Screening June 15 at Munger Cottage
There was a time when humans were a vital part of the planet. They had jobs, families, and a reason to get up in the morning, but as technology advanced, humans slowly saw their reason for living taken away from them. In the short film, “The Cleansing,” Thomas and James Bailey explore what happens when artificial intelligence (AI) makes people irrelevant in the future. A screening of the independent film will take place at 7:30 p.m. on June 15 at Munger Cottage in Cornwall.
“We were watching a video on YouTube about six years ago,” Thomas said of he and his son. “It was a 15 minute video called ‘Humans Need Not Apply.’ The whole video was about all this automation that has taken jobs from people. It was jarring to say the least. Based on that, we just started riffing about a story. We know AI is coming, and is here now to a greater extent than when we were talking five years ago. Eventually AI, like automation, is going to take a lot of the jobs that people do today. We took that premise and built a story around it. We took it to a more science fiction approach, but with that basic concept, what happens when AI makes people irrelevant?”
Initial filming of the near 20-minute film took place in 2018, but when Thomas purchased a more professional camera, he decided to reshoot the entire thing starting two years ago. Thomas and James wrote the screenplay while James and his younger brother, George, wrote the score.
George served as the cinematographer for the production.
The original production took about 16 months to complete before it was scrapped and filming began again in June 2021 and took two months to finish. All the post production took place off and on over the next 18 months between Thomas working, James going to college, and George in high school.
“Given what’s happened in the world with AI in the last few months, we said we have to get this done and put it out because it’s so prevalent with what’s going on in the world,” said James.
Cornwall-on-Hudson served as the setting for a majority of the film except for one scene which was shot in New WIndsor. The cast was composed of six Cornwall residents, one from New Windsor, and another from Georgia.
While the point of “The Cleansing” is to make a statement about what people should be thinking about when it comes to automation and AI, it doesn’t necessarily take a stance against artificial intelligence.
“We have to think when to use AI,” James said. “Just because you can replace most jobs with a super computer, should you?”
“The Cleansing” isn’t the first project the Bailey family has worked on together.
In 2017-18, they produced “Time Heals all Wounds.” It was about teenagers and social media.
At the time, James and George were shooting short home videos for YouTube and the three decided to work on a project together. To date, the two films have been a great bonding experience.
“It’s been great for me,”Thomas said. “I’ve enjoyed it.”
“It’s really cool having inspired my dad,” James added. “I didn’t expect that. Being able to work on a project with people you know so well, it gives you a reason to hang out. It’s better when you have the finished product and put in all this time with your dad and brother. It’s something we’ll always have.”
For the most part the three got along during the filming and production, but there were a few stressful moments. The actor coming from Georgia had to catch a plane the next day, so there was a time constraint shooting their scene. During one of the hottest days of the summer of 2021, it was 96 degrees and the camera kept overheating and would stop intermittently. The footage was unusable and the scene had to be shot again. A cooler was subsequently used to store the camera during shots. In some instances, Thomas yielded to George when he wanted to shoot a scene in a certain way.
James said he appreciated his brother’s strong opinions adding he preferred to work with people who were passionate about the project.
The Baileys are in the process of submitting “The Cleansing” to multiple film festivals.
“This is an independent film that cost me $5,000 to make along with the people involved working on this for little to no money,” Thomas said. “We are all used to seeing movies and TV shows with production budgets of millions of dollars. This short film is a point of concept production made to present the story and hopefully attract interest to make a bigger budget version.”
With two films under their belt, the Baileys aren’t done yet. They have another project in the works. Shooting will begin this summer and James and George will be co-directing. Thomas said the film, which will feature two professional actors, will center around a couple trying to find their way back to each other after suffering the loss of their child.
