This page started as notes to help people explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for making movies and possibly documentaries (page updated 4 September 2026).
I also developed a process for making AI-assisted movies here.
But AI tools are changing rapidly and I find it difficult to keep up. So I focus on what works for me, a person with limited funds. A word about subscriptions: Free versions of tools do not provide enough credits to make more than a few seconds of video.
So you are forced to subscribe. The best option is to use an aggregator where you pay as you go. The best I’ve found are PromptEdit, FAL and Replicate.
Do remember that all sites on this page are just tools to help you tell stories. Storytelling remains the key skill for all film-makers. Lesson 7 of my free course in movie-making with a smartphone offers more about storytelling.
Video: KlingAI remains my favourite video-creation tools because it keeps adding impressive options. This site offers help. Google’s Veo-3 is impressive but expensive.
Seedance 2.5 has received good reviews. Other good tools I’ve encountered include Minimax by Hualuo, VideoGen and Dream Machine by LumaLabs.
Rather than spend hours learning new tools, which eats into time I’d rather spend making films, I prefer to rely on people like Tim Simmons and his YouTube site.
The Curious Refuge site offers an excellent list of recommended tools. They review and test new tools as they appear.
Still images: A fun way to make films involves putting still images into editing software and then using the Ken Burns effect to simulate movement. I talk more about that below.
The best tool I’ve encountered for making still images is Nano Banana, which is accessible via Google’s Gemini site or by using Replicate or FAL.
Another option is MidJourney though it requires a paid subscription (no free option to tempt you). It became much easier to use after it moved to the web from Discord. In mid 2025 it became possible to create video with MidJourney.
Use MagnificAI to enhance the images you produce. The test results are impressive. But the cheapest plan is USD 39 or AUD 59 a month for the most basic access.
You could invest in the TopazAI suite of tools to upgrade images and video but it is expensive. A cheaper option for still images is to use Clarity Upscaler via FAL (see above).
Narration/audio/music: Until recently I believed humans provided better-quality narration than AI tools. But ElevenLabs is marvellous. I love the tool that converts a text prompt into a sound effect. The software also offers a new way to synch AI speech in video for auto translations, which will intrigue the international dubbing market.
Stable Audio 2.0 is a cool new tool for creating music and sound effects from a text prompt. But Suno and Udio are even more impressive and easier to use. They are also free.
Annual plans are cheaper than monthly, but I suggest trying each tool via a monthly plan before upgrading to yearly.
CGI, or computer-generated imagery: This remains a complex and expensive process. But an AI tool, Wonder Studio, lets you animate characters on video that you film. Take a look at the product demo video on the company web site. Lots of other options are becoming available.
Special effects (SFX): Some of the excellent and relatively inexpensive apps available for an iPhone such as Videoleap, Efekt, FxGuru, 8mm, Action Movie and Musemage let you create cool footage that you download into your editing software.
Prompts: The words you choose to describe an image/video you want to create make a big difference in terms of the result. Here is an introduction to prompts, while this is an advanced version. Learning to use good prompts is an important skill. This video simplifies the process and offers a prompt formula (formula starts at 1:02).
Jeffrey Katzenberg: In this three-minute video the former head of Disney studios talks abut how the ability to write accurate prompts will become a “creative commodity against many aspects of storytelling”. That’s business speak for a key skill you need to learn.
Scripts: It all begins with the idea and the script. The human mind is still the best tool for creating quality screenplays. AI-generated scripts are mundane at best. But AI tools offer significant help for initial research and feedback on your script.
Many writers recommend Aristotle’s Poetics as a guide to scriptwriting. This video summarises the essentials of Aristotle’s theories and references lots of movie examples.
AI is pathetic for creating humour. The quality is banal though AI can be helpful for routine tasks or prompts via Alexa or similar voice-activated devices.
Research: One possible approach is to use ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Co-Pilot or Google’s Gemini to stimulate ideas or research how others have developed their ideas. In my experience these tools create ordinary scripts but are helpful assistants.
Claude by Anthropic offers an excellent option for getting feedback on your script. Make a PDF of your script and tell the chatbot to assume it is a script reader and to give feedback on the PDF you upload.
New to AI? This article introduces 21 AI tools and would be useful for people new to AI. The blurbs describing each are badly written, probably by an AI tool 🙂
Assistants: Consider using voice-based tools like Alexa to generate ideas and even (bad) jokes. I often ask my Alexa to tell me a joke about (insert subject here) and groan when I hear the result. Useful when I want to offer jokes to my grandchildren.
Distribution: This part is your responsibility. Some suggestions are offered at lesson 12 of my free course in movie-making with a smartphone here.
Stock footage: Two good free sites for stock footage are Pexels (also known by the clumsy name of Canva Germany GmbH, so I stick with Pexels) and Pixabay.
StockCake offers millions of AI-generated stock images for free under a public domain licence.
Resources: I commend to you the website of Neil Chase, a screenwriter who is embracing AI tools for all aspects of the film-making process.
YouTube is the best place for really helpful advice.
Lenny Blonde is also an excellent resource who explains clearly. His channel is called Digital Magic.
Bio of teacher: Stephen Quinn retired as professor of smartphone film-making at Kristiania University in Norway in March 2023 but continues to teach around the world. Dr Quinn’s current obsession is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the movie-making process. He runs MOJO Media Insights (MMI) which teaches people how to make broadcast-quality videos with only an iOS device. Since 2010 he has taught these skills in 21 countries. From 1975-95 Stephen Quinn was a journalist in four countries with some of the world’s premier media companies (The Guardian, ABC, BBC, ITN, TVNZ, the Bangkok Post, Newcastle Herald, Australia). Between 1996 and 2011 Dr Quinn was a journalism educator in Australia, the UAE, the US and China. He returned to journalism full time from 2011-13 with the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong as digital development editor. He has been based in Brighton in the UK since 2014 running MMI, a digital consulting company, when not teaching in Norway. He makes films when he’s not teaching or writing. As of early 2026 Dr Quinn has published 31 books. In the past two decades he has given more than 200 presentations on the future of journalism in 38 countries. Details of his books, movies and screenplays can be found here. He also writes about, and enjoys, wine as a hobby. He is hugely proud of his three children and three grand-children.
Categories: artificial-intelligence, Home page
Stephen Quinn, PhD 
I’ve been testing VO3 AI recently, and what I like most is how streamlined the workflow feels. You can take a simple text idea or even a static image and turn it into a cinematic-style video with smooth motion and synced audio, without touching complicated editing software.
It’s especially useful if you’re creating short-form marketing content or social media videos and don’t want to spend hours in post-production. The balance between ease of use and output quality is surprisingly solid.
If anyone’s exploring text-to-video or image-to-video tools, it’s worth a look: https://www.vo3ai.com/
I’ve been exploring quite a few AI tools recently, and it’s interesting how each one solves a slightly different problem in the creative workflow.
For image creation, I’ve found tools like Flux 2 AI and Nano Banana 2 especially useful when I need high-resolution 2K–4K visuals quickly. Flux is great for instant generation without even signing up, while Nano Banana 2 works well for multi-step refinements and keeping characters consistent across images. I’ve also been testing Aibanana, which makes quick natural-language edits surprisingly smooth, especially when you want to preserve identity or build cohesive visual sequences. And for fast, reliable prompt-based image generation, CingoAI is another solid option.
On the video side, platforms like Hailuo AI, KlingAI 3, and Seedance 2.0 are pushing things further toward cinematic output. Seedance 2.0, for example, excels in turning text and images into high-quality video content with synchronized audio and multi-shot storytelling. It’s perfect for marketing and social media content, where you need that cinematic touch without extensive editing. Whether you’re working with text-to-video or image-to-video workflows, Seedance focuses on making video creation seamless, with tools that are flexible yet professional.
For more niche use cases, I’ve also seen creative applications like C2Story for personalized children’s picture books, or even conversational platforms like Your Girlfriend, which shift the focus from content creation to interactive AI experiences. And if someone is just trying to get different AI tools running efficiently, resources like OpenClaw Install can simplify the setup process.
Overall, what stands out to me is how the ecosystem is fragmenting into specialized tools—some optimized for speed, others for consistency, storytelling, or interaction. It really depends on what stage of the creative process you’re trying to optimize.
Aibanana – AI Banana Image Generator
Edit Images with Natural Language in 1-2 Seconds. Revolutionary Nano Banana AI technology delivers instant image editing and generation. Describe changes in plain English, preserve 95% identity accuracy, and create cohesive multi-image stories—all without traditional editing skills.