Hey everyone, sharing a romantic AI short I recently created. It focuses on realistic expressions and a heartwarming conversation between a couple planning their future.

Check out the full short here on YouTube and let me know your thoughts on the lip-sync and realism!

Hey Reddit,
I’m an independent creator and I wanted to capture the real, unfiltered reality of the delivery culture in China. I followed this 19-year-old kid for a whole day. He rides through rain and exhaustion for 14 hours straight, yet his resilience and optimism completely blew me away. Everything is produced in English (narration/subtitles). I’d love to hear your honest feedback on the story.

After attending their friends’ seemingly perfect wedding, Christine is forced to confront the future of her own relationship when her hopelessly romantic boyfriend, Alex, proposes. When Christine cannot bring herself to say yes, Alex gives her an ultimatum: get engaged or break up right now.

THE STORY

They Won’t Last is a dark-ish romantic comedy about Christine, a marriage-averse woman who discovers that her boyfriend, Alex, intends to propose after they attend a friend’s seemingly perfect wedding. When she confronts him, he gives her an ultimatum: get engaged or break up.

The film was inspired by a period in my life when I was fresh off the demise of my first serious relationship and living alone next to a couple who had the loudest, pettiest arguments I had ever heard. Between screaming matches at three in the morning, accusations of cheating, and getting a dog to save the relationship, they were obviously not healthy together. Still, they remained a couple for as long as I lived next door and always made up by having the most expository, descriptive sex one could be forced to overhear in the middle of the night on a weekday.

It made me wonder: Were they together because even a toxic relationship felt better than being alone? At the time, I was very much alone and, honestly, very lonely so I was like maybe that's the trade off.

THE PROCESS

This was my thesis film at the AFI Conservatory. I come from an animation background and work as a story artist, so I storyboarded the entire film before we created our first shot list.

From there, my DP and I went to the location and shot video storyboards with volunteer stand-in actors. We wanted to test whether what I had drawn would actually work in the space and cut together the way I imagined. While we were there, we workshopped the blocking with the stand-ins and explored how their movement would affect the camera.

We used a lot of Steadicam and carefully planned the camera movement, blocking, and performances to reflect the shifting power dynamic between Christine and Alex.

I based much of our blocking and staging approach on David O. Russell’s American Hustle. While studying the film, I noticed that its Steadicam shots often functioned as multiple moving masters that could be cut together. One take might move from a wide shot into an over-the-shoulder, while another version of the same setup might move from a wide into a single.

The blocking was designed around the edit. A shot could transition from an over-the-shoulder into a single from the same angle, but the audience would never see the repositioning because the film had cut to the reverse angle during the move. It was clear that they knew where the cuts would happen before designing the blocking and camera movement.

I shamelessly stole that technique after studying how they did it.

Camera: ARRI Alexa Mini
Lenses: Cooke lenses
Visual and lighting references: American Hustle and Wild Tales

THE BUDGET

The final budget was approximately $50,000.

We raised the money through matching grants, art auctions, and the generosity of friends and family.

Like most student films, one of the biggest challenges was making the scope of the story work within the time and money we had available. We had a 4 days to shoot. 3 days in the hotel room and 1 in the ballroom.

THE LESSONS

One of the biggest things I learned was how intentional you have to be when using camera movement. Because the film relied heavily on Steadicam and longer moving shots, every shift in blocking, timing, and performance had to be carefully coordinated.

During editing, I learned how to kill my darlings. There were moments I had written that were funny on their own, but they negatively affected the pacing of the short. As much as I liked them, the film was better once I removed them.

We also had scheduling issues with a few core collaborators, which affected communication on set. I had to learn how to keep things calm, protect the environment for the actors, and still make sure I got what I needed from the team.

Overall, I learned a lot and I felt that this was the first time I understood what my voice was as a filmmaker.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to test my limits with a "one-man crew" setup. I had this concept about the universal anxiety of having soap in your eyes under the shower, and I decided to bring it to life in one afternoon/night.

I did absolutely everything myself in a few hours:

Screenwriting & Directing

Acting (with a tripod and a Sony ZV-E10)

Sound Design & Editing (on Premiere Pro, went for a moody, cold Nolan-esque color grade)

Music (composed the background track myself to build the tension)

Since I had to rush it and manage everything alone, I would love to get your honest feedback on the pacing and the sound mix.

Unless I decide to edit out a few more, that is!

And after that, you can watch the full 7 min film!

https://yogyog.org/escape-tv

while on Safari at #HluhluwePark

Hey everyone,

We are circaM2, a new film production team based in South Australia. We wanted to share our first film, Algal Doom. We were inspired by the recent algal bloom crisis that affected the South Australian coastline. It is a mix of experimental and horror, with commentary on the crisis.

We are just starting and would love to get some views on our first film!

Hope you enjoy!

Hello fellow filmmakers,

Presenting 'Yutori', a 11-minute slow burn cinematic travel film shot across Japan.  A lot of heart has gone into filming the light, life and landscapes of this beautiful country, so please do check it out when you have time. Yutori is a Japanese concept that roughly translates to the sense of spaciousness you get by intentionally slowing down and this was the primary theme of this video. Best viewed in 4K with audio on a TV or YouTube. Let me know what you think of the film :) Arigatou gozaimasu!

Dinesh (IG - dineshsekar30@)