AI Filmmaking Workflow: From Script to Screen in 6 Steps

0:04Most people make AI video like this they type a prompt they hit generate and they hope When it's not right, they change three words and pull the lever again It's a slot machine Sometimes you win a beautiful shot But you can't make a film out of lucky shots because a film needs the next shot to match the last one

0:27Professional filmmakers solved this problem a century ago. It's called a pipeline a Fixed order of steps where every decision is made once at the right moment and then carried forward AI doesn't replace that pipeline it plugs into it Here are the six steps we'll use for the rest of this course

0:47step one right Everything starts with a screenplay not a prompt a screenplay Who is in the scene where they are what they want and what we see them do? The script is the source of truth and every later step reads from it in our project. The script is half a page Thomas hands his sister Emily an old photo he found at their mother's house one line of dialogue. That's enough

1:16step two design Before you generate a single shot you decide what the film looks like a visual Bible The style the palette the light the lenses and a reference sheet for every character every location and every important object These references are what keep Thomas looking like Thomas in shot one and in shot 40

1:40Step three board You break the script down into shots Wide medium close -up insert then you storyboard them in this course We storyboard in 3d previs simple gray figures and a blocked -out set So you can choose the camera position the lens and the movement before you spend anything on generation This is where you direct the storyboard costs almost nothing a wrong shot costs money and time

2:10step four generate only now do we call a video model and Because the script the references and the storyboard already exist the prompt isn't a guess anymore It's an assembly the action comes from the script the characters from the sheets the framing from the board in our project The four shots of the photo were generated as one continuous clip So the light the rain and the actors stay consistent across every cut

2:59step five sound voices dialogue Ambience music half of what an audience feels comes in through the ears and it's the step most AI creators skip A rainy night is rain on the roof the hum of the engine a breath before the line

3:16Step six edit you assemble you trim you find the rhythm you grade the shot So they feel like one film and you export for wherever it's going a festival YouTube or a client

3:30So where does AI actually help step by step when you write? It's a sparring partner the pitches it questions and you choose when you design it renders the looks you describe When you board it builds the previs from your shot list when you generate it performs For sound it voices and its scores and in the edit you're in charge at every step The rule is the same AI proposes you decide

3:59Now notice the order each step locks a decision So the next one doesn't have to guess the script locks the story the design locks the look the board locks the camera So when you generate the model has only one job left performing the shot that's why this works and the slot machine doesn't and when a shot fails, you know exactly which step to go back to

4:24Each step also leaves you with something you keep the script the visual Bible and the reference sheets the shot list and the previous The generated shots the sound stems and the final master Keep them together in one project Come back to it in six months or hand it over to a collaborator and everything is there that folder is your production

4:46So what's all this cost in time and in money? It depends on the length and on the models But here's a realistic picture for a three -minute short writing an afternoon up to a few days Design and references about a day Storyboard and previs another day Generation one or two days retakes included Sound and edit one or two days in Money generation is the big line Expect to generate each shot two to four times and budget for it from the start We'll do the math together shot by shot in section four

5:23Right design board generate sound edit Keep this map in mind because every section of this course is one of these steps in the next lecture We'll look at what goes wrong when you skip them the five signatures of AI slop and how professionals avoid every one of them