AI Versus Traditional Video ProductionAI Versus Traditional Video Production

How Each One Works

A traditional production plans a shoot: locations, permits, crew, cast, equipment, travel, and a schedule that depends on weather and availability. What is filmed on the day is what the edit has to work with.

An AI production keeps the same planning, treatment and storyboards, but replaces the shoot with generation. Each shot is made to an approved board, then cut, graded and mixed in the same way as filmed footage. What the edit works with is decided on paper first and made to match. Our guide to how AI video production works goes through each stage.

Where AI Production Is The Stronger Choice

Generation is usually the better option for:

• things that do not exist yet, such as buildings sold off the plan, unreleased products and concept vehicles
• places that are hard or expensive to film, such as a mountain ridge, a desert at sunset or a city street at night in the rain
• campaigns that need many versions, lengths and formats from one idea
• films where the look has to be controlled completely, down to the light and the weather
• changes after release, such as a new end card, a different market or a new season's product

Our spec commercial for the Land Rover Defender, for example, moves from a forest track to a river crossing to a desert lookout in 45 seconds, a run of locations that would take a crew several days to shoot.

Where A Traditional Shoot Is The Stronger Choice

A shoot is usually the better option for:

• interviews and testimonials, where the value is a real person saying something in their own words
• documentary and events, where the point is to capture what actually happened
• demonstrations where the product's exact physical behaviour is the message
• any film where the audience needs to know the footage is real

Many campaigns use both. A shoot can capture the founder or the product in hand, and generated shots can put the product in settings that would be impractical to film. The two can be cut together and graded to one finish if they are planned to the same treatment from the start.

Quality

For most commercial work, generated film can now be finished to the same standard as filmed footage. It can be delivered as a graded 4K master with a proper sound mix, and The Island of Gems and our Mercedes spec films were finished that way.

What separates a good result from a poor one is the same as with a shoot: direction, consistency from shot to shot, the edit, the grade and the sound. Poor AI video is usually a string of unconnected clips with nobody directing them.

Cost And Time

The cost of a traditional production is driven by the shoot: crew days, locations, talent, equipment, travel and the risk of losing a day to weather. An AI production removes most of those costs. Its cost is driven instead by the running time, the number of shots, the number of formats and the rounds of review.

Time works the same way. There is no waiting on weather, locations or people's availability, so the schedule goes into development, boards and finishing, and changes after the film is finished are easier to make.

Accuracy And Trust

Generated footage has to be held to the same standard as any advertising. A product must look like the product, and a home or building must match what buyers will actually receive. We check every frame against the references. For property and developments, we recommend labelling generated imagery the same way renders are labelled, for example as an artist's impression.

How To Choose

Start with what the film has to show. If it needs a real person, a real event or proof that something happened, shoot it. If it needs something that does not exist yet, a place that is hard to reach or many versions of one idea, generate it. If it needs both, plan both from the start so the two parts are made to one treatment and graded to match.

If you are not sure which fits, send us the brief and we will tell you which approach we would use and why.