Free video course

AI Filmmaking & Screenwriting: From Script to Screen

21 lessons 104 min of videoBeginner to IntermediateFree

Make a real short film with AI, from the first idea to the final export.

Chapters (7)
Start lesson 1.1 Full playlist on YouTube

About this course

A free 21-lesson AI filmmaking course. You write, design, storyboard, generate and edit one complete short film, The Photo, with the same two actors in every shot. Along the way you learn the pipeline professionals use to make AI cinema instead of AI slop: a script AI can shoot, a visual bible, reference sheets for consistent characters, a shot list, 3D previz, the right video model for each shot, directing prompts, repairs, voices, sound and the final edit.

Every lesson has its own page with the video, chapters, key takeaways and the full transcript. The project you follow from the first lesson to the last: The Photo.

All 21 lessons

Section 1 · Welcome to AI Filmmaking

  1. 1.1Welcome: The Film You'll Make in This CourseMeet your instructor, see what AI cinema looks like with Lost Garden, and discover the course project you'll build from idea to export: The Photo, four shots, eighteen seconds, the same two actors in every frame.3:12
  2. 1.2The AI Film Pipeline: From Script to ScreenWhy "prompt and hope" is a slot machine, and the six-step pipeline professionals use instead: write, design, board, generate, sound, edit.5:47
  3. 1.3AI Slop vs AI Cinema: What Professionals Do DifferentlyThe five signatures of AI slop, the antidote to each one, and the check to run on every shot.6:59

Section 2 · Writing for AI Film

  1. 2.1From Idea to Logline: AI as Your Writing PartnerTurn a vague feeling into one sentence: generate twenty loglines with AI, filter them hard, keep three, and write the final one by hand.5:51
  2. 2.2Structuring a Short Film: Beats That Work in 3 MinutesSetup, turn, resolution, then five beats for a three-minute short. One change, in one character. Show, don't tell.5:45
  3. 2.3Writing a Screenplay AI Can Actually ShootStandard format, action lines for the camera, one clear action per moment, consistent names and stable positions.5:37

Section 3 · Design Your Film

  1. 3.1Building Your Visual Bible: Style, Light and LensRealistic or animated, a style paragraph you can paste in every prompt, a palette with meaning, one light logic per location, lens rules, and the style frame test.6:33
  2. 3.2Consistent Characters: Reference Sheets That Hold Across Every ShotThe identity paragraph, the reference sheet (front, three-quarter, profile, back, face), and the two sheets per character: previz and production.6:46

Section 4 · Shot List & Storyboard

  1. 4.1Breaking Down Your Script into a Shot ListShot sizes, angles, camera moves with a reason, designed coverage instead of "cover everything", and the 180-degree rule.5:50
  2. 4.2From Storyboard to 3D Previz: Lock the Camera Before You GenerateStoryboard in 3D previz, choose the aspect ratio first, generate the first pass, read every panel like a director, fix it before the video.5:15

Section 5 · Generate the Film

  1. 5.1Choosing the Right Video Model for Each ShotNo best model, only the best model for a shot: six criteria, a side-by-side test, draft first and finish later, one clip per scene or per shot.5:18
  2. 5.2Prompting Like a Director: Camera, Action, PerformanceThe real prompt of The Photo taken apart line by line: camera, subjects, action, performance, world and light, sound and constraints. Plus the five common mistakes.5:55
  3. 5.3Reference-to-Video: Keeping Characters and Sets On ModelWhy text alone can't hold a face, clean references with a job, the two pipelines (Reference to video, Storyboard panels to video), first and last frames, four traps.5:13
  4. 5.4Fixing Bad Shots: Repair, Reframe, RegenerateDiagnose before you reroll, change one thing at a time, repair the still not the video, rewrite the shot when it keeps failing, know when to stop.4:53
  5. 5.5Workshop, Part 1: Script & Storyboard, Step by StepLet's practice together in the interface: the tour, writing The Photo, the AI assistant, the story elements, the aspect ratio, the automatic storyboard and fixing a panel.6:21
  6. 5.6Workshop, Part 2: Production, Step by StepEvery shot wired as an image then as video, both pipelines, the AI Center, export and backups. Then it's your turn: build your first scene.5:02

Section 6 · Sound & Edit

  1. 6.1Voices, Dialogue and Lip SyncThree routes for dialogue (native, separate voice, voice-over), acting notes for a synthetic voice, and the consent rule.3:32
  2. 6.2Editing, Sound Design and Final ExportGet the material out, assemble then cut for rhythm (J and L cuts), sound in four layers, grade into one world, export for the destination, subtitle file.3:46

Section 7 · Case Study & Career

  1. 7.1Case Study: How Lost Garden Was MadeThe production files of an AI anime series: an idea and three clocks, faceless knights, bibles and establishing plates, rules repeated in every prompt, the grade.3:07
  2. 7.2Festivals, Distribution and Building Your AI Film CareerFestivals that accept AI films, the festival sheet, the four traps, launching online, honest credits, turning your short into a portfolio.2:52
  3. 7.3Bonus Lecture: What's NextThe method in one sentence, and where to keep practicing (the only lecture that mentions the free plan).0:34

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