Making pitch decks is passé. Screenwriter-editor Sumit Purohit reveals how he pitches script ideas to producers by creating slick trailers, using AI
A still from the film
Can I use a largely empty frame with my subject on the side? Can I use dim lighting in a scene? Prospective scenes play out in editor Sumit Purohit’s mind like a reel. As do questions. Finding answers to them used to be a laborious process earlier, as he would dig out references from old films and stitch them together to gauge their feasibility. But that has changed in the past one-and-a-half months. “As a filmmaker, I need to tell stories visually. You always go back to visual references—paintings, old films and photographs—and you say, ‘Can I do something like this? Can I use this kind of light? Can a frame be like this?’ So, when I started using AI, I used it like that. Because I paint, draw and have dealt with a lot of visual material in college, I know which artiste to refer to and I prompt that in AI,” he explains.
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The world of AI has become the filmmaker-editor’s favourite playground right now. Currently, Purohit is employing his favourite tools to create trailers to pitch his story ideas to producers. “I have been meeting filmmakers and DoPs [director of photography], who saw these trailers I created and got very excited. Many writers have been asking me to teach them. If there was no AI and I had to make a pitch trailer, I would have gone through 100 old films to find scenes I want to use and then combine them.”
Unused stills from the trailer of a horror movie that Sumit Purohit pitched to producers
Contructing the world by word
Only recently, Purohit created a scratch trailer to pitch a period drama that he wants to make. In a world without AI, making a trailer about the sixth century—the period his movie is set in—with corresponding references and scenes would have taken longer. But that’s where the software, Midjourney and LumaLabs, come in. “There is a play that one of my college teachers had directed. I have wanted to adapt it ever since. It’s a period story set in the sixth century. So, I know exactly the visuals I want. I [prompt them into the software], which generates these visuals; then I edit them to make a trailer like I would edit a film.”
Purohit gives an example of how building a world on existing references existed well before AI, even in the writing world. Recalling his experience of writing the popular web series, Inside Edge, he says, “We had to shoot cricket matches. So, Karan Anshuman [creator] and I discussed that I should take pictures of a real cricket match and emulate those. Even that is a reference, right? So, even without AI, we have been taking references.”
Sumit Purohit
Bridge between idea and video
Things have undoubtedly become easier with technology. The writer-editor has also created a pitch for a horror film. During the process, he felt that the trailer could take the shape of a ’90s music video. Following his instincts, he edited a short video to an Ali Sethi song. That is an intangible but significant luxury that AI tools afford—the freedom to follow your instinct, and fail even. The more tangible benefits are for all to see. “A DoP told me that when a concept art is made for a film, it gets lost in translation once the team goes on set because there is a difference between the concept art and the final product. But the AI-created visual reference is showing you precisely how the final visual will look, including the light and mist. So, everyone is on the same page.”
Benefits don’t come alone; they bring disadvantages too. AI, helpful as it is, is being viewed as a threat to many jobs. To Purohit, such a thought only reveals people’s own insecurity. “If you go into a moral debate around it, there is no end to this discussion. We feel threatened by AI because we think it will do what humans do. People say that with AI, many jobs will be gone, but that happens with any tech innovation.” He argues that there will always be people who will prefer the human touch. “Christopher Nolan still shoots on film. So, it’s about what works for your vision. For me, the craft and visual are important; the means, not so much. First, the job of executives will go because that is data-driven job, which even an AI tool can do. And then there will always be purists.”
What is it? Screenwriter-editor Sumit Purohit creates trailers to pitch his story ideas to producers, thus giving them a look and feel of the world he wants to create.
How it works? His background as a writer-editor has made him well-versed in references. Prompting specific references to Midjourney and LumaLabs gives him the desired results, which are then stitched together to make a trailer.
Who it benefits? First off, it helps producers in fully understanding the film’s milieu, thus increasing the chances of the project being greenlit. On set too, the AI-created visual references tell the director and his crew of the final visual look that has to be achieved. It minimises the gap between what is imagined and the final product.
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