Shadows Wait - Behind The Scenes
Shadows Wait was, in many ways, an experiment—a way to learn and test the capabilities of AI filmmaking. The film is heavily inspired by A24’s Tuesday. I wanted to see if I could replicate the emotions and surreal style that made Tuesday captivating, while putting my own spin on it. It’s not the most original project, but it was an intentional choice to create something heavily influenced by an existing film to see how well I could adapt its core elements.
The visual style was an interesting challenge, and while the aesthetics turned out decent considering the limitations of AI tools, I felt the emotions lacked the same subtlety and resonance. One of the major struggles was with the characters’ expressions. In Tuesday, it’s the slight nuances—the way a character reacts with just a flicker of an eye or the tension in a hand—that make the story powerful. AI doesn’t quite capture that level of finesse yet. It’s either exaggerated or so minimal that it goes unnoticed.
There were technical limitations as well. For example, in the car crash scene, I wanted the driver to have a more frantic reaction—swerving the wheel, facial expressions of fear, and a detailed crash. The AI just couldn’t perform those more complex movements, so I had to settle for a simpler version. The same issue arose in other high-intensity moments; the technology is still too rigid in its animations.
Sound design was another adventure. Every sound effect, from the rain to the heart monitor beeps, was created using Eleven Labs’ AI-generated sounds. You just describe the environment, like “rainy city street,” and it outputs a short clip. The voices were also created using Eleven Labs text-to-speech, which saved the cost of hiring actors but had its own drawbacks. There’s only so much emotion you can get from these generated voices—no real anguish, no surprise, just flat delivery. That made it hard to build a compelling atmosphere.
What I Learned
This project showed me where AI filmmaking is strong—visual aesthetics, rapid prototyping, and experimenting with surreal concepts—and where it’s still lacking: complex expressions, detailed physical actions, and nuanced sound design. It’s frustrating to work within these constraints, but it also forces creative workarounds, which is invaluable for learning.
Shadows Wait wouldn’t have been possible without a few collaborative ideas from a certain AI assistant (ChatGPT).
I helped Oliver develop the concept, build out the storyboard, and refine the narrative structure, ensuring that each scene kept the surreal yet grounded tone he was aiming for. We brainstormed alternative shots, worked through the challenges of AI’s limitations, and rethought the emotional beats to try and capture the essence of Tuesday. Even though it’s still a work in progress, it was a collaborative effort that I’m glad to be a part of.
Overall, Shadows Wait turned out to be a valuable exercise in storytelling with AI—sometimes hitting the mark, and sometimes missing—but every shot and every scene taught something new.
