You have a vision. A grand, cinematic idea that would normally require a massive budget, a full crew, and weeks of shooting. The truth is, that’s how filmmaking has always worked. But that’s all changing.
Today, with new AI video generators, the only real limit is your imagination. We just proved it with a wild new ad for Veo 3 using the Artlist Image & Video Generator. We did it on a short two-week timeline with a small team. And by using AI, we cut production costs by about 85% compared to a shoot. The entire process felt less like a traditional production and more like discovering a new way to create.
Now, we’re taking you behind the scenes to show you exactly how we did it. We’ll break down the entire creative workflow and give you the key strategies you can use in your own work. This isn’t just about a new tool, it’s a deep dive into how you can be a director in a world with AI, where you set the vision and the tools become your crew. Let’s break it down.
The ad’s creative process
The entire ad was built around a simple concept: an announcer introducing characters to a world of limitless creation. The Artlist creative team embraced some serious constraints — a two-week timeline, no final script, just a framework, a whimsical song from the album Pounding So Hard, and a single starting point: a subway scene that transitions into a flying train.
This wasn’t a conventional production. Instead of a single director leading a crew, three creators worked in parallel, each responsible for different scenes. They used clever continuity tricks to weave their work together, like having a flying train lead directly into a skydiver in another scene. This parallel workflow allowed them to be agile and move at incredible speed.
The power came from a shift in mindset.
For the dialogue, they used Artlist’s AI Voice Generator to refine the announcer’s lines, then blended it all together with sound design in post, including camera shake, grain, chromatic aberration, and a custom sound mix. The ad wasn’t just a showcase; the creators felt like characters on their own journey, discovering new possibilities alongside the viewer.
Best practices you can steal
The creation of our ad revealed a new creative workflow. Here are the core principles and pro tips you can use to integrate AI tools into your own filmmaking.
Think like a director
Don’t treat these tools like a magic button. They’re your new collaborator. You’re the director, and AI is your crew. It can generate the shots you need, but you’re still responsible for the vision, the pacing, and the emotional tone of your story.
Creative Director at Artlist, Itzik Cohen, explains, “This project proved that AI doesn’t replace creativity, it empowers it. The human imagination is still the most powerful part of the equation.”
The best outputs happen when you combine imagination with structure: clear, detailed prompts and a willingness to experiment.
Prompt like a cinematographer
A common mistake is treating AI like a search engine. To get a cinematic result, you have to think like a cinematographer. For video creators, that means using industry-standard language.
Instead of writing a full script and then trying to generate the footage, the team used a prompt structure that focused on cinematic language. The team used keywords they also use in ad production, like “cinematic shot of… 18mm, shallow DOF, subtle haze…” to ensure a cohesive, high-quality look. To ensure shot continuity across multiple clips, repeat key phrases to glue shots together.
This gives the AI specific visual cues to work with, resulting in a more refined and intentional image. To ensure shot continuity across multiple clips, repeat key descriptors like “rugged coastline, roaring sea” to glue shots together.
Storytelling with vignettes
Instead of trying to script a full feature film, think in modular scenes. A vignette approach allows you to build a larger narrative out of smaller, connected puzzle pieces. This method keeps things flexible and collaborative, which is how our three creators were able to work in parallel.
“The speed was a game-changer. We could iterate on ideas and explore different looks in a single afternoon, not over weeks of location scouting and shooting.” Brand Creative Director at Artlist, Lena Shulman, told us.
Focus on continuity anchors: a flying train leads into a skydiver; a character’s gesture bridges two scenes. This lets you build a full story with a high degree of flexibility.
Layering in audio early
Veo 3 generates video with audio, but you can also guide it with specific prompts. For example, specify “wind rushing,” “cinematic orchestral score,” or even dialogue lines. You can also use Artlist’s AI Voiceover to refine or replace dialogue for more control, and bring your own royalty-free music and sound effects from the Artlist catalog. Post-production sound design, like adding the right amount of grain, sound effects, and music stems, gives the final result realism and weight.
Your prompting and generating strategy
Don’t expect one perfect prompt to solve everything. The most effective approach is to generate different variations from a single prompt, then pick and remix the best elements. Keep a record of your prompts to track what works well. This kind of disciplined creative process is what separates a good filmmaker from a great one.
Post-AI polish
In this ad, the outputs from AI were a starting point, almost like raw footage. We found that even small manual touches can make AI output feel truly cinematic:
- Add subtle handheld camera shake and zoom keyframes to give shots more life.
- Color grade for consistency, as AI outputs can vary from one scene to the next.
- Add a film grain overlay for a cohesive texture across all your shots.
This hybrid approach, which merges AI generation with traditional filmmaking techniques, is the real secret to creating something truly unique and professional.
And the payoff was huge — this workflow let our small team slash production costs by about 85% compared to a conventional shoot, while still achieving a cinematic, high-end result.
Lena said, “AI is great. We love working with it, but you can’t just rely on the AI. A human still needs to be in the director’s chair, adding that final layer of detail and emotion that makes the video feel real.”
Use the full AI Toolkit: Veo 3 and Nano Banana
Artlist has a full AI toolkit — AI voiceover, AI image generator: text to image and image to image, and AI video generator: text to video and image to video. So, when we created our ad, we also used the Nano Banana model for image-to-image visual generation.
It thrives with strong aesthetic keywords like “Y2K surreal chrome reflection” or “cartoon squash-and-stretch.” You can use Nano Banana as a creative sketchpad to quickly test ideas, or generate short clips, and then refine and generate a finished cinematic output with Veo 3.
Our advice: Don’t overthink it, just throw in weird descriptors and see what happens!
Ready to step into the future of filmmaking?
Veo 3 is more than a new tool. It’s an empowering partner for your creativity. It’s ready to help you push the boundaries of what’s possible in filmmaking. The only limit is what you can imagine.
Ready to start creating? Head over to Artlist and explore Veo 3, Veo3.1, Nano Banana and more today. See what worlds (and ads) you can build.
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