Narrative Warfare: A Filmmaker on AI Beyond the Generated-Video

​When people talk about AI and filmmaking, they usually mean generated video. That's a sliver of what's actually happening on a production, and mostly not the interesting part.

​Michael Morgenstern is finishing an independent feature Reality Games that premieres at the Victoria Theater on May 16. It's a gamified ride through disinformation, deepfakes, and narrative warfare, visually somewhere between Fight Club, Scott Pilgrim, and TikTok, starring Jared Scott (13 Reasons Why) and Keith Miller (Saved By The Bell). The team approached the film like a tech company would, taking an engineer's mindset to visual effects.

​We're getting him in the Warehouse the week before release to show preview clips and walk through what actually building this thing required. On the table: what a tech-company mindset changes (and doesn't change) about making a movie, which AI workflows held up in production and which fell apart, case studies on specific VFX shots down to single-frame work, what the future of AI-powered filmmaking might look like, and what it looks like to make a film between Silicon Valley and LA.

​Format is closer to an unconference than a screening: clips woven through conversation, same shape as Ice Alone. Popcorn machine running. Inflatable beanbags deployed.

​Tuesday, May 5. Pebblebed Warehouse.