Process
Every piece I make runs through the same six stages: script, character bible, style lock, keyframe, motion, master. The order is the point. Each stage exists to make the next one cheaper, because the expensive thing in AI film is not generating — it is generating again.
The short version: decide in words before you generate anything. The script and the shot list are written first, the character and the look are locked as approved references, the first frame of every shot is approved as a still, and only then do you pay for motion — with the sound fitted at the master. Skipping a stage does not save time. It moves the cost later, where it is larger.
Stage 1
The script here is not a screenplay in the usual sense. It is a list of shots, each with the beat it carries, the emotion it has to land, and how long it lasts. Duration is written down before anything is generated, because a shot that is the wrong length is a shot you will re-render.
Writing it this way means the film is decided once, in words, where changing your mind costs nothing.
Stage 2
Faces, builds, wardrobe and colour are locked into a single reference before animation starts. This is what stops a character drifting between shots — the failure that makes an otherwise good piece look broken.
The bible is a document you keep pointing at, not a style you hope the model remembers.
Stage 3
One approved reference sheet governs rendering on every frame of the film: the light, the palette, the amount of detail, the way the camera behaves. Because it is approved once, a change of mind later is a deliberate choice rather than a surprise.
Stage 4
The first frame of a shot is approved as a still before a single second is animated. This is the cheapest place to be wrong: a still costs a fraction of a clip, so composition, lighting and the look are settled while they are still cheap to change.
In practice this is the stage that saves the most money on a project, and it is the one beginners skip.
Stage 5
The shot is animated from that locked frame — camera, performance and physics. Because the frame is already right, motion becomes about movement rather than about fighting the picture underneath it.
Stage 6
Sound, grade and a clean export, ready for a client or a festival. Sound is not decoration added at the end: it is the stage that turns a sequence of good shots into something an audience reads as a film.
The tools change every few months. The order does not, because it is really a rule about where to spend: decide in words, lock in references, approve still frames, and only then pay for movement — in that sequence, each stage removes the reason to redo the one before it.
The stage that saves the most money is the one beginners skip: approving a still before anything is animated. A keyframe costs a fraction of a clip, and it is the last point where a wrong face or a wrong light is free to fix. If one habit survives from this page, make it that one.
The other thing worth saying plainly: the six stages are a spending order, not a straitjacket. Films still change while they are being made — they just change where changing is cheap.
Where this is taught
AI Film Lab: Cinematic Storytelling — 2 Days, taught live in a small cohort. Ask on WhatsApp (+65 9188 6948) for the next dates.
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Method
Four rules carry every prompt I write: point at the attachment, name what cannot change, keep one thing per paragraph, and maintain a running negative sheet. They are not about clever wording — they are about removing the ways a model can misread you.
Read →Method
Consistency is the hardest problem in AI film: the same character, the same world and the same look in every single shot. It is solved with references and diagnosis, not with better luck — five things do most of the work.
Read →Diagnosis
AI video gives itself away in six ways: the face drifts, the physics float, the light is flat, the camera moves like no camera, the sound does not belong, and small details mutate between frames. All six are failures of preparation rather than of the model, which is why each one is prevented before generation instead of repaired after it.
Read →Definition
A style lock is one approved reference sheet that governs how every frame of a film is rendered: the light, the palette, the amount of detail, and the way the camera behaves. You approve it once, before animation starts, and then point at it on every shot instead of re-deciding the look shot by shot.
Read →Definition
A shot list is the film written down as shots before anything is generated — what each shot is for, the emotion it has to land, how long it lasts, and how the camera behaves. It matters more in AI than on a set, because changing your mind in words costs nothing and changing it after a render costs a re-render.
Read →Getting started
No — neither is required to start, but the work still asks you to make the decisions those skills exist for: what the shot is for, where the camera stands, and what must not change. The tools remove the cost of a shoot; they do not remove the need for a plan, and the planning is teachable.
Read →Training
I run two course series in Singapore, both as small live cohorts of two days. The Agentic AI Series teaches you to build and run your own AI agents — a website builder, a content creator and a filmmaker. The AI Creative Series is the craft itself: social video, product content that sells, and cinematic short films. Team training runs on your own project, at your studio or online.
Read →Commercial work
A product film is a short list of shots with one job each: a hero shot that shows the thing itself, a detail shot for texture and proof, a context shot that shows who it is for, and one line that carries the offer. It is short, because a launch film is watched on a phone between other things.
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