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I don’t think AI is going to replace cinema.
And I don’t think it’s going to replace filmmakers, editors, actors, or other audiovisual professionals in the way people keep predicting either.
What I do think it’s doing is making certain things possible for people who simply couldn’t afford them before.
That part genuinely excites me.
If you’re an independent artist or creator, you can now explore ideas that would previously require a crew, locations, VFX, a much bigger budget, or resources you just didn’t have access to.
That doesn’t make the creative part less important.
If anything, I think it makes it more obvious when there isn’t any.
I’m honestly getting a little tired of seeing projects that exist only to prove what a video or image generator can do.
Yes, the image is beautiful.
Yes, the movement is impressive.
Yes, the model can do something technically difficult.
But… what are you actually trying to say?
A tool can generate something visually impressive and still make something completely forgettable.
And when people talk about entire films being made with AI, I think they underestimate how much cinema depends on things that have nothing to do with generating a realistic image.
A performance isn’t just a face looking sad at the right moment.
It’s timing, instinct, chemistry, imperfection, interpretation. Sometimes it’s an actor doing something nobody planned and completely changing the scene.
That human presence is incredibly difficult to fake.
Most AI video still looks like AI to me, even when it’s technically very good. And realism alone isn’t what makes a film feel alive anyway.
I love working with these tools because they let me build things I might not otherwise have the budget to make.
But I don’t see them as a replacement for creativity.
They need it.
Without an idea, a point of view, taste, direction, and something human behind the work, it’s just a very advanced demonstration of what a machine can do.
And that’s not the same thing as making something worth watching.
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Where the shadows breathe, new worlds take shape.
Image: Recraft V4.1
Video: H3
Your art is a little horrifying, but I have to give you credit for the creativity!
It started with one image.
A skull.
I couldn't stop looking at it. It felt like it was alive and dying at the same time.
So I kept going.
Each version felt like the same soul dying in a new color.
Then I thought… what if it actually moved?
So I took my Firefly images and brought them to life with the new Kling 4.0
No camera.
No studio.
Just one skull and a feeling I had to follow.
This is "Pigment of the Dead."
Sound on 🔊
Dark art
WHERE TO?
Did I wake up at the mall, or inside a dream of one?
Either way, somebody left a key on my pillow, a bike under a cover started asking questions, and the only way to find out was to go.
I tried to squeeze the whole idea, and the whole trip, into the time limit: a guy farming aura all the way down to CapCut World LA, through a bay, a side quest, a wardrobe change he never asked for, and a city that can’t decide whether it’s real or rendered.
The credits ran out before the trip did. So the edit got creative: rescue cuts, two takes braided into one, and a render error that stayed in because it earned its place.
Whether he lands in Los Angeles or in the dream of it, you’ll have to watch.
Generated in CapCut Video Studio (Seedance 2.5, Seedream 5.0 Pro, Nano Banana Pro).
#CapCutWorld #CapCutWorldLA #1000WaysToCCW @CapCut
A render error that stays in because it earned its place is a braver call than regenerating it. Same with braiding two takes into one: neither take was right on its own, the cut made it right.