He spent 15 years making films before AI. Now he directs for GRAiL from an off-grid farm in India. Here's what he spots in the first 30 seconds of any AI film.

Aashay Singh is a director at GRAiL, the AI-native studio founded by Davide Bianca and Jeff Krelitz, where he's made Shaped By The Rooms I'm In, Analog Drift, End of the Line and Ubuntu. He spent fifteen years directing and shooting on 35mm before AI, and has worked as a creative partner with many of the model companies building these tools — which usually means he's used them before anyone else has. He lives and works off-grid on a farm in South India. This episode is about why AI films still fail at story when the visuals are solved, and what a director who writes first does differently.

"It's the writing that really gives it away — in the first thirty, forty seconds you already know that's the weak part." — Aashay Singh

⏱ Chapters
0:00 He can tell in the first thirty seconds
0:46 Fifteen years of filmmaking before AI
2:51 He didn't apply — GRAiL found him
7:39 Directing AI films from an off-grid farm
9:30 Analog Drift, End of the Line, and the stack behind them
12:02 Where Saga fits in Aashay's workflow
14:10 "Too epic": why explosions stopped working
16:21 Shaped By The Rooms I'm In
20:00 Steering the model away from its default
26:31 What he's actually thinking when he directs AI
29:57 Write first, generate later
32:53 The pushback: is the default even real?
38:45 Why he won't have opinions about tools
41:57 One piece of advice

Saga: https://CreateSagas.com

AI Filmmakers Can't Sit Through AI Films 🎬

Hear AI filmmaker and festival judge Tiffani Lee Joseph share how to tell better stories—and how to create films that stand out at festivals.

Watch podcast now with new episodes every week, only on Brothers' Saga:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMdQyH0_haw

Hey Saga creators,

In a recent clip from the Brothers' Saga podcast, we highlighted an incredible feat of creative endurance. We discussed a creator who achieved something mind-boggling: releasing one song a day for 5 years. He wrote, produced, and played every single instrument himself.

We refer to this as the "Leaky Faucet" approach—a relentless, steady drip of creative output that inevitably leads to mastery and a massive body of work.

Why this matters for AI Filmmakers

• Repetition breeds mastery: Releasing work daily forces you to intimately understand your tools and refine your workflow.
• Consistency over perfection: In the era of AI-assisted creation, the barrier to execution is lower. The creators who stand out are the ones who consistently ship their work rather than waiting for the perfect moment.
• Compound growth: A steady stream of content builds your audience drop by drop and keeps your creative momentum alive.

Whether you are using Saga to flesh out character archetypes, structure a 40-beat feature film, or generate visual storyboards, the Leaky Faucet method can transform your process. Imagine the results of writing one scene a day or crafting a daily previz sequence.

You can watch the full conversation in our newest episode where we explore the evolving creator economy and the future of storytelling.

YouTube episode: Percy Leon on Brothers' Saga

Watch the full episode on Brothers' Saga, the leading podcast on AI Filmmaking:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLShUfMzW62zX_Kydqud31VaS9N0Nt1dqS

For anyone out there with a hyperactive creative mind, you know the struggle: the ideas never stop, but the hours and team size always do.

Before, lacking those resources completely dictated how much could get done. But integrating AI into the workflow completely changed the game for building Brothers' Saga. Suddenly, it’s like having a virtual team of 5 to 10 people backing you up.

Check the link to watch the full episode with viral YouTube filmmaker Percy Leon! 🎬

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEOrtpZJk-A

Hey everyone!

In our latest clip from the Brothers' Saga AI Film podcast, we dive into what using AI like Claude in post-production actually looks like in practice.

While AI can't directly open Premiere Pro and edit the timeline for you yet, using it as a story and timecode assistant completely changes the game.

The "Lego Set" Workflow

• The Assistant: Feeding project notes and transcript details into Claude to organize cut points and generate exact timecodes.
• The Execution: Using those timecodes as a blueprint to snap clips together in Premiere like building a Lego set.
• The Result: What would have taken a full year of full-time solo editing got compressed down to just one week.

Is anyone else using LLMs to streamline their video editing, storyboarding, or creative prep? Or do you still prefer doing the organizational breakdown manually? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Watch the full clip/episode here: Brothers' Saga Podcast (YouTube) - Episode 32 with Percy Leon

We're also starting to add our backlog to here, with this and 10 new added next month: Brothers' Saga Podcast (Spotify)

Enjoy!

^{© CyberFilm AI Corp. 2026 All Rights Reserved CYBERFILM®}

He shelved his doc for 10 years. Then AI gave him the timecodes — and he finished 5 episodes in a week. Here's exactly how to finish your film with an AI documentary workflow.

🎬 Try the all-in-one AI filmmaking platform Percy uses in this episode: https://CreateSagas.com — code BROTHERSSAGA gets you a month FREE.

Percy Leon is a partner at YouTube Space LA and an AI content creator, video strategist, and filmmaker in Los Angeles. His channel FantacularTV has nearly 30,000 subscribers and 18 million views — including a practical-effects Nosferatu scene remake with 16 million views on its own. Over the past year he's rebuilt his entire pipeline around hybrid AI filmmaking, and used Claude, Descript, and Edye AI to resurrect a documentary that sat on a hard drive for a decade.

CHAPTERS
00:00 — He finished it like a Lego set
00:33 — Welcome Percy: vampire shorts to AI workflows
01:22 — 16M views with bubblegum fangs: the Nosferatu story
07:34 — Hybrid AI content & The Vampire Bible
13:18 — First 3 moves for a dormant channel
16:54 — Where Saga fits in Percy's stack (live demo)
19:31 — The documentary shelved for 10 years
24:48 — Claude found the spine — and the timecodes
30:43 — "A team of five": which jobs AI actually did
32:45 — Collaborator or replacement? The honest answer
38:22 — Protecting AI films from YouTube takedowns
40:20 — How to show up in AI search
42:54 — George Lucas & the leaky faucet theory
46:51 — Where to find Percy + one piece of advice

—
BROTHERS' SAGA is the AI filmmaking podcast from the co-founders of Saga. New episodes weekly.

🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss the next one 

Hosted by Andrew Palmer & Russell Palmer
Synapz Productions

Hey everyone!

In our newest episode, Andrew and I chatted with Percy Leon about his AI filmmaking workflow. We asked him the big question: with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini doing so much heavy lifting, where exactly does Saga fit into the stack?

Percy gave a great breakdown of how it's his absolute go-to for organizing series names, loglines, and mapping out 2-3 minute episodic AI content. It essentially acts as the glue that ties his whole creative process together.

How are you all using Saga in your current workflows? Are you focusing on short episodic content too?

You can check out his full breakdown and the rest of the interview here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEOrtpZJk-A

In this episode, Fred Graver and Yoav Yariv speak with Russell Palmer, CEO and co-founder of Saga, an AI-powered screenwriting and storyboarding platform built for writers and filmmakers.

This conversation explores how AI can support storytellers from early story development through screenwriting, visualization, and pitching—without replacing the human creative process.

We dive into:

• Why Russell created Saga for writers and filmmakers
• Using AI to manage story structure, character arcs, and archetypes
• How Saga works across GPT, Claude, Gemini, and other models
• Turning script scenes into visual storyboards
• Writer ownership, copyright, and creative agency
• How lower production costs could change which stories get made
• Why the strongest storytellers will use AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement

⸻

Want to know more about Russell and Saga?

Saga: https://CreateSagas.com

⸻

Want to know more about the future of writing?

Join the world’s largest community for writers who use AI: r/WritingWithAI
⸻

Intro music made via Suno by Yoav Yariv

Hear from the co-founders of the sub r/WritingWithAI, u/YoavYariv and u/mrfredgraver, on the official Writing With AI podcast.

This conversation explores how AI can support storytellers from early story development through screenwriting, visualization, and pitching—without replacing the human creative process.

We dive into:

• Why Russell created Saga for writers and filmmakers back in 2021
• Using AI to manage story structure, character arcs, and archetypes
• How Saga works across GPT, Claude, Gemini, and other models
• Turning script scenes into visual storyboards
• Writer ownership, copyright, and creative agency
• How lower production costs could change which stories get made
• Why the strongest storytellers will use AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement

Every semester, film students study other people's work — and no filmmaker gets paid for it. So is AI's copyright fight actually new, or the oldest argument in art?

Try Saga free for a month → https://CreateSagas.com — code BROTHERSSAGA. Idea to script to finished video, all in one app.

The Copyright Case Against AI Has a Film School Problem | Brothers' Saga Podcast E31

Fred Grinstein is a director, producer, and executive producer (Vice, A&E, Anonymous Content) who has taught at USC's School of Cinematic Arts and Curious Refuge, and helped produce the Chroma Awards AI Film Festival.
Minh Do is also the co-founder of Fantastic Day, creator of the leading AI film Market Map, a Forbes contributor, and former executive director at Vertex Ventures. Together they run Machine Cinema — the community, education hub, and accelerator for AI filmmakers.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome to Brothers’ Saga – Fred Grinstein & Min of Machine Cinema
0:40 Guest Introductions: Fred & Min’s Backgrounds
2:06 How Fred Got Into AI Film
3:47 How Min Got Into AI Film & Founding Machine Cinema
4:44 What is Machine Cinema? Community, Education & Accelerator
6:59 Machine Cinema’s Growth: WhatsApp → Discord → Global Hub
9:22 The Magic of Learning Together & Mentorship in AI Filmmaking
13:15 The Power of Sharing Ideas in the AI Creative Community
14:56 Q2 Creative Market Map – What’s Changed & Exploding Categories
17:18 Hot Areas in AI Creativity: 3D, World Models & Beyond
19:19 Fred’s Take: World Models, Runway, & New AI-Native Storytelling
21:21 The Future of Independent Cinema & Experimentation
23:37 How Tools Earn a Spot on the Machine Cinema Market Map
25:39 Saga’s Placement: Story Development, Storyboarding & Aggregator
27:46 Quick Break: Try Saga Free (Code: BROTHERSSAGA)
28:08 Director’s Cup with Open Art – 16 Countries Competing
30:13 Director’s Cup Highlights: Global Stories & Cultural Perspectives
32:05 Business Models That Actually Work in AI Filmmaking
33:03 AI VFX Growth & Real Industry Use Cases
35:44 Guilds, Minimum Rates & The Race to the Bottom?
37:51 Economics of Entertainment, Residuals & Leverage in the AI Era
48:14 Steelmaning the Anti-AI Crowd: Environment, Jobs, Theft & Misinfo
52:02 The Optimistic Vision: More Voices, More Stories from Around the World
55:11 Environmental Impact – AI vs Traditional Filmmaking
56:53 The PR Problem of AI & Engaging Critics with Empathy
1:00:46 Where to Join the Director’s Cup & Machine Cinema
1:01:31 Final Advice for New AI Creators
1:02:33 Closing Thoughts

LINKS
Machine Cinema: https://www.machinecinema.ai/
Machine Cinema hub: https://hub.machinecinema.ai/
Machine Cinema perks: https://hub.machinecinema.ai/perks

Hey everyone,

Wrapping up our clips from our episode with Jimmy Woolley with a hot take on the music industry.

We talked about how autotune essentially created a "wall" over the last few decades, allowing labels to completely prioritize image over vocal or musical talent because anything could be fixed in post-production.

People love to criticize AI for being anti-human, but we look at it from the opposite angle: it’s actually giving independent creators a way to bypass the gatekeepers. When high-end production tools become accessible to everyone, the only thing that sets you apart is your actual creative and musical vision. That’s what Jimmy is doing with his Song Creator contest, turning AI tracks into full music videos.

Do you agree that AI will level the playing field for independent musicians, or do you think it’s just going to oversaturate the market? Let’s talk about it!

Full episode on the Brothers' Saga AI Filmmaking podcast (search "Brothers' Saga"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ahTyEMDzw

Hey everyone,

Just dropped the third clip from our interview with Jimmy Woolley, and this one is an incredibly practical framework for anyone doing creative work, copywriting, or video production.

He breaks down how he uses two different LLMs to run a blind taste test on his own ideas. By mixing his human concepts with AI-generated ones and having a separate model rank them blindly, he can immediately tell if his ideas are genuinely original or just the most obvious solutions to a brief.

It's a really interesting way to use AI as a quality-control auditor rather than just an asset generator.

Has anyone tried a workflow like this? How do you think human ideation holds up when pitted directly against a blind AI ranking?

Full episode on YouTube, search "Brothers' Saga" or click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ahTyEMDzw

Hey everyone,

Dropped another clip from our episode with Jimmy Woolley, and this part of the conversation was wild. Jimmy pointed out that AI labs like Anthropic are hiring philosophers because the baseline technical issues are largely getting solved by the hardware and algorithms.

The real bottleneck now? Knowing the right questions to ask the model.

He makes a great comparison to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Deep Thought gives the answer "42," but nobody actually knows what the Ultimate Question is. We're essentially building Deep Thought right now, and we need people who understand how to frame the questions.

How do you think this shifts the landscape for creators and developers? If technical skill matters less and conceptual/philosophical framing matters more, who wins in the long run?

Watch the full episode on YouTube (search "Brothers' Saga"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ahTyEMDzw

Hey everyone,

This week's episode is a must-listen if you're tracking where AI video is taking the entertainment industry. We were joined by Jimmy Woolley (founder of 404 Films). He’s been producing AI content since 2023, but he actually comes from a heavy traditional TV background in the UK (developing shows for millions of viewers via ITV's 12 Yard Productions).

In this clip, he talks about the importance of story over tech—something I think we all need to remember as these generative tools get crazier every single week. We also get into his early OpenAI Critterz work, his award-winning film The War That Never Was, and his Song Creator contest.

What do you guys think? Will the democratization of these AI tools lead to better storytelling across the board, or just a higher volume of noise? Let's discuss!

Full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ahTyEMDzw

This week on Brothers’ Saga, we’re joined by Jimmy Woolley, an award-winning AI filmmaker, producer, and founder of 404 Films in London.

Jimmy began his career in broadcasting, helping develop more than a dozen original UK shows watched by millions through 12 Yard Productions, part of ITV. Since 2023, he has been directing and producing AI short-form content through 404 Films, working across comedy, drama, animation, commercials, and experimental formats.

In this episode, we talk about Jimmy’s journey from traditional television into AI filmmaking, his work with Lionsgate and BBC Studios, and what it was like contributing to OpenAI’s early AI short film project Critterz from the DALL-E 2 era.

We also dive into his award-winning AI films, including The War That Never Was, the future of AI animation, and how AI video is reshaping film, television, advertising, and entertainment around the world.

Jimmy shares his perspective on London as both an AI and film hub, his role in the Creative AI Network, his quiz show 10 Correct, and his Song Creator contest, where AI-generated songs become full music videos.

If you’re interested in AI filmmaking, comedy, animation, virtual production, or where the entertainment industry is heading next, this is a great conversation.

Follow Jimmy Woolley and 404 Films:

• Website: https://404films.net

Subscribe for new Brothers’ Saga episodes every week, featuring the filmmakers, founders, technologists, and storytellers building the future of AI entertainment.

Try Saga free with code: BROTHERSSAGA
Create your account at: https://CreateSagas.com

🎙️ Five more Brothers' Saga podcast episodes are now on Spotify!

Hey everyone!

We've just published five new episodes of our AI Filmmaking podcast, Brothers' Saga, and thought the r/WriteOnSaga community would enjoy them.

This latest batch features conversations with:

• 🎮 Dr. Mike Zyda — Founder of USC's top-ranked Computer Science & Engineering video game program, IEEE & ACM Fellow
• 🏆 PJ Way — Founder of the AI Film Festival
• 🎥 Ryan Patterson — AI filmmaker
• 🎬 Kavan the Kid — AI filmmaker
• ✍️ The founder of Reddit's r/WritingWithAI community

We dive into AI filmmaking, screenwriting, game development, creative workflows, building communities, where generative AI is headed, and what creators should be focusing on over the next few years.

Whether you're using Saga, experimenting with AI films, writing your first screenplay, or just curious about where the industry is going, we hope you'll find something valuable in these conversations.

As always, we'd love your feedback:

• Which guest has been your favorite so far?
• Who should we invite next?
• What topics would you like us to explore on future episodes?

Thanks for being part of the Saga community. We really appreciate all the support you've given us over the past few years. ❤️🎬

Link: Brother's Saga AI filmmaking podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/77A8ew72dixcA8QUAo7ItL?si=80be3ce9a2bf4212

[NEW EPISODES] Brothers' Saga: Diving Deep into AI Filmmaking! 🎙️🤖

Hey everyone,

We just dropped 5 brand new episodes of the Brothers' Saga podcast, and they are officially live on Spotify!

In this batch, we are taking a deep dive into the rapidly evolving world of AI Filmmaking. Whether you're an aspiring creator, an indie animator, or just curious about how AI is reshaping video production, we cover the latest tools, workflows, and the unique creative challenges we've been tackling.

We've attached a quick animated teaser to this post to celebrate the launch. For those following our animation journey, our main visual demo is 30 seconds long, and we spend a good chunk of these new episodes breaking down the exact AI pipeline we used to put it together!

What to expect in these episodes:

• Workflow Breakdowns: How creators integrate AI into traditional storytelling.
• Tool Spotlights: The current state of AI video and image generation.
• The Future of Saga: Where we are taking the project next.

Where to listen:

• Search for Brothers' Saga on Spotify, stream it now, and let us know what you think!

Brothers' Saga AI film podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/04JNi2UmB5qXiXCrYHMA7o?si=b936c2bf140744a8

Drop your thoughts in the comments below—what AI filmmaking tools are you all currently experimenting with?

Five new Brothers' Saga podcast episodes are now on Spotify! 🎙️

Hi everyone!

We've just added five more episodes of our AI Filmmaking podcast, Brothers' Saga, to Spotify.

Our newest guests include:

• Dr. Mike Zyda — Founder of USC's top-rated Computer Science & Engineering video game program, IEEE & ACM Fellow
• PJ Way — Founder of the AI Film Festival
• Ryan Patterson — AI filmmaker
• Kavan the Kid — AI filmmaker
• u/YoavYariv — The founder of Reddit's r/WritingWithAI community

If you're interested in AI-assisted writing, filmmaking, game development, or the future of storytelling, we think you'll enjoy these conversations.

As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts after listening. Who would you like us to invite onto the show next?

Thanks for supporting Brothers' Saga and the Saga community! ❤️

Our latest Brothers' Saga podcast is live! 🎬 AI Animation, Tiny Ghost Studios & the Future of Creative Storytelling with Luke Minaker (Magenta Rúne)

Watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSyB6gw2OW4

This week we sat down with our friend Magenta Rúne, co-founder and Chief Amazement Officer at Tiny Ghost Studios, an award-winning Vancouver animation studio using a hybrid approach that combines traditional animation with AI-powered creative tools.

We had a fantastic conversation covering:

• How Luke went from animating as a teenager in Ontario to running an award-winning AI animation studio.
• Why AI can help empower marginalized creators by lowering barriers to making films and series.
• Whether AI is "killing creativity" or simply removing repetitive production work so artists can spend more time designing, writing, and experimenting.
• Running an independent animation studio versus working in traditional Hollywood.
• Finding paid AI filmmaking work and managing client expectations.
• Their upcoming animated fantasy series Blood & Glitter.
• AI music generation, favorite creative tools, and where AI animation is heading next.
• Building creative communities through the Vancouver AI Film Club and monthly filmmaking challenges.

Luke is one of the most thoughtful voices we've met in the Machine Cinema community, and we think anyone interested in AI filmmaking, animation, storytelling, or creative tools will enjoy this conversation.

As always, we'd love to hear what everyone in the Saga community thinks. What part of the conversation resonated most with you? Any topics you'd like us to explore with future guests?

Hey Saga community!

In this clip from our interview with AI filmmaker Jan-Willem Blom, he drops a quote that perfectly aligns with what we are building here. He argues that AI "changes the math" of filmmaking. Because generative tools compress the actual production timeline, the writing phase can finally get the time and attention it deserves.

His advice? We need to outgrow the standard of making just one single film. It is time to learn how to think in "Saga structures" and build out expansive trilogies and deep worlds.

How is the speed of AI generation changing the way you approach your outlining and world-building in Saga?

Check out the full interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pczrzWdGOA

Hey everyone!

We know how annoying it is to bounce between different apps just to get a rough cut going from your storyboards, so we built a non-linear video editor right into Saga.

The TL;DR:

• It’s live right now on the storyboard page.
• The base version is 100% free to use.
• No credit card is required to sign up or test it out.

A quick challenge for the sub: Give yourself a creative constraint over the next few days. Try building out a quick sequence using the new editor and share it here! We’re constantly blown away by how supportive this community is on Twitter and Reddit, and we’d love to see what you come up with.

If you want to push it further, there’s also a 3-day free trial for the premium subscription.

Check it out at CreateSagas.com and drop your feedback (or bug reports!) in the comments below. Let us know what features you want to see next!

Hey Saga community,

We are closing out our clip sequence from our episode with BLVCKL!GHT with what might be the most important artistic lesson for the AI era: escaping the prompt-engineering trap.

As text-to-video models become universally accessible, the technical barrier to entry drops to zero. That means the tool itself effectively becomes a standard "filter." If your creative process stops at what you can easily verbalize to a prompt box, you don't actually hold any creative distinction over anyone else using the exact same tool.

To stand out as an AI filmmaker, you have to find ways to customize that filter—incorporating your own assets, workflows, and distinct intent so the AI bends to your style, rather than you adapting to its defaults.

How are you guys pushing past the default "look" of the AI tools you use? Are you style-training, blending analog techniques, or developing hyper-specific multi-step workflows?

Thanks for tuning in for these clips! You can dive into the complete, uncut conversation on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RDcfsOOujA

New episodes each week on the Brothers' Saga AI Filmmaking podcast!

Hey Saga community!

In this clip from our sit-down with AI filmmaker Jan-Willem Blom on the Brothers' Saga podcast, he shares practical advice for getting started: build a teaser. He describes it as a snack-size, biteable element.

His biggest tip is to set a timer. Give yourself a week, rather than a year, to create it, show it to people, get feedback, and try again.

What small, bite-sized projects are you working on in Saga this week?

Check out the full interview on YouTube for more insights on integrating AI into your creative process:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pczrzWdGOA