Still Treating AI as a Toy?
We still play around with it every day. Testing workflows. Trying new prompts. Seeing where it helps and where it just gets in the way.
It’s important to remember that AI isn’t inventing anything new. It’s only working with what it already knows.
That’s fine—because creativity isn’t about being first. It’s about putting old ideas together in new ways.
We use AI to find more of those pieces. To refine what we already know. To spot the things we might miss when we’re moving fast.
Here are three real-world workflows that are producing for us every week.
1️⃣ AI for Planning Shot Lists
Before any shoot, we start with what the client gives us. Most of the time, it’s not a full storyboard — it’s a loose creative outline.
Client Outline Example
Project: “Welcome to Saturday in AnyTown”
Goal: Show downtown opening up for the day
Voiceover: Mentions three local businesses
Visual Direction:
Exterior and interior of each business
Owner and customer interactions
Shoppers on the street
That gives us direction, but not a plan.
The next step is a site visit.
We walk through every location to see how the story will actually unfold.
When does the light hit each storefront?
Where do we have space to move the camera?
What details will help the story feel real?
Which shots are must-haves, and which are just nice ideas?
We take photos, make notes, and talk through how the day will flow.
Then we go to AI.
We feed in the client outline, our notes, and a few location details, and ask:
“Here’s our project concept and what we saw during the site walk. Suggest a complete shot list with transitions, detail shots, and pacing that supports this story.”
AI comes back with options — sometimes too many. It’s not magic, but it’s a great second set of eyes.
We spend significant time editing what it gives us.
We remove the ideas that don’t fit, tighten the sequence, and adjust the tone so it feels authentic to the story and the location.
By the time we’re done, we have a clear, intentional shot list that’s grounded in real-world conditions and sharpened by AI’s suggestions.
We don’t shoot everything AI suggests, but it helps us think better before we ever unpack a camera.
Prompt to Try:
“Here’s my project outline and notes from a site visit. Suggest a refined shot list that builds energy through the day and captures the personality of a small-town downtown.”
Even if you aren’t a professional photographer or videographer, you could still use something like this on your next road trip — planning your route, finding good light, and making sure you capture the moments you don’t want to forget.
2️⃣ AI for Strategy & Goal Planning
When we’re developing a marketing plan or long-term project, we use AI like a strategy partner that doesn’t get overwhelmed by too many notes.
Here’s the process:
Dump everything in. All our discovery notes, goals, challenges, and feedback go into ChatGPT.
Ask for structure. “Turn these notes into a clear plan with phases, owners, and priorities.”
Use compare/contrast prompts. This is AI’s superpower. We’ll ask:
“Compare our top three competitors by brand tone, pricing, and website clarity. Where are our opportunities?”Iterate on goals. AI helps break large, vague goals into practical next steps—like turning “grow the brand” into “publish one customer story per month across two channels.”
This kind of thinking used to take hours of whiteboard time. Now it takes 15 minutes and produces something our whole team can act on.
Prompt to Try:
“Here’s everything we learned from our client discovery call. Turn it into a structured plan with goals, milestones, and possible roadblocks. Then suggest which tasks to prioritize first.”
3️⃣ AI for Production Meetings
We shared this one in last week’s deep dive, but it deserves another mention because it’s the glue that keeps everything else together.
Our process is simple:
Record every meeting (we use Apple Voice Memos).
Drop the transcript into ChatGPT.
Ask it to summarize with owners, blockers, next steps, and deadlines.
The recap gets emailed to the team by lunch.
This keeps every project moving without the chaos of endless notes and forgotten details.
Prompt of the Week
“Here’s my project idea. Help me plan a content shoot by listing the key visuals, people, and locations that will best tell this story.”
Final Thought
AI didn’t make us faster just because it saves time.
It made us faster because it helps us see the work differently.
Instead of juggling chaos, we plan with clarity.
Instead of guessing what’s missing, we ask.
And that’s what good creativity has always been—knowing what question to ask next.