By Novae Caelum · Originally published
No, really. Put em up.
I just watched all 5 and a half episodes, 40-something minutes of my show so far, all together tonight.
Gawd there is no other feeling like it. Nothing like it in all the world.
That first episode took me ten hours to a finished minute (it was ten minutes, so 100 hours). Now, by hand, I’m running around 2-5, depending on the complexity, and still working hard to get more automated systems to bring that down for A grade work. Getting there!! Getting really damn close.
And that first episode, made with Veo 3 and 3.1, having a conversation between two characters was HARD. Almost impossible to pull off well and dramatically in a longer sequence. Every single shot crafted by hand meticulously with Nano Banana (the OG) and Seedream 4 at the time. Here’s a snippet from the first episode, made in the fall of last year:
That was nearing the limits of what was possible last year. Very very few people doing AI filmmaking were including much dialogue because it was HARD. We had some very pretty visual sequences, some truly gorgeous work, but not much drama.
Today? Today I made a 2 and a half minute continuous dialogue scene that was all drama, not action, and you felt that all the way through.
Here’s a clip from that in the unfinished (and rough draft) Episode 6, with Seedance 2.5. Same character:
The generators have come a looong way. But then, so has my knowledge of how to use them. So has my knowledge of filmmaking and visual storytelling as a whole. You can’t spend a half a thousand hours at something and not level up a whole lot.
And anyone who calls any of this slop can fucking fight me.
Anyone who says AI filmmaking doesn’t take skill has not, in fact, rolled something a bazillion times hunting for just the right take. Or purposely crafted the angles or lighting in a scene through images and careful iterations of prompts. Or honed in on exactly how to direct a very wild stallion (i.e. the beautiful raw performances you can get out of the newest models). Or the craft of editing involved, too.
Also, I have zero interest in fighting anyone over this. Anyone who says an entire medium is slop doesn’t understand art or taste.
I’m gonna be recording a big and as comprehensive course as I can make it on AI filmmaking in the next few weeks, to sell as static courses, and I’m opening these initial classes up to just our Substack members. You all get 1.0. It’s probably gonna take at least 4 weeks and be a masterclass all the way down. (And don’t worry, I’m gonna be cutting everyone out of the recordings!)
Because I am GOOD at this. Solidly, really fucking good. And I want to help you get good at it, too.
Yes, I have my filmmaking app coming up too—and I MCP-ed that today and Fable was running vertical scenes for me! THAT is amazing. That is the future.
But I still say that to make really, really good stories, you have to know what that looks like, too. If something breaks, you need to know how to fix it.
You need to know how to make things better than they can be.
Because Chinese companies are shipping tens of thousands of AI vertical dramas this year, and I have no doubt that wave is going to come to the US, too. It’s already been starting. Gossip Goblin, one of the biggest AI creators right now, is getting a theatrical release. Which is amazing!
(Pic for the feed!)
I think we’re going to need the edge of craft and taste, just like in fiction, to excel at this. Because this is absolutely the next storytelling frontier, whether vertical or horizontal.
And I want you all to have the absolute bliss of seeing your worlds come to life as films, too!
Anyhow, we’ll talk about it tomorrow on the call, and I’ll write a post with dates! (I’m gonna ask you all tomorrow what dates you CAN do!) Anyone jumping into the membership in the meantime gets this, too!
Now is THE TIME to jump into all of this, because it’s only gonna get more awesome from here. 🙌
And everyone who starts early will have the edge.
Full clip of my first 2:30 minutes of Episode 6 below, because I’m super proud of it. I’m amazed it was possible, this continuous and dramatic dialogue scene. This is all literally magic, you know?
And I’ll drop the zoom link again!
See you all on the call!
-Novae