Seven case studies · one repeating pattern
Across every cohort I teach, the pattern repeats. Fear. Discovery. Integration. Identity shift. Different people, same arc — all walking forward with both hands full.
Twelve years old at Jurassic Park. Thirty years grinding plastic-toy commercials. Then the ratio flipped.
“I don't care about the money. I'm so excited that I get to do art again.”
Tiny Ghost. Two years from zero revenue to fielding calls from household names. 'Blood and Glitter' greenlit. The 12-year-old who wanted to bring monsters to life is back. 80% creative, 20% grind. A year of work in two to three weeks.
Find this in the script →Twenty-five years VFX. Dune. Detective Pikachu. The conductor's role still matters.
“Get it 85% of the way there with AI, then use craft to finish.”
His mum took him to the symphony at six. Hundreds of years into classical music, the conductor still matters: knowing enough about every part to bring out the best of the sum. The orchestration era is here. One agent writes the script, another generates scenes, a third scores the music, a fourth handles continuity. The conductor brings the room.
Find this in the script →Bedridden 18 months. Couldn't perform. Started building characters from her bed.
“AI film is my hope to be able to continue to exist and to tell something.”
At our second Film Club meeting, an actress who goes by Belgium stood up. For some people, AI tools are not about getting ahead. Not about efficiency. Not about flipping ratios. They're about getting to participate at all. Don't forget that. When the debates get abstract and ideological, remember Belgium.
Find this in the script →Book editor. Showed up with what she called 'an almost hostile attitude toward AI.'
“By week three she was building tools she'd never imagined.”
The transformation pattern. Fear → discovery → integration → identity shift. She didn't drop her critique. She kept the left hand full and added the right.
Find this in the script →Writer. Laid off from Brown University. Reinventing herself.
“A colleague who has their problems but actually comes up with great ideas.”
From dread to teammate. Not a replacement, not a savior — a colleague with limits. Holding both critique and curiosity is the only honest way to describe what AI actually is in her workflow.
Find this in the script →Resistant at first. By the end, cut production time AND raised her prices.
“First person in four cohorts to do both.”
Most people who get faster also race to the bottom. Sam used the time savings to push the work upward — better thinking, better deliverables, higher rates. The capability and the critique compounded.
Find this in the script →One year out of college. Her school enforced a ban on AI in creative work.
“I want to learn as much as I can.”
If all the thoughtful, ethical, critical people opt out, governance gets made by people who don't see the problems. Kara stayed in the room. Her generation will write the rules — let them be the ones who saw the harms and engaged anyway.
Find this in the script →
