AI Lowers the Floor But Doesn't Move the Ceiling: A Hollywood Producer's Take

There's a thing happening in AI video right now where people with zero production experience are putting out work that looks pretty good on the surface. Clean images, smooth motion, professional enough. And a lot of people in traditional production find that threatening.

I don't really. Because I've been on both sides of it — 15 years in Hollywood and now over a year deep into AI production. And what I've noticed is that looking good and being good are two different conversations.

A Super Bowl spot doesn't cost what it costs because of the camera. It costs that because of the people who know what story to tell and when to stop telling it. Those instincts come from years of doing the work and getting it wrong and figuring out why. They don't come from a prompt.

AI absolutely lowers the floor. It gives everyone access to a level of production quality that used to require a whole crew. And I think that's genuinely great.

But it doesn't move the ceiling. The ceiling is still about taste and judgment and knowing that the third concept is actually better than the first one even though the first one is flashier. And I think over time that's going to become more obvious, not less.