Stanford x Upscaile: How We Taught AI Filmmaking to 50+ Students (Full Class)

Stanford Masterclass: 90-Minute AI for Creativity — Prompting to Production of a 48‑Hour AI Sci‑Fi Short

This episode features a full Stanford class led by Arturo Ferreira that walks through a complete creative AI workflow, from prompting fundamentals to final edit. The session demonstrates how to produce a multi-character, fully narrated sci-fi short using ChatGPT, Sora, Runway ML, 11 Labs, and Final Cut Pro.

Students complete hands-on exercises covering tokenization, temperature control, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and techniques for maintaining character and visual consistency across scenes. The masterclass concludes with a 48-hour production reveal and a practical storyboard-to-edit workflow.

Key Topics Covered:

• Difference between artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI
• Why AI is a probability engine and implications for prompting
• Three pillars of effective prompting: clarity, context, specificity
• How tokenization works: word-, character-, and phrase-based
• Using temperature settings to control creativity and determinism
• Hashtag prompting to organize complex prompts and create signposts
• Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for reference uploads and refinement
• Tree of Thought technique for generating multiple creative options
• Character Lock, Style Lock, and Camera Controls for visual consistency
• End-to-end AI short film workflow: storyboard to final edit in 48 hours

Episode Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction and course overview at Stanford
04:18 - How smart is AI? Why AI is fast, not smart
06:20 - Tokenization explained: word-based, character-based, phrase-based
07:40 - Hallucinations are a feature, not a bug
09:59 - Three pillars of prompting: clarity, context, specificity
16:41 - Temperature settings for controlling AI creativity
21:46 - Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) explained
27:00 - Hashtag prompting technique for advanced prompt organization
32:52 - Tree of Thought technique for multiple creative solutions
38:23 - Hands-on with Sora: creating AI video from prompts
52:56 - Hashtag prompting vs basic prompting: side-by-side video comparison
1:02:37 - Full AI short film reveal: 48-hour sci-fi production
1:05:15 - Character Lock, Style Lock, and Camera Controls
1:18:46 - Runway ML workflow for reference-shot-to-video production
1:19:31 - Using 11 Labs for AI audio and sound effects
1:23:09 - System prompts, custom instructions, and persistent memory

About the Guest:

Arturo Ferreira is an AI educator and creative technologist who delivers enterprise-level AI training and creative workshops. He focuses on making generative AI accessible to creative professionals, teaching practical prompting frameworks and advanced AI filmmaking techniques.

About the Company:

Upscaile provides enterprise AI training to help teams integrate generative AI into creative and professional workflows. The company partners with institutions like Stanford to offer hands-on education that bridges technical capability and practical creative application.