Before the Cameras Roll: How AI helped me prepare before principal photography.

Before the cameras rolled on HAPTIC, I had a fairly practical problem. Visualizing the shots is something I do right from the start and typically happens as I’m writing the screenplay - problem is, they are in my head. Getting those images into a form I could actually use to plan the film was another matter.

On my previous short films, I wrote out the shots without visual references. I had never had the luxury of working with a storyboard artist. The cost was beyond what I could afford, and I didn’t have the connections to find someone who could offer that kind of support for free. And in all honesty, there aren’t many people reaching out to a 51yo filmmaker offering low/no cost services to help get my films made - ageism really is a thing, especially when you’re in the early stages of your new career!

I’m also not an illustrator. Which makes drawing the images myself a bit of a problem.

So a major part of the visual planning stayed in my head. I could describe what I wanted, but I needed a way to see it outside of my own imagination. That was the first specific problem AI helped me solve on HAPTIC.

Getting the Shots Out of My Head

For HAPTIC, I used AI to create an image reference for every shot.

That gave me something tangible to work with during preproduction. I could look at the images as I planned, use them to communicate what I was trying to achieve, and evaluate the visual language of the film before we started shooting.

There’s a difference between having an image in your head and being able to articulate it to someone else. The image in my head may be perfectly clear to me, but that doesn’t automatically make it clear to anyone who has to help me create it.

Having a reference gave me a clearer way to explain what I was seeing. It also gave me something I could look at and question: Did the image communicate what I wanted the shot to communicate? Did it fit the film I was trying to make?

The Work Still Required A Lot From Me

If this sounds like I typed a few words and immediately had a finished storyboard, I should probably pause here.

The process was time-consuming. It required a great deal of prompting, adjusting, refining, and reviewing. Getting an image out of the tool was only part of the work. I still had to decide whether it was a useful reference for the shot I wanted to make. There was also a lot of trial and error to get relatively consistent storyboard-format ready references. A good chunk of the generations were down-right creepy to start!

That’s an important part of how I think about the value of this particular use. It gave me access to a level of visual planning I hadn’t been able to afford on my previous films. There was additional work involved, but I felt that the additional time I spent on that work was worth it.

In addition, it’s important to mention that this was an internal visual reference for me to plan and communicate the goal - nothing more. The cost-savings allowed me to put more money into cast, crew and locations.

What Changed for HAPTIC

Having those images really was a game-changer for me and I’m not sure the finished film would be as strong without them.

They helped me plan more clearly and communicate the visual side of the film before production. For a filmmaker who had previously relied on written shot descriptions, that was a significant change and one that was welcome.

This is one of the reasons I keep coming back to specific problems when I talk about AI. In this case, I needed visual references and had limited resources for creating them. AI gave me a way to do that, provided I was willing to put in the time to work through the results.

A lot still had to happen before those planned images could become a film. But I could finally get them out of my head and into the planning process. For HAPTIC, that was worth the effort.

All of that said, would I choose that path again? Probably not, if I had the budget and resources to work with a human. If self-producing and financing with limited resources again, I would absolutely choose it again.

Those references helped me plan the film. Making it was another matter. Next time, I’ll get into the human work behind HAPTIC—from the performances and the work on set to the editing and decisions that shaped the finished film.