Cinematographers at Camerimage push back on greybox shoots, where AI adds the lighting after the shoot
At Camerimage, cinematographers say greybox shoots, where actors are filmed on plain sets and AI adds the sets and lighting later, move the look of a film into post. The Bitcoin detail rests on one IndieWire line.
Asked whether he enjoys greybox work, cinematographer Bartosz Nalazek didn't hesitate: "Totally not. It's horrible, I'm brain-dead." For people whose craft is light, the fear at Camerimage this week is that the job shrinks to setting up a blank frame for someone else to finish.
Greybox is the word the festival keeps returning to. Actors are filmed on a plain, neutral set, and AI adds the production design and the lighting afterward. IndieWire reports it was used on Doug Liman's upcoming Bitcoin and is spreading to other projects, and Nalazek says a major TV show he just wrapped shot 40 percent of its scenes that way. Cinematographers describe directors asking for the softest, most generic light on set, not because it looks best but because it leaves the cleanest canvas for changes later.
Nobody in Toruń is pretending the method is useless. It takes weather and locations out of the schedule, and speakers who have worked on these sets point out that the productions still hire hundreds of crew. The festival has drawn its own line, too: Marek Żydowicz, its founder, told The Hollywood Reporter that Camerimage does not accept films generated entirely by AI and favors hybrid films where the live actors decide how far AI may change their images.
Our take: greybox doesn't remove lighting, it moves it to post. Whoever sets the look there owns the image, a seat open to cinematographers and AI creators alike. What nobody at the festival has answered yet is whether the people who light for a living will be the ones sitting in it.
Source: IndieWire, Nov 9, 2026; The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, Nov 8, 2026. Camerimage runs in Toruń through Nov 14.
