Since 2003, the DGA has hosted Digital Day events dedicated to providing our members with exclusive knowledge and access to innovations designed to enhance and improve productions. On Saturday, August 23, DGA members and guests returned to the Guild’s Los Angeles headquarters for Digital Day 2026: Mind Over Machines: Human-Controlled Creativity.

Nearly 500 information seekers attended the live and in-person event that featured engaging presentations, panels, exhibits and hands-on demos about the latest developments in VFX, cutting-edge production tools and virtual production.

Welcome

Special Projects Committee Co-Chair Michael Goi began the day by welcoming all the attendees to the 24th annual event and thanked his fellow Digital Day Subcommittee Co-Chairs Randal Kleiser and Jay Torres and all the members of the Subcommittee for their efforts in educating the Guild’s membership with an eye on the cutting edge.

Kleiser noted the work of the Subcommittee members: Valdez Flagg, Brian Frankish, Julie Gelfand, Scott Rindenow, Oz Scott, Arthur Allan Seidelman, and Susan Zwerman.

Torres then gave a quick slide presentation of the exciting lobby exhibits before Goi kicked the day off in earnest with an introduction to the day’s first offering, the Spotlight Presentation with Directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller on the making of their hit film, Project Hail Mary.

Spotlight Presentation: Directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller on the making of Project Hail Mary

In their presentation, “Project Hail Mary: How We Made the Hardest Movie We’ve Ever Made (And All the Movies We Make Are Hard),” Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller shared how they brought Andy Weir’s hard science fiction novel to life via innovative techniques that made audiences fall in love with a rocklike creature. The duo, who frequently finish each other’s sentences, explained why despite the obvious challenges, they opted to make the film.

The duo, who frequently finish each other’s sentences, explained why they opted to do the film.

“We fell in love with the challenges. The co-star of the movie has no face. The lead of the film has to be in every single scene for what turned out to be 102 days,” said Lord. “And often on wires in zero gravity,” added Miller. “And the whole thing takes place across 2 timelines,” continued Lord.

“The thing about Andy's work is it's always about incredible challenges met by incredible people working together. What gave us a lot of confidence is that describes a film crew,” said Lord. “And we knew that this movie was going to take a mix of cutting-edge technology and good old fashioned practical filmmaking,” said Miller.

“Over 1,000 people worked on this movie and the thing about it is — and I think it's important to talk about today — a film crew's job is not to create efficiencies it's to capture value. And the way you create the value is by handcrafting something. The fact that it is hard, as Chris Nolan has proven again and again, is part of what gives it value.”

“We also had this incredible script that we worked with our good friend Drew Goddard on — a brilliant writer and Director. We had a great blueprint,” said Miller.  “And one of the rules we had — the three of us together — was that there were gonna be no shortcuts,  that everything that is in Andy's book, which has a lot of real physics and real science and also imagined physics and imagined science and imagined aliens, we said that all of that has to be true. We cannot conform physics, time and space to our film. Our film has to conform to time and space.” said Lord.

“In the book, Rocky has a different atmosphere and so they can never be in the same space at the same time because Earth’s atmosphere and Erin's atmosphere are completely different,” noted Miller.

“A producer asked us, ‘Maybe they could have breathed the same atmosphere,’ and we would be like ‘well that's no fun,’’ said Lord. “Because you don't get all of these interesting solutions without the very interesting problems.”

Directing in the Age of AI: Creative Control from Development to Final Pixel

In this presentation Alussein’s Co-Founder Tony Clark and Co-Founder/CEO Jennie Zeiher revealed how AI and machine-learning tools can support Directors across the full filmmaking lifecycle; from development to post-production by improving early creative alignment, reducing avoidable compromise, and preserving more time for story, performance and cinematic intent.

Directing Live Events with Cinematic Looks and a Broadcast Workflow

During this panel discussion moderated by Director AJ Bleyer, Camera Operator Sean Flannery and Wide+Close Founder Kenny Stoff that examined how cinema grade cameras and immersive technologies are transforming how audiences experience live events. They also shared the creative and technical choices that make it all work at scale and how large format cameras, precision motion systems and emerging platforms can place viewers inside the action at global music festivals, major sporting events and more.

Creating AI Hybrid Productions

Digital Day 2026’s final theater presentation was a conversation moderated by Digital Day Subcommittee Co-Chair Jay Torres with Eyeline Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Cox, Stargate Studios Founder Sam Nicholson and Erik Weaver, Principal of AI and Emergent Media at USC’s Entertainment Technology Center. The panelists revealed how AI is creating a hybrid production pipeline where live-action filmmaking meets VFX and real-time technology.

Sharing practical case studies, the panelists gave their honest takes on camera tracking, virtual scouting, real-time previsualization, AI-assisted relighting and style transfer, and the new crew roles these tools are creating, while exploring creative authorship, consent, and directorial control. They explained that AI as a creative multiplier, is not a replacement for filmmakers, performers, artists, or crew.

Wrap:

Digital Day 2026: Mind Over Machines: Human-Controlled Creativity closed with wrapping comments from Goi and Torres, who thanked the audience for their participation and the Subcommittee members for all their support in making the event possible and encouraged everyone to take advantage of all the hands-on demos still going on in the DGA Los Angeles Lobby, Atrium and Theater 3.

Video from these presentations coming soon to the gallery below.

Exhibits & Hands-On Demos:

Digital Day 2026: Mind Over Machines: Human-Controlled Creativity also featured Exhibits & Hands-On Demos including:

• Adobe — Adobe’s apps and features enhance your creativity and bring your vision to life with ethical AI-powered innovation that speeds up the tedious parts without stealing your work, connects directly to VFX and isn’t stuck in legacy workflows that stand in the way of the shot you want.
• Asteria Continuum Suite — Asteria presents Continuum, its proprietary operating system for every type of production. Rewrite the script and the breakdown knows; move a day and the budget answers; wrap the day and the paperwork writes itself.
• Beeble AI — Shoot in flat light and relight in post — Beeble AI tools give filmmakers, VFX studios, and creators production-grade control over lighting, compositing, and background replacement.
• Blackmagic Design — Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post-production and television broadcast industries.
• Everyset — Everyset is the source of truth for productions running background. One connected system captures set activity as it happens: check in talent, log bumps, and approve vouchers, with real-time hot costs and reporting that put cost visibility at the fingertips of ADs. That verified data flows straight into accounting for fast, accurate, audit-ready payroll.
• Intangible.ai — Intangible is a camera-first AI platform that gives directors and creative teams real control, helping them make the creative decisions that define a production: shaping story, exploring visual language, blocking performances, designing shots, and aligning every department before cameras roll.
• Lightcraft Technology — Lightcraft Technology’s Spark Story is a browser-based platform where Directors build shots with 3D Gaussian Splats and USD assets and workshop your story with the whole team in real time, which becomes a living 3D storyboard and shot list that carries you straight into production.
• Line Budgeter — Goodbye legacy workflows, hello smarter budgets. Line Budgeter is the modern production budgeting platform with real-time collaboration, cash flow forecasting, multi-currency support, integrated ratebooks, and incentive tracking – built by experienced working producers, including a DGA UPM.
• LiveEdit — LiveEdit is a real-time collaborative platform that streamlines your workflow with secure, flexible tools for seamless collaboration and efficient production, while enhancing your creative process into a smooth, integrated experience.
• Pixel Magic Visual Effects — VES Award Winning/Emmy Nominated VFX team from Pixel Magic delivers VFX for film and television and uses Gaussian Splatting to capture and create photo realistic 3D environments without the need for a team of CGI artists and CGI environment builds.
• RED Digital Cinema — RED is an industry leader in cinematic image capture, featuring unmatched dynamic range, uncompromised versatility, and a complete lineup of global shutter cinema cameras. With the latest technological breakthrough of their Cine-Broadcast system, RED is now empowering Directors and broadcasters to unlock the full potential of the power of RED for live events and live-to-tape productions.
• Shamel Studio — Lightning-fast film scheduling and budgeting. Shamel Studio creates production schedules, budgets, call sheets, and production reports 12x faster.
• SideFX Houdini — Discover how SideFX Houdini’s Gaussian Splat workflows accelerate creative iteration by bringing high-fidelity characters and environments into real-time production.
• Sony — Sony XYN™ is an integrated software and hardware solution that accurately captures the real world and combines the content with a wide range of third-party tools to enable flexible workflow construction.
• Space/Time — Space/Time is an industry leader in 4D Engineering providing interactive demonstrations using real-time 4D humans in a free-moving markerless motion capture in a virtual camera system.
• Digital Day Programming Committee Demo— And Digital Day 2026: Mind Over Machines: Human-Controlled Creativity attendees were treated to a demonstration by the Digital Day Programming Committee on how to be tech savvy with tools to take on and off set to improve work productivity.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS:

About the Committee:

Special Projects is the educational and cultural arm of the Directors Guild of America, providing its members opportunities for creative exchange to advance their craft and celebrate the achievements of Directors and their teams. The Committee is co-chaired by Directors Michael Goi and Rachel Raimist. The Digital Day Subcommittee is co-chaired by Michael Goi, Randal Kleiser and Jay Torres; and the Digital Day Subcommittee members are Valdez Flagg, Brian Frankish, Julie Gelfand, Scott Rindenow, Oz Scott, Arthur Allan Seidelman and Susan Zwerman.

• Click here for more information about the DGA Special Projects Committee