Film sets have long been the lifeblood of the movie industry—grand constructions, exotic locations, and bustling teams working tirelessly to bring stories to life. But the landscape is shifting. Today, filmmakers can bypass traditional sets altogether, replacing them with text prompts and AI-powered tools. Leading the charge is Google Veo 2, a text-to-video system that’s redefining the process of filmmaking, allowing creators to craft stunning cinematic visuals without massive budgets, crews, or physical locations.
Google Veo 2 in Brief
Google Veo 2 is a groundbreaking text-to-video tool designed to simplify the filmmaking process. With just a written prompt, users can generate high-quality video clips that look as though they were shot on a professional set. This tool removes many of the barriers traditionally associated with filmmaking, enabling even solo creators to achieve results that rival Hollywood productions.
Though still in its early stages, Veo 2 has already demonstrated its power through projects like László Gaál’s AI-generated video ad. His work showcases what’s possible with the tool today—and hints at where it’s headed tomorrow.
Reimagining Film Production
Traditional filmmaking is an intricate dance of resources—finding locations, building sets, coordinating crews, and balancing hefty budgets. But with Veo 2, much of this complexity disappears. Instead of traveling to multiple locations or building elaborate sets, creators can generate visuals in minutes using descriptive text.
Gaál’s recent project is a perfect example. He produced a visually stunning ad that looked like it was shot across diverse, real-world locations. In reality, everything but one brief clip of himself was created with Veo 2. The process took about 16 days in total—12 days to generate the video and 4 days to create behind-the-scenes (BTS) footage. To complete the project, he used stock music and hired a voiceover artist from Fiverr, showing how creators can assemble professional-quality productions with minimal resources.
What might have cost millions in traditional filmmaking was achieved by one individual with a laptop and some clever tools. This shift represents a seismic change in how films can be made.
How Creators Are Overcoming Limitations
As impressive as Veo 2 is, it isn’t without its challenges. One of the biggest hurdles is maintaining consistency across characters and scenes. Because the tool relies solely on text prompts, it’s easy for subtle variations in descriptions to result in noticeably different visuals.
Gaál shared his approach to tackling this limitation. He opted for short, dynamic clips and quick scene changes, which not only kept the narrative engaging but also helped mask inconsistencies. According to him, this was a stylistic choice rather than a reflection of the tool’s capabilities. He noted that Veo 2’s longer scenes look great as well, suggesting that these challenges are more a matter of refinement than inherent limitations.
As AI technology evolves, tools like Veo 2 are expected to improve in areas such as character consistency and scene continuity. When that happens, longer, more seamless productions will become the norm.
Behind-the-Scenes: From Concept to Creation
The process of creating a video with Veo 2 is deceptively simple. It starts with an idea—whether it’s a specific scene, a character, or an entire storyline. The creator inputs a detailed description into Veo 2, which then generates a video clip based on the text.
These clips can be adjusted and refined through iterative prompts. Once satisfied, the creator stitches together the individual clips, adding voiceovers, music, and other finishing touches. This workflow dramatically simplifies the filmmaking process, making it faster and more accessible to independent creators and small teams.
For Gaál, the workflow meant he could focus on creativity rather than logistics. He didn’t need to scout locations, hire actors, or worry about weather conditions. Everything he needed was generated digitally, allowing him to bring his vision to life with minimal overhead.
The Rise of Personalized Storytelling
The accessibility of tools like Veo 2 is shifting the creative landscape. Storytelling, once dominated by studios with massive budgets, is now open to anyone with a compelling idea and a laptop. This democratization of filmmaking is sparking a wave of creativity, empowering artists, small businesses, and hobbyists to produce high-quality content that previously required professional teams and resources.
Looking further ahead, AI tools could pave the way for personalized entertainment. Imagine watching a movie tailored to your preferences, where you can influence characters, settings, or even plot twists in real time. This kind of on-demand storytelling could fundamentally change how we consume media, making it a deeply individual experience.
Ethical and Societal Implications
While the creative possibilities are exciting, they come with challenges. One major concern is the authenticity of AI-generated visuals. As tools like Veo 2 become more advanced, it will become increasingly difficult to distinguish real footage from AI-generated content.
This raises questions about trust. If video evidence can no longer be taken at face value, how will this impact journalism, legal proceedings, or public discourse? While companies like Google are working on solutions such as digital watermarking to identify AI-generated content, it’s unclear how effective these measures will be as the technology proliferates.
Beyond questions of authenticity, there are broader societal implications to consider. Media consumption is already fragmented, with audiences spread across countless streaming platforms and content niches. Personalized AI-generated entertainment could deepen this divide, creating isolated pockets of content tailored to individual tastes. The shared cultural moments that once brought people together may become increasingly rare.
Harari’s Warning: The Threat to Shared Fictions
Historian Yuval Noah Harari has written extensively about the concept of “shared fictions”—ideas like money, nations, and religion that enable large-scale cooperation and social order. In his latest book, Nexus, he argues that AI is beginning to “hack the operating system of our civilization.” By taking over communication, writing, and entertainment, AI has the potential to disrupt the shared narratives that hold societies together.
If everyone is consuming personalized, ideologically tailored content, the result could be a fragmented world where common ground becomes harder to find. While this future isn’t inevitable, it’s a possibility worth considering as we embrace AI-driven creativity.
The Future of Film Creation
The potential of tools like Veo 2 extends far beyond video generation. In the near future, AI could manage entire productions—from writing scripts to generating visuals, editing footage, and composing soundtracks. These advancements could make filmmaking faster, cheaper, and more accessible than ever before.
Looking further ahead, AI could merge with virtual reality (VR) to create fully immersive experiences. Imagine stepping into a custom-made movie, where you’re not just watching the story but interacting with it. This kind of real-time, interactive storytelling could revolutionize entertainment, bringing us closer to a world of truly personalized media.
The creative possibilities are vast. For filmmakers, storytellers, and anyone with a spark of imagination, the barriers to entry are disappearing. So, what kind of story would you tell if every limitation was removed? With tools like Veo 2, the answer is only a text prompt away.