Editorial

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Inspiration

The initial idea was to create a traditional fashion/lifestyle editorial that would swiftly descend into surreal madness and horror to subvert the genre.

What it does

It tells the story of a "day in the life" fashion editorial, intentionally lingering on the stylish, carefree start before taking a dark and gnarly turn. It blends high-end footage with lo-fi archives and AI VFX.

How we built it

The film was shot using multiple formats (high-end, lo-fi archive) to create a big, alive world on a no-budget production. The surreal visuals were achieved by generating and photoshopping stills, then using AI image-to-video models to create nearly 80 VFX shots. The edit is fast-paced and messy, covering 10 hours of footage down to 3:27 minutes.

Challenges we ran into

The AI video tools are inconsistent and imperfect, requiring months of trial and error and constant re-rolls. It was challenging to make the low-resolution AI clips blend, which was solved by the fast-paced editing and mixing them with diverse lo-fi footage formats.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Achieving photorealistic results with the AI tools and using them to expand the world and give it a greater sense of scale on a small budget. Also, the visceral sound design by Alex Wells and the cohesive color grading by Francis Qureshi, which made the diverse source material work together.

What we learned

The limitations of AI-generated video can be creatively incorporated through careful design (e.g., using fast cuts and dark environments). Traditional filmmaking is still the core, and AI tools are best used as extreme accents alongside existing workflows. Mixing many formats is a key ingredient for character and texture in no-budget films.

What's next for Editorial

More festivals hopefully!

Built With

• flux
• hailuo