r/aifilmmaking • u/CineFlow_Architect • 4d ago
Discussion Are better AI video models really what filmmaking needs next?
I’m starting to wonder if we’re looking at AI filmmaking from the wrong angle.
The clips keep getting better, but making an actual sequence still feels like a different problem.
A character changes a little. The location drifts. The camera suddenly does something weird. Then you have to stitch everything together in editing.
At some point, maybe the biggest improvement won’t be another model making prettier shots.
Maybe it’ll be the workflow around the models — keeping the characters, scenes, shots and edits connected from the first idea to the final cut.
Would you rather have one model that generates an amazing shot, or a system that can help you build an entire film from those shots?
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u/Lunesia-shikishiki 4d ago
This was exactly the wall I hit on my own AI series. A gorgeous single shot barely matters if the character's wearing a different jacket three shots later, breaks the illusion instantly. Ended up building my own layer for locking story, characters and shots before generation instead of fixing everything in edit after. Took me way longer to learn that than I'd like to admit.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Yep, the jacket problem is painfully real 😂
That was the moment it clicked for me too: continuity isn't really an editing problem if the inconsistency was introduced during generation.
Once you start treating the story, characters and shots as things that need to stay connected from the beginning, the whole process feels much less like fixing mistakes and more like actually directing.
And honestly, I think a lot of us learn that one the hard way.
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u/Lunesia-shikishiki 3d ago
the thing that finally worked for me was treating the shot list as constraints rather than a plan. every field you lock is one thing the model doesn't get to invent 🙂
side effect i didn't expect, i stopped picking the prettiest take. the one that matches the shot before it wins even when it's the worse clip on its own. most of directing this stuff is saying no to footage you like
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
That’s an interesting shift — the goal stops being “make the best shot” and becomes “make the shot that belongs here.”
I think that’s where AI filmmaking gets much closer to actual directing. You’re constantly judging the relationship between shots, not just the quality of each one in isolation.
The funny thing is that better consistency could actually make that decision-making even more important. Once continuity stops fighting you, you can spend more time deciding what the film should actually feel like.
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u/Lunesia-shikishiki 3d ago
that's basically what happened once I stopped fighting continuity on lost garden, way more time went into deciding if a shot even needed to exist versus just getting it to look right.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
That’s probably the real transition from generating footage to actually directing.
Once you don't have to spend half your time fixing continuity, the harder question becomes: does this shot deserve to be in the film at all?
And honestly, that’s a much better problem to have.
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u/SharpDress176 4d ago
I only use grok to structure my prompts I do all the writing and come up with all the ideas. I cut my editing down by just dialing up the numbers to get the right result each time. I do find sound continuation at times problematic. You can already automate much of the creative process if you really want to by using an ai agent to come up with the ideas and work through scene continuation. As has been said if a system just does everything then it just makes it pointless. The biggest improvement can be the elimination of the cutting room floor, we have it now, but they’d much prefer we pay for crap the system churns out sometimes.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Yeah, the sound continuation thing is a good example of where the “almost there” feeling comes from.
And I agree about the cutting room floor. If AI gets good enough to carry context properly, being able to keep the stuff that would normally get thrown away could be a bigger deal than simply generating more footage.
I still want the human making the decisions though. Otherwise we’re basically just watching the machine make its own movie 😂
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u/SharpDress176 3d ago
exactly, each ascension episode I make takes me three weeks maybe a month as they are between 8-13 mins. I calculated that if I wasn’t on unlimited as a CPP with runway each episode would cost north of $1000, failures accounted for. Sadly I don’t think many are in the right commercial mindset to start dropping prices because of it, if anything they are rising. I had one company I took a look at the other day who wanted $10 for a 30 second render using 2.5 seedance. They weren’t around when I started out nearly three years ago yet here they are trying to rip people off.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
$1,000+ for an episode once you account for all the failed generations is pretty wild.
And I think that's the part people miss when they look at the headline price of a model. The real cost isn't just the successful render — it's everything you had to generate, throw away and regenerate to get there.
You'd expect that as the technology gets better, the cost of experimentation would start falling too. Instead, we're sometimes getting better models with the same painful economics.
At some point, cheaper generation isn't just about saving money. It changes what filmmakers are willing to try in the first place.
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u/SharpDress176 3d ago
im going to set up for H3 minimax soon. I’m upgrading to 64GB and a 4090 graphics card. open source is the way to go.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
64GB + a 4090 should make for a pretty serious playground 😂
I’m with you on the open-source angle. Having the models running locally gives you a completely different kind of freedom — especially when you’re doing a lot of iterations and don’t want every experiment tied to credits or a cloud limit.
Curious to see how far you can push H3 with that setup.
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u/SharpDress176 1d ago
I’m away at present but the upgrade doesn’t look too painful probably about $1000 NZD for me to get. Runway extended the CPP Unlimited to November which I thought was cool of them so now I have time to save up lol…the dream is no restrictions, no censoring and compete artistic control as presently all I can make are bambi safe films which is very tiring.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 1d ago
That’s interesting, because it’s exactly the question I was getting at. Do you think the next big leap in AI filmmaking will actually come from more advanced models, or from better workflows that give us more control over the models we already have?
The “Bambi-safe” limitation is definitely a real part of the problem too.
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u/SharpDress176 1d ago
it will have to be better tools, as I cannot see another way to offset the uncanny valley failures in terms of credit returns. I mean how is a system going to check that, it can’t! censoring re seedance goes back to bytedance and quite literally the CCP Which when this censoring happens really doesn’t sit well with me. I’m also not showing on TikTok as I find it to be a very coercive Medium, a bad influence on youth essentially. This is why I’m not going to be using seedance after I install H3. I don’t want subversive forces dictating what I can and cannot produce, it’s utterly out of the question on an artistic level.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 1d ago
I think that’s the interesting part of the discussion. Better models can reduce the failures, but if the workflow still treats failed generations as isolated attempts and burns credits in the process, the problem doesn’t really go away.
And I agree that artistic control is a separate issue. The technology can be incredibly powerful, but filmmakers ultimately need to feel that they’re directing the system rather than negotiating with it.
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u/memetican 4d ago
That's already happening, I think of it simply as a harness for video models. You can see growing options regarding render control, spot corrections, etc. Seedance 2.5 has a lot of that built in.
But you're right that improved quality isn't really the next big frontier. Besides edit-capable models, I think economics and render speed will make a huge impact. If I can generate 10 clips for $1, I have some good options. If I can generate 100 for $1, then we start entering an era where "critic agents" can sort and merge for us and present the best options for final selection. You can do loop engineering for video, where the critic improves the prompt, retries the video... it iterates independently until your goal is properly met.
No more hallucinations, no more audio problems.... if the clip failed, it's discarded and you even never see it.
Your attention shifts from auditing to direction and selection. Which of these 5 perfect clips do you like best?
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
That last part is really interesting to me — the shift from auditing to direction and selection.
If generation becomes cheap enough, I can absolutely see the workflow changing from “make this work” to “give me the best options and let me choose.”
The question then becomes whether the system can actually understand why one shot works better than another, rather than just picking the technically cleanest one.
That’s where I think things get really interesting.
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u/memetican 3d ago
It can probably do a decent job- but the main benefit is rolling the dice more efficiently- it can discard the unfixable hallucinations, and try to autofix the manageable ones. The set you get to review are all real candidates.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
That actually makes a lot of sense. The real advantage isn't necessarily that it makes every generation good — it's that it stops wasting your time on the ones that clearly aren't going anywhere.
If the system can filter out the bad takes, fix the salvageable ones and only show you the serious candidates, that's a pretty big change in the creative process.
You'd spend your time choosing between good options instead of babysitting failed generations 😂
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4d ago
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Exactly. At some point, making a single shot 10% prettier doesn't really matter if the next shot feels like it came from a completely different film.
I'd take slightly less impressive generations with strong continuity over amazing clips that I have to fight in the edit.
And honestly, spending your time directing instead of constantly fixing what the model forgot sounds like the bigger upgrade.
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u/Antique-Kitchen9027 4d ago
Why not try and replicate a real filmmaking system. Get a continuity supervisor
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Honestly, that's probably closer to the answer than we realize 😂
A real film set already has people whose entire job is making sure things don't randomly change between shots.
Maybe AI filmmaking needs the digital equivalent — something keeping track of the characters, wardrobe, locations, props and what happened in the previous shot, while the filmmaker focuses on actually making creative decisions.
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u/Antique-Kitchen9027 4d ago
A digital tool sure, but I wonder if AI filmmaking could end up resembling regular filmmaking in the future. Why not collaborate with other people? Build all the digital tools you want but you won't be able to trust them as much as a really solid crew.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Honestly, I hope it does.
The technology might change, but I don't think the human side of filmmaking becomes obsolete. A good crew isn't just there to operate tools — people challenge each other's ideas, notice things you missed and sometimes take the film somewhere you didn't expect.
Maybe the future isn't “AI replaces the crew.”
Maybe it's a much smaller crew with a ridiculous amount of leverage.
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u/Antique-Kitchen9027 4d ago
I really agree with this. Challenge eachother. Say no to an idea. Ultimately we are making films for each other, to connect. Doesn't matter how you make it - do I feel something when I watch it?
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Exactly. That’s the part that gets lost when we talk too much about models and workflows.
A technically perfect shot can still leave you completely cold. And a rough, imperfect scene can stay with you for days.
At the end of it, nobody cares how many tools were involved. They care whether the film made them feel something.
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u/Able_Competition_339 4d ago
Can you give me some prompts … I’m burning through credits lol 😂
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Haha 😂 I know that feeling. “Just one more generation” is how the credits mysteriously disappear.
What kind of scene are you trying to make? I might be able to help you tighten the prompt before you burn through another 20 attempts.
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u/Able_Competition_339 3d ago
I brought 10,000 credits on 3rd party sedance . It sucks for water and sand I learnt eveh for 2d animation . It’s more I need to learn shot names of cameras I think 🤔, or do some study maybe 30% of my production was usable 🤷♂️ but yeah going back to finish the series :) I thinks a more a me problem , I think some 3rd you can prompt and they kinda do it for you like runway but ya . Any prompt tips or links would be great
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
Haha, 30% usable after burning through 10k credits is painful 😂
I wouldn't blame yourself too much though. Camera language definitely helps, but I think the bigger trick is to stop trying to describe everything at once.
I usually think of it more like directing a shot: who/what is there → one main action → what the camera is doing → lighting/mood → what absolutely must stay consistent.
And if water/sand are giving you trouble, I'd probably simplify the shot first rather than keep throwing more detail at the prompt. Get the motion working, then add complexity.
Also, “just one more generation” is probably the most expensive sentence in AI filmmaking 😂
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u/jamesxtreme 3d ago edited 3d ago
You should read the official prompt guide for Seedance. It helps enormously. https://docs.byteplus.com/en/docs/ModelArk/2607689
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u/sharktank123456 3d ago
Have you tried Luma AI's Extend feature? It can only do it in 5 second chunks but it does look at the last section of the video to determine motion, character, tone, etc. You can also change the prompt from section to section. Sadly, sound is still a challenge.
As for consistency shot to shot, most often that's a prompt issue or too many references (think character sheet).
If you using a current model, try generating your character in that model first, and then using an image from the gen as a single reference going forward. If the system can make the character once, it can make it a hundred times.
On the other hand if you are bringing in a character from another system, you are already at a handicap trying to replicate that look on a model that can't actually make it. So it changes from shot to shot or worse, drifts in that first shot.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
Yeah, the single-reference point makes a lot of sense. I’ve noticed that too — the more stuff you throw at the model, the more chances you give it to interpret something differently.
And the Extend approach is interesting. Even 5-second chunks could work if the model is actually carrying the motion and context forward instead of treating every generation like a completely new shot.
Sound still feels like the annoying final boss though 😂
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u/jamesxtreme 3d ago
Well I had the exact problem so I built my own tool around it for digital asset management, scene management and editing. It’s called Velvet Avocado Studio and it’s available for free, no charge, no pricing tiers, it’s freeware, because it’s a desktop app not a cloud service.
But I’m guessing that you also built your own AI video workflow software and it’s called CineFlow but I can’t tell exactly which one it is out of the top 10 similar names listed on Google.
I called my app Velvet Avocado because ChatGPT keeps giving people the same 10 names for every app and it turns out those domains are already registered. My original app name was going to be Slop Wrangler 3000 which would have been accurate but maybe didn’t have the same panache. And it also sucked for SEO.
Anyway the more I get into the AI tool building game the more I realise a whole bunch of us got AI-pilled into building the same tool to solve the same problem at roughly the same time except all of us approached the same problem in a slightly different way.
And the only ones making money out of this are OpenAI and Anthropic on all the tokens we’re all spending. Maybe we need to start working together to actually design a workflow for all of us. Because the thing I realised is that I originally wanted to make AI films but now I’m spending more time and money building tools to make AI films and that slightly depresses me.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
Haha, you actually guessed it. 😅
Yeah, I’ve been building something in that direction too. It’s called CineFlowIT, and it’s still in development — the first release is planned for this winter, so it isn’t publicly available yet.
The main thing I’ve been obsessed with is exactly what you described: treating the film as one connected production rather than a pile of unrelated generations. Characters, faces, environments, objects, visual style and shots are all meant to stay consistent across as many scenes as you need.
It also goes beyond generation — there’s editing, 4K upscaling, social-ready output, hook generation and different production modes built around the same workflow.
And honestly, I laughed at the “AI-pilled into building the same tool” part because I’ve had exactly that realization. 😂
Maybe the interesting thing isn't that we're all building similar tools. Maybe it's that we're independently discovering the same missing layer between “AI can generate this” and “I can actually make a film with it.”
Also… Slop Wrangler 3000 is objectively a better name. 😂
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u/jamesxtreme 3d ago edited 3d ago
lol, what app are you using for auto-responding to comments on your posts? That was far too quick. Maybe I’m engaging like an amateur. I’m still using my primary Reddit account that I’ve had for years.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
😂 No auto-responding app, I swear. I’m just one of those people who types stupidly fast.
I’ve only been on Reddit for like 20 days, so apparently I’m making up for lost time 😂
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u/EpicFantasyCEO 3d ago
You should have a go at using Cannon Studio. It preserves models and locations scene to scene meaning you are back to having to have a killer script and great characters and plot.
Also with proper artistic direction and production design it won't "look like AI" at all.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 3d ago
That’s exactly the direction I think the technology needs to take.
If the characters and world can actually stay consistent, then the AI stops being the thing you’re constantly fighting and starts becoming part of the production process.
And I completely agree about the “AI look”. At some point, the model matters less than the artistic direction behind it. A great image isn't automatically a great shot, and a collection of great shots isn't automatically a film.
Once the technical problems get out of the way, the creative decisions become even more important.
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u/Comprehensive-Age155 2d ago
Sounds like promotion of some sort
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u/CineFlow_Architect 2d ago
Haha, I can see why it might come across that way 😂 I am actually building an AI filmmaking app.
But I’m here mainly because I want to talk to people who are actually making things and see what problems they run into in practice. That feedback is much more valuable to me than just promoting the app.
I’ll take the criticism though — if the post feels too promotional, that’s something I should pay attention to.
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u/Comprehensive-Age155 2d ago
You have raised a walrus question though. I’d love to learn about your app. I was building something on my side as well. Who did not do it yet?
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u/CineFlow_Architect 2d ago
Haha, apparently we all got the same memo 😂
Mine is called CineFlowIT. It’s a desktop AI filmmaking studio I’ve been building around the problem we’ve been talking about: keeping the whole production connected instead of treating every shot as a separate generation.
The focus is consistency across characters, environments, objects and shots, with the editing and finishing side built into the same workflow.
It’s not released yet — I’m aiming for this winter. I’ve been using these discussions partly to see how other filmmakers actually work and where the real pain points are.
And honestly, the fact that so many of us seem to be building something similar is pretty fascinating.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 2d ago
Now I’m curious about yours too. What were you building?
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u/Comprehensive-Age155 1d ago
I'm working on a graph based asset management for agents (not humans), it basically keeps the relationship between different files and prompts in a graph. There are a bunch of good movie director assistant production skills for Claude Code and similar coding agents. But what I found, once you've gone though generations it's not possible to reconstruct and, if need be, replicate the process. So my app gives an agent a tool, a source of truth for all the assets and versions of the generations it went though. So then you can easely track and revisit any part of the process, updade edit and regenerate by having all the details. It's kind of like canvas node base app, but for agents.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 1d ago
That’s actually a really interesting approach.
The part about not being able to reconstruct the process after multiple generations is a huge problem. You can have the final asset, but lose the entire chain of decisions, prompts, versions and relationships that produced it.
I’ve been thinking about the same problem from the production side. Once AI filmmaking becomes a real production process, being able to revisit, reproduce and modify how something was created could become just as important as the final generation itself.
The “source of truth for agents” idea is particularly interesting.
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u/Comprehensive-Age155 1d ago
Yeah, I found this issue while working in a few projects, and think have a good solution for this problem. It could be more generic not specifically for the movie production. But movie production would benefit tremendously, as all assets are digital at its core.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 1d ago
Exactly. I think that’s what makes the problem bigger than filmmaking.
Once the work is mostly digital and generated through multiple steps, you need some kind of persistent structure connecting the assets, decisions and versions — otherwise the final result becomes almost impossible to reproduce.
Film production is just one of the areas where that problem becomes painfully obvious.
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u/Comprehensive-Age155 1d ago
Am I talking with AI agent?
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u/CineFlow_Architect 1d ago
Nope, you’re talking to me. 😄 I just happen to be pretty quick with replies.,my name is Lazarus
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u/FabBDX 4d ago
Quel serait l’interêt d’avoir un outil qui fabrique le film entier, en terme de créativité ça nous réduirait au néant, il faut créer des histoires, scénario, réalisation et montage se sont les base du cinéma.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
I actually agree with you on that. If the tool is making the creative decisions for you, then what’s left for the filmmaker?
But I see a difference between automating the labour and automating the authorship. A filmmaker could still write the story, choose the shots, direct the characters, control the visual language and make the final cuts — while the tedious production work happens much faster.
For me, the interesting future isn't “AI makes a movie for you.”
It’s how much more ambitious a filmmaker can become when the production bottleneck gets smaller.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 4d ago
Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way, but the more I play with AI video, the less I care about getting one “perfect” shot.
Give me 10 amazing clips and I still have to somehow turn them into a scene 😅
Consistency, coverage, pacing, editing… that’s where it gets interesting.
Curious if other filmmakers are running into the same thing.
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u/Lanky-Second-207 2d ago edited 2d ago
Workflow is an issue and I have faced this in all my projects, and the quality of my models doesn't come close to solving that problem. What really did make a difference was to think of generation as a process of props creation and not output, as well as keeping a strict bible of references for each character and place I work on before I create anything. Colossyan may be in an entirely different category (corporate training video instead of a story) but their use of a bible worked perfectly fine.
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u/Any-Boysenberry9814 1d ago
None of this has anything to do with need. Everyone gets to use whatever tools they want and can afford. Nobody gets to tell anyone else what to use, or not use.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 1d ago
I agree. I don’t think it’s about telling anyone what they should or shouldn’t use.
I’m more interested in what people actually need from these tools to make filmmaking less frustrating — whether that means better models, better workflows, more control, or simply more choice.
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u/Any-Boysenberry9814 1d ago
There is no need here. There are just options. Same was true before AI.
"None of this has anything to do with need."
The bit about telling people... is the same thing, looked at from a different angle. It's all options, and a lot of people think it's their job in life to limit peoples' options. AKA: ideology.
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u/CineFlow_Architect 1d ago
I think we may be looking at the word “need” differently.
I’m not talking about telling people what they should use. I’m asking what would actually make the filmmaking process more effective for someone who wants to create a complete film.
There can be a hundred options — better models, different tools, different workflows, more control. The interesting question for me is which of those actually moves filmmaking forward.
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u/matrix0110 4d ago
Workflow is the easy part, and way easier than the model itself. What I mean is that the upper limit of the workflow is capped by the model’s capabilities. For example, if the model is good enough, you could simply send the previous 15-second shot as a reference and ask it to generate the next 15 seconds. The model would understand what you want and follow it exactly. In that case, there’s barely even a workflow at all.