# The trailer and the spec ad

Period: Jul 2023 – now · Era: 2023 · The Cambrian Explosion

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 worked

1. **Choose the music first** and cut the shots to its beats; Genesis was built on its soundtrack.
2. **Write a three-act arc** in a minute: the world, the turn, the promise.
3. **Fix one look** with a prompt template (aspect ratio, palette, film stock) so the shots belong to the same film.
4. **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.
5. **Cut fast, color-match in small groups, speed clips up,** and let the music carry the continuity.

## Why it mattered

Trailers and ads forgive what AI could not yet do, hold a scene, and reward what it did best, striking images. They built the audience, the contests and the first paid work.

## Tools of the era

- Midjourney (2022): https://midjourney.com
- Runway Gen-2 (2023): https://runway.com/research/gen-2
- Veo 3 (2025): https://deepmind.google/models/veo/
- Claude (2025): https://claude.ai

## Example videos and posts

- Genesis: 316 prompts, 310 clips, 44 used · Nicolas Neubert: https://x.com/iamneubert/status/1684989102213476359
- The Kalshi NBA Finals spot: two days, about two thousand dollars · PJ Accetturo: https://x.com/PJaccetturo/status/1932893260399456513
- Replacing a live-action ad campaign: full process · PJ Ace: https://x.com/PJaccetturo/status/1979215033172127798
- AI film masterclass and cost breakdown: Planet Hell (Veo 3.1, Sora 2 remix) · Theoretically Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIAyiStv4uc

## On the timeline

- [Genesis](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/genesis-neubert) (2023-07-26)
- [Gen:48 — 1st Edition](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/gen48-edition-1) (2023-11)
- [Project Odyssey Season 2](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/project-odyssey-season-2) (2025-02-17)
- [IM8 Ad: 233 Million Views in Three Days](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/im8-ad-233-million-views) (2025-08-27)
- [Gen:48 — Aleph Edition](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/gen48-aleph) (2025-08-23)
- [Grok Imagine's $175K Odyssey Contest](https://aifilmhistory.org/entry/grok-odyssey-contest) (2026-08-17)

## Sources

- The making of Genesis: https://www.maginative.com/article/the-making-of-genesis-movie-trailer-midjourney-runway/
- The filmmaker behind the AI-generated Kalshi ad: https://www.aol.com/filmmaker-behind-ai-generated-kalshi-080501748.html
- Civitai Project Odyssey: https://www.runpod.io/blog/runpod-sponsors-civitai-odyssey

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Source: https://aifilmhistory.org/workflows/trailer-and-spec-ad