Artificial intelligence has sparked a fascinating and highly relevant question: Can AI genuinely be leveraged to produce a fully coherent 60-second video commercial?
I’m not talking about just using AI for parts of the production process. Can it fully replace the production process?. The challenge lies in AI’s ability not only to generate visual and auditory elements but also to understand and execute the subtle nuances that make a commercial effective, all from prompts.
Okay, Magnum Opus may be a tad OTT, but that doesn’t change the fact that for two years, I’ve been sitting on my test commercial idea—like an over-caffeinated hen. I’ve developed the concept, scripted, storyboarded, and edited the boards into a fully scored, sound-designed 60-second film. The vision is complete. All that’s left is shooting it.
And that’s where everything comes to a grinding halt.
You see, my test commercial requires a cast of ten people who, rightly, expect to be paid for their time. Add seven locations, the crew, who also expect some form of payment [again, rightly so], SFX makeup that would make a horror director blush, wardrobe, props, and multiple green-screen setups. I’ve even got a scene where our hero comes face-to-face with God. Oh, I forgot, I need a summer shoot, because my exotic locations are, you know, exotic, not a muddy field in winter.
So, unless I win the lottery, I’m resigned to waiting another year, maybe more, until the universe decides otherwise. Then, something truly pathetic happened.
I was putting my third youngest—yes, third—to bed, listening to a trumpet playing crocodile singing the blues (coming from her Tonies box, not actually in the room) and I drifted into that alpha state, that blissful void just before you fall into something called sleep. Something I can only reminisce about since having four kids. Yes, FOUR! Sorry, I digress. Then the delusion hit me: Why not just use AI to make your test commercial? Isn’t AI the answer to everything these days? The solution to world peace, climate change, and finding out how long to cook a whole chicken in an Air Fryer?
I’ve used AI before — obviously for air fryer recipes — but also for making short b-roll clips for the content we produce at Theory Films.
But a whole, coherent, sixty-second film? Where I’m “directing” the “talent”. And, who the hell is going to bring me my oat milk latte?
“AI is killing the industry and taking jobs from real people,” I hear you say. I agree. AI is a genuine concern, especially given Sora 2’s capabilities. However, we must face the reality that AI is here to stay (at least until a dystopian future where servers are hacked and the internet ceases to exist, which, personally, I wouldn’t mind). I fully intend to create my test commercial for real. Still, this project is a personal and professional undertaking for these cold winter months. Who knows where it will lead and what insights it might offer.
So, here we go. The experiment nobody asked for, but the one Theory Films is now obligated to perform. I am officially attempting to produce and direct this entire, complicated, multi-scene commercial using Google VEO 3. The budget is officially £0. The sanity cost? Incalculable. Why VEO 3, you [didn’t] ask? Because we already pay for a Google account. So, there’s a reason.
I’m blogging the whole damn thing. Every step, every idiotic prompt, every rendering failure that looks like a Dali painting after a bad night. We need to know where the line is between innovation and self-parody, and I am strapping myself in to find out.
If nothing else, it’ll be a fantastic cautionary tale. Stay tuned for the failures—they’re going to be glorious.
