We Made a Sci-Fi Action Short Film With AI — And Had a Blast Doing It
Everyone says AI is killing creativity. We used it to create something we never could have made without it.
Last year, my friend Tommy Zion called me with a wild idea. Tommy is a well-known action film stunt choreographer in the Texas film industry — the guy who makes fight scenes look brutal and beautiful at the same time. He wanted to make a short film. Not just any short film. A post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, faith-based action film called Impostor.
The catch? We had almost no budget. The other catch? We didn't care. We had AI.
Watch Impostor
For the best experience, watch it full-screen on YouTube. Then come back and tell me what you think!
The Team Behind Impostor
Tommy isn't just a stunt guy — he's a Christian man who wants to influence the action film space by proving you can make intense, gripping cinema that's also faith-based. No preachiness. No cheese. Just raw, cinematic storytelling with heart.
He recruited his friend Ronald, who wrote and directed the film. Ronald brought the vision, the script, and the creative direction that held the whole thing together.
And me? I edited and produced. Which is where AI changed absolutely everything.
THE IMPOSTOR CREW
- 🎬 Tommy Zion — Stunt choreography & action direction
- 🎥 Ronald — Writer & Director
- 🎞️ Eliud "Elliott" Lamboy — Editor & Producer
- 🤖 AI — Music, SFX, VFX, and the glue that held the budget together
How AI Made This Film Possible
Let's be real. Without AI, this film doesn't get made. Not because we lack talent — but because indie filmmaking on a micro-budget has always been brutally expensive in the places you don't expect. Music licensing. Sound effects libraries. Visual effects. These are the line items that quietly kill indie projects before they ever see the light of day.
AI changed the math. Here's how we used it:
🎵 Music — Suno
The film needed a score that felt cinematic — dark, atmospheric, and perfectly timed to the action. Traditionally, that means hiring a composer or licensing tracks at hundreds of dollars per piece.
Instead, we used Suno. I could generate custom music that was tailored to the mood and pace of each scene. Not generic stock music. Not a loop that kind of works. Music that was made for the film.
🔊 Sound Effects — ElevenLabs
Action films live and die by their sound design. Every punch, every sci-fi weapon blast, every footstep on rubble — it all has to feel real. Sound effects libraries are expensive, and digging through thousands of clips to find the right one is a time sink.
ElevenLabs gave us the ability to generate the exact sounds we needed. Custom. On demand. No licensing headaches.
🎨 VFX — Google AI Studio
When you're making a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, you need visual effects. Destroyed cityscapes. Energy weapons. Environmental detail that sells the world. Traditional VFX would have required a team — or at least a software budget that dwarfs what we had.
Google AI Studio let me generate images and video elements that I could composite into the final edit. The AI-generated assets blended right in. They added depth, atmosphere, and scale to the story — things we simply couldn't have achieved with practical effects alone on this budget.
THE AI PRODUCTION TOOLKIT
AI Doesn't Replace Experience — It Amplifies It
Here's the part that gets lost in the hype and the fear: AI didn't make this film for us. Not even close.
It takes filmmaking experience to know when a cut should be hard or soft. It takes an editor's eye to know which AI-generated music track actually works for a scene versus which one just sounds cool. It takes a director's instinct to know what the VFX should serve — the story, not the spectacle.
I currently use Adobe as my primary editing suite. If I'm being honest, I'm starting to question whether the $60+ a month is worth it as AI tools keep evolving. But the craft? The instinct? The storytelling — that will always be human.
AI gave us the materials. The team brought the meaning.
The Argument Nobody Is Making
While the internet debates whether AI is stealing jobs and killing creativity, here's what actually happened in the real world:
Three friends got together. One does stunts. One writes and directs. One edits and produces. Between us, we had more passion than budget. And because of AI tools that didn't exist two years ago, we were able to make a post-apocalyptic sci-fi action short film that we're genuinely proud of.
THE REAL SCORECARD
- 🎬 Jobs replaced by AI: Zero
- 🧠 Creative decisions made by humans: All of them
- 💰 Budget saved by AI tools: Thousands of dollars
- 😂 Fun had making this: Immeasurable
- 🔥 Times we've rewatched our own film: ...too many to count
The humans won this round. Not because of money saved, but because we had a ton of fun watching it. We love sharing it. We love showing people what a small group of friends can do when the barriers come down.
AI didn't steal our creativity. It removed the financial barriers that would have kept this project in the "wouldn't it be cool if..." category forever.
What This Means for You
If you're a creator — a filmmaker, a musician, a designer, a small business owner with a story to tell — the tools are here. Right now. Many of them are free or nearly free.
You don't need a Hollywood budget. You don't need a massive team. You need a vision, the will to execute, and the willingness to learn new tools.
AI gives power to the underdog. That's not just a belief — it's something we just proved with a camera, three friends, and a handful of AI tools.
Let's Talk About Your Project
Whether you're looking to integrate AI into your creative workflow, automate your business operations, or just want to geek out about what's possible — reach out. Impostor is proof that big things come from small teams with the right tools.
Texas AI Consulting | AI Gives Power to the Underdog