Two Filipino creators of Portrait No. 72A short film made with the help of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) states that AI is not a threat to human creativity, but merely a tool to aid production for the resourceless. Portrait No. 72 Recently made the top five out of 3,500 entries in Google's International AI Film Awards. 1 Billion Followers Summit Co-presented with Content Creators Expo, the AI-assisted filmmaking competition has a top prize of $1M.
The two Filipino finalists, Rodson Ver Suarez and Darryl Rapacon, created a nine-minute digital film with more than 1,500 video generations using AI platforms determined by the award-giving body, but ensuring that the storytelling and post-processing were kept human-made.
“It's easier now, it makes storytelling accessible to everyone because we've been given these tools. They're able to create their own stories now. For us, it's just a product of a lack of resources, a lack of time,” Mr. Suarez said during an intimate viewing of Google's film. Portrait No. 72Last Friday at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
Mr. Suarez and Mr. Rapacon, both of whom have full-time jobs, saw AI as a new tool to speed up storytelling production.
“Apart from upskilling, like during the launch of Photoshop, a lot of people were against it because the process became faster and everything except us, it [AI] It's just a new tool for storytelling. So just be open,” Mr. Suarez said.
Fresh from their entry as one of the top 5 finalists at the AI Film Awards in Dubai, UAE, the filmmakers acknowledged the mixed opinions of people on the integration of artificial intelligence in films that they have experienced during the two-month process of their filmmaking.
“When we made it, we really hoped it would open people's minds about using AI in storytelling. Making movies like this isn't just a gesture, AI isn't just a heartless video,” Mr Rapacon said.
Mr. Suarez and Mr. Rapacon themselves, as video editors, explained the application of the human touch in AI-generated tasks by pulling the story from entirely human-generated and personal experiences.
photorealistic Portrait No. 72 Explores the life of a death photographer, set in Varanasi, India. After losing loved ones in 2025, both creators chose to explore grief.
“I want to emphasize that the enemy here is not AI. The real enemy is the people who think AI can replace humans because it can't. At the end of the day, it's our hearts and our minds, both me and Rodson, that really made this film powerful,” Mr. Rapacon said.
The film can be viewed here 1 billion follower summit Website. — Calla Patricia B. Gabriel