Blair Adams on Guerrilla AI Filmmaking: Key Insights into Storytelling, AR, and the Future of History

This week on the Immergence Show, we were thrilled to host Blair Adams, an AI filmmaker, AR/VR developer, and founder of 42 Levels and Imitationfilms.com. They are a recognized voice in building experiences at the intersection of art and technology. Adams shared profound insights into the new frontier of guerrilla AI filmmaking and using technology to bring history to life in unprecedented ways. This article distills the key educational takeaways and pivotal insights from our discussion.

While we explore the core concepts here, to truly grasp the depth of Adams's vision, including his candid story about creating an entire film on the floor of the AWE conference with a looming deadline, the full video interview is a must-watch.

📺 Watch the Full Interview with Blair Adams on YouTube or LinkedIn.

The AWE Conference Film: A Guerrilla Approach to Content Creation

One of the most talked-about moments from the recent Augmented World Expo (AWE) was a short, imaginative film created on-site by Blair Adams. The premise was simple yet brilliant: a typo in the event's name accidentally invites aliens and fantasy creatures to the conference. This project exemplifies a new trend Adams calls "guerrilla filmmaking"—the ability to conceive, shoot, generate, and edit a compelling video within a single day, reacting to live events and cultural moments in near real-time. By simply walking around the conference, capturing static images of scenes, and then animating them with AI, he demonstrated a powerful new workflow for creators and brands. The process was a race against the clock, with a self-imposed rule of only two generation attempts per shot to maintain momentum.

Key Insight: To succeed in rapid, real-time content creation, creators must adopt a different mindset that prioritizes speed and embraces imperfection, moving away from the need for a flawless final product on the first try.

This rapid, iterative process represents a paradigm shift from the long, planned-out campaign cycles brands are used to. Adams notes that companies now have the opportunity to jump on social media trends, memes, and pop culture moments, creating relevant video content that can connect with audiences instantly. The key, he argues, is no longer just technical skill, but the strength of the initial creative idea and the willingness to embrace imperfection to achieve speed and relevance. The soundtrack itself was generated by feeding a summary of the AWE event from ChatGPT directly into an audio AI, showcasing a complete, rapid-fire creative loop.

Key Insight: There is a significant, largely untapped opportunity for brands to leverage guerrilla AI filmmaking to react to cultural trends in real-time, creating relevant content that traditional methods are too slow to produce.

History Remastered: Bringing the Past to Life with AI

Adams is channeling his creative energy into more than just viral moments; he is pioneering the use of AI to tell profound historical stories. He shared the deeply impactful work he did on a 15-minute documentary about Robert Smalls, a man born into slavery who commandeered a Confederate ship to sail himself and 15 others to freedom. Inspired by a brief mention in a PBS documentary, Adams felt compelled to bring this incredible, yet under-told, story to a wider audience. Using the new suite of AI tools, he was able to become a one-person film studio.

The process was painstaking and showcased the true artistry behind AI filmmaking. It involved extensive research to remain historically accurate, and then meticulously working from the few existing sketches and photographs of the key figures. He used a combination of Photoshop and AI to extend outfits, create full-body images from partial portraits, and build entire scenes, like the Charleston harbor, from historical models and loose images.

Key Insight: Modern AI tools are democratizing filmmaking, empowering individual creators to tackle ambitious projects like historical documentaries without needing the budget or approval of a traditional studio.

The Living Museum: The Future of Interactive Historical Experiences

Building on his work with the Robert Smalls documentary, Adams unveiled his concept for "The Living Museum." This groundbreaking idea merges physical art with digital storytelling through augmented reality. The vision involves a museum exhibit featuring 12 physical paintings, each representing a chapter of Smalls' story. Visitors would use a tablet or their phone to point at each painting, which then comes to life on their screen, playing a corresponding segment of the documentary.

This approach transforms the passive experience of viewing art into an interactive, reflective journey. Adams layered his own powerful artwork—a piece created during the George Floyd protests depicting 400 years of Black history on an American flag—onto the historical images to add another dimension of meaning. This creates a space for viewers to pause and reflect on each part of the story, connecting the past with the present in a more deliberate and thoughtful way.

Key Insight: Augmented reality's true potential in storytelling isn't just creating a spectacle, but adding deeper layers of context and meaning that encourage viewers to engage with the narrative more thoughtfully.

Looking Ahead: Adams's Vision for Human-AI Collaboration

Looking to the future, Adams is not advocating for a world where AI replaces human creativity entirely. Instead, he sees AI as a powerful companion that will continue to shorten production times and handle more of the technical load, allowing creators to focus on the core of what matters: the story. He believes the best work will always come from the collaboration of humans across different disciplines, enhanced by AI tools. For Adams, the most exciting developments are tools that empower creators to build entire worlds from a single image or model, turning a static piece of inspiration into a full movie set.

For Adams's full, unfiltered predictions on where AI filmmaking is heading – including some truly eye-opening scenarios for how brands can prepare for this new era of content creation – the complete Immergence Show episode is unmissable.

Unlock the Full Strategic Discussion

This article provides a strategic overview, but the magic is in the details! To hear Blair Adams share the step-by-step process behind his AWE film, his deeper thoughts on why human oversight is critical in the age of AI, and a debate we had on the future of fully AI-generated movies, and to truly absorb his expertise:

📺 Watch the complete interview on YouTube or LinkedIn.

About Your Host & The Immergence Show

Nico Fara is a Business Strategist, Product Marketer, and passionate Community Builder specializing in the vibrant intersection of AI, Gaming, XR, Fashion, and Consumer Tech. With a talent for translating visionary tech into compelling product strategies and fostering thriving, engaged communities, Nico empowers brands to connect authentically with their audiences and drive impactful growth. Explore Nico's insights further by visiting her website or connect on LinkedIn.

About The Immergence Show: Get your weekly dose of community and cutting-edge insights on The Immergence Show, a thriving live community event where innovation in AI, XR, Web3, Gaming, and Retail-Tech meets a deeply engaged global community. We host interactive discussions with industry pioneers, ensuring our audience of creative technologists, entrepreneurs, and brand executives leaves with fresh perspectives and actionable knowledge. Join the live experience every Tuesday at 12 PM EST on LinkedIn, catch up on all past episodes via our YouTube Channel and find more resources on our website.