Can Your First AI Film Win a Festival?

01 · ▶ on the show at 14:01

Robo-Dot

By Ari Kuschnir

Ari Kuschnir makes fast, satirical AI videos about the news, and this one landed within hours of OpenAI announcing Dots, its agent plan at $100 a month or more. Robo-Dot is a cheery infomercial for a little robot you hand your life to: it summarises your child's drawing for you, replaces your colleagues at work and talks to other people's robots so you don't have to. Chris opened with it the way a comedian leads with the best joke. Both hosts were struck by the turnaround: newsjacking, but with whole AI videos instead of a quick post.

Original post →

02 · ▶ on the show at 18:48

Apple Mac Studio ad

By Apple

A real Apple ad, not a spec piece, made by an agency for the Mac Studio, the beefier, AI-focused sibling of the Mac Mini. Chris showed it partly because he's shopping for a new machine and partly because it practises what it preaches: the LinkedIn post credited three AI artists alongside traditional motion design. It's the hybrid model he's seeing everywhere, with AI artists working inside a bigger team rather than replacing it. The agency and the AI artists weren't named on the show.

“It's the hybrid thing I'm seeing a lot.”Chris Branch · ▶ 20:36

03 · ▶ on the show at 20:36

Game Over (Claude Opus 5.5 music video test)

By Chris Branch

Chris has been playing with Claude Opus 5.5 on his own music videos. He gave it one image, the vinyl album art he'd made for his album Game Over, plus one of his new songs, and asked for a 50-second dancing video in an old Nintendo-style look. Then he kept tweaking: levels where the dance moves get harder, and an ending where the character fails and the screen says game over. Claude added all the sound effects itself. It's 51 seconds and still a work in progress, but it shows Claude doing graphics-heavy motion work natively, with no plugins.

“It's so addictively fun because that was, like I said, just one reference image.”Chris Branch · ▶ 23:07

Claude Opus 5.5

04 · breaking news · ▶ on the show at 24:08

ElevenLabs v4 tonality demo

By ElevenLabs

A 14-second demo of the new tonality controls in ElevenLabs v4, following the bigger v4 demo shown on the previous episode. The same lines, "This is real" and "You remember me?", come out in completely different emotional tones. Chris explained the feature: a drop-down under the prompt bar sets the tone, from happy to sad to tired. For script work that matters, because the words alone can't carry how something is said. He asked viewers who try it to send their examples in through theailiveshow.com.

“You can say the exact same words in a totally different tone and they feel completely different, just like music when you change the music.”Chris Branch · ▶ 24:52

ElevenLabs

05 · ▶ on the show at 25:47

Maserati: 100 Years of the Trident

By Bruno Detante, Stéphane Benini

The only ad of the week, and the winner of best ad at the Shaike Film Festival in La Ciotat. It's by Bruno and Stefan, a duo who work with the biggest car brands; Bruno also made the Formula E trailer for the Bionic Awards seen on an earlier episode. The narration moves through passion, design, spirit, vision and character across a century of the Trident. Andrew said it could just be on TV and nobody would think twice. Whether Maserati was a real client or this was a spec piece, Chris is finding out from the creators.

“That at the highest level is what you want, isn't it? You don't even question the AI.”Chris Branch · ▶ 28:08

Original post →

06 · ▶ on the show at 29:23

The Next Second

By Jacek Kadaj

Voted best documentary by the Shaike judges, and eight minutes long. It travels through 500 years of famous paintings, from a Dutch vision of paradise to The Scream, Frida Kahlo and Gustav Klimt, telling the human story behind each one before revealing the single witness present in all of them: a fly, as Chris read it. The paintings are recreated with lookalikes rather than exact copies, which Chris said threw the cinema audience. Andrew wondered how AI could make a documentary at all, and both agreed it's really a storytelling reveal that defies categories, with fast, cinematic camera moves.

“The thing that threw people off in the cinema, I think, was the fact that they couldn't instantly recognise the paintings.”Chris Branch · ▶ 38:57

Original post →

07 · ▶ on the show at 41:14

Icarus

By Artivient

The first of two shorts from a creator Marco says is about to blow up, with a style he hasn't seen much of in the AI space. Icarus runs 1 minute 21 and retells the myth through fast, stylised action. Andrew nailed the look as somewhere between manga and a video game, which Chris said was exactly what he'd been trying to put into words. The creator posts mostly on X, and his handle was shown on screen during the show.

“It's almost between manga meets a video game.”Andrew Davis · ▶ 43:14

Original post →

08 · ▶ on the show at 43:34

Drowning

By Artivient

The second short from the same creator: a music-driven action piece, all style and movement with very little story, and Andrew really liked it. Chris's wish is for the creator to go longer and bring these characters and this style into developed stories with real character development. Marco reckons that's the plan: short content for traction first, then long form, the way Gossip Goblin did it.

09 · ▶ on the show at 48:55

Nuremberg

By Tupacabra

Suggested by Marco and by Sander from Evolving AI, Nuremberg is an intense, action-heavy historical short full of raids, gunfire and soldiers. Chris has seen two pieces by its creator and hopes to get him on a Creator Session. The hosts were struck by how watchable this level of action has become, and it opened a debate: Seedance 2.5 got the credit in the room, while a viewer guessed a local MiniMax generation. Can you tell the model by eye? Chris, who had just judged 22 Formula E entries made with Veo 3.1 in Google Flow, says a trained eye often can.

Original post →

10 · ▶ on the show at 1:00:53

Last Dance with Mary Jane

By Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg's Last Dance with Mary Jane won best music video at Shaike. It's an older AI video, and Chris thinks it holds up because AI was only one contributor alongside 3D artists, illustrators and designers, the traditional team you'd expect on a music video. It opens with a doctor showing Snoop a lung that resembles charcoal. It also became the episode's cautionary tale: the copyrighted track got the YouTube stream suspended for a few minutes before it came back by itself. Lesson learned, and Chris expects to hear about it from Paul.

“My music video interlude didn't go to plan.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:09:44

Original post →

11 · ▶ on the show at 1:11:02

The Dor Brothers for Pippit

By The Dor Brothers

A two-minute animation commissioned by Pippit, the ByteDance offshoot built for advertising, and made on its platform. It missed last week's show by 30 minutes. It's a world away from the controversial work the Dor Brothers are known for: a charming, Christmassy claymation-style story with no voice-over narration, told through visual storytelling and clever analogies. Glenn in the chat called it charming and the hosts agreed. Chris has seen some unreleased Dor Brothers projects and can't wait to show them once they're out.

“It doesn't have to be a voice over narration. It's just very nice analogies.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:15:06

Pippit

Original post →

12 · ▶ on the show at 1:15:30

Kung Fu Kid

Found by Chris and Marco just before the show, and nobody could say for sure what it is: AI, 3D, a video game, or some mix of all three. Both hosts said it looks like a video game. Chris's point is that this uncertainty is where we are now: with Opus you can drive Blender, then use AI to reskin the animation or use it as driving video for precise control, so expect much more work like this. Viewers who know where it came from were asked to say so in the comments.

13 · ▶ on the show at 1:18:17

Incubus

By Julien Prevost

Winner of best short film at Shaike and the film that opened the festival, and the remarkable part is that it's its director's first ever AI film. Chris says the French director has around 18 years of real directing and camera work behind him, and it shows in every move. The story follows a boy who can enter other people's bodies, the monster he finds inside one, and the family he abandons for other people's happiness. Andrew called it one of the best messages the show has seen. Chris found it on Vimeo and hopes to get the director on a Creator Session, with a translator if needed.

“Probably the most impressive first-time AI video I've ever seen to date, with a really deep message and really incredible storytelling.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:27:33

Original post →

14 · ▶ on the show at 1:29:13

Happy Ending

By Gossip Goblin

Chris's favourite Gossip Goblin short, a vertical YouTube Short that Gossip Goblin told him was his worst performing. In about three minutes it follows a whole human life alongside a patient robot dad, through peer pressure and jeers of "clanker", and the robot is still there at the end. Andrew read it as a story about peer pressure and a parent who is always there. It sparked a debate about algorithms that reward engagement over the best storytelling. Gossip Goblin's feature film also has a cinema run coming in October, including London.

“I've never felt so sorry for a robot in my life.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:33:14

Original post →

15 · ▶ on the show at 1:37:21

A Message for the Butterfly

By Mark Wachholz, Hou Zuxin

The Grand Prix winner at Shaike, by Mark, a German director Chris rates on Simon Meyer's level for short film, and one of the most awarded AI directors the show hasn't had on yet. It's a meditation on a caterpillar dissolving in the chrysalis, the old dream of a man who dreamed he was a butterfly, and memory as a message sent to a creature we haven't yet become. Chris closed the show on it as one of the deepest messages he's seen in a music video, and hopes to get Mark on a Creator Session.

“How deep is that? Just beautiful storytelling.”Chris Branch · ▶ 1:46:39

Original post →