Since Jul 2023
The trailer and the spec ad
Music first, a three-act arc and hundreds of takes: the short form AI film learned on.
The first AI films people shared were trailers: a minute of promise, no continuity required. Nicolas Neubert's Genesis (July 2023) set the recipe, and contests like Runway's Gen:48 and Civitai's Project Odyssey trained a generation of makers on it. The spec ad followed: PJ Accetturo's Kalshi spot aired during the 2025 NBA Finals, made by one person in two to three days.
How it works
- Choose the music first and cut the shots to its beats; Genesis was built on its soundtrack.
- Write a three-act arc in a minute: the world, the turn, the promise.
- Fix one look with a prompt template (aspect ratio, palette, film stock) so the shots belong to the same film.
- Generate far more than you use: Genesis took 316 prompts and 310 clips to keep 44; the Kalshi spot took hundreds of generations for fifteen clips.
- Cut fast, color-match in small groups, speed clips up, and let the music carry the continuity.
Example Films2
More making-ofs4
How films were actually made, from the people who made them.
Related on the timeline4