I'm an Award-Winning AI Filmmaker Now?
So yeah. That happened ...
About a month ago I uploaded the first music video from my upcoming DEHUMANIZE concept album (drops 3/1, pre-save it here 🙏) - “TRANSFORM“ to YouTube.
Oh, that cover image? That’s Dr. Bug. The star of the video. More on him shortly.
Last night the email came through.
TRANSFORM won in the Best Horror category for the Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Award.
A music video that was *too intense* for YouTube (who immediately throttled it along with any and all shorts, refusing to give it any recommendations or traction).
I did not expect to see this in my inbox:
I want to share a snippet from the congratulatory email, and give you some thoughts on this moment as a creative, as well as awards in general.
I am happy, and proud, but I also have some mixed feelings here.
1) The Most Important Words In The Email
We are delighted to congratulate you on being named an official winner of the Los Angeles AI Motion Pictures Awards (LAAIMPA)! 🏆
Your film distinguished itself among a strong international selection through its originality, artistic clarity, and thoughtful integration of AI technologies. The jury was particularly impressed by the way your storytelling and visual language work together to push contemporary cinema forward.
This recognition reflects more than an award—it highlights a creative vision that explores where film is headed next, at the intersection of imagination, technology, and human expression. Your work demonstrates how AI can serve as a powerful creative tool, enhancing emotion, meaning, and cinematic impact.
On every level, this is a delightfully thoughtful way to inform a winner, and while it’s largely boilerplate (expected), there is intentional phrasing in here that 100% confirms that my creative philosophy shines through in my work:
“STORYTELLING AND VISUAL LANGUAGE”
I believe to my core that AI should be used as a creative amplifier. Slop exists, yes. Storytelling is the undeniable difference between “Shiny AI Stuff” and “Art.” It is the single biggest differentiator in visual creative work. Allow me to illustrate this with a very simple diagram...
2) Understanding What STORYTELLING Does
Imagine an AI creation. Great visuals. Great audio. It will absolutely be awesome. But there’s something missing ...
Depth.
Storytelling is your Z axis. It is that thing that turns any project into something visible from various angles, something intertwined with world-building. Something that gathers a different type of attention.
Something that builds an IP.
If you’re an author, replace AUDIAL with “DIALOGUE” and VISUAL with “PROSE” and you have the same thing. Words that are just scenes, lacking dimension without the spine of storytelling.
My entire creative philosophy is storytelling. It’s who I am, it’s what I do. It’s why I had great success with my debut novel, it’s why my non-fiction work is resonant, and it’s why even my absurdist work is hailed as being deeply emotional, even if it’s loaded with Uranus jokes.
3) The Storytelling In TRANSFORM
I made some artistic decisions in this video that were chances. First of all, the track itself is killer. Aggressive Trip-Hop to the core with lyrical delivery that’s restrained at the right moments, and all-out when it needs to be. Glitchy. Tribal. Moody. Dark. I love ALL of the tracks I’ve crafted for DEHUMANIZE, but TRANSFORM holds a special place because it was the first track I put together for this 12-track concept album with three Acts.
Broadly, TRANSFORM is about my protagonist in this rapidly expanding IP, Alyte (who is also the voice of the tracks):
Here she is, pre-cybernetic installation. At this point in her story she’s made the (arguably catastrophic) decision to remake herself physically in order to escape emotional pain. After all, if we can re-write our identity from every angle, aren’t we something new?
Upside-down frames signal her unstable emotional state. Your menacing cybernetic pill-bug of a robotic surgeon, Dr. Bug is the conductor of this transformation. Canonically he is a massive part of the fictional Alyte universe that you’ll be able to read about in a sizable Novella this year as well.
Over the course of three minutes, you’re treated to shallow-depth close up shots of surgical procedure (and don’t even get me started on the work it took to generate close-up surgical scenes with flesh being peeled and blood... everywhere without tripping the Hall Monitors), along with an incredible final reveal post-surgery.
The real fireworks start when I drop the music to silence for 15 seconds in the middle of this video.
15 seconds of frantic, jittery shots of Dr. Bug in this position, using surgical mandibles to alter Alyte’s face (which you never see), and replace one of her eyeballs. It’s unsettling. Chewing and whirring noises, blood everywhere, the sound of heartbeat and her muffled struggles, restraints straining, etc.
And the moment it’s over?
The track kicks back in with an epic punch.
In 3 minutes, we have a character’s full transformation from start to finish. An entire story about psychological collapse, identity fragmentation, and Cartesian duality, layered to Trip-Hop, synchronized with sound, visual, written words (appearing on the CRT monitor) and timing, all layered in a character arc you get to experience.
This is what a creative amplifier - such as AI - with storytelling vision, is capable of communicating.
4) Do Awards ... Mean Anything?
Yes, they do. And no, they don’t.
Personally, I’m building toward a career in Creative Director territory. I don’t want to be a code monkey for the rest of my life. I want to live, breathe, and create worlds.
Professional credits matter and laurels open doors. It’s how the game works.
I’ll display them proudly.
If I’m being honest here, nearly every AI creator I see out here is putting out work that absolutely bakes my brain. The visuals? Incomprehensibly good. The music? Stunning. Storytelling? Wonderful. These are artists making incredible art, and the slop is nowhere to be seen.
Why? Because they are all storytellers as well.
My core strength is my ability to tell a story. The niche I’m carving out for myself is being able to be that expert storyteller with heart, humor, intensity, philosophy, music, visuals, and depth.
5) Closing
So yes. I’m really proud of this one, and I’m going to celebrate it as a validating victory, because it is. Call it cringe if you want, but I absolutely earned “Award Winning AI Filmmaker” just as I earned “Bestselling Author” and those words are going into all of the bios.
I’m also going to go right back to doing what I do.
Story. Sound. Visuals.
Now stop wasting your time reading my nonsense and go make stuff that I can be inspired by in return! 🤘🔥
Give the Award-Winning TRANSFORM music video a watch, and throw down a like/comment on the Tube if you do.
I appreciate all of you! 🙏
Congratulations, David! 🙌
There are lots of accusations of 'AI slop' around the internet, but I think that's because we are still in the 'tech demo' stage, and it's only when the technology lands in the hands of someone with true talent' like you' that people are going to see its viability as a creativity-empowering technology. Well-deserved award, my friend.