“The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed.” — William Gibson
By Carole Dean
Indie filmmakers have always stood on the frontier of storytelling, armed with vision, courage, and often limited resources. Today, that frontier has expanded into the world of Artificial Intelligence. It’s no longer a question of “if” AI belongs in the indie filmmaker’s toolkit. It’s a matter of how wisely and creatively we can harness its potential.
AI is not here to replace your imagination. It’s here to support it. When used mindfully and ethically, tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity can help speed up research, improve your scripts, and brainstorm in ways that were once only possible with expensive consultants or long hours in the library.
In one of our recent Filmmaker Guidance Classes, renaissance indie filmmaker Jonathon Smith shared real-life examples of how AI is transforming his creative process. His insights illuminate a pathway that all of us in the indie film community can follow.
The AI Research Revolution: Perplexity and Deep Dives
“You used to have to go to the library and get all this information. Now you have Perplexity to help you gather that information and also help you find sources.” — Jonathon Smith
Period pieces. Biographical docs. Science-based dramas. Historical fiction. All of these demand one thing: research. And not just surface-level Googling. You need sources, cross-references, validation, and context. That’s where Perplexity excels.
Unlike traditional search engines, Perplexity.ai acts as a research partner. You can ask it specific, even nuanced, questions and it delivers responses with sourced references — sometimes as many as 77 in a single query. For indie filmmakers on tight schedules and budgets, this tool is a time-saver of epic proportions.
Need to build a 1950s kitchen set accurately? Want to understand how an 1800s boarding school operated? Perplexity not only tells you, it shows you where the information came from so you can go deeper. Jonathon emphasized that while AI like Perplexity can pull extraordinary data, it’s still your job to fact-check. Think of it as the most efficient first draft of your research process.
Claude: A Writing Partner That Knows Save the Cat
“Claude is my favorite as a writing partner for script writing. It can help you brainstorm and come up with multiple ideas for plots, characters and themes.” — Jonathon Smith
Claude, developed by Anthropic, has emerged as an incredibly intuitive writing assistant. What makes it especially valuable for screenwriters is its understanding of storytelling frameworks. Claude knows the difference between Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, Robert McKee’s Story, and Sid Field’s Screenplay.
Jonathon shared how Claude helped him ideate a one-location thriller: two characters, one apartment, and a Twilight Zone vibe. He gave Claude constraints: genre, tone, budget, location. The AI responded with multiple story pitches, each complete with a logline and mini-synopsis. One particularly powerful idea centered around an AI system and a beta tester in moral conflict.
Even more impressive? Claude generated a beat sheet for this idea using Save the Cat‘s structure — Opening Image, Theme Stated, Catalyst, Break into Two, and so on. The emotional beats might need fine-tuning (AI still struggles with nuance), but the framework is strong.
And the collaboration didn’t end there. Jonathon gave Claude more story-specific input: “What if the AI starts praying at the midpoint?” The AI picked up the thread and iterated further, adjusting the beats accordingly. Imagine the time this saves during brainstorming sessions.
The Dialogue Dilemma: AI Still Needs the Human Touch
“When it comes to emotional themes, humanity… it’s still not very good.” — Jonathon Smith
Let’s be honest. AI-generated dialogue often lacks soul. It’s stiff, overly expository, and misses subtext. Emotional nuance, double meaning, and the ineffable rhythm of human speech are still out of reach.
But what AI can do is provide options.
Want 20 different ways to rephrase a line of action? Need variations for a character’s entrance? Ask ChatGPT. It will deliver fast, clean suggestions that you can then refine with your unique voice.
Jonathon reminded us that the heart of the story is still your job. And isn’t that what storytelling is about? Your insight. Your humanity. Use AI to lift the technical burden, but let your soul do the storytelling.
ChatGPT: From Proofreader to Story Consultant
“I did not expect it to do so well… It recognized if I used a duplicate word, if something wasn’t plural, or if I mixed Spanish and English. It was incredibly helpful.” — Jonathon Smith
When deadlines loom and your budget doesn’t allow for a professional script consultant, ChatGPT can be a game changer. Jonathon described submitting a script to a producer in Paraguay. He ran out of time to polish it, so he pasted it into ChatGPT and asked for grammar suggestions.
What he got was more than proofreading. ChatGPT caught colloquialisms, improved sentence flow, spotted formatting issues, and even understood the Spanish-English language fusion in the script. It made suggestions like replacing “luscious trees” with “lush trees,” and identified repetition and syntax errors.
Want to go deeper? Upload your script in 20-page chunks and ask for tone, structure, or clarity notes. Let ChatGPT be your last set of eyes before you hit send.
The Power of Constraints: Getting Better Output from AI
“One thing I like about these new updates to the LLMs is prompt engineering isn’t as important as it was. Now you can just pretty much talk to it like a normal person or assistant.” — Jonathon Smith
The secret to successful collaboration with AI? Constraints.
Give it boundaries. Two characters. One room. Limited budget. Must follow Save the Cat or Sid Field. The more specific your request, the better the output. Think of it like a writing partner who thrives on clarity and structure.
Jonathon’s approach was to keep layering feedback. After Claude delivered a draft, he refined it with tone adjustments (“Make it feel like Black Mirror”) or moral complexity (“What if the AI is actually a demon?”). The dialogue remained clunky, but the conceptual depth improved with each iteration.
Responsible Use: You Are Still the Storyteller
AI is a powerful tool. But it is not a filmmaker. It doesn’t feel loss. It doesn’t understand love. It doesn’t know how your grandmother’s rosary smelled or how it feels to lose a friend to violence. Only you can bring that to the screen.
Use these tools to take care of the heavy lifting, the structure, the suggestions. But the soul of your story must come from your experience, your pain, your joy, your truth.
Where to Start: A Quick AI Toolkit for Filmmakers
Where to Start: A Quick AI Toolkit for Filmmakers
- Perplexity.ai: Best for deep research. Sources are cited. Great for period pieces and doc research.
- Claude.ai: Best for script brainstorming. Understands storytelling structure. Strong for outlining and idea generation.
- ChatGPT: Best for polishing. Excellent at grammar, formatting, alternative phrasing, and idea refinement.
Embrace the Tools. Elevate Your Story.
Tools don’t create the art. But they can help you create it faster, smarter, and maybe even better.
At From the Heart Productions, we exist to empower independent filmmakers. That means embracing new ways to tell stories without sacrificing soul, ethics, or originality.
AI is here. It’s not going away. But the magic is still in you.
If you’d like to learn more about how filmmakers are using AI, join our upcoming Guidance Classes or listen to the Art of Film Funding Podcast. We’re here to support your journey every step of the way.
Stay creative. Stay intentional. And keep filming from the heart.
Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-profit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She is creator and instructor of Learn Producing: The Ultimate Course for Indie Film Production. Essential classes for indie filmmakers on how to produce their films.
She hosts the weekly podcast, The Art of Film Funding, interviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film production. She is also the author of The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts. See IMDB for producing credits
