David Berman

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm a New York based filmmaker with over two decades of experience. From indie features, to music videos, to union agency commercials.

What project are you working on with Glif?

I'm currently working on a project for a client who wrote a story set in a fantasy world with castles, kings, court intrigue and curses.

Can you tell us a bit about your process for creating your project?

Each project is different. For this one, I am working with my colleagues at my company called VMS — my brother Daniel Berman and Steve Romano. We're using agentic AI to analyze the script and develop a traditional pipeline for character development and "scouting." Glif lets me present a lot of interesting visuals quickly for us to discuss, which has been really useful.

What are your greatest influences for the kinds of images and videos you make?

Ridley Scott had a large influence on me growing up. And by way of Blade Runner, Doug Trumbull, whom I was lucky enough to work with on an Apple commercial for an iPad release.

There is something very compelling about the characters you create. How do you develop them, and where are you drawing inspiration from?

My brother is an artist, so sometimes he will have an idea for a character, or I'll use Glif to help me come up with a character concept using their background, personality and tropes I think could be fun. I then am very focused on sustaining the essence of a character across a project, and so I obsessively use character sheets, storyboards and location references.

When do you choose to give a tool a real image reference vs. generating new images with AI?

It depends. In some cases, when I've wanted something that looks very real, I feed real images into the agent and have it describe the inputs in detail. I'll then start to modify the style, and make changes from there. I never use anyone else's work, I always create my own images. I may take influences from other artists, of course, but the end result has to be unique to me and my client.

What's a creative instinct you've had to unlearn (or relearn) since working with AI?

In traditional filmmaking, you shoot far more coverage than you need, then find the cut in the edit. With AI, you know what you want, and you generate until you have the cut. It's backwards in a lot of ways, and I think newer filmmakers won't think it so strange as creatives coming over from the traditional space. There's also a whole world of new things you can do that you couldn't before, that open up entirely new creative directions. Like, VFX and CGI are now on the table for all budgets. That's exciting.

How does the Glif agent play a role in shaping your project?

Honestly, the biggest psychological difference between shooting traditionally and generating with AI is that AI is a solo endeavor most of the time. When you are on set, you have a crew to talk to, get feedback from, and ideate with in the moment. I missed that working in AI. With Glif, that all changes. You can ask for feedback and ideas, as well as delegate tasks while focusing on editing, coloring, or working out the next shot.