Have you ever wondered how many people you would need if you wanted to make a film? I’m not talking about actors or technical staff, like people who operate and handle the equipment. I’m talking about people you’d need for their brains, people who could think on your behalf. You’d need a lot of those.

For example, if you have a story you wish to write but you’re not good enough to write its every scene or dialogue by yourself, you’ll need a writer. Similarly, you’d also need a production designer who could turn your idea of the set into a reality. The same goes for making the actors look like characters. Now, you’d need a person who could get you almost anything you need and connect you with anyone. That would be a producer.

These highly leveraged and skilled people are very costly. So, what should someone who hasn’t made a film before and also does not have the funds to afford all these people do? Get help from AI. That’s the idea of award-winning filmmaker Evan Kelman. After making several award-winning films, he has started a startup to help new filmmakers accelerate the process of writing, designing, and producing for film and TV. And it does all this through AI.

We asked Evan everything about his startup, ScriptGen and a bit about himself too.

Our Chat with Evan – Founder of ScriptGen

Q1. Give us a little background about yourself. How did you get into computer science and filmmaking, and were any of your parents in the film industry?

Evan: Living in New York City exposed me at a young age to the entertainment industry, mostly through Broadway shows that my parents, especially my father, loved. This upbringing sparked a love for the arts, including music, film, and television. As I grew older, I started writing, acting, and directing wherever I could, eventually deciding to pursue filmmaking professionally. I studied filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and have since directed commercials, short films, and a feature. My father, a prolific inventor, taught me to always search for new ideas and have the courage to pursue them, which influenced my optimistic and enthusiastic approach to filmmaking and later to the invention of ScriptGen.

Q2. Why did you start ScriptGen, and why did you transition from filmmaking to serving creatives rather than audiences?

Evan: Storytelling is my passion, and I could never leave filmmaking. Instead, I became more deeply involved in filmmaking through my own work and by empowering others. I continue to write, direct, and develop my own stories, as these experiences shape and improve ScriptGen and help me understand the industry and its people better. ScriptGen is a natural evolution in my journey to tell meaningful stories. It allows writers to explore and develop many ideas quickly, inspiring creatives to examine ideas and story direction. Through ScriptGen, I can help hundreds or thousands of meaningful stories find their voice and serve audiences in a whole new dimension.

Q3. Have you bootstrapped ScriptGen yourself or raised money from investors?

Evan: My co-founders and I have bootstrapped ScriptGen, with some support from friends and family. We are now at a pivotal moment where we have paying customers at prestigious companies and are looking for investment to continue growing and innovating.

Q4. How would you convince creatives who fear AI to embrace this change rather than fear it?

Evan: AI can be a force for good or bad, and it’s important to shape it to best serve creators. ScriptGen seeks to empower creators, keep artists in-demand, and maximize their potential. We want writers to sell more scripts, develop more ideas, and see higher profits. ScriptGen is an invitation to join us in empowering creators, not replacing them. AI should not take creative jobs but empower artists, and ScriptGen aims to achieve that safely, with the human creator at the forefront.

Q5. Do you think if many writers use AI for writing, scripts will become unoriginal and predictable?

Evan: Most unproduced scripts are already unoriginal and predictable due to the difficulty of screenwriting. AI can help writers save time by showing them best practices and identifying pitfalls in their concepts. ScriptGen is an invitation to original thinkers who don’t have the time to develop full feature outlines, enabling their creativity to flourish in ways that may have been impossible before. The more a human works with ScriptGen, the better the results will be, ensuring that the best writers still rise to the top.

Q6. Where do you think using AI will be most beneficial in the process of filmmaking?

Evan: AI can improve every stage of filmmaking. Writers can express their ideas faster, producers can collect and sort data better, and editors can organize and experiment with footage more efficiently. However, certain aspects, such as shot design, should not be fully handed off to AI, as the director’s vision is central to storytelling.

Q7. What stage are you at with ScriptGen, and when is the expected launch?

Evan: We are currently in a closed beta with users from prestigious companies and will be launching an open beta in the next few weeks. We continue to test, build, scale, and deploy our fully-realized subscription model.