On the eve before the world premiere of Zombiclaus (2024), a 35 seconds short film fully created with AI by filmmaker Quentin Lee with #AIGI (Artificial Intelligence Generated Imagery), CHOPSO discusses the genesis of Zombiclaus with the writer, director and producer who made the film all by himself via AI technology.
What was the inspiration of Zombiclaus and why did you decide to do it all in AI?
QL: I’ve started dabbling in generative AI with Midjourney last year to create images and assets for pitch decks and just literally last month I heard about Runway. I watched the footage that Runway generated on Youtube and have become an instant believer. I subscribed to Runway immediately and started playing with it. Within hours, I knew I could create really cool #AIGI footage in Runway with a mix of assets I’ve created in the past. I wanted to make a fully AI generated short film as an experiment… and came up with the idea of doing a Christmas-themed short as a Christmas card to send to friends and colleagues. Somehow I was driving my son home from school and he mentioned something about the original Santa Claus being green. I did some research and realized that—yes, indeed—Santa Claus came from pagan mythological figures like Cernonos and he was indeed originally green. Then I thought… what if he were a zombie instead? Zombiclaus was born!
So how did you make the film?
Once I had the character Zombiclaus, I hopped on Midjourney and started creating some images of the characters. I imported the Midjourney assets into Runway and started animating them… some with more success and some with less. As I began my career as an experimental filmmaker, I’ve always been open to new ways of making films. Essentially, you kind of have to generate a bunch of footage and kind of pick the best stuff… and then I cut the footage together in Final Cut X and created the soundtrack for it. The process reminded me of something between making a found footage experimental film and documentary.
So you never shot anything outside of the AI platforms?
No… I mean yes and no in the sense that I did shoot myself performing as Zombiclaus and then imported the video into Runway to generate the final footage of the Zombiclaus in the Runway feature Act One. So I guess I did shoot outside of the AI platform… kind of more in the sense of performance capture.
Was it challenging to make Zombiclaus 100% with AI technology?
No, not really. Zombiclaus is by far the most economical, easiest, fastest and funnest film I’ve ever made. I did it all by myself literally in front of my laptop.
Would you make more AI films?
Of course… and I can see AI is also very useful in optimizing VFX and other filmmaking processes. Didn’t Bill Gates have a book titled “Business at the Speed of Thought” which I did read? With AI, for artists, it’s art or creation at the speed of thought. Almost… plus the rendering time which will just get faster and more efficient as time goes by.
Any last thoughts?
I thought it’s funny that filmmakers traditionally take photos with a big camera… now or in the future they may have to take photos just in front of a laptop. I guess the downside of AI filmmaking is that it just doesn’t appear glamorous at all.
#zombiclaus #bittenbyareindeer #aigi
