Beyond the Prompt: Directing in the Age of AI

The prompt might be the least interesting part of making a film with AI. Generative tools now make it possible for small teams and individual creators to produce images that once required entire production pipelines. But the idea, references, storyboarding, performance, shot design, continuity, editing, sound and countless creative decisions still have to come from somewhere. Writer-director Cynthia Bahati Gentry takes a practical look at what directing with AI actually looks like: the tools she uses, what happens between an idea and a finished sequence, where the technology still falls apart, and the lessons she has learned trying to make work that feels like cinema rather than a demonstration of what a model can do.