HUMAN CONCEPTS: A Final Reflection
When I began HUMAN CONCEPTS in April 2024, I had no idea the journey it would become. What started as an experiment in form and technology quickly evolved into something much more personal, challenging, and revealing. One year later, with the release of the tenth and final online installment, and the 13 overall short in the series, I can say that this project has been one of the most defining chapters of my life as a filmmaker. Ten films are available online; three others were released only through film festivals and selected paid platforms. Altogether, they form a single body of work that I hope resonates with audiences far beyond this moment in time.
At the heart of this series was always a question: how can we use emerging technologies to tell stories that feel urgent, emotional, and true? I don’t call myself an “AI filmmaker,” and I probably never will. I’m a filmmaker, a storyteller. For me, AI is just one of the many tools I’ve used to push past the limits of traditional production. With it, I was able to visualize concepts, emotions, and metaphors that would’ve otherwise been impossible to achieve independently. And yet, with all its possibilities, I’ve learned that it’s not the tool that matters; but rather, it’s the use we give it.
There will always be plagiarism and unoriginality, with or without AI. It’s our responsibility as artists and audiences to demand integrity and authorship. Throughout HUMAN CONCEPTS, I experimented with more ethical uses of AI: training models on my own footage, animating hand-drawn illustrations, enhancing photographs I took myself, etc. In total, I used more than 15 different programs across the production process. Some programs are better for human motion, others for fire, water, or texture. Each programs has its strengths and weaknesses, and it takes time to understand what works. It’s a process that takes patience, iteration, and intense curation. But above all, it requires vision.
And while this project has been liberating in many ways, it has also been isolating. The solitude of working behind a screen for hours, without the usual collaboration that defines filmmaking, took its toll. I learned just how important human connection is in any creative process. That’s something I never want to lose again. As artists, we are not meant to work alone. We need each other. And cinema, at its best, has always been about collective expression.
This experience gave me the tools to imagine new types of images, but it also reminded me of the power of the traditional. My next project will likely be live-action, shot with actors and cameras, shaped by collaboration and dialogue. But I’ll carry what I learned here with me: how to integrate visual effects with purpose, how to think in metaphors, and how to create “impossible” images that serve something greater than spectacle. I’ll continue to experiment with new technologies as they come through my studio DREAM STUFF., the production company behind HUMAN CONCEPTS.
More than anything, HUMAN CONCEPTS was a space for me to explore emotions, societal contradictions, and philosophical questions. Was it animation? Was it digital art? Experimental film? I honestly don’t know. And maybe that’s what I love most about it. Simply not having a clear category. Not needing one. Each short was its own concept, its own tone, its own rhythm. And together, they form a collage of human experience—from addiction, to migration, to media, to war, to time itself.
I’ll keep the ten main episodes of the series online, available on the DREAM STUFF. website and YouTube page for anyone to revisit. The three festival-only films (GREENWASH, GENTRIFIED, and M.A.D.) will continue their circuit until the end of 2025, after which I’ll decide whether or not to make them public. Either way, this project lives on, in hearts, screens, and hopefully, in thought.
To everyone who watched these films, online or in theaters, at festivals or from your phones… THANK YOU! Your support, feedback, and presence have made this more than just a project. It has been a true journey across technology, art, and life. One I will never forget.
From Barcelona with love,
Andrés Bronnimann