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- [00:01]
A
Let me ask you something. When your team needs AI guidance, do they come to you? When leadership asks about AI strategy, is your opinion the one that matters? If you hesitated on either one of these questions, you're not alone. The AI revolution is creating a new hierarchy in marketing. Those who master AI are becoming indispensable. Those who don't are becoming replaceable. AI Business World Business positions you on the right side of this divide. Two focus days in Anaheim, California, April 29th and 30th, designed to transform you from, quote, the person learning AI unquote into, quote, the AI expert everyone depends on, unquote. Melanie Miller told us the AI teaching was mind blowing. You'll master workflows that deliver measurable roi, learn from practitioners already providing results, and and build a network of 1000 AI focused professionals. This is more than just learning new tools. It's about professional security, career advancement, becoming the person your organization can't afford to lose. Learn more@AI businessworld.live. get your tickets at a businessworld.live.
- [01:20]
B
welcome to the AI Explored podcast, helping you put AI to work. And now, here's your host, Michael Stelzner.
- [01:31]
A
Hello, hello, hello. Thank you so much for joining me for the AI Explored podcast, brought to you by Social Media Examiner. I'm your host, Michael Stelzner, and this is the podcast for marketers, creators and business owners who want to know how to put AI to work. Today's episode is an absolute goldmine. People say that quality AI video production is complicated and requires a lot of technical expertise. But is that really true? And in today's episode of the AI Explored podcast, we'll explore how to create high quality AI video. My special guest is an AI consultant and educator who helps small businesses amplify their stories and grow their businesses with AI video. She's a former Hollywood producer for Dr. Phil and Sony Pictures. Her membership is called Video Spark. Eve Whitaker, welcome to the show. How you doing today?
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B
I'm great. Thank you for having me.
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A
Well, I'm super excited that you're here. I'd love to hear a little bit of your journey into AI. Like, tell us where to start.
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B
Well, I was working in television and I worked on a television show that we covered trends. So we would cover food trends, travel trends, anything that was trending. And about four years ago, a producer pitched a story about this new emerging technology called AI that was coming about. And I remember thinking, what, like the Terminator? I mean, like, everyone thought that, right? And he brings me over to his desk and he shows me what I believe was mid journey. And he's like, you just put in this prompt and we can create a little bunny in space. And at the time, it probably took 10 minutes to render out the image. But I was just shocked. And that is how I got into AI. I was still working in television and ChatGPT was released and I started playing with it very early, having no idea what was going on with it. It was just kind of this new toy that we got to play with, and that began my journey.
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A
Well, tell us a little bit more. Like, how did you end up going off on your own and kind of bring us up to speed on what you're doing these days?
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B
Sure. So after working on this television show for nine years, I left and started my own business. And it really started out as I was touted myself as a fractional cmo. I had worked in production like you said, I worked for Dr. Phil. I worked on several shows in L. A and more as a producer. And just through my career, I began to get more jobs that put me more in the marketing realm or in charge of the people in marketing. And I really love social media. And so when I left, I started doing more marketing stuff and I found myself using AI all of the time. And that kind of brought me in another world, kind of the algorithm. The more you search AI, the more you're fed AI, Right? My feed, I always joke, is dogs and AI and dog rescues. And from there I came across some people that were teaching online and I started taking their courses. And my journey into the video AI came more recently because a lot of people that were in. I have friends that are in the online coaching space, and they kept telling me, you need to have an offer. You need to have an offer, like start taking this and teaching it online. And I teamed up with Jonathan Mast, who's pretty well known in the AI world. You've had him as a guest and asked him, hey, can I come into your group and teach some AI marketing stuff that he wasn't covering? And he was like, sure. And so I started doing that. And right around that time, maybe five months later, AI Video had this dramatic switch. And it went from being awful to pretty darn good. And that's where I think it is now, pretty darn good. And so I started teaching AI video. And it just kind of right place, right time, with my background. And I realized that's why I haven't had an offer yet. My offer is really about AI Video because I just absolutely love it.
- [05:36]
A
From my background, I love what you're Sharing. And for those of us that don't understand how television works, what does a producer do just so people understand what the heck that means?
- [05:46]
B
No, that's actually a great question. Because people don't know what we do. We're kind of in charge of putting everything together. I tell people, like, if you got married and had a wedding planner, a wedding planner is very much a producer. You are in charge at the center, talking to every single aspect of what takes that project or production and makes it happen. I say from pitch to bay. So you pitch the idea. You literally come up with the entire idea, whatever it is, all the way into the production, into the post production, which is where you put stuff together, working with the editor. And that's what we called the bay, the edit bay before it got in TV world, sent off to the satellite station that would actually broadcast it so people could watch it.
- [06:30]
A
Fascinating. So what I'm hearing you say is your background with maybe, I don't know, 20 plus years in television allowed you to work on a lot of shows and kind of understand how high quality content is produced, right? From all the things, like I would imagine, multiple camera angles and just all these kind of things that your average person who might be listening to this podcast doesn't really understand. So you're bringing that insight and that knowledge to people that want to apply this to AI video. Am I hearing that correctly?
- [07:00]
B
100%. The pivotal moment is I was asked right when AI video started getting better. I was working on all the marketing stuff during the week and on the weekend I was playing with AI Video for fun and posting it on my social media. And a woman had reached out to me who had her own audience and she said, hey, I teach, really, AI image creation. I would love for you to teach my students how you're making these videos. And when I taught them, it was just a two hour workshop and the last 45 minutes was Q and A. And afterwards she asked them, like, what were your biggest takeaways? And I was shocked because it had nothing to do with the tools or anything. AI it was everything I had learned in grad school and working in la. Simple things of why you have a close up versus a medium shot. What is an establishing shot? What's the difference between a zoom and a dolly cutting on action? Just these terms that are just like, you know, second nature to me. People were like, I just. Light bulbs were going off, how to edit to the beats of music. Things that I've learned was just shocking to these people or not shocking, but
- [08:14]
A
Just like revelation, like, almost like, wow, this is cool stuff. So let me ask you this. What do you believe is one of the biggest misconceptions people have when it comes to AI videos today?
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B
I think the biggest misconception is they believe they need to be tech savvy. And, and what AI has done is really take away the need to be tech savvy. It is ridiculously easy. So you don't need to be tech savvy to do anything with AI video.
- [08:43]
A
We're going to dig into some real technical, practical stuff here in just a few minutes. But when people follow what we're about to teach them today, said another way, when they do AI video, the way that you teach AI video, what are the benefits? What are the upsides that they can achieve with this?
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B
The first one is, I think it's going to save you a lot of time and money, in my belief. And I think a lot of people that are into marketing would agree with this, that video is king when it comes to content. And if you can produce content that actually gets your message across and do it in a way where you're not having to hire a team, the old cost of what a video would cost. Right. Then you're already a step ahead because it's going to save you not only time, but money. And then it also just really optimizes the value that you give to your audience or your customers.
- [09:34]
A
Yeah. And I can imagine when this is done really well, you're going to have more people watch the video because it's more interesting and share the video. Right. And that's going to get you what you want, which is it gets you in front of more people, I would imagine. Is that correct?
- [09:48]
B
100%. There's one of my students that's kind of just in the world, owns a furniture store and he was hanging out and he took my class and he just really started producing. I use the word producing. I'm using air quotes for those people listening. He started producing these AI videos and he would do one or two a day because it's really that simple where you can do it. And he was very creative and he messaged me and he was like, eve, my business is blowing up because people are seeing my stuff online. He's like, it just turned everything into a whole new direction. And he's like, I'm having so much fun doing this and my kids think I'm really cool.
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A
Love it. Okay, so you've got a three part framework that we're going to go through and what I'd like to do is reveal each one at a time. So let's start with the first part of your framework. Where do we begin with AI Video creation?
- [10:40]
B
It's really the same spot you would begin if you were in just regular video production. And it's pre production is what we call it. And that is where we get clarity. And if you don't have a roadmap to what you're doing, it makes the next two phases extremely difficult. And usually we, we say you edit yourself into a corner where you can't, it doesn't make sense in some way. So we get very clear what is the message that you're trying to convey. A lot of times when I've worked with different clients, there is this old school advertising strategy where it is believed that if you just say who you are, what you do, what your services and give, how to contact you, that that's going to work in some way. And it just doesn't anymore. There's too many people on the interwebs, on tv, on everything. Right. So how do you stand out? And so it's getting that message in the frameworks of a script and really understanding your audience's journey and really putting it on what are the benefits that they're going to achieve? So that's the first thing I teach people. A lot of the people that are in my school are very much entrepreneurs, solopreneurs or small business owners. There's a few people in there that just love the idea of making film. And it still works, right? You still have to do that pre production and get very clear on what your story is. And it follows age old, you know, the customer's journey, the hero's journey and what happens with that. So that's the first part.
- [12:15]
A
Let's elaborate on this a little bit just so people can understand this. So far, here's what we've heard. This is pre production, which is before you hit record. And what we heard you say is what are the messages that you want to convey? It shouldn't be about you. That's the old way, it should be about them. Give us some more insights into how we might come up with something like this.
- [12:37]
B
Sure. So if you had a business, let's say that is in the health industry, right. The old way would be to say, hey, I'm in the health industry, I sell supplements and this is where, you know, you can find me. And so I always flip the script on them and I say, what do you solve? Like what are the things that you solve? And It's a little bit tricky for some people. So I've actually created some AI tools, custom GPTs that actually will walk them through it. Because if I say, what's the main problem that you solve for your client or your customer? Most people will answer me back with what they do. And I'm like, I'm not asking you what you do, what do you solve? Do you solve the problem of not being able to sleep eight hours a day? Do you solve the problem of not being able to work out because you have kids? Like everyone? If you're in the weight loss industry, for example, everyone will say, well, I help people lose weight. Well, everybody helps people lose weight, right? So it's getting very specific and dialing in on what is the transformation that your client or customer is going to have and how are you going to provide that to get that trust with them.
- [13:46]
A
I like that. So, for example, Social Media examiner, we put on conferences like a business world and social media marketing world. And I say one of the things we solve for is we help our audience effectively retain their career. Because AI is a threat and if you get trained up on it, then you'll become more valuable to your employer or your clients and you'll be able to be more successful in your career. So I think that's probably an example of what I solve for. So what do we do with that though? How does that problem that we solve, Is there more to the pre production than just understanding what the problem is?
- [14:19]
B
Oh, 100%. Because now we got to say how we're going to solve it. So I would even have you go layers deeper. So you help retain a career, right? Well, what is preventing them from retaining their career? You said one thing, I might take it away. It could be they're starting a family, whatever it is. And then we look at, okay, so you've got halfway in the arc of the journey. So now what are you going to offer them? So it will help do that. And I always say you are going to solve a lot of problems. You don't just solve one. Right? You solve a lot of problems. But you have 30 seconds maybe. Really? You have like 15, right? The, the attention span is so low that now the 15 second AD is coming out or the 15 second video. So you're not going to have time to explain everything you do. So really hone in and focus that. And that's where the pre production really starts. Because everyone wants to cast this really wide net and I say, you're casting a wide net. So now you're talking to no one. Because you're casting such a wide net with AI video, you can make several of these videos. So let's start getting very specific. Okay. Let's focus on the person whose job is really being affected by AI. And now let's just talk to that person and really dive into that. And then what are you offering them? Because it can't be just. The offer also has to be very specific. Of course, you have multiple tactics or tools that you're going to offer them, but you need to, in this particular video, offer them one, because it has to be the least amount of friction, and it just has to be clear. And I think that is probably the biggest mistake most of my students make. And it's the hardest hurdle to get over is to get them so uber focused on what is happening. If you're in the film world, what is happening in this scene, because it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to roll film. So we're not going to waste time using up film for stuff that isn't important. So you really have to get into the meat of it. And it works in advertising just the same as film and storytelling.
- [16:26]
A
So let's take an example of that. You mentioned furniture. I would love to help people understand, like, how that would work. Are they actually providing typically some sort of a tip or discovery or insight in the video that will become shareable, help understand how we're doing that a little bit?
- [16:42]
B
Sure. So with this particular person, his goal was brand awareness, and so he's selling furniture and upholstery. So he started. And one of the things that is another kind of tip or trick is to kind of jump in with what's happening currently. If you can hook your audience with what's happening currently, especially on social media, they're likely to stay watching. So I said, what's going on? So, for example, he's like, well, everyone's planning and talking about the super bowl right now. So he made one of his chairs, a Super bowl halftime performer that came up just like an artist would and started talking about his furniture that way. He put his furniture in the Macy Day Parade on Thanksgiving and had his furniture be that character. His recent one, which I love, we were talking about earlier, the weather. There's a big storm going on right now, and he had all of his chairs be snowplows. And he has his little tagline. So he's hooking the audience, in a way, with no matter what it takes is his tagline. He's going to get it to you. His furniture. No matter what it takes. And he would just wrap that all in these zeitgeist things. Now on the other side of it, when I said, okay, now let's get specific, you have an audience now. We want to start showing them some of the things that your furniture does or your upholstery does that others didn't. And so he kind of went big with one and started talking about how it is able to resist stains so you could spill wine. So instead of having like a glass of wine, he has his avatar in the program that he used have a huge just giant barrel of wine get dumped all over the couch and it just drained off. And he's like, whatever it takes. It's stain resistant, right? And he's able to play and do that because of using AI.
- [18:37]
A
I love it. Okay, cool. So let's get into the next part of the process and I think a lot of these dots are going to be connecting. But just real quick, so far we've talked about pre production, which is kind of, as you mentioned earlier, absolutely critical because you have to have an idea, you have to have kind of a story. It has to serve an objective, right? For example, in the case of the furniture guy, it's like we're going to deliver no matter what. And it also has to be something that the audience is going to resonate with because it solves some sort of a problem and it can be ridiculously creative, which we're going to get into I think in just a minute. So let's get into, because this is what I'm really getting excited about because everybody is like everything you just said, Eve is way beyond my wildest imagination. But it's not with a video, right? So let's talk about the next part of your process.
- [19:24]
B
So there are many AI tools and I'm just going to stick with one today, AI video tools, because there are several. But if you are especially a first time AI video user or you're listening and you just want to jump in. I am a huge fan of Sora. S O R A the reason I'm a huge fan of Sora, because in the production process, right where we go now and create the video, it is so forgiving to the person that doesn't understand how to prompt. So if you've worked in AI at all, you know that prompting is garbage in, garbage out. It works exactly the same for AI video. What I love about Sora is it is every AI video generator wants to be prompt a little bit differently. And Sora is for, in my opinion, the common man's prompting, because it really just wants stuff done in a timeline, which is also very similar to how we would do stuff in regular production. So you get to have a video that I believe at the most is 15 seconds. And so we look at those 15 seconds and Sora, you can put in one prompt and it will create multiple scenes within those 15 seconds. So that is what is so different about Sora from everything else also. So you can do that. And so you look at, like, in the production side, now that we're going to get going, it's almost like storyboarding. So in regular production, what does a storyboard do? It tells the director what shots they need to get. Because again, if you go to the edit bay after you had a whole day of filming and you didn't get the right angles and the right shots, your editor is going to be really mad. Right. And it's going to cost a lot of money to go back and reshoot that stuff. So with AI, we don't have to worry about that, but we are going to look at the timeline and we look at it. And again, I have custom GPTs that do this. So you just like brain dump your stuff in there or word vomit, and it will play it out for you. And I can even give it to you to give to your audience. It's not. I give this one away for free.
- [21:27]
A
Yes. And everybody stick around. We'll tell you how to get it at the end. Okay, so real quick, Sora is a resource by OpenAI chat GPT and they have a dedicated app. And I think you can also do it inside of Chat GPT. Is that correct?
- [21:41]
B
You can do it on a desktop. So you can actually go into Sora. It's on the desktop. It is through Chat GPT, but you're not actually in Chat GPT to get to it.
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A
Perfect. So what I heard you say is we've moved from pre production into production. The presumption is we've got an idea and we kind of have that dialed down. But now what we need to do is we need to create kind of, for lack of better words, a storyboard is what you said. And that storyboard is effectively the prompt. Right?
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B
Exactly.
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A
And even if you do a crappy job, Sora is going to make it look better. Because Sora thinks like a producer is effectively what I'm hearing you say. Is that correct?
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B
Spot on.
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A
So let's talk about the things we need to be thinking about when we're putting a prompt into Sora so that we Actually get something that is beyond mediocre.
- [22:29]
B
Sure. So the first thing that you would do is start off with your time code. So time code is if you hit play on a camera or record on a camera, it starts counting seconds. Right?
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A
Okay.
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B
So you can literally just say from 1 second to 3 seconds and then you say what you want to happen and you do it by paying attention to the camera. So what do you want the camera to be doing? What do you want your character to be doing? If there's a character, an actor, this could be animated. This could look like real life. It doesn't match. So just think of camera, character, what music do you want playing? If you don't want music playing, you literally you need to prompt it to say, no music. What do you want your character, actor, whatever to be saying? And what sound effects do you want? I go a step further and say I give it a mood. So within the camera, I also give a little direction at the top as to do I want this to be a Pixar looking animation? Do I want this to look real life? Do I want this to look like a documentary? So there's different ways that you can have it look without going into it too technically. If you've done anything with cameras, you know that if you film at 35 frames per second versus 24 frames per second, the 24 is going to look more film, the 35 is going to look more video. So the more information you give it, the better it will be what you want it to look like, if that makes sense. So, and that's where. Because you get to do it over and over, if it doesn't come out. The more specific you get, the better the output.
- [24:12]
A
Every year, the gap widens. The marketers who understand AI are pulling ahead, creating better content faster, automating strategic work, and delivering results their competitors Simply can't match. 2026 could be your best year ever because you finally embraced AI. Now you're listening to this podcast, but why not join us for two days of systematic mastery at AI Business World, April 29th and 30th in Anaheim, California. Here's what Melanie Miller told us. Quote, the AI teaching was mind blowing. I'm so far ahead of so many people that claim to do what I do because Michael Stelzner only brings the best to teach, unquote. Here's what sets apart this from random tutorials and scattered learning, which I know we all use. You're going to get complete workflows, not isolated tips, strategic frameworks that connect everything, implementation plans you can execute immediately and 20 sessions dedicated to build comprehensive AI mastery. These are the best of the best that I have recruited. By the end of the event, you'll have all the AI skills that took others years of random implementation to figure out literally at your fingertips. The gap is widening. Which side are you going to be on? Learn more at aibusinessworld Live. Grab your tickets today at aibusinessworld Live. Okay, so first of all, I'm gonna bring this mood thing up to the top. You said that the mood can kind of establish how you want it to look. Do you want it to look like a documentary? Do you want it to look like a film? Do you want to look like a Pixar animated thing? Frames per second you can mention or you can just say probably something else that will discern it. And then the timecode thing, I think is really cool. The idea that you're telling it exactly what to do at these various steps in this storyboarding concept. And Sora, to the best of my knowledge, only works with text. Is that correct? You cannot add images in there, or can you? I don't even know if you can.
- [26:07]
B
You can. You can add one reference image right now, and it also allows you to create what they used to call a cameo. Now it's a character where you can film yourself. You have to do it using the app on your phone and it creates basically your avatar. And you can set that to private. You can let your friends who are using the app have it, or you can set it to public. And then in your prompt, if you want yourself to be in that video, it's literally like a tag, like I would say. And at six seconds at Eve, Whitaker walks into frame and says that. That's a doubt. Whatever.
- [26:45]
A
Wow. Okay, fascinating. And then the reference image could be your product, right? Could it not?
- [26:52]
B
Absolutely. That's 100%. That's what's mind blowing with it is Sora is just changing the game with that. Because you can take your product whether you sell something that's digital, whether you sell eyeglasses, a phone, you know, water loot, whatever it is, it could even
- [27:09]
A
be your logo, right?
- [27:09]
B
It could be your logo. Absolutely fascinating.
- [27:12]
A
Okay, so let's get back to the timecode stuff. So here's what I heard you say at each section of the video. And as of this recording, we believe it's 15 seconds. It's likely to change, obviously over time, depending on when you listen to this, but each section of the time code is effectively like a storyboard. And we're Going to want to describe what is happening in the scene and what is happening with any characters. If there's music or not, if there's spoken word and sound effects. Now, on the spoken word, any tips on getting it to sound like you? Because I would imagine that's not super easy to do, right?
- [27:50]
B
Well, it is if you do the cameo. It's in the cameo or in the character now. So when you create actually has you count and talk. So it grabs your voice and it sounds pretty good. And you can create several characters. So for example, like Mark Cuban from Shark Tank and other things, but people know him from Shark Tank made his cameo or his character public. So I made a video with him walking down the hall of like a hotel holding like this giant overstuffed teddy bear. And I'm just leaning up against the soda machine and kind of make a comment. Hey, Mark, what's up? When he walks by, I put us both in it, he's saying something, it sounds like him. I'm saying something, it sounds like me.
- [28:38]
A
Any tips on creating a cameo so that it comes out good? I mean, is it kind of hit or miss or is it pretty darn good?
- [28:43]
B
It's pretty darn good. And I would say it's so easy to do. And it's literally like a 30 second process because it's literally like you do it again. You have to do it on your phone right now, at least of this recording. And it literally says, like, create character. And then it tells you exactly what to do. And so you hold your camera up and it's almost like when you're creating like a face ID to log into something, it's very similar. It has you look up, look down, look left, and then count. And so whatever you're wearing is what it puts you into. So the guy that I was talking about with the furniture, it kind of became his thing is he's always wearing this green hoodie. And so it became very distinct. There he is with his green hoodie and his chair. But you can create multiple characters of yourself. So the last one he did, he was in a big old fluffy fur coat because of the storm. So you can do that.
- [29:34]
A
If you don't want your cameo shared with the world. Is it safe to assume, like Mark Cuban did, that is not going to be accessible to everyone else unless you choose to make it accessible. Is that your understanding of how it works?
- [29:45]
B
Yes. So you literally get to choose private, which means only you have access to it. You can share it with certain people. So I gave it to A guy that I do a lot of projects with, so he's the only one that has access to mine. So he was making little videos with he and I in it, or you make it public and you can make. Let anyone do it, which, like Gary Vaynerchuk made his. And then he did a contest with it and said, you know, whoever makes a video of me selling the best wins something.
- [30:15]
A
Oh, very cool. Okay, so let's get back to some of your Hollywood tips on. You kind of briefly mentioned some stuff at the beginning, Cut it, action, and all this kind of stuff. Like, give us some tips on how to actually create something really cool. Like stuff that people just might not think about, you know?
- [30:35]
B
Sure. The number one thing that I try to distill to people is AI is not going to do it in one prompt. And the way you're going to get stuff that looks really good is you're going to do 75% of it using the AI video tool. And then you need to take it into an editing tool. And there are so many nowadays that every teenager knows how to edit using imovie or cap cut or captions, whatever is out there. Because that's when you're starting to get very specific. So when I said cut on action, that is just a very common thing that I would see 20 years ago when I was teaching in grad school. And you're just filming a sequence, because the first thing people need to do when they're learning how to edit, whether you're using a digital camera and filming actual video, or you're taking a bunch of scenes or a bunch of clips that you've generated out of AI when you cut them together, it has to make sense how the human eye works. And what people don't think about is cutting on action. So they'll start with the guy stopped, and then he starts walking and the door's closed. And then the door opens and I say, no, start while he's already walking. Have the cut when he has the door half open. Our brains don't need to see the beginning of everything. That's not the way we see the world. We see it in very quick things. So just cutting on action. And if you don't understand or you're like, oh, how do I get this? I play this game with students and I make them edit a scene. And I say, make it 60 seconds. And then I say, now make it 30 seconds. Now make it 15 seconds. Because what you think is so important, the audience doesn't need to see.
- [32:16]
A
Love it. Okay. And we're going to get back into the editing stuff in just a minute. Talk to me a little bit about like camera angles and close ups and all the kind of things that I would imagine you got to get right during the actual production side of it. What tips or insights do you recommend when we're giving the storyboard instructions in these time codes? Just things maybe people might not even think to do.
- [32:38]
B
Getting cutaways or prompting it to have closeups. Most people, when they start, they stay at a medium shot and they film everything I say they film, they prompt, they create their clips where everything is in a medium shot. And that to me, gets very flat and boring.
- [32:57]
A
Explain what that is for people that don't know what a medium shot is.
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B
If we're looking at a person, a medium shot would be half of their body. So you're seeing them. I'm in a medium shot right now.
- [33:07]
A
Kind of like if you're watching this on YouTube. Okay, got it. Okay.
- [33:09]
B
Exactly. So think about the close up. When we go close up and what I tell people is when you're watching tv, start paying attention. Start paying attention to the shots. Because you know, when things get intense and that music starts up and, you know something weird is going to happen, scary, whatever, they cut to a close up. They cut to the, you know, the eyeball of the person or they get closer. Because when you're closer, it's intimate. It means something's going to happen. There's a big feeling, something along those lines. I say start with an establishing shot, just going from the beginning. Most people, again, they just start with your very basic medium shot where if you're entering the world, you need to let your audience understand what that world is. And so start with a wider shot. I always say if you're. I do a car racing thing to kind of show and teach people. And so I start with almost like. And you can prompt it to say like a drone shot coming into the city and beginning to move down. Cut to a car, medium shot, speeding around the corner. Cut to close up, Hands gripping the steering wheel, very, very tight. Cut to. And that's literally how you can do it. And then once you do the cut twos, that's when I went. And this is going back to the pre production or kind of moving into the production is. I would go back and say don't think about the exact timeline yet. Just map out your shots. Cut to, cut to, cut to. And then go in with the amount of seconds that you have. And it might be eight seconds, depending on what you're doing. And because you can always take those clips and put them together in the edit bay. That's the part I was telling you before is that there is no AI video right now that you're going to be able to prompt it and it's going to come up with a 30 second or a minute and a half beautiful video. And people have said to me, but I've seen those, I've seen these videos made with AI And I'm like, yes, you have. And they're generated.
- [35:04]
A
But they've been heavily edited.
- [35:06]
B
But they have been edited.
- [35:07]
A
You use the phrase cutaway. Help everybody understand what the heck that is, how that's different than a close up shot.
- [35:12]
B
Sure. So a cutaway is if we're looking at me right now and to describe to the listening audience, you see me, I'm talking to the camera, there's a chair in my background, there's a picture of Henry Rollins. A cutaway would be if you went with a camera and you got a close up of something in my room because you can cut away to that and then cut back. And so I kind of tell people when we worked like for MTV, for example, the terminology is we would tell the camera people to go spray the set. What does spray the set means?
- [35:44]
A
B roll, Right. You're establishing B roll shots, right?
- [35:47]
B
Exactly. So before the actors or before the characters, whoever, you know, the contestants, whatever we were doing, came on set, they would go and film all the different things on set. They would play around with doing like, like a still shot where you're just a static shot. And then they would do a zoom where they would zoom into that or they would pan and they would start and they would all of a sudden the object would enter the frame and then it would leave the frame. And so they would just get all this footage cutaways for the editor. Because when you're filming in real time, and it also is the same when you're producing stuff in AI is you're going to get to where it doesn't cut to where you want. So when I said you map out your sequence and you say cut to cut to cut to, well, it could screw up. And for whatever reason, even in my mind, where I saw one car speeding towards another car, it making sense, maybe it looked like they were going in the same direction. And so if I got a cutaway of his hands on the steering wheel gripping it, also a close up. Usually cutaways are close ups. They don't have to be, but they usually are. Then as I'm editing, I can cut away to that scene or that clip, and then I can come back to the action. And I don't skip a beat with my audience. Their brain registers it as normal, and it helps you edit your sequence together to where it makes sense.
- [37:10]
A
Okay, so this almost implies that this establishing shot that you were talking about and these cutaways are almost like a whole separate render that we're pulling from. Is that correct?
- [37:22]
B
Yes, 100%. So again, working with Sora, you can put that in. You can say establishing shot, wide shot of a park. And then at six seconds, I want to see a close up of a hand gripping a string. Then I want to cut to a medium shot of a young child holding a balloon. And that is the string cut to the balloon letting go, flying away. Right. So it is a different clip in Sora, it can render it all as one clip, but again, you only have the 12 to 15 seconds, depending on what model you're using.
- [37:58]
A
When we create the next video, maybe that has the actual rest of it. Can we reference the prior video so it kind of knows the setting and stuff like that? Or is that not how it works?
- [38:07]
B
It's not how it works. So you would have to use the exact same prompts as far as what you gave for your setting, your mood, all that stuff. And then if you do have a character and you want it to be consistent, that's where you use that. So if you're using your character like a cameo, for example, and you use the AT sign to bring it in, that will do it. I use a lot of characters that are just animated dogs. And so I can load up my photo or my image. It's an AI generated image of a little dog. And I can upload that into Sora and I can say, use the reference image as the dog so I get the same dog over and over and over again.
- [38:49]
A
Is there any advantage to making multiple renders of the exact same prompt? So you've got like multiple takes, for lack of better words. Like, what's your thoughts on that?
- [38:57]
B
I always do that. I mean, that's, I think, one of the biggest misnomers. And, you know, I took a class from someone that I believed was so much more advanced than I was, because I'm like, how does he keep getting these great. You know, I keep having to reprompt it and do it again and do it again. And in his class, he's like, nope, that's where AI is, is you. Sometimes it comes out great. Sometimes you got to do it again. Do it again. And that's where I really like Sora. Because if you're using Sora on your phone or on the desktop, if you have a subscription to ChatGPT as of right now, it might have changed. You can use it and it doesn't cost money to keep rendering those things out. You know, I use a bunch of different AI tools and some of the more lack of a better word but specific, more higher end, they do take credits. It can get very expensive rendering it out. Rendering it out, Rendering it out.
- [39:48]
A
So like Runway or something like that?
- [39:50]
B
Yeah, VO3 is one that everyone loves and it's excellent. It's just absolutely excellent.
- [39:57]
A
What's great about this is folks, you could use this instruction set in Sora. You could use it in Google v03. There's so many options that are out there. Okay, so at this point we've got a lot of ideas here and it's starting. Hopefully people are rendering their own pictures of in their mind of all these cool stuff things that we're talking about. So let's get into your third part which is post production. You've already talked about it a little bit, but let's zoom in for lack of better words on some tips on editing and what to be looking for. We already did talk about cut on action, but just help people understand a little bit more about the post production options that they've got.
- [40:32]
B
Yeah, sure. So I use Final Cut Pro, but that's not cheap. So I also use, and I taught myself to teach my students Cap Cut. There's many, there's captions descript. There's a lot out there. So we'll just talk about Cap Cut because it is pretty inexpensive. I think 90 bucks for a year. And so I bring all the clips in and then I lay them out in the timeline. And I am a big fan of finding the music that I am going to use because I love to edit to music. And when you cut to specific music if you can. Right. If it's a chase scene or something, if there's actual talking, then it's a little bit different. That to me is very, very important.
- [41:12]
A
Does this mean that generally speaking you try not to render music because you know you're going to layer it in in your editing post production process.
- [41:18]
B
100%. I do not let any of the AI pick my music.
- [41:22]
A
But what about sound effects? Are you okay with that?
- [41:24]
B
I am, but then I also sometimes I see what they do because it's easy to turn it down unless someone's talking. So sometimes I allow the sound effects, but for the most part I will do it all in post.
- [41:37]
A
Yeah. Because there's a lot of ambient sounds and stuff that Sora might add to it that you might not even think to do, I would imagine.
- [41:43]
B
Right, exactly.
- [41:44]
A
Okay, so you're using capcut and you're laying it all out. And when you say you're laying it all out, you're pulling in all the different renderings, right? You've got your establishing render and all that cutaway stuff. And then you've got all these other renders that you've got. You're pulling it all in there and you're kind of putting it on a timeline, for lack of better words.
- [42:01]
B
That's exactly what you're doing. So you put it in your timeline and it's called a sequence. And so you are sequencing your lack of a better word. Your video clips, they were rendered out by AI, right? They were generated by AI versus the film camera, the video camera. So you put them all in your timeline. And then what I do is I'll go through and I try to get the entire story in what I think's going to happen. I still have quite a few cutaways just in case I need to throw them in. And then that's when I'll. After I get the sequence laid out, I pick the music and I lay that out.
- [42:33]
A
By the way, where do you source your music? Do you have any tips on that?
- [42:35]
B
I have a lot of different libraries that I'll pull from that I just.
- [42:38]
A
You just use using open source or are you rendering like original music with Suno or something like that?
- [42:43]
B
I'll do Suno. I love doing that. But I also pay for. And I'm gonna forget. I think it's called audio jungle where I can go in and I can put the type of music that I want and then it will do it. There's even music that's royalty free in Cap cut. But I do tell that everyone that uses that, you know, it gets used a lot. But it's a great starter. If you don't want to deal with going out and finding another one. Especially if you're just starting, I say just play, have fun. So I'll lay down the music and then I kind of play this game of let's cut it down, let's cut it down. Because again, if it's more than 30 seconds, it's probably too long, depending on what I'm trying to do. Everyone thinks that it's important where it's not. So it's like, okay, cut it. And this is where you can bring your partner, a friend, your, you know, son, daughter in to say, look at this. And you can see when they begin to get. Get bored. Right? And so it's like you just. You want it moving fast. And so that's more cuts. I worked at mtv and MTV was the network that shortened everyone's attention span. They did all the quick, crazy angles and cuts and it literally changed the industry on how quickly we digest and consume information. So I say cut, cut. You're on this way too long. You don't need to be on it that long. And then I'll go through. So I have the clips laid out, I have the music laid out. And then I do a third layering where I start to put sound effects where there's cuts. I do some transitions. I tell people, try not to use transitions. When people are first in the editing world, they see all these cool transitions. And so they put like 10 transitions in their video. And I'm like, stop.
- [44:19]
A
Just cut scene to scene. Pretty much. Right?
- [44:21]
B
Yep. So you can have like a dissolve, which a dissolve is one of the most common transitions. And a dissolve is used to shrink, show a change in time or a change in place. Okay. But with all these editing softwares, they have like 50 different transitions.
- [44:38]
A
When you're making your video longer every time you add those things in there. Right.
- [44:41]
B
Well, you're not making it bigger because it's just. It's taking the two clips and it's blending them together in some way.
- [44:45]
A
Okay, got it.
- [44:46]
B
But it can get very distracting. So unless there's a reason to have that transition, don't have a bunch of transitions. Right. There's tips and tricks on. You know, you could punch in a little and do stuff which is also in the transitions in cap cut. But to begin with, I'm like, just put your sequence together. Just put it together and then render it out.
- [45:06]
A
You have an example you were telling me when we were in our pre call. Tell me a little bit about what you did there.
- [45:11]
B
So I wanted to show how to kind of grab from the zeitgeist and create a commercial for where I think AI videos can come so handy is like in the trade industry. And so I said, okay, let's make. And this would be in the pre production. Let's create a video where Santa, you see him going across the screen in his sleigh and all of a sudden he collides with a ufo. Why does he collide with the ufo? Well, that's my visual hook. It's weird. People are like, what's going on? That collision causes his bag of toys to fall on someone's roof and accidentally knock some shingles down. So this was a commercial for a roofing company where then a little elf pops out of a tree and goes and picks up the shingle and says, we fix all mistakes accidentally, channel or not. And so it was just a really quick. And that was. I did that multiple times in Sora because sometimes it made the collision with UFO perfect and sometimes like Santa, I wanted Santa to say something and he what? That wasn't coming out. So I just rendered it probably six times and then took all six of those and brought it into cap cut and edited it together and then put what I called the end slate, which is where you would put up the name of your business, your logo and your website or, you know, however, whatever you're promoting, how to get ahold of you.
- [46:31]
A
And folks, you can for sure make ads out of these things, right? I mean, this is your original creation utilizing these tools and you can make ads out of these things that are going to go crazy or even organic social posts out of this. Eve, I know we have barely scratched the surface of the amazing insights that are in that mind of yours. I have to remind you, you said you were going to mention about how to get a custom GPT. So what I want you to do is share. First of all, if people want to reach out with you on the socials, what's your preferred? If they want to work with you, where do you want to send them? And then let's talk about how we can get that custom GPT you were talking about and what it does.
- [47:06]
B
Sure. I am on all the socials. Most of my social handles is Eve Whitaker AI. So you can find me on Facebook. Eve whitaker-AI Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Eve Whitaker Whitaker, spelled W H I T a K E R. You can also find me at my spear school and that's s K O O L platform. My students asked me to launch a school. I literally just launched it. And so that is called Video Spark. We talked about that. So that would just be go to the school platform and type in Video Spark. Most of my stuff is neon lights. That's kind of my branding is to put everything in neon light. So if you see video Spark and neon lights with a little sparkler, that's me and you can reach me there and I will give you the custom GPT. But if people want it just because if they find you that way you have it. But if you just reach out to me and tell me like on Facebook would probably be, I'm on Facebook more than anything else and say, hey, I listened to the podcast, can I have that custom GPT? It's called Seed Scene and I created it just to be able to prompt for Sora specifically. And so if you hit start, it walks you through as if you are a beginner and it will ask you some questions. What do you want? What do you see kind of going over that pre production walks you through the story. And then it will actually take the timeline, say how many seconds do you have? And it will take your idea and it will create it into the prompt that you would put into Sora.
- [48:39]
A
And just to clarify, is your school called Video Spark or AI Video Spark.
- [48:43]
B
Just Video Spark.
- [48:44]
A
Okay, perfect. All right, Eve, thank you so much for sharing your insights and wisdom with us today.
- [48:49]
B
Oh, thank you for having me on. This was a blast.
- [48:52]
A
Hey folks, just wanted to let you know that Eve Whitaker will be speaking at AI Business World. So if you love what you heard and you actually want to experience her in person, you're definitely going to want to grab your tickets. Also, if you missed anything, because we talked about a lot of things, we've got all the notes for you@socialmediaexaminer.com a94. Be sure to follow this show on your favorite podcasting app and if you've been a longtime listener, we would love a review. Also, let your friends know about this show and do check out my other show, the Social Media Marketing Podcast. This brings us to the end of the AI Explored Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Stelzner. I'll be back with you next week. I hope you make the best out of your day and may AI help you become more successful. That's one.
- [49:35]
B
The AI Explored Podcast is a production of Social Media Examiner.
- [49:43]
A
What if you could get year round AI training? That's exactly what's waiting for you with our AI Business Society. To learn more, visit social media examiner.com AI.