An AI feature film about Beethoven made on a $5k budget

Monique Pryce@second_bassoon

To answer your questions:

- No, there wasn't any upscaling involved.

- This was generated in Seedance 2.5 at 720p

- This clip has four total generations edited together.

- It took 5-7 tries each to get the clips that were ultimately selected for this edit.

- I used a midjourney profile trained on historical cinematic stills to generate the environment reference for this scene. (NBP and other models gave me generic looking results.)

- I generated the character images using NBP/ Seedream 5 and historical references.

- Claude is my assistant producer.

- Contrary to what Bytedance published in their Seedance prompt docs, I'm 100% convinced that highly detailed, elaborate prompts make a big difference. My prompts for these were like essays.

- "splitting generations in two" just means to give your generations room to breath. So if there are 6 lines split between two characters, rather than putting that all into one 30s generation, make it one 30s + one 15s generation to give your characters space to react, process, think, and all the little things that you'd detect through body language.

- Yes, I've shared the prompts for this one. They're in the @DecimaVault Skool community. (and there's also a full walkthrough of my generation process on there right now, for those who are curious.)

- For video generations I use @sumelabs primarily because their seedance costs are relatively cheap, you can see the price per generation rather than credits, and the UI is intuitive.

- No, I did not use starting images. This was all just character refs (@sumelabs can y'all PLEASE add an option to create REAL elements with multiple angles??)

- Character consistency is easy. Just create images of your character from various angles (my set always has front, quarter, profile, and full body) and attach them as references in your prompt. Or create an element with them and reference them within the prompt. Trust me, it isn't complicated at all.

- For maintaining the same character voice, I've found that as long as you use the same reference images for the character, the voice will remain the same. I realized that with Veo3, and it remains true today.

- I do NOT care about the minor inconsistencies and imperfections. If 95% of people won't notice upon first glance, then it's a go. (You're not gonna get absolute perfection with AI, and you shouldn't expect to. If you want 100% accuracy, go the traditional route.)

- I haven't used driving performances for AI gens, but I'll be experimenting with it in the future. I have a hunch that I'll need it for future scenes. This one was text to video (with reference images of course)

- No, this movie isn't out, and it isn't even close to being finished. I have it slated for March 26th of next year (the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death). So no, you cannot watch it. 😜

- My budget for the film is about $5k. I've spent about $210 on the 5 minutes i have on the timeline right now. $5k is the max of what I'd be able to manage on my own, with just bare-bones personal expenses for the next few months, and a couple extra AI ad jobs on the side. (tho I do have a plan for fundraising in a few months. Everyone in my classical music network is gonna get a call from me come January. LOLOLOL)

- The audio is native, but I patched certain gibberish words/phrases and corrected the lip sync. And btw, I'm well aware that STEEEPHAN was pronounced wrong (@suddenlyFleck flagged it in his review), and I'm trying to figure out the best way to fix it without ruining the acoustics. So German speakers...y'all can stop hounding me. I get it. 🤣

- Yes, I'll ultimately have native German speakers review the final drafts, and make the necessary corrections.

- None of this production process is automated. I have my hands in every single step. AI can execute, but only I can make the final judgement call (taste is everything, right?)

- No, I don't have a film background. My background is in classical music.

- I've been in the AI space since late 2022.

- Yes, I do this full time in different capacities. My main gig is working for @NetworkChuck as an AI-assisted editor.

- I'm more than happy to share what I know in the DMs, so don't be shy!

- Beethoven is my hero, but Scarlatti is the composer I liszten to the most.

....and i think that's it!

Honestly, I'm feeling a tad bit overwhelmed by the amount of DMs and emails I've been getting (as if I wasn't already TERRIBLE at responding in a timely manner), but since I keep getting the same questions over and over, I just figured I'd make a post.

And if you have a different question about workflows or whatever, feel free to DM and I'll get back to you...eventually...