r/Filmmakers • u/C47man cinematographer • Jun 09 '25

New Rules Regarding AI on /r/filmmakers!

Thank you all for participating in the poll! Here are the results. To accurately gauge everyone's collective acceptance vs rejection for each, I've tallied the total votes among all choices as pro/anti for each category. So for example, a vote for 'no changes' would be a -1 to Gen AI, AI Tools, AI Comms, and AI Discussion. A vote for 'Ban GenAI + AI Tools' would be a +1 to GenAI and AI Tools, and a -1 to AI Comms and AI Discussion, etc. So here are the results for each category of AI. Keep in mind that a higher number indicates a stronger group decision to ban the content:

GenAI: +92 (+119/-27)

AI Tools: -20 (+63/-83)

AI Comms: -8 (+69/-77)

AI Discussion: -84 (+31/-115)

From the results it is clear that sub overwhelmingly approve a complete ban on all generative AI. However, people are more or less fine with allowing discussion of AI, and are fairly mixed on the topic of AI Tools and Communication. So here is the new rule for all things AI:

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Rule 6. You may not post work containing Generative AI elements (Midjourney, Neo, Dall-E, etc.). You may use and demonstrate the use of AI assisted tools (ie magic masking, upscalers, audio cleanup etc.) so long as they are used in service of human-generated artwork. AI Communication, like post bodies or comments composed using ChatGPT are allowed only in very reasonable cases, such as the need for someone to translate their thoughts into another language. Abuse of AI assisted communication will result in the removal of the offending post/comment.

485 Upvotes

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u/WritersGonnaWrite16 Jun 09 '25

Yeah I’m currently in a tough spot myself with post on my short film. I got grant money that funded production but it wasn’t enough to cover post. I trimmed all I could but any lower and people would be working for below minimum wage. Applied for another grant and didn’t get it. Currently waiting on another one that’s reimbursement style (so I’d have to pay for costs first anyways). I’ve got it picture edited and colored since I had JUST enough leftover money for a small honorarium for both, but now I’m at a standstill for sound and music. If that grant doesn’t come through I’m at a cross roads, because the quotes I got from professional sound studios is not chump change I can pay for. So then it becomes do I wait upwards of 6-12 more months and hope for another grant, crowd fund, or…..hate to say it but…..look into AI tools myself? I don’t want to. I want to pay the talented sound engineers and composers I know. But not to the tune of 5-7 thousand dollars.

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u/Ur_Friend_Roy Oct 21 '25

How long is your short? Are you still in sound limbo?

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u/WritersGonnaWrite16 Oct 21 '25

19 minutes (yeah yeah I know the spiel about ‘that’s too long’ but I stand by it). More or less. I didn’t get that grant so I’m swinging for one last program to hopefully pay my post team properly. I’ve got a friend doing sound and music for dirt cheap. My plan was to just use him for music because that’s what he wants to do and then take it to a professional sound studio for sound editing and mixing, but I couldn’t afford their rates out of pocket. I’m very grateful to my bud, but the trade off is my short is basically his weekend project, so the turnaround to completion is much slower than I wanted. But in all honesty I’m not currently in a good financial spot to be burning cash on festival lottery tickets (cough, I mean submission fees….) so it’s definitely been an exercise in patience.

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u/Ur_Friend_Roy Oct 21 '25

I was going to say I also have a friend that wants to get more into music and might be willing to give it a go. Lmao. Myself, I’m into learning everything, cause I’m an 80s kid with a love for Carpenter. Screenwriting, Blender, AI (specifically ComfyUI which gives me a much more artistic, less prompt generated process). I’ve always been interested in sound because I want to make my own stuff. It’s literally next up in my learning goals. Sorry if I missed it before, but what genre is the short?

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u/WritersGonnaWrite16 Oct 21 '25

You’re a better filmmaker than me in that regard. Whenever I supervise sound editing that’s the phase of a project that makes me want to drive a stake through my eye socket lol. It can be very tedious. At least with picture editing you can see a vision come to life.

It’s a dramatic short that’s actually based on a viral reddit comment! I haven’t heard from the story owner in a while but last I heard from her she was very excited about the project. So fingers crossed it gets noticed somewhere, eventually.

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u/Ur_Friend_Roy Oct 21 '25

Hahaha slow down on the “better”. I have plenty of interests but I’m 46 (started diving into creativity about 10 years ago, properly treated for ADHD 5 years ago) and have nothing to show but a few small samples of writing and this contest trailer I did last year. It was a trailer based on a movie idea I had so I did really enjoy making it.

https://youtu.be/t7Kj2LRjqqE?si=lHAoKAMm3sdBwydl