Make an AI Short Film in One Week: Behind the Scenes of "Coffee?"
What if you had a film idea but no cast, no crew, no production budget, and only one week to bring it to life? Could you actually make a short film using AI?
That is the questions answered by 92 Frames: Coffee?
Coffee? is a short suspense story with a twist, that uses AI-assisted filmmaking tools to help bring it from screenplay to screen. But the process was much more involved than simply typing a prompt into an AI video generator.
Characters didn't always look at each other. Dialogue came in too fast. Some shots weren't anything like what the creator envisioned. And one particular shot involving a bloody knife became a lesson in learning when to compromise.
So here's a look behind the scenes at how they went from script → AI-generated footage → editing → sound → final film in one week.
The Idea Started With a Script
Before opening the AI video generator, they had to have a story.
written Coffee? in Celtx,
They created a contained suspense story with a small cast, limited locations, and a strong visual payoff. Once the screenplay was finished, the challenge became translating those written pages into a film.
Taking the Screenplay Into OpenArt
My next step was bringing the screenplay into OpenArt, working through the story.
They started by creating the characters. They developed descriptions and reference images to establish what Ella and Jack should look like. Then they began working through the screenplay and using the text-to-video tools to generate individual shots.
This is where having a filmmaking background became particularly important.
A screenplay isn't simply dialogue. It's action. Camera angles. Shot sizes. Blocking. Eyelines. Character movement. Pacing.
They were thinking about the same things you would think about when directing a traditional production:
Where should the camera be?
Is this a close-up or a medium shot?
Do I need an over-the-shoulder?
Where is the character looking?
What does the audience need to see?
How will this shot connect to the next one?
Their goal wasn't to generate a collection of beautiful AI images.
They needed footage that could actually be edited together into a coherent story.
Directing AI Like a Camera Operator
One of the biggest things learned was that you have to be specific.
When they wrote the screenplay, They often had a particular shot or camera angle in mind and had to translate that intention into instructions the AI could understand.
Eyelines were particularly important. If one character is talking to another, they need to look in the right direction. When they don't, the audience immediately senses that something isn't quite right.
Then there was character consistency. They found that using the character reference image when generating new shots helped keep the characters more consistent from one shot to the next.
They also experimented with generating all of Ella's dialogue at one time and then Jack's, rather than randomly moving back and forth between characters. That helped me maintain greater consistency in the characters and their shots. It wasn't perfect. But it gave me more control.
Challenge #1: The Dialogue Was Way Too Fast
One of the biggest challenges was dialogue timing. The first time the dialogue was generated the characters were speaking much too quickly. The lines came one right after another, without the natural pauses and breathing room they needed. And in a suspense film, timing matters.
They went back and experimented with the duration of the generated clips, giving the dialogue more room to breathe. They discovered that punctuation could influence the delivery. Adding periods created additional pauses and breaks in the dialogue. It wasn't a magic solution, but it gave another way to influence the performance. They wanted the dialogue to sound like a conversation - not someone racing through a screenplay.
You can have a great line of dialogue, but if it's delivered at the wrong speed, you can completely change the scene. With suspense, the audience needs those pauses.
They need time to wonder:
What's happening?
What's going on with this character?
What am I supposed to notice?
Challenge #2: The Bloody Knife
Then they ran into one of the more interesting problems in the production. There was a moment in the screenplay where they needed a bloody knife inside Ella's bag. They knew what they wanted the audience to see. But getting the AI to generate the exact action and composition envisioned proved much more difficult than expected. They tried different descriptions and approaches, but it wasn't getting the shot. And that's when they had to do something filmmakers have been doing forever: Compromise.
Instead of insisting that the AI produce the exact image, they started looking for another way to communicate the same information to the audience. The final shot wasn't necessarily the shot originally imagined. But it worked.
And that's an important lesson whether you're working with AI or a traditional film crew:
Sometimes the best shot isn't the shot you originally imagined. It's the shot that tells the story.
Bringing Everything Into Premiere Pro
Once they generated the footage needed, they brought everything into Adobe Premiere Pro.
This was a critical part of the process because they wanted control over the final film.
When generating the footage, they specifically instructed the AI to use no music.
because they wanted to make those creative decisions.
In Premiere, you can control the music, sound design, color, pacing, transitions, and overall rhythm of the film. They didn't want every AI-generated shot to come with a different musical or audio treatment. They wanted the finished film to feel like one film.
And this is where editing became incredibly important.
They could take a generated shot and decide how long the audience should stay with it.
You can extend a moment.
Cut earlier.
Slow something down.
Reverse an action.
Change the rhythm.
Build anticipation.
Create a pause.
The AI gave me the raw material.
They were still making the editorial decisions.
So, Could You Make a Short Film in One Week? Yes.
This film was written, generated, directed, and edited in a couple of days. And that's what makes this process so interesting.
You can take that screenplay and turn it into a finished short film.
Does that mean AI is the future of filmmaking? Honestly, no one knows.
There are still plenty of limitations. You have to experiment. You have to troubleshoot. You have to make creative decisions. And sometimes you have to completely rethink a shot because the technology simply isn't giving you what you want.
But AI-assisted filmmaking represents a significant new tool for independent filmmakers, writers, and creators. Especially people who have stories they want to tell but don't have the resources to produce them traditionally. And, that's the most exciting part.
It's not simply that AI can generate a shot. It's that someone with a story and a vision now has another way to bring that story to life.
Watch Coffee?
Coffee? is an experiment in what happens when traditional filmmaking meets AI-assisted production. If you haven't seen the short film yet, watch it first and then see how it was made.
92 Frames is dedicated to original stories and unexpected worlds, including AI short films, suspense, mystery, and behind-the-scenes looks at the AI filmmaking process.
Original Stories. Unexpected Worlds. AI Filmmaking.
