AI Film Guy: The Future of Branded Entertainment is AI Powered
Bold, immersive, personalized narratives at scale
At the intersection of traditional filmmaking and cutting-edge AI is Justin Suarez, aka AI Film Guy, redefining the boundaries of storytelling.
With a 15-year career spanning filmmaking, digital content creation, and brand narratives, Suarez harnesses AI as a creative partner to unlock cinematic possibilities that once seemed impossible.
A pragmatic visionary who sees beyond today’s technological horizons, Suarez offers deep insights into its transformative potential in creative storytelling, while also addressing the technology’s current limitations.
What makes Suarez's approach effective is how he’s using various AI tools as a force multiplier for his own artistic vision in order to bypass traditional constraints of time, budget, and resources.
As a finalist in prestigious AI film competitions like The Culver Cup, he seamlessly orchestrates tools like MidJourney, Runway, Luma, and ElevenLabs to craft immersive content experiences that unlock new avenues of creative expression.
I’m thrilled to feature his work in The Imagination Age Spotlight Series.
Let’s dive in!
Q: Where does AI elevate your work beyond what was previously possible?
A: AI has fundamentally transformed the way I approach filmmaking, expanding the boundaries of what’s possible in both speed and imagination. Before AI, the time, budget, and resources required to create high-quality animation were immense. Now, I can take ideas that once seemed impossible, like “Heartbeat” and “Ahab’s Curse”, and bring them to life in ways that would have taken entire teams and years to accomplish.
With “Heartbeat”, I wanted to reimagine “The Tell-Tale Heart” as an anime-style film. AI allowed me to generate stunning visuals, craft intricate sequences, and maintain a high level of cinematic precision without the constraints of traditional animation pipelines. I used tools like MidJourney for detailed character and setting designs, Luma for dynamic shots, and ElevenLabs for compelling voiceovers. The result was a film that felt richly stylized, immersive, and emotionally gripping, something that would have been incredibly challenging to execute at this level without AI.
Similarly, “Ahab’s Curse”, a short film inspired by Moby Dick, allowed me to explore the depth of maritime horror and psychological tension in a way that felt larger than life. AI helped me create a haunting oceanic world, visualizing towering waves, spectral shipwrecks, and the deep obsession that drives Captain Ahab. The ability to iterate quickly, refine compositions, and push artistic boundaries meant that I could experiment with atmosphere and tone in ways that traditional workflows would not have allowed.
Beyond just speed, AI enables precision and creativity on a scale that feels limitless. It is not about replacing human storytelling; it is about unlocking new dimensions of it. Animation was once a world I admired from a distance, thinking it was too costly and time-intensive to dive into. AI changed that. It has given me the ability to direct animated films with the same level of cinematic complexity as live-action while still maintaining my personal storytelling style.
This is what excites me the most. Being able to explore, experiment, and bring ideas to life without boundaries. AI is not just a tool. It is an artistic partner that makes the impossible possible.
Q: What are the biggest misconceptions about AI art? What do people get wrong about how it’s made?
A: The biggest misconception about AI art is that it’s just pressing a button. In reality, AI is a tool like a paintbrush or a camera. It requires skill, vision, and refinement. Artists craft detailed prompts, iterate on outputs, and often combine AI-generated elements with traditional techniques. Just like a painter uses brushes or a filmmaker uses a camera, AI is simply a means to create. It doesn’t replace the artist’s intent, creativity, or craftsmanship.
Q: If you could pitch one bold AI-driven creative idea to a major brand, what would it be?
A: I have too many ideas to pitch, but the real takeaway is that brands need to start utilizing AI to explore new storylines for branded entertainment. AI is not just a tool for efficiency. It is a creative powerhouse that can unlock bold, immersive, and personalized narratives at a scale never seen before.
Brands that embrace AI can develop dynamic storytelling experiences that evolve with their audience, generating content that feels cinematic, interactive, and deeply engaging. Whether it is AI-driven worlds that adapt to customer choices, hyper-personalized campaigns, or brand stories that unfold in real time across digital platforms, the possibilities are endless.
The future of branded entertainment is not static. It is AI-powered, constantly evolving, and built for deeper audience connection. The brands that move first will define the next era of storytelling.
Q: What’s missing in AI creative tools today? If you could build the perfect AI art engine, what would it do?
A: The biggest gaps in AI creative tools today come down to control, consistency, and true cinematic integration. Current tools struggle with character and scene continuity, making it difficult to maintain a cohesive visual narrative. A perfect AI art engine would offer precise cinematic control, allowing users to pose characters, direct expressions, and adjust body language dynamically. It would also include lens and camera settings to ensure film-quality depth of field, motion, and lighting. AI should seamlessly generate scene-to-scene continuity, extend still images into smooth cinematic motion, and provide intelligent animation that mimics real physics and human emotion. Additionally, built-in voice AI, sound design, and auto-editing would streamline the entire filmmaking pipeline, eliminating the need for multiple disconnected tools.
Beyond visuals, AI should act as a true filmmaking partner by integrating story, style, and collaboration into a single workflow. It should enable live style customization, allowing users to switch between photorealism, anime, or stylized aesthetics effortlessly. AI should also auto-assemble rough cuts, suggest pacing, and export seamlessly into industry tools like Unreal Engine and Adobe Premiere. A collaborative workspace would let teams co-develop projects in real-time, making AI-driven storytelling as efficient and intuitive as traditional filmmaking. With greater precision, control, and seamless integration, AI has the potential to revolutionize the creative process, empowering filmmakers to bring their boldest visions to life.
Q: What’s one mindset shift you’d encourage for traditional artists hesitant to embrace AI?
A: One mindset shift I’d encourage for traditional artists hesitant to embrace AI is to see it as a tool, not a replacement. Just like digital art once expanded the possibilities of traditional painting, AI is another powerful medium that can enhance creativity rather than replace it. Instead of viewing it as a threat, artists can approach AI as a collaborative assistant that speeds up workflows, unlocks new creative possibilities, and helps visualize ideas more efficiently. The essence of art, including storytelling, emotion, and unique perspective, still comes from the artist. AI simply provides new brushes to paint with, making once impossible ideas more achievable.
By embracing AI as a tool, artists can stay ahead of the curve while preserving their originality. It does not replace skill or vision, but it removes tedious barriers, allowing for more focus on refinement and artistic expression. The best results come from artists who understand how to blend AI with human creativity, using it to enhance rather than dictate their work. Instead of resisting change, those who integrate AI into their creative process will find themselves empowered with greater efficiency, innovation, and artistic freedom.
Q: Fast forward 10 years: How do you think AI will have changed the creative industry?
A: Fast forward ten years, AI will have completely transformed the creative industry, with AI animation emerging as a dominant force and hybrid production becoming the new standard. AI-driven tools will allow filmmakers and animators to generate high-quality animated films in a fraction of the time, with full control over character consistency, motion, and cinematography. The need for large animation studios will shift, as independent creators and small teams will be able to produce cinematic-quality films using AI-powered pipelines. AI will also enable real-time rendering, voice synthesis, and motion capture, making it possible to create fully animated productions with unprecedented speed and flexibility.
Hybrid production, blending AI-generated elements with traditional filmmaking techniques, will redefine the industry. Live-action films will seamlessly integrate AI-enhanced backgrounds, characters, and visual effects, reducing costs and expanding creative possibilities. AI will assist in pre-production, from scriptwriting and storyboarding to pre-visualization, giving directors real-time tools to refine their vision before a single frame is shot. The creative industry will no longer be defined by expensive resources or large teams but by those who understand how to leverage AI to elevate storytelling. With AI democratizing content creation, the next decade will usher in a wave of bold, boundary-pushing filmmakers who can bring their visions to life without limitations.
Q: Which genAI art or artists have inspired you recently?
Metapuppet, Dave Clark, Kavan The Kid, Henry Daubrez
Check out Justin Suarez’ work here.