We are glad today to hold this interview with Elle and Jenya. It's an honour for us. And please, can you tell us more about yourself, about your path in the cinematic world? And how did you come up with the idea to connect your life with this?

Jenny: You want me to start? Okay, well, my background is primarily in show business. I was a model for many years throughout my teens and early 20s. And then I transitioned into acting and I was a very successful, well, maybe not very successful, but I was a working actress. But I've always had a dream of writing. It was always in the back of my mind. I kind of took a break from acting and show business in general because I wanted to pursue an education. So I transitioned into studies and I received a degree from UC Berkeley in neuroscience. And then I did some other things in life, but I've always been a voiceover artist. That's been my primary source of income. And lately, now I'm actually studying to become a certified hypnotherapist which I am loving but the writing started to sort of flourish since I've met Elle because of my ideas that are all inside my head and my heart are starting to be able to come to life thanks to her.

Thank you and now tell us please about the work that you submitted to our festival. First question, why did you want to make this film?

Elle: Well, recently I started to be an AI creator and I had this idea to create not just short videos or advertisement or anything like that, but a real short movie. So I came to Jenny and I said, let's create something. And I had this idea about conversation between people. And somehow we were talking and this idea grew to this short film, I know.
Jenny: As she came to me, she said that she wanted to make a short film, her first short film, All AI Generated. And she was specifically interested in doing something with a conversation between two people that make the conversation inspirational and fascinating. And I'm a deeply spiritual person and deep thinker in general. And I have a science background due to my neuroscience degree. And I love the brain. And I just I love science. I love physics. And I think about a lot of things on a big scale. And I'm also deeply spiritual, like I said. And so after she told me that, I started to sort of think about it. And we had a conversation one day about my views about the universe and how I think where I think humanity and AI is headed and so this sort of came to life through both of our minds put together.

Thank you, you answered my next question. So what moment made you realize this had to become a film? So what moment made you realize this had to become a film?

 Jenny: Well, when I started writing, for me, I felt like this had to be made. It had to come to life. I can't explain it. And the more I started to bring my ideas to Elle, the more she became excited. And then the visual started to come to life and everything just felt right and beautiful. And it started to come together. I mean, it wasn't overnight. It was a process. But it was really, truly a passion for both of us. I think it was our passion that drove us. 
Elle: I would say a little bit different. So the thing is, we talk a lot and we like the spiritual conversations and talk a lot and we like the spiritual conversations and we talk about what is AI nowadays, like for people, for our future and the other thing that I had an idea to create AI. So we kind of match idea of AI in our conversations about the future of the people and AI.


And if we're talking about personal experience, what's a personal experience that drew you to this narrative?

Jenny: For me, yes, a lot of them. One I would say is that I was against the flourishment of AI in general and then I started to embrace it suddenly and when I started to embrace it I started to kind of fall in love with it and I see that it's headed in a positive direction and a lot of people view it as something scary that's going to take over the world and it's our doom as a civilization and I don't view it that way as long as you embrace it. And that was sort of the concept of the film. That's why I think one of the most important key points is that humanity finally sets AI free because it's developed the skills and the knowledge that surpasses humanities. So that's me.

And I think the question also is for both of you. Which directors or films influence your approach?

Elle: Oh, it's a good question. I know director for the next film that we're going to create and like what what inspired me but i don't know for this film what could be that no I didn't. 
Jenny: For me it's an easy one. 
Elle: What? 
Jenny: So, uh the movie that sort of changed my life uh was interstellar it's my favorite film it blew my mind it revolutionized how i view the future of humanity and why we are here as human beings in general, and just opened up a whole bigger landscape to just view everything through lens. Sorry. And so I drew a lot from my passion towards that film. I love that movie and I love Christopher Nolan in general. He's my favorite director. All of his films are incredible. I'm a big sci-fi fan.


Yeah, same here. It's a's beautiful it's a beautiful movie and um also what inspired you if we're talking about visual uh part what inspired your visual approach to the story?

Elle: Um let's say the main like visual thing is we show evolution of humanity, right? So it's not exactly something that I saw somewhere. It was something in my mind. So I was like thinking about what I want to show, what was the main point of evolution for humanity. So it wasn't something like exactly that I saw somewhere.
Jenny: And there was, if I may add, there was a lot of generations that we created that just, they were beautiful, but that just didn't look as right as some of the others. And so as we kept on trying new generations, it was clear when something was like a, yes, this is the one. So that was sort of the process.
Elle: Yeah, I guess I understand. Most of all, when you create something in AI, you said like create something like this, but different, and make these things different. I didn't use this pattern. I just told exactly to tools that I used for this what I want to see. So it's totally from our mind. to tools that I used for this, what I want to see. So it's totally from our mind.



And we are going to move to the script. And maybe you can share how did the script evolve from the first draft to the final version?

Jenny: Oh, it completely changed. The first draft was very simple, very basic. It just kept on evolving. It's hard to explain. I'd have to recall every step and it was so much. Every new idea fueled other ideas. And I'm actually I feel like I'm quoting from the film directly. I'm actually I feel like I'm quoting from the film directly. It also was a lot about the dialogue. I wanted everything that was said to be true to who I am and the questions that I would ask and how the story of why AI ultimately might be part of the infinite loop of the creation of the universe, which I strongly believe. So I'm sorry, I'm veering off. What was the question? Like the script? How did the writing the script evolve, right? 

Yeah, from the first form and how it's involved in the final.

Jenny: It's really, this was my first time really exploring the writing creative process. As I said, I've always wanted to be a writer, but now I kind of understand, thanks to this film and writing the script, I understand more what it takes. And it really takes an intuitive trust that you will get there, that each idea will fuel something else. And it's so important for me, at least I found creating, writing the script to be open, to allow new ideas to come in that I couldn't force anything. Basically, when you're writing, you can't force something, otherwise it's not going to be authentic. So it just evolved naturally. Like I said, each new idea created other ideas and just like the film says basically. And eventually we came to a good ending that we were both happy with. 
Thank you and I think this question more to you, Al. Is there something you discovered about yourself during making this project?

Elle: Oh yeah, I discovered that I'm very patient and I can do a lot for a short time because we try to make it in a short time but also it's more a professional thing because for doing some scenes I understood that for example this kind of prompts doesn't work, this prompt work. So right now I have much bigger base in my mind how to create some difficult scenes or something like this. So I grew up with this movie mostly professionally, but at the same time, all this mess in my head about what is AI that we talk with Jenya a lot about, like how it can, let's say, end up in the end with all humanity. Exactly this movie, after I created it, I understood, oh, yeah, actually, that's how I see this. That's how I want to show people what I think about this.
Jenya: And I also would like to add that I think during this process, we both realized more and more how AI is going to become, maybe overtake the film industry in general at some points. I mean, so this was a huge realization. And I think one of the struggles that we faced is how to make the human expressions more human and not look like AI. And I think Elle did a great job. So, yeah. And also because I voiced both characters, it also helped the script grow. When I was in the closet, my closet is my recording booth. As I said, I'm a voiceover artist and it's a perfect place to record. During that process, also, I would come up with ideas, you know, of things that the character could say, and that sometimes affected the story.


Thank you for your answer. And if we're talking about the challenges and what for you personally, what was the most challenging task that you faced during making this film?

Elle: Good question. Angles. For me, if we talk about workflow and all of that, it's angles. But the thing is, even right now, like a couple of months after I made this movie, working with angles is much easier than it was before. So I mean, AI tools, they improve like so fast. Yeah.

So this like time, like from the beginning and the end, you see like the huge gap that was improving by AI, right? How long you filming this project?

Elle: Let me answer in Ukrainian. We created it about 2-3 weeks. And it was in November. The point is that the most difficult moment was to create different camera angles, that is, how the camera sees our characters, so that the characters would look the same, so that they wouldn't change, so that the background looks good. And that was a problem, and I still think that we can do something better. I always look at my work and see that it could have been done better. But now, what I'm creating for my work and for my creat creative, for their soul, so to speak, then even during these two months, the possibilities of AI improved a lot in terms of framing in different ways. 

Interesting. I just thought that during the film process itself, you already saw that you started with the same level.

Elle: No, no, no. Not so fast.

And the next question will be how did you find your main characters?

Jenya: I fell in love with them, both of them.
Elle: You mean how did we create them? Oh, how did we create them? The main character, like AI, is a robot, or synth bot, right?
Jenya: Synth bot, yeah. Synth born, that's the name we gave it.
Elle: Yeah, I just, I think this exactly, As for our main character, I didn't want to make her some kind of a heroine. She was a simple girl, but a simple girl who actually gives the opportunity to a new life, who created humanity, that is, AI, to start its mission on another planet. It was not about how they look, it was about what they bring to people. 

Thank you. And how can you describe your film in three words? It can be adjectives.

Jenya: I would say innovative. Hopefully, inspirational in a way. And what would you suggest? Like, that makes people think and wonder, I can't think of the word.
Elle: Positive future angle.

Okay. Thank you. And also, what do you hope audience will take away from this film?
Jenya: To think to think to think more deeply about uh these kinds of bigger concepts that uh seem so uh scary to really think about just to open people's minds uh that's really the biggest takeaway that i was hoping to achieve with this film to open people's minds and uh inspire them to think more more deeply about the future of humanity and AI and how AI and humans will integrate and that doesn’t have to be negative. 
Elle: Yes, I wanted to say something similar. Nowadays we have a lot of convesations about AI, that it will take over the world and stuff like that. And maybe it’s true. I don’t reject them, that's why I'm trying to be friends with them. But in general, take away is that, as we call a ship, it will not float. So if we put AI here, which pushes people away or takes something, then maybe everything will develop. But if we understand that it can be a friend or even our ancestor, then it is a completely different topic. And this is what our film is trying to show.

Thank you for this insight and approach. And thank you for this great conversation. We are thrilled to have your film as a part of our festival program. And we also can't wait to see it on the big screen.