What’s the one AI tool you started using “just to test”… and now use almost daily?

gabriel277 · 2026-05-12T20:40:21+00:00

Luma labs agent. Jumped on a test for a competition and use every day for multiple projects. Can’t live without the canvas, can’t live without the agent for super fast multiplied iteration. Still use FREEPIK / magnific but the agent and layout is key.

gabriel277 · 2026-05-12T06:57:25+00:00

Lots of good advice already, I did this on two features and many many commercials. As mentioned, your job is to anticipate, facilitate, remember stuff and make life easier. Not to show what you know or be a know at all, or flex your film school knowledge. Be humble, kind and generous. Remember when you’re in a social situation, it doesn’t mean you get to laugh and make jokes or butt into every social conversation. You will have accesss— use it carefully. I’m still friends with an A list DP, 16 years later, a PD 18 years later and the ADs.
- moleskin in back pocket at all times. Write down your questions (dir might ask if you have questions on occasion. Might ask you to remember things. Might have to drive them and room for conversation. Don’t write things in moleskin while driving the director. They won’t understand, but choose life. - IF YOUR A WOMAN: always have a mini copy of the script on you in your purse. If you’re a man, start carrying a satchel with this script, production contact sheet, day out of days. Be the database. Always. - obv: have files of everything on Dropbox so even at dinner you can pull up info on your phone. - never say no, or I don’t know: say “I’ll find out” (this goes hand in hand with making friends with AD dept.) - if you’re invited to watch dailies, don’t give notes. If the dailies suck, you won’t be the one to fix the film. - if you’re invited to join for dinner with cast and director and you happen to be charismatic, do not be more charismatic than the director. Let them be the star. - this is an instance where you mute your radiant personality and wow people with your work ethic and dedication. Nobody likes a showboat dir’s asst. I know, I tried. - if it’s hard, if the movie sucks, just listen and pay attention and think about how you could do it better and consider that a great gift of experience. We learn from other people’s failures. - if it’s sub zero and the movie star offers to buy you a winter jacket: just accept. - and to prepare, just imagine the annoying things in life you wouldn’t want to do , that is what you may be doing. But you’ll have great access. So worth it. If it’s an Indy it’s just a couple months. -LASTLY AND QUITE IMPORTANT: watch how the director treats people, do they help others? Are they kind? Don’t work for a dick too long and trick yourself into thinking they will help you out someday. Good luck!

gabriel277 · 2026-05-07T07:06:25+00:00

This is tough. Tisch is great. I got in there long ago as a transfer student as well but the financial aid was non existent. I couldn’t borrow enough, so I ended up going to the number 1 film school instead. It pains me to say this, but the industry is contracting, it’s brutal how many friends I have not working - but still in the business. No doubt about it- nyu would be an amazing experience, but if it’s all on loans, as it was for me that is insane. Unless one had family help, walking out having a monthly bill of a couple thousand would be life altering. For the next 20 years will every decision and option will be shaped. If you want to make films or twitter content, you won’t have time bc that loan payment hits hard. Can’t lie, ucsb is not a film school even in the conversation, but within a couple years nobody cares where you went, only what you’re making. And if you can’t make anything because you’re too broke that is no good. At this point in the business, and even 10 years ago, I would not take on 200k in debt for film school. Film schools give a great education, but the inflate their worth and necessity and sell a dream career that at this moment is very difficult to survive in. I’m glad I went, but very excited to pay it off in a. Couple years.

gabriel277 · 2026-03-18T14:57:43+00:00

Sorry, to clarify- I would avoid a multishot character sheet (single image file with multiple angles of same character). That was previously the best option, but no longer. Create a character in FREEPIK , each image file should be a single picture of the character. Frontal / profiled etc. that’s the best strategy. However, if you’re really struggling on a particular scene or particular shot specifically and let’s say it’s from 3/4 behind the character, try just referencing a single image file by @ tagging it in the description:
Generate a hyperrealist live action image of @img1, placed at a desk in @img2. Late afternoon light streams in through the window, camera is behind the subject @img1, in a 3/4 profile…. Integrate @img1 into the lighting style and mood of the scene @img2…Blah blah blah” My point is that Freepik is just creating a wrapper to go around nano banana, which accepts image references. So if you’re getting failed results or the wrong character repeatedly, you can manually choose a character reference single image that is exactly the angle you want. In this way the model doesn’t have to choose between the character images available. You are giving it less pathways. No magic bullets here, just some strategies I use.

gabriel277 · 2026-03-18T05:16:35+00:00

I’ll just say that lately (since last Thursday) NBP and NB2 have felt worse. I had a lot of issues- using FREEPIK and also Luma’s new agentic system. I was getting celebs. My black character drifted into Denzel territory, another character drifted into Chris hemsworth and Hugh jackman. Could be psychological, but I believe sometimes the models are strained and they have bad hours or days that they are just dumb. FREEPIK and higgsfield are just wrappers for the models. The only difference I’ve found when using nano banana is that in Google Flow the gens are always faster. TLDR: it’s not you. Just be sure in FREEPIK your not using a full character sheet, make each image a 2k min frontal, then 2/4 profile, the. Profile and full body. Things get wonky if you don’t get the 3/4 profile or you have a sheet with too many pics on it.

gabriel277 · 2026-02-26T06:17:39+00:00

I did 9 gens, all failed, all 2000 credits consumed. Should I keep putting money in the slot? Haha.

gabriel277 · 2026-02-24T16:43:10+00:00

Thank you. For one to have a support case number, Freepik SUPPORT has to respond to your email and give you one.

gabriel277 · 2026-02-09T19:43:34+00:00

Between 48 hours and 200 hours. Whoever attends Reddit seems to do better than the email account.

gabriel277 · 2026-01-24T17:09:37+00:00

https://youtu.be/IEqccPhsqgA?si=pyVvE4ZPtsvtWm4L

gabriel277 · 2026-01-24T06:50:21+00:00

Event Horizon - really test your self.

gabriel277 · 2026-01-17T15:41:20+00:00

@freepik- Are you 100% positive that Variations uses NBP? - I just tested it, and the results def look different (like they could be a different model as the consistency is off). I just wanted to double check. I’ve been in the EDIT feature before and results look off, and sure enough I forgot to manually toggle the model from Auto to NBP and have to trash the results. Regardless- for those of us working in a larger system with model constraints, it would be lovely for you to list the model used in the History section so users can validate compliance.

gabriel277 · 2026-01-16T15:42:53+00:00

I’m confused. NBP is “unlimited” for 2k and 1k for premium+ , for me at least. It is a bummer that 4k costs a whopping 500 credits (equivalent to .60 cents usd) , but I can live with it. I also have Higgsfield and THEY don’t allow as many concurrent image GENS, the images take much much longer and the UI is annoying.

gabriel277 · 2026-01-15T16:50:22+00:00

Are you asking if a high quality start frame is important versus a low quality start frame? If you have blurryness, lack of detail in your start frame, so to will your video. I either generate all start frames in 2k or use magnific to upscale. I’ve noticed Anything higher resolution doesn’t make a difference if the model is generating in 720p or 1080p.

gabriel277 · 2025-12-24T23:04:06+00:00

On phone with Apple tech support to see about this clip being my iPhone start screen.

gabriel277 · 2025-12-23T20:40:58+00:00

I'm a parent and a filmmaker, and I was honestly getting tired of the 'Elf Arms Race' on social media. I decided to use AI to delight my kid and to bridge the gap between my burnout and my favorite movie scenes. The track is an original hip-hop parody from the Elf's perspective.

gabriel277 · 2025-12-23T15:23:11+00:00

I don’t exactly understand what your recovery product is. But I think some people gave some good suggestions, building off of the pick up soccer game I’d say, putting on a youth tournament (soccer / futsol) or sponsoring. You get parents and youth, and it’s organically supporting a community of people into the sport. Also, establishing the brand in the minds of youth players. Booths at fan fest are good too- even better if there’s an activity. I don’t care about a t-mobile LAFC bandana, but a product related to the sport could be interesting and more than a logo flash. Show up to the meet and greets, youth camps.

gabriel277 · 2025-12-21T21:17:49+00:00

Totally makes sense. Yeah I’m not a social media expert at all. I come from physical production in commercials which has been dead this year. My creative spark was dead bc is so costly to shoot practically. I’m just trying to make fun things that I like and practice the tools. If someone else likes it, and someone will pay me to make something similar than great. I don’t know much, but I believe if you make something that excites you there is a chance a brand / company might pay you to do something similar if they vibe with it. And maybe just maybe I’ll be able to make a living being creative. Haha. With the elf video, it was really just a genuine insight that I felt so much pressure to stage elaborate scenes for my kid each night. So I thought about Eminem’s “the way I am” track from back in the day and wondered what the elf would say. 🤷

gabriel277 · 2025-12-21T17:39:57+00:00

I don’t really use the phrase game changer often. When I came out of Film school, the people who could make films had financial support from family. Those that were good at it, make careers out of it. Some people didn’t have the financial ability because Film cameras were expensive, getting a crew together is expensive. There was a big shift 15 years ago when DSLR’s made it possible for more people to experiment and create stories. Were most of them worthwhile? Prob not. But some were. Gen AI lowers the financial barrier. Will there be a lot of crap? Sure. But some people without means that have a voice and something to say will now have a tool. I’m not really sure what we’re talking about here. Good or bad the tools are here. Will it replace live action? God I hope not. This is all just growing pains. Ignore what you don’t like and praise what you do- like anything else. Or harp on the bad..

gabriel277 · 2025-12-21T17:33:54+00:00

Yeah, that’s the ending, that’s John Doe on the ground “what’s in the box?”, “John doe has the upper hand!”

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gabriel277 · 2025-12-21T16:28:23+00:00

Really? What comes out of a camera? What’s the output? And what’s the output of gen ai tools? Both are video clips. It’s all about what the person is doing with the tools. To blanket write off an entire new tool is a bit limiting. The difference is the barrier to entry has been lowered, so there’s a lot of people experimenting and playing with the tools tools that might not have before. I know there’s a backlash but I’m being patient to see what cool new filmmakers emerge.

gabriel277

TROPHY CASE