lot of production, and you definitely have a really good, hooky starting point that allows the story to evolve and take you to places you didn’t know you wanted to go, with human whimsy and diversity. That’s what I’m looking for.”
