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Let’s Talk about the AI Disruption

Using or even talking about AI freaks a lot of creatives out. It’s time to get real. The genie is out of the bottle. Things are not going back to Peak TV of 2017 or the movie theaters of 1993. Ever since 1904, when fiction films became popular with audiences, entertainment has been evolving with technology.

Movies did not kill live theater, and they survived the arrival of television. Movies made by and starring humans will not go away. But the business will change. There will be fewer traditional films made every year. Their releases will feel more like an event.

Yes, some jobs and even whole professions will disappear. This evolution has always happened in entertainment. I was working at Disney Feature Animation when the studio made the last hand-drawn feature film. Those artists and skill sets are gone. The same thing happened to special effects with the advent of CGI. The model artists that made the Death Star for Star Wars are extinct.

But with disruption comes opportunity. New jobs and new creative and production pipelines will emerge.

Even if you choose to be a traditional filmmaker, you need to know what the AI tools are and what they can do. They are going to continue to improve and become more ubiquitous.

As the creator profiled here, Jeff Rivera, says, “even the people that say they aren’t using AI are.”

The Good News

While things are changing at the speed of light, you, your creativity, and stories are valuable. The entertainment industry will always need creators and storytellers. What is coming is good news. The center of gravity is moving away from Hollywood. Just like what happened to publishing with the introduction of the Kindle in 2009. Suddenly authors could easily publish their books and get them to readers. The gatekeepers of the New York publishers became immaterial. Now indie publishing is flourishing while traditional publishers are struggling. 

The same thing is going to happen to the entertainment industry. Without the roadblock of hundred-million-dollar production and marketing budgets, creators, directors, and writers will make their movie and television projects themselves. Both animation and photrealistic stories are possible. Now ideas that were too expensive are within reach. This seismic shift means more stories. More kinds of stories. And more fans. This is exciting news for storytellers and audiences.

Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans Theory is still relevant. As a creator, the focus will be on nicheing down and finding your audience. Want to make your gay vampire TV show? There are people out there who will love it! You just have to find them. The key to this new creator-driven Hollywood will be finding, building, and selling to your audience.

That movie in your head that you’ve been waiting to sell to tell? Now you can make it! No more pounding the pavement. No more waiting for that elusive yes. No more development hell. You can make  it all - your movie, pilot, proof of concept, or trailer!

Meet A Creator Who is Making His Feature Film

I interviewed Jeff Rivera, who is making an animated musical fantasy called Kingdoms of the Last Tribes (he describes it as “Disneyesque”). He is the writer, director, designer, and composer! Right now, a single creator can move from script to animated scenes without a full studio.

Jeff graciously shared his workflow and tools with me so I could share them with you. While he is making an animated feature, these steps also will work for creating photorealistic projects. Here is a trailer for one of his live action movies.

AI Habits to get the Best Results

How to Prompt

The key to using generative AI tools is knowing how to prompt. The output is only as good as the input. The more specific and creative you are, the better the result. I know one creator who uses complicated prompts, sometimes as long as 200 words.

While there is a learning curve to prompting, you can use the AI tools to help you. Very meta, right?  ChatGPT  or Gemini or Claude can help you write prompts. They are all great. Experiment to find your preference.

Example: Create a Midjourney prompt for a photorealistic  blonde 1920s flapper age 23 dressed in an evening gown. Use the aspect ratio 16:9.

Hint: When creating images, be sure to include the aspect ratio. Otherwise, you will get a default square image. The movie aspect ratio (rectangle) is 16:9, TikTok and Instagram Reels are 9:16. If you are not sure what aspect ratio to use, ask your AI prompt partner.

Hint: Remember this is a conversation. Start by telling the AI about your story. Include the genre, style, premise, emotional journey, and background of your characters. What are their looks and personalities? Go back and forth, reiterating until you like the result.

Use Paid Versions

You get what you pay for. The paid versions of AI tools are light years better than the free ones. To save money, pay by the month and unsubscribe when you are not using them regularly.

You Are the Director

Start thinking like a director. When you watch movies and TV, notice how the director uses different shots in a scene to tell the story and elicit emotion.  

Jeff’s 8-Step AI Filmmaking Workflow

Think of this workflow like a film set made of apps. Each one has a job. You’re the director, writer, and producer, running the whole circus.

Step 0: The Script

Before anything else, you need a strong script. Everything starts with the story.

Step 1: Create Characters

Jeff’s first official step is character creation, and he recommends Midjourney.

How he uses it:

• Midjourney has a specific lingo. If you’re new to Midjourney prompting, Jeff suggests using your favorite AI to help you write prompts.
• If you want a free option, he points to Meta AI.

Output: Character images you can use consistently.

Step 2: Create backgrounds and locations

Next: Build your world, going through locations scene by scene. Jeff uses Midjourney again for backgrounds and locations.

Hint: Decide your design and lighting style. Are you telling a romance in sun-soaked tropical locales? A neon-fueled action movie mostly at night? A bright modern comedy?

Output: location images (your sets.)

Step 3: Break the script into shots

Now you put on your cinematographer hat. Here is an explanation of the different kinds of camera angles and shot terminology.

Mini Glossary: Camera Shots, Angles, and Movements

Remember: you are the director now. The AI tools speak fluent cinematographer, so the more precisely you name your shots, the better your results. Use these terms in your prompts exactly as written — “low angle close-up, slow push-in” will get you something far better than “make it dramatic.” Watch a favorite movie scene with this list in hand and you'll start seeing the choices behind every frame.

Shot Sizes (How Close Are We?)

Establishing shot — A wide view that opens a scene and tells the audience where we are — the town, the building, the tearoom at dawn. Use one at the start of each new location.

Wide shot (or long shot) — The full character and their surroundings. Good for action, geography, and showing a character alone in a big world.

Full shot — The character from head to toe. Useful for entrances, costumes, and physical comedy.

Medium shot — The character from the waist up — the workhorse of conversation scenes. When in doubt, this is your shot.

Close-up — The face fills the frame. This is where emotion lives. Use it for reactions, realizations, and any moment you want the audience to feel.

Extreme close-up — One detail fills the frame — the eyes, the trembling hand, the monogrammed cake fork. Use sparingly, for maximum drama.

Two-shot — Two characters in one frame. The staple of dialogue and romance — it shows the relationship, not just the people.

Over-the-shoulder (OTS) — The camera looks past one character's shoulder at the other. The standard back-and-forth pattern for conversations; alternate OTS shots between speakers.

Insert shot — A quick cut to an object that matters — the letter, the phone screen, the key in the lock. Inserts say, “pay attention to this.”

Reaction shot — A shot of a character responding to what just happened. Never forget reaction shots. The audience learns how to feel by watching your characters feel.

Camera Angles (Where Are We Looking From?)

Eye level — The camera at the character's eye height. Neutral, natural, and invisible — your default.

Low angle — The camera looks up at the subject, making them powerful, heroic, or threatening. Villain entrances love a low angle.

High angle — The camera looks down, making the subject seem small, vulnerable, or overwhelmed. Perfect for a heroine at her lowest moment.

Bird's-eye view (overhead) — Looking straight down from above. Great for reveals, patterns, and showing a character surrounded — or a body in a garden.

Dutch angle (canted angle) — The camera tilts sideways so the horizon sits crooked. Instant unease — something is wrong here. Use it for tension and disorientation.

POV (point of view) — The camera becomes a character's eyes, showing exactly what they see. Powerful for discovery moments — we find the clue when they do.

Camera Movements (How Does the Frame Move?)

Static (locked-off) — The camera doesn't move. Calm, composed, and often the right choice — constant movement exhausts an audience.

Pan — The camera pivots left or right from a fixed spot, like turning your head. Use it to follow action or reveal what's beside the frame.

Tilt — The camera pivots up or down from a fixed spot. A slow tilt up a character is a classic dramatic introduction.

Push-in (dolly in) — The camera physically moves toward the subject. A slow push-in on a face during a realization is one of the most powerful tools in filmmaking.

Pull-back (dolly out) — The camera moves away from the subject, revealing context or leaving a character alone in the frame. A classic scene-ender.

Tracking shot — The camera travels alongside the action — walking with characters down a street or through a crowded room. Adds energy and immersion.

Zoom — The lens magnifies the image without the camera moving. Feels slightly more artificial than a push-in; a fast zoom (“crash zoom”) reads as comedic or shocking.

Crane (or drone) shot — The camera rises or descends through the air — sweeping over the town, lifting away from the final scene.

Handheld — The camera moves with a human wobble. Adds urgency, realism, or nerves.

Slow motion /speed ramp — Time slows for emphasis, or shifts speed mid-shot. Use for impact moments.

💡 Prompt formula to steal: [shot size] + [angle] + [movement] + [subject and emotion] + [lighting]. For example: “Medium close-up, low angle, slow push-in on a determined woman in a tearoom doorway at golden hour, warm light.”

Hint: Use these shots, camera angles, and movements in your prompts to get the best results.

Jeff uses ChatGPT to get shot breakdowns with a very specific prompt:

“You are a cinematographer for Steven Spielberg. Read this script and break it down into shots. Make sure each story point has coverage for action and reactions.”

Hint: Don’t forget reaction shots. For storytelling and emotion, the audience needs to see what the characters are feeling.

Output: A shot list (wide, medium, close-up, angles, movement ideas.)

This step gives your film a professional structure. Your shot list is the blueprint. Think visually here. You are the director.

Step 4: Compositing: Combine character + location into actual frames

This is where you create something you can animate.

Jeff takes the characters, backgrounds, and shot list into Gemini, and uses Nano Banana to “bridge” them together, meaning you are putting the character in the location with a specific shot. The outcome looks like a film still, a frozen moment from your story.

What that means in practice: Tell Gemini something like: “Put Character A in Location B at a low angle, 35mm lens vibe, dramatic lighting, looking screen left,” and it outputs a composited image that matches your shot plan.

Hint: Remember to use your AI prompting partner. Tell it who is in the scene, where it is, what is happening, the emotional feeling of the scene, the pacing, and lighting.

Jeff also recommends Higgsfield and Freepik as alternatives for this compositing step.

Output: Still frames that look like real shots (characters placed in locations at planned angles.)

Step 5: Upscale your images

Once you have frames, Jeff upscales them for speed and quality.

Upscaling is the step where you take an image (or video frame) that’s too small or a little crunchy and increases its resolution so it looks sharper and holds up in editing, animation, and export.

AI-generated images often start at a modest size. That’s fine for brainstorming, but when you try to animate them, zoom in, crop, or cut them into a polished scene, you can get softness, pixilation, and weird, mushy details. Upscaling uses software to rebuild more pixels and add believable detail, so the image looks cleaner at a higher resolution.

In Jeff’s workflow, upscaling happens after he composites the character into the location before animation. That way, the animation tool is working with a higher-quality source frame, and the final scene looks more like a film and less like a test render.

His go to: Let’s Enhance because it’s fast.

Other options he mentions:

• Magnific
• Upscaling tools inside Leonardo and Higgsfield

Output: high-resolution frames ready for animation

Step 6: Animate

Jeff’s top pick right now is Veo3, Google’s video generator. He likes it because it handles lip-sync and acting.

How he uses it:

• Upload the image.
• Add a prompt like: “Zoom in as she says: ‘Jeff, what are you talking about?’”
• It animates mouth movements and camera motion.

If Veo3 isn’t cooperating, he lists backups:

• Kling
• Seedance
• Omni Creator
• For speaking/singing where you want tight control, he likes Veed.io because you can upload your own audio for perfect lip-syncing.
• He also likes Runway’s Act Two model for speaking and mannerisms.

Output: Animated clips per shot

Quick fix: If your video looks slow-motion-ish, speed it up about 30% in an editor.

Step 7: Edit and assemble

Time to stitch your shots into a scene.

Jeff prefers Adobe Premiere, but he points out DaVinci Resolve is free and just as good. CapCut is another option.

Output: A finished scene edit

Step 8: Music and sound design

Sound is where your film stops feeling like a test and starts feeling like a movie.

Jeff’s sources:

• Motion Array for royalty-free music and sound effects.
• Suno for original music generation. You can hum a melody and ask for variations like “cinematic” or “scary”.
• Veo3 adds sound design automatically when you include sound in your prompt.

Output: music and sound effects that support emotion and tone

For a downloadable clickable cheat sheet of these tools go here.

AI Filmmaking Tool Cheat Sheet (using Jeff Rivera’s process)

• Prompts: Use ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to write prompts
• Characters: Midjourney or Meta AI
• Locations: Midjourney
• Shot list: ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude + cinematographer prompt
• Composite frames: Gemini + Nano Banana or Higgsfield or Freepik
• Upscale: Let’s Enhance (or Magnific, Leonardo, Higgsfield)
• Animate: Veo3 (best), backups: Kling, Seedance, Omni Creator, Runway, plus Veed.io for audio-driven lip-sync
• Edit: Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve or CapCut
• Music/SFX: Motion Array, Suno, plus Veo3 sound design

Filmmaking Prompt Hints

• The more specific and creative you are, the better the result.
• Use ChatGPT  or Gemini or Claude to help you write prompts. Experiment to find your preference.
• Remember this is a conversation. Go back and forth, reiterating until you like the result.
• Include the aspect ratio. Otherwise, you will get the default square image.
• Use the paid versions.
• Think like a director. Movies are a visual storytelling medium.
• Cinematographer prompt: “You are a cinematographer for Steven Spielberg. Read this script and break it down into shots. Make sure each story point has coverage for action and reactions.”
• Give the AI a job. “You are a director.”
• Use camera shot and movement terms.
• Don’t forget reaction shots. For storytelling and emotion, the audience needs to see what the characters are feeling.
• Include who is in the scene, where it is, what is happening, the emotional feeling of the scene, the pacing, and lighting.

Use This Work Flow

You don’t need to make a feature film tomorrow. Start with proof-of-concept steps that help sell your story:

• Make a 20–40 second scene teaser to pitch tone and genre.
• Create a musical number to showcase a song.
• Build an animated pitch-deck.
• Prototype hard-to-explain moments: creatures, worlds, or action.

Go Get ‘Em

If you’ve got a project that was labeled too big and expensive, this workflow will help you make it one shot at a time. I can’t wait to see what you create!

Note: This article was written in February 2026. While tools continue to evolve, the workflow described here will stay relevant.

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