About the workshop

Artificial intelligence has become yet another production tool. It is used to create adverts, short original films, inserts, packshots and entire worlds that, until recently, would have been impossible to produce on a reasonable budget. However, this change has brought with it a new risk: spending weeks on prompting and failing to deliver the project because nobody has taught us when to say ‘enough’.

This masterclass is the answer to that. It demonstrates how to work with AI in the same way as film production is managed: from the brief to broadcast, with clearly defined stages, approvals and decisions. The session takes the form of a lecture covering the process, with space for discussion. Using a specific example, the successive stages of the work will be broken down into their constituent parts: how to read a brief, why to start with stills, when to stop iterating, what to pass on to post-production, and what ultimately determines whether material created using AI tools becomes a finished piece of work.

“On the Other Side of the Prompt” begins the moment we realise that a conversation with artificial intelligence is a creative process, shaped by our decisions, sensibilities and experience. It will teach us to resist the temptation of endless iterations, enabling us to keep our budget and mental energy in check.

We won’t hand over control to the tools, but we’ll learn to use them in our own craft as we navigate the process between the brief, the visual and the approval.

We’ll discuss how to interpret a brief in the context of AI, why it’s worth starting with stills, how to manage approval rounds, what can be refined during the generation phase, and what isn’t worth pursuing endlessly and is better left to post-production.

Our reference point will be the workflow for AI-generated content: from research, through the selection of locations, set design, characters and lighting, right through to video generation, revisions, clean-ups and the final broadcast polish.

The original film The Pull, produced entirely using AI, will also be featured as an example of a project that began with learning the tools but ultimately had to become a finished film.

For whom?

The programme is aimed at people with experience in visual arts or the creative industries who wish to take a serious and productive approach to working with AI tools, finding ways to integrate them into their existing craft without compromising on quality or the pace of their work.

After the workshop

Participants will get an inside look at the full production cycle of a commercial using AI tools: analysing the brief, working on stills with client approvals, decisions regarding locations, set design and casting, working with framing and focal length, video generation, post-production and broadcast.

Programme overview

Over the course of four hours, the following topics will be covered: the brief as a decision-making roadmap, the landscape of tools, working on stills and managing approvals, generating video through the language of emotion, deciding when to end an iteration, post-production as the stage where the image is finalised, and narrative development and collaboration with the talent team.

Another point of reference will be The Pull, a film created by the author, which was made, amongst other things, to learn how to work with AI tools. Its production process is very similar to what participants will be able to try for themselves after the session.

Link to promo film:

https://youtu.be/W0oVhwx1OS0

We warmly invite you to sign up!