If you came here hoping to make an AI film in one prompt, I’ve got bad news. That isn’t a film. It’s what the internet calls “slop.”
The good news is the real opportunity is better.
AI can absolutely help you make work faster, cheaper, and at a scale that used to be impossible.
But the people making watchable films are not “prompting.” They’re directing.
The video above shows exactly what that looks like in practice. It’s from a workshop I gave at the AI Inspires Content festival in Seoul, Korea.
Below, I’m sharing the actionable takeaways and workflow I used for Gym Rats, the short film I premiered there.
The mindset that makes this work
1) There is no magic button
Quality still takes effort. The difference now is you’re spending your effort on direction, iteration, and taste, not crews, permits, or render farms.
2) Treat this like a rights-managed production
If you want your work to live in the real world, you need to think like a producer. Own what you use. Track your sources. Build a process you can defend.
3) Think “green line,” not “blue line”
Most people only plan around what’s available today. The creators who win adopt today’s tools but design their workflow for what’s coming very soon, because the curve is moving fast.
4) Be a spy in the enemy camp
Even if you’re skeptical, learn the limitations and the capabilities of creative AI tools. The pace is too fast to ignore.
The 4 ways to use Creative AI
Most confusion comes from mixing these together. Decide which bucket you’re in before you start.
1) Productivity
ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek-style work. Automate repetitive tasks. Beat the blank page. Build custom assistants.
Example: I use a custom GPT that looks at a frame and generates a ranked sound-effects spotting list in seconds.
2) Single-use assets
One image. One clip. One social post. One deck visual. Useful, but also where “slop” lives if you don’t have standards.
3) Tool enhancement
AI inside tools you already use: rotoscoping, upscaling, transcription, object removal. This is becoming unavoidable because AI is getting baked into everything.
4) AI as an animation workflow
Multi-step, filmmaker-driven, like animation. This is the workflow below.
