TVB’s (Wireless) brand new sitcom "Come Home Love: Three Generations of Sweetness" has recently aired, and some scenes featuring artificial intelligence (AI) generated backgrounds have sparked heated discussion among viewers. Many viewers feel that the integration between the actors and the virtual background is unnatural, which affects the overall viewing experience.
In the episode aired on August 13, one of the restaurant scenes used an AI-generated virtual background. Many viewers quickly noticed a sense of discord in the visuals, feeling that the actors did not blend well with the background and looked as if they had been "pasted" into the virtual scene in post-production.
Especially in terms of lighting and the actors’ outlines, there are clear differences from the realistic sets commonly seen in past Hong Kong dramas, and the relevant scenes soon became a topic of discussion online.
Some viewers believe that while AI technology can lower production costs and speed up production processes, if the final visual effect is unsatisfactory, it can instead create a strong feeling of being pulled out of the story for viewers.
Some viewers also questioned whether the need for AI-generated backgrounds even for fixed sets in TV dramas reflects increasingly strict cost control in television production.
Others felt that if visual quality is sacrificed simply to save production costs, it might instead make viewers miss the liveliness and realism of the real settings in classic Hong Kong dramas.
As AI technology is gradually applied in film and television production—from background generation and scene design to post-production—more areas of application are emerging. However, how to strike a balance between reducing production costs and maintaining visual quality has also become a new challenge for the film and television industry.