By Denise Doll, Co-Founder of Wander•
There is a point in almost every production where creative ambition meets practical reality. We at Wander• draw on decades of experience working internationally across film, television and visual effects, and we have been part of that conversation many times. This is what we want to make. This is what we have to make it with. So where do we compromise?
Sometimes a shot changes. A sequence gets smaller. Sometimes an idea simply becomes too expensive to put on screen.
When we founded Wander• in Belfast, one of the questions we wanted to explore was whether emerging technology could change that equation without removing the things that actually make filmmaking filmmaking: performance, photography, production design, lighting, editorial judgement and creative direction.
That work has led us to what we call Directed Generative Production. Our shorthand for it is simple: generative AI should be the renderer, not the author.
On 8 September, we got to properly put that thinking to the test. In collaboration with Playhouse Studios NI, we completed a private production test for a prospective feature, exploring how a generative workflow could work under real production conditions and, importantly, how much creative control we could retain throughout it.
We didn't ask a model to invent the finished image. We started with the filmmakers. We captured real performances on camera and gathered structured information about the scene, using established production and VFX techniques to determine the things we wanted to control before exploring where generative technology could extend what we had created.
For us, that distinction is fundamental. There is understandably a lot of conversation about what generative AI might automate in the creative industries. We are much more interested in what happens when filmmakers can actually direct it.
That was what made the September test genuinely exciting. We had a crew, physical production and real performances. We were making decisions about lighting, camera and the scene itself. Generative AI was one part of a much larger production process rather than something replacing everything around it.
It also meant testing our assumptions against the practical realities of production. We are now working through post-production. We have no interest in declaring a problem solved simply because a technology can produce an impressive result.
A generation that costs very little is not cheap if an artist then spends days repairing it. A workflow is not faster if it creates a problem somewhere else in the pipeline. A beautiful frame is of limited use if the next frame cannot convincingly belong to the same film.
The measure for us is practical: can we deliver the scene the filmmaker intended, at the quality it requires, with enough control to respond to creative direction and within a budget that makes sense?
If we can, the interesting part isn't simply that something becomes cheaper. It's what becomes possible.
An independent filmmaker might be able to keep a sequence that gives a story its scale. A producer may find another route forward for a project that previously sat awkwardly between what could be financed and what it needed to cost. A director may be able to develop and communicate an ambitious world much earlier in the process.
There are potential efficiencies in time and money, certainly. But measuring this technology only by how much it can save misses the larger opportunity.
We are much more interested in what filmmakers can do with the resources they already have.
For Northern Ireland, that matters.
We already have an established screen industry and crews with experience delivering major international productions. At the launch of its new strategy earlier this year, Northern Ireland Screen reported that productions it supported had generated more than £477 million for the local economy over the previous four years.
The wider market is significant too. UK film and high-end television production spend reached £6.8 billion in 2025, according to the BFI, with 85% coming from inward investment productions.
Developing expertise in new production methodologies can give international filmmakers another reason to work in Northern Ireland. But our ambition should not stop at attracting work here. We should be developing expertise here. We should be building companies here. We should be developing projects and intellectual property here.
Many of the rules around how generative technology will ultimately fit into professional production are still being worked out. Northern Ireland has an opportunity to be part of defining them rather than waiting for an established model to arrive from somewhere else.
That requires investment in people as much as technology. One of the things we find particularly interesting is the increasing crossover between disciplines. Film and television already intersect with VFX, games, software and virtual production, and we are seeing more crossover in technology and production thinking with live music and stage production too.
Someone who understands cinematography and generative systems can approach a problem differently from someone who understands either discipline alone. The same is true of an artist combining production design and 3D, or a technologist who understands both real-time systems and storytelling.
Those combinations create new routes into the industry, particularly somewhere with the creative and technical talent Northern Ireland already has. But this cannot only be a conversation about young people entering the industry.
AI will change tasks. Some roles will evolve and there will be pressure on others. If we want the outcome to be a stronger creative sector rather than simply a more automated one, experienced filmmakers and artists need opportunities to learn and experiment with these systems too.
That means practical training, paid opportunities and environments where filmmakers, artists, students and technologists can work together on real production problems and come away having actually made something.
We would like to see much more of that happen here.
Our September test was an important step, and we are now working through post-production to see what the methodology can deliver in practice. At the same time, further feature projects are coming to us to explore what Directed Generative Production could make possible for them.
There is real work happening while the production model itself is still being defined. That is what makes this moment particularly exciting.
Northern Ireland has the filmmaking experience, technical capability and creative talent to be part of deciding what comes next.
We think it should.
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