> I have no doubt in my mind that right now [...] an amateur with a high-end last-gen GPU or somebody with maybe a thousand bucks worth of AI credits [...] can crank out a high quality 1h+ feature film with only minor uncanny artifacts.

Then why are there no examples of this? There aren't even examples of steps towards it--the half hour film that's nearly production quality, etc.

Or even 30 second ads that don’t look like shit.

The technology is interesting as an element within the wider process of special effects, animation, and video games. The idea that you’re actually making a movie with the current products—and I’m a former indie filmmaker, I’d have a blast with this if it were real—is a fantasy.

There are. FX artists are already coming to grips with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRESQ8NX-us

"yadda yadda, this is the worst it will ever be"

Zack London's recent cyberpunk short "The Patchwright" (21 minutes)[1] feels like a glimpse into the AI feature film future. I like that rather than trying to replicate a traditional film it leans into the maximalist AI aesthetic.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rzl7nUdEs4

"The Machine-Made Muse" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM4xISBsUcY

Only Data looks and sounds fully 'natural' in this 10 minute clip of STTNG, but it nicely demonstrates the imminent plausibility of synthetic TV / film. And its affordability.

Feed it a handful of short stories and you can automate the creation of an entire TV series.

Lots of examples posted on twitter. Much better visuals than the 90s and 2000s Trek and Stargate I regularly rewatch.

I think this comes pretty close https://higgsfield.ai/@higgsfield.studio/projects/oneiric

Very few of these people are doing this on home rigs. That's way too slow for getting any real work done.

I work in this industry. I've dealt with major studios and up-and-coming studios quite extensively. (I was a filmmaker before AI, which helps a lot.)

If your exposure to AI video is ComfyUI, that's the consumer / hobbyist segment and you're missing out on where all the action is actually concentrating.

There are five-ish segments:

- Large studios. They're going slow, but they've already started integrating the tech. They won't tell people they're using it. They outsource to production houses that use it. Some of the biggest studios are moving slowly and want fully air-gapped support that runs on their existing cloud contracts. There are companies moving more intentionally, though. Netflix acquired Affleck's company for broad AI video controllability patents, for instance.

- Up-and-coming new media studios. Check out Gossip Goblin [1], [2], [3]. These folks are getting backing right now and they're growing huge followings from very unique visions and perspectives that feel somewhat counter to Hollywood. Most of the people here are highly professional, understand film language, and do a great job with storytelling. They typically leverage human voice actors and put weeks to months into making single videos.

- Marketing, B2B: people are already using this in ads. See Coca-Cola

- Consumer, UGC, non-creatives: this is the Sora crowd that only knows how to remix popular IP. Some of them graduate into new media exploration, but this follows the 1% rule. This is where most "slop" comes from.

- Porn creators: I've interviewed several folks that are making mid-six figures on "fan" platforms. It's a full-time job and some of them are scaling up to teams.

[1] Pomegranate, one of the best AI films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZhC2TXgcs

[2] Theatrical release: https://variety.com/2026/film/news/gossip-goblin-ai-film-god...

[3] https://www.gossipgoblin.studio/