AI in Film and Media: Creative Empowerment, Labour Displacement, and Governance

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the film and media industries across production, post-production, performance, rights management, distribution, and audience trust. This paper argues that AI should be analysed as an infrastructural transformation that reorganises transaction costs, labour bargaining power, contractual control, and informational asymmetries across the media value chain. Building on Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction, Coasean transaction-cost economics, and labour-monopsony theory, the paper proposes the General Theory of Creative Disruption+ (GTCD+). Within this framework, it introduces five analytical tools: the Risk-Adjusted Efficiency-Complexity Ratio (RA-ECR), the Transparency Asymmetry Principle, the Likeness Lock-In Risk (LLR), the Visibility Control Function (VCF), and the Authenticity and Trust Index (ATI). This is a conceptual and normative framework paper. These constructs are presented as illustrative heuristic instruments for analysing AI adoption. Future work is needed to calibrate and test them empirically in specific domains before they can support predictive or decision-oriented use. The paper situates them in relation to recent industry and regulatory developments, including AI-assisted screen production, disputes over training-data governance, synthetic-performer regulation, and audience disclosure expectations. It concludes with four policy recommendations for more sustainable integration of AI in film and media, including the proposed De Havilland Threshold for digital-likeness contracts.