Baba Jaga - AI Movie Trailer
Story of the Trailer
Have you ever wondered why Baba Jaga lures children into her lair? When Anna’s brother goes missing, she is determined to find him at all costs. Anna sets out on a perilous path into the darkest, most treacherous forest to find her brother. She encounters an old, decayed manor and little does she know that it holds more secrets than answers. Anna soon finds herself facing a labyrinth of riddles, obstacles and fantastical creatures while venturing into the treacherous, enchanted lair of the witch Baba Jaga.
The Development Process
The strength of AI in film is to express stories a lot quicker in a new, fantastical way, with more creative power as an individual creator than ever before. To elevate this power, I decided to create a cinematic movie trailer. Yet a trailer needs a movie, and a movie needs a story worth to be told. Therefore, I started by developing an original comprehensive film concept to capture the story highlights in a movie trailer.
Ever captivated by the mythology I dove into extensive research into the legends of Baba Jaga. Fascinated by the varying aspects of each fable I crafted my own version of how I would bring across morale, action and lessons of a true heart, through the mythical tale of Baba Jaga. The goal was to explore the immense power of love and the drive to save loved ones despite all odds.
For this, I developed detailed backstories for the characters which in turn shaped the connections and their motifs. Understanding these motivations was crucial for creating a consistent narrative. Every location, room, character, puzzle, and event within the magical house was designed intentionally.
Working backwards from the overall concept, I determined which elements of the core story should appear in the trailer, highlighting key moments to increase the suspense. Using the building blocks of storytelling, I defined the trailer’s tone, pacing, and stylistic choices, such as the narrator’s voice and text cards. This helped me estimate how many distinct visuals were necessary to make the trailer both compelling and varied.
The Magic of AI
To develop a story worthy to be told in a movie my creative co-writer ChatGPT served me well with my research and helped me to add depth to my story and character development. Thereafter the main visual magic truly happens in Midjourney. I prompted away and generated more than 4.000 images to create the visuals for the 90-second trailer. Soon learning that not all prompts create what was intended, but exactly this spontaneity and sometimes surprising interpretations of my prompts informed the creative process. Adapting the story based on these AI-generated results was an exciting process, and the unexpected outcomes enriched the narrative and visual style of the film.
The next step was enhancing each image in Magnific AI and Adobe Photoshop, elevating them to the next level. Only with the highest quality images at hand, I let KLING AI work its magic. With its many possibilities to guide the video's outcome, it was an integral tool to create moving images for the trailer. Again the creative interpretation of the prompts played a vital role in the storytelling structure of the trailer.
Bringing everything together took many more tools, from SUNO for musical conception, Kits AI for sound mastering and stem splitting, ElevenLabs for voice changing, Adobe After Effects for motion graphics and Adobe Premiere Pro for editing.
The Future of AI
With my written script in hand, I created a movie trailer for the yet-to-be-filmed movie Baba Jaga, all thanks to AI. I would like to emphasize that it is the collaborative process of using the key strengths of many different AI tools and bringing them together to make my vision come true. Like a team of specialists joining forces. Exploring the strengths of AI and using its creative interpretation of my prompts felt like AI is more of a sparring partner. To me, AI feels like a fantastic way to multiply my imagination. I firmly believe that AI will create its own genre in the movie world and I am ready to be at the forefront of the next level of creative freedom.