Lecture
Guest Speaker: Trevor Crafts on Generative AI in Film and Television
Our guest leads this week’s session. Trevor Crafts is an Emmy-winning producer who runs Macrocosm Entertainment. He produced Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, a documentary about the people who made Sesame Street. He also created Lantern City, a steampunk story that spans a BOOM! Studios comic, an illustrated novel and a planned TV series. He uses generative AI in his film and television work, and he’ll show us how.
Trevor will start by walking us through his process, and then we’ll open it up for questions. Bring the question you wrote last week. Ask about his work or process. Where does AI show up on a production? Where won’t he use it? What has it changed for the people he hires? While he talks, write down one step in his process you could try yourself and one part he still does by hand.
Trevor’s ChatGPT Skills and Worksheets
Homework
Make a 10–20 second video sequence.
- Turn still images into video.
- Add generated audio, either a score or narration.
- Keep the shots you cut and say why you cut them.
- Note where the motion breaks down, like a face that changes or an object that disappears.
- Feel free to use any model or platform you want, but you have 4000 credits free with Adobe Firefly so that should be your free fallback option.
How to submit (due Monday, November 9)
- Upload your sequence to YouTube and set it to Unlisted. If YouTube asks whether it has altered or synthetic content, answer yes.
- Open the Week 08 Homework template, duplicate it into the Submissions database in your Process Journal, and rename it “Week 08 — Homework.”
- Paste your YouTube link at the top and choose Embed.
- Fill in your prompts, a still from each shot you cut with one line on why, and where the motion broke down.
- Check Submitted.