Alice in Terrorland

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Inspiration

What it does

How we built it

Challenges we ran into

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

What's next for Alice in Terrorland

Inspiration

This started as a simple idea: make a 30-second AI ad for McDonald’s just for fun. While building the first shots, the project took a life of its own. The lighting tests, character shots, and tone studies kept pushing the story toward something bigger. What was supposed to be a quick branded clip turned into a full two-minute micro-horror short.

What I Wanted to Explore

I wanted to test how far a solo creator can go using AI as the production backbone:

character creation

worldbuilding

cinematography

music

editing All done using accessible tools, fast iterations, and almost zero physical resources.

The goal wasn’t realism. The goal was a cohesive vibe, a neon nightmare world that feels alive even on a tiny budget.

How It Was Made

I used AI tools for every stage:

Midjourney + Nano Banana for character design and stylized worlds

Kling / Runway for motion

Suno for music

Premiere Pro for final editing and sound The workflow focused on rapid iteration: design, tweak, regenerate until the shots matched the emotional beats of the story.

Challenges

The biggest struggles were:

keeping character consistency across different models

blending live-action style lighting with neon horror

managing generation errors

making each scene feel intentional instead of “AI random” These forced me to constantly re-prompt, rebuild angles, and manually fix details in post.

What I Learned

AI filmmaking shines when you commit to a clear mood and build around it. It’s not about perfect realism. It’s about direction, emotion, and momentum. I also learned that AI opens a new lane for short-format storytelling—fast, expressive, and accessible.

Why I Built This

I wanted to show what’s possible for a single creator using AI tools: You can build worlds that used to require a team, a budget, and months of production. Even something as small as a “fake McDonald’s ad” can evolve into a full microfilm with its own identity.

Built With

• ai