u/SpecificFee6350

Hey everyone!

I run a small full service creative agency in Austin, just me and two other people, and we've been at it for about two years. Wanted to share something about how we handle video production for clients because it was quietly killing our margins for a long time before we figured out a better way.

The situation

When you're a three person shop you're constantly making decisions about where to spend your time and what to outsource. Video production was always the thing that took the most time relative to what we were charging for it. We were either doing it ourselves which meant late nights and weekends, or outsourcing it which meant thinner margins and slower turnaround. Neither felt sustainable and clients were starting to notice the inconsistency.

The specific problem was client expectations around video have gone up a lot in the last couple of years. Everyone wants more of it, wants it faster, and wants it to look like it cost more than it did. For a small agency trying to compete with larger shops that have dedicated production teams that's a hard gap to close.

What we started doing

About eight months ago I started seriously testing AI video tools to see if they could fill some of that gap. Not to replace real production entirely but to handle specific types of content faster and cheaper than we could otherwise. What I found was that the tools varied a lot more than I expected and figuring out what worked for client work specifically took some time.

For anything product focused or commercial, clean controlled output that clients feel comfortable putting their brand on, Veo was the most consistent. For lifestyle and campaign content, scenes with natural movement and energy, Kling handled that better than everything else I tested. For more conceptual or mood driven work, brand awareness stuff at the top of the funnel, Wan turned out to be more capable than I expected going in.

Managing multiple tools across different platforms was becoming its own problem until someone at an Austin creative meetup mentioned Prism. It lets you work across models from one place without the account switching and file management eating into billable time. There's also a good thread on r/agency about production workflows for small shops worth reading, and this breakdown on AI video for creative agencies covers how other small teams are thinking about integrating these tools without it changing what they actually sell.

Where we're at now

We're taking on more video work than before and delivering it faster. The margins on that work have improved because we're spending less time on production overhead. We've also been able to pitch video as part of packages where we previously would have either avoided it or outsourced it entirely.

I want to be honest that this took real time to figure out and not every client brief translates well to these tools. There's still plenty of work that needs traditional production and knowing the difference matters. But for a small agency trying to compete above its weight on video the ceiling on what's possible has gone up a lot in the last year.

Happy to answer questions about how this works in practice for agency work specifically.

Hey everyone!
I do real estate videography in LA, mostly higher end residential stuff in areas like Los Feliz and Silver Lake, and for the past year or so I've been slowly incorporating AI video into my pre-production process in a way that has genuinely changed how I work with clients. I wanted to share what that actually looked like in practice because most of what I see online about AI video is either people hyping it up way too much or dismissing it entirely, and the reality for working videographers is somewhere messier and more interesting than either of those takes.
How it started
About a year ago I had a client, a real estate agent who works with a lot of out of state buyers, ask me if I could show her roughly what a property walkthrough would look like before we committed to a shoot day. She wanted to send something to her client overseas to get buy-in before flying them out. I didn't really have a good answer for her at the time. I sent over some reference videos from past projects and she was polite about it but I could tell it wasn't what she was asking for.
That stuck with me. I started looking into whether AI video tools could fill that gap, not as a replacement for the actual shoot but as a way to give clients a rough visual direction early in the process. What I found was that the tools varied a lot more than I expected in ways that took me a while to understand.
What I actually learned from using them
The first thing that surprised me was how differently each model handles interior spaces. Lighting consistency from room to room, the way natural light comes through windows, how furniture reads on screen. These things matter a lot for real estate work and some models handled them way better than others. Veo ended up being the most reliable for that kind of controlled interior work, the output was clean enough that two clients I showed early concepts to didn't realize it wasn't footage I had already shot.
For exterior shots and neighborhood context, wider establishing stuff, I got better results from Sora even though getting access was more annoying than it should be. And for anything more stylized, like a concept reel to help a client visualize a renovation before it happened, Wan turned out to be more useful than I expected going in.
The bigger problem I ran into was that managing all of these tools separately was eating up way more time than I anticipated. Different platforms, different credit systems, files scattered all over the place. I was spending a chunk of every morning just getting organized before I could do any actual work. Someone in a Facebook group for videographers mentioned Prism as a way to manage multiple models from one place and that ended up solving most of that problem for me. There's also a pretty good discussion on r/videography from a few months back about AI pre-viz workflows that's worth reading if you want more perspectives on this, and this breakdown on YouTube goes into how other commercial shooters are thinking about integrating these tools without it replacing their core work.
What my process looks like now
I now offer a concept preview as part of my standard package for any listing over a certain price point. It takes me a couple of hours to put together something rough enough to be useful and clients respond really well to it. The agent I mentioned at the beginning has referred me to three other agents in her office specifically because of this, she brings it up every time.
The actual shoot still matters just as much as it always did. The AI stuff is just a way to get everyone on the same page before we get there so we're not making decisions on the day that should have been made weeks earlier.
If anyone has questions about how this works in practice for real estate specifically I'm happy to go into more detail.

Hey everyone!

I'm a junior at USC's film school and I just wrapped my second short film last month. Wanted to share something that changed how I approached pre-production on this one because I wish someone had told me about it before my first film, which was a bit of a disaster in ways I'll get into.

What went wrong the first time

My first short was a 10 minute film we shot over two weekends last year. I had the whole thing storyboarded, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted, and then we got on location and I realized pretty quickly that what was in my head and what was actually achievable with our schedule and crew size were two completely different things. We lost almost half a day on the first shoot day just making decisions that should have been made weeks earlier. My DP was patient about it but I could tell it was frustrating for everyone.

My professor pulled me aside after and basically said the job of pre-production is to make sure you never have to think on set. You should already know every answer before you get there. Which sounds obvious but actually doing it with a student budget and no resources is harder than it sounds.

What I did differently this time

I started looking into AI video tools as a way to rough out shots before we committed to anything. Not to replace storyboards, I still did those, but to actually see movement and light in a scene before showing up with a crew. What I found was that different tools were useful for different things in a way that took some trial and error to figure out.

For anything involving how a space actually feels on camera, room scale, natural light through windows, how a location reads, Veo gave me the cleanest output. I used it to mock up our main interior location and showed it to my DP before our location scout and it completely changed how we talked about the shoot. We walked in already knowing what we wanted.

For wider shots and anything more atmospheric, a night exterior we had planned, a street scene at dusk, Sora handled those better even though getting access was more of a hassle. And Kling was what I used for anything where I needed to see how a subject would actually move through a space, blocking basically, it was the most reliable for that.

The workflow problem nobody warned me about is that juggling multiple tools is genuinely time consuming in a way that sneaks up on you. Different platforms, different accounts, files everywhere. A friend in my cohort mentioned Prism which lets you work across models from one place and that helped a lot once I found it. There's also a solid thread on r/Filmmakers from a while back about pre-viz on low budget shoots worth digging up, and this YouTube video on student film pre-production goes into how other people are thinking about this stuff without a big budget.

How the shoot actually went

We got everything we needed in two shoot days. No major surprises on location, no half days lost to decisions that should have already been made. My DP told me it was the most prepared she'd seen a student director come in and honestly that meant a lot coming from her.

I'm not saying AI pre-viz is magic or that it replaces actually knowing your craft. But for student filmmakers working with small crews and no margin for error on shoot days, having a rough visual you can actually show people before you get there is genuinely useful in a way I didn't fully appreciate until I tried it.

Happy to answer questions about how I used any of these tools specifically if it's helpful.