How AI is transforming filmmaking
Generative AI is continually pushing filmmaking into new frontiers, transforming everything from visual effects to editing to storytelling. Once limited to a small community of pioneers, AI filmmaking is now becoming standard, helping creators enhance or even generate entire scenes and completely reimagine cinematic worlds.
The industry is evolving fast – valued at $1.7 billion in 2022, the generative AI market in creative industries is expected to surpass $6 billion by 2025. As AI video production and filmmaking evolves, its influence on both creativity and production workflows is rapidly growing.
Artlist has recently launched another AI tool for image and video generation. This allows creators to generate high-quality images and videos from simple text prompts — making it easier than ever to visualize ideas, create unique assets, or enhance video projects with fully licensed, custom-made content.
What AI can do for video and film production
Whether it’s helping with scriptwriting, generating entirely new video clips, or enhancing sound, AI is becoming an essential part of contemporary film and video creation. Most creators use a combination of tools in their work. Many platforms offer free trials, making it easy for you to experiment and find the right mix for any project. Check out how AI could help you below, or head over to this article for more details.
Scriptwriting
AI-powered tools help brainstorm plot twists, generate natural dialogue, refine story structure, or even turn rough ideas into solid scripts. While AI can’t replace human storytelling, it can suggest character arcs, adjust pacing, and tailor dialogue to different emotions or genres, making the writing process faster and more dynamic.
Storyboarding
AI can generate complete storyboards in minutes, structuring shot sequences, suggesting cinematic angles, refining scene transitions, and letting you test different storyboard versions effortlessly.
You can, for example, use generative AI tools to create detailed shot descriptions from your script and then use AI to transform them into polished visuals. AI storyboarding tools can then directly convert your script into a visual storyboard.
With Artlist’s new AI image & video generator, creators can turn ideas into stunning visuals in just a few clicks. It’s specifically designed for video creators, and it integrates seamlessly with Artlist’s extensive library of royalty-free music, sound effects, and stock footage — all covered under Artlist’s license.
Generating video clips
AI-generated footage lets filmmakers create entire scenes purely from their imagination — no sets, actors, or cameras needed. Whether it’s Albert Einstein reciting your poem, two pirate ships battling each other in a cup of coffee, or a lion morphing into a mouse, AI turns the wildest ideas into reality.
Turning stills into videos
With AI, you can bring static images to life, transforming stills into dynamic sequences. This technique opens up many creative possibilities, from historical recreations to animated album covers, surreal dreamscapes, or bringing old family photos to life. Most video-generating tools offer this feature.
Mixing and enhancing your own footage with AI
AI can blend real-world video with generated elements, making complex visual effects more accessible — whether it’s background replacement, animated overlays, or enhancing low-quality footage.
Editing assistance
AI simplifies editing with automated cut detection, color grading, sound balancing, transitions, and more. With the right tools AI will describe the edits you need in plain, simple language and even create rough cuts of full-length interviews.
Voiceovers
AI can generate realistic voiceovers, clone voices, and automate narration in multiple languages. This is a game-changer for content creators who need to produce voiceovers without hiring voice actors. Check out the catalog of exclusive voices on Artlist’s AI voiceover built specifically for video creators.
Creating digital avatars
AI-generated, human-like characters are powering virtual influencers, transforming explainer videos, and even leading full-fledged performances in film. A range of tools lets you customize a character’s appearance, expressions, and movements, keeping it consistent across scenes. You can also create avatars of real people, such as yourself, allowing you to generate endless videos from just a short clip.
Soundtracks
AI tools can generate custom sound effects, enhance dialogue clarity, and even create original music, allowing you to score your project with unique compositions and lyrics. Suno AI is a great tool for music creation.
Recent breakthroughs in AI filmmaking
‘Baby Invasion’: Harmony Korine’s AI-driven thriller
In 2024, famous independent filmmaker Harmony Korine released ‘Baby Invasion’, an experimental thriller that pushed AI-driven visuals to new heights. Through his design collective EDGLRD, Harmony explores the intersection of film, gaming, and interactive storytelling. ‘Baby Invasion’ takes his vision further by integrating AI and gaming engines, allowing audiences to engage with the narrative in new ways.
‘Here’: Robert Zemeckis uses AI to rewrite time
Released in 2024, Robert Zemeckis’ film ‘Here’ is one of Hollywood’s first major productions to use real-time generative AI for de-aging actors. Instead of relying on extensive post-production effects, the film transformed Tom Hanks and Robin Wright across a 60-year timeline instantly, right on set. Traditionally, this level of facial modification would have required months of manual work by hundreds of visual effects artists, with a budget closer to that of a major blockbuster.
Hooroo Jackson’s ‘DreadClub: the first fully AI-generated, animated feature
Also in 2024, director Hooroo Jackson breaks new ground with the award-winning ‘DreadClub: Vampire’s Verdict’, the first fully AI-generated animated feature film. Completed in just a few months with a budget of only $400, the film used AI for every aspect of production — visuals, character animation, voice synthesis, sound design, and editing. By automating the entire animation pipeline, Hooroo demonstrated how AI can drastically lower the barriers to creating feature-length animated films.
Creators pushing the boundaries of video, film, and art
Beyond big-name directors or record-breaking pioneers, designers, filmmakers, and digital artists everywhere are experimenting with generative AI, pushing creative boundaries in ways never seen before. Whether it’s crafting AI-driven animations, surreal digital art, or interactive storytelling, here are some inspiring examples:
Suzan Valois (@iva_ai_popsurreal)
Suzan Valois is an urban designer who uses AI tools like Midjourney to create digital art that blends modern aesthetics with natural elements. Her project ‘A Step Closer to Your Dream Escape’ combines contemporary design with nature-inspired features, reimagining the future of living spaces and interior design.
Malik Afegbua (@slickcityceo)
Malik Afegbua is a Nigerian filmmaker, artist, and creative technologist who gained international attention in 2023 with ‘The Elder Series’. The AI-generated project depicts seniors as high-fashion models, challenging age-related stereotypes. Recently, he’s been creating nostalgic Nollywood scenes using AI.
Josh Gottsegen (@troplanduniverse)
Josh Gottsegen’s Tropland Universe brings the animal kingdom to life with stunning AI-generated art, drawing in over 550K Instagram followers. His hyper-detailed lions and other wildlife images offer a new take on the natural world. With books, novels, and an animated series in the works, Tropland Universe is just getting started.
Julie Wieland (@juliewdesign)
Julie Wieland crafts stunning visual narratives by blending traditional design with generative AI. Specializing in graphic design, post-photography, and storytelling, she uses AI tools to create hyper-realistic, cinematic imagery and scenes that blur the line between photography and digital art.
Jon Finger (@mrjonfinger)
Director and AI filmmaker Jon Finger is an early adopter who blends traditional footage with AI-generated enhancements to craft impressive cinematic scenes. His experiments showcase how AI can elevate everyday shots into rich, stylized environments that feel straight out of a blockbuster.
Generative AI in advertising: a new era of experimentation
AI-generated advertising is still in its early stages, but brands are already testing the waters of AI video production with mixed results. One of the most talked-about examples is Toys “R” Us, which in 2024 released a fully AI-generated commercial charting the brand’s history.
Created using OpenAI’s Sora, the ad tells the story of founder Charles Lazarus as a child, imagining the toy empire he would one day build. While some praised the ad as an exciting glimpse into the future of AI-driven marketing, others criticized its inconsistencies, such as character models changing from shot to shot.
The future of AI in filmmaking: Innovation meets human creativity
As AI filmmaking picks up speed and the technology advances, the demand for human creativity is growing. AI is moving from a background tool to real-time execution, generating assets, editing, and crafting entire scenes instantly. At the same time, there’s a growing pushback against overly automated aesthetics, and human-centered design is being embraced as a counterbalance.
This duality isn’t a contradiction — it’s an opportunity. The best creators do not see AI as a replacement but as a collaborator, using it to amplify their vision while keeping their unique style at the forefront. Those who embrace both innovation and artistry will shape the next era of filmmaking, proving AI isn’t here to replace creativity, but rather to expand it.
Tools like Artlist’s new AI video generator highlight how accessible and creator-friendly these technologies are becoming. Whether you’re an indie filmmaker or a content creator, experimenting with AI tools can unlock new creative possibilities and help bring your vision to life faster than ever. Curious to try it yourself? Explore Artlist’s AI image and video generator.
Read more about how AI can boost video editing.
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