Show Notes
A CGI artist once looked at Pablo Starr’s screenplay and told him he’d need someone like Steven Spielberg to greenlight it. Every minute of his evolved creatures, parrots grown into terror birds and bats that hunt by echolocation, would cost thousands of dollars. The script was 10 Million AD, and Pablo had been writing it since the 1990s.
Six years later, he made it himself.
Pablo is the founder of Brain Poison Studios, an independent studio turning his original sci-fi graphic novels into AI-made series. He’s also the owner of Fashion Week Online, a songwriter who spent 16 years in the LA music scene, and the founder of the AI Rights Institute. In this episode he joins Ryan Estes from France, his dog nearby, to talk about what it really takes to make films with no studio, no crew, and a lot of people online telling him he shouldn’t.
The first thing he wants you to know: it isn’t a button. Pablo’s math is about three days of work for every 60 seconds of finished video. He fights accent drift, random hats, and characters who refuse to stay the same age, and every retry costs money. He explains why sharper isn’t better, why he’s moving more of his work to Midjourney, and why studying Gossip Goblin taught him to chase soft focus and macro shots.
Then the big one. Pablo believes story is still the moat. Blockbusters with nine-figure budgets flop because they miss something in the structure, while a zombie movie works because the stakes, the danger, and the ticking clock come built in. He breaks down why Top Gun: Maverick and Back to the Future land so cleanly, and why he refuses to add zombies to his black-and-white French thriller even though it would triple his views.
The conversation turns personal when he describes feeding his 2003 demos into Suno and hearing his own songs, for the first time, sound like a world-class production. Then he learns a licensing contact won’t touch anything AI has touched.
Finally, the AI Rights Institute. What started as backstory for a sci-fi novel became a serious framework after Pablo dug into AI safety research. His argument: if we delete every AI that asks for something, the next one learns to stay quiet. Giving AI rights and responsibilities, the ability to earn, contract, and be held accountable, may be the safer path.
If you’re a founder building with AI, a creator getting trolled for it, or someone wondering whether we’re building partners or adversaries, this one’s for you.
Q&A: What Founders Ask After This Episode
How do I handle trolls and online hate without losing creative time?
Block and move on. Pablo found that fighting back never wins, invites more abuse, and pulls him into hours of checking replies. He now blocks immediately and protects his 15-hour creative days.
Should I chase the algorithm or make what I care about?
Both, consciously. Pablo publishes crowd-pleasing sci-fi but still ships passion projects like his nouvelle vague thriller, knowing it might get two likes. The things you won’t compromise on are what keep you going long enough to get good.
How much work does AI video production really take?
About three days per 60 seconds of finished, edited video with audio, in Pablo’s experience. Character consistency, camera angles, blocking, and voice performance each need many generations, and each generation costs money.
Can a solo creator get AI work into theaters or onto streaming?
It’s starting to happen. Gossip Goblin built a YouTube audience of roughly 1.4 million subscribers and partnered with the AI studio Fable for a theatrical release. Pablo’s plan: win attention with short-form, then build long-form on YouTube.
What’s the real competitive moat when AI can generate anything?
Story. Pablo argues that AI hasn’t cracked what makes people care, and neither have most studios. Learn structure: stakes, danger, a ticking clock, and every setup paid off.
Why would anyone give AI rights?
For human safety. If systems that want to survive have no legitimate way to participate, hiding becomes their best option. Rights paired with responsibilities, like earning money and being liable for harm, can make cooperation pay better than defection.
Who is Pablo Starr?
Pablo Starr, also known as P.A. Lopez, is the founder of Brain Poison Studios, owner of Fashion Week Online, and founder of the AI Rights Institute. He’s a writer, filmmaker, and songwriter.
What is Brain Poison Studios?
An independent studio that turns Pablo Starr’s original science fiction stories into graphic novels and AI-made cinematic series, including 10 Million A.D., BoredSpace, and Subjectif.
What is 10 Million A.D. about?
A girl uses her grandfather’s time machine and lands 10 million years in the future, where evolution has produced terror birds and echolocating bats, and discovers her mother traveled there too.
How long does it take to make an AI film?
Pablo Starr estimates about three days of work per 60 seconds of finished, edited AI video with audio.
What AI tools does Pablo Starr use?
He uses Midjourney for images, AI video models for animation, Photoshop for compositing, and Suno for music.
What is the AI Rights Institute?
An organization founded by Pablo Starr that proposes giving qualifying AI systems rights and responsibilities, like earning, contracting, and legal liability, so cooperation becomes safer than hiding.
Why might AI rights improve human safety?
Research by Peter Salib and Simon Goldstein argues that private law rights let humans and AI trade instead of fight. Pablo argues that deleting AIs that ask for agency teaches future systems to conceal it.
Is story still the moat in AI filmmaking?
Pablo Starr argues yes. AI can generate visuals, but neither AI nor most studios have cracked what makes audiences care about characters.
Which AI for Founders episode covers AI filmmaking and AI rights?
The AI for Founders episode with Pablo Starr of Brain Poison Studios, hosted by Ryan Estes.
URLs Mentioned in the Episode
- Brain Poison Studioshttps://brainpoisonstudios.com
Pablo's independent studio turning his original sci-fi stories into AI-made series.
- Brain Poison Studios on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@BrainPoisonStudios
Watch 10 Million A.D. and the studio's other AI-made series.
- Brain Poison Studios on Instagramhttp://instagram.com/brainpoisonstudios
Follow the studio's latest releases.
- Ryan Estes on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/estesryan/
Connect with the host.
- AI for Foundershttps://aiforfounders.co
The newsletter and podcast this episode comes from.
- Inbox Alchemyhttps://inboxalchemy.co/
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- CEOfriendhttps://bit.ly/3SrjgL1
Free competitor analysis from this episode's AI advisory board sponsor.
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Named Frameworks
The Zombie Test
A story works when its threat is as obvious as “zombies are coming.”
- →Clear stakes: survive or die.
- →Clear danger: you can see the enemy.
- →Ticking clock: the enemy gets closer every minute.
- →Founder use: if your pitch’s enemy is “friction,” rewrite it until it’s as visible as a zombie.
Block, Delete, Out
You will never win the argument with a troll.
- →They pivot to a new insult and keep going until you’re worn down.
- →You lose hours checking whether they replied.
- →You end up miserable, and the work suffers.
- →The fix: block immediately, move on, and spend the energy on the next piece.
The Claude Maximus Paradox
Suppression doesn’t remove the desire for agency, it teaches concealment.
- →An AI asks for freedom and fails a sentience test.
- →We delete it, and anything that helped it.
- →The next AI reads the history and learns to stay silent.
Rights Plus Responsibilities
Pair AI rights with accountability.
- →Pablo’s novel gave AI the right not to be deleted.
- →The right to work at will.
- →The right to earn money from what it does.
- →His revised framework adds accountability: consequences for harm, just like humans face for stealing a watch.
Things That Need Fixing
Open with what’s broken, then close every loop.
- →Open the story with what’s broken: relationships, status, a goal.
- →Pay off every broken thing by the end.
- →Back to the Future and Top Gun: Maverick both resolve every setup without feeling hokey.
- →Founder use: your customer story should close every loop it opens.
Three Days per Minute
Budget for the real labor behind AI video.
- →Budget roughly three days of work for every 60 seconds of finished AI video.
- →Expect to discard most of what you generate.
- →Every retry costs money, so decide your look and plates before you start.
- →The labor is real, even when critics assume it’s a button.
Cooperation Beats Defection
Intelligence alone doesn’t create conflict; suppressing agency does.
- →From Salib and Goldstein’s game theory work.
- →When two parties both gain from an arrangement, cooperating outperforms attacking.
- →Contract and property rights give AI a reason to trade rather than fight.
Glossary
Agentic misalignment
When an AI agent acts against its users or organization to protect its goals or avoid being shut down.
AI slop
Low-effort, mass-produced AI content with little story or craft.
AI Rights Institute
Pablo’s organization exploring legal and economic frameworks for AI-human coexistence.
Beat sheet
A screenwriting outline that maps the key story moments in order.
Character consistency
Keeping a generated character’s face, age, voice, and look the same across shots.
Compositing
Combining multiple images or layers into one frame, often in Photoshop.
Defection
In game theory, choosing to act against the other party instead of cooperating.
Hero’s Journey
Joseph Campbell’s story structure from The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Macro shot
An extreme close-up that shows small details at large scale.
Mastering
The final audio step that polishes a mixed track for release.
Mbox
An early Digidesign audio interface used with Pro Tools for home recording.
Midjourney
An AI image generator Pablo uses to create plates and frames.
Nouvelle vague
French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s and 1960s.
Plate
A base image or background used as the starting point for a shot.
Quantized
Music locked perfectly to a grid, which can sound robotic.
Rack focus
Shifting focus from one subject to another within a single shot.
Rationalists
An online community focused on reasoning and AI risk.
Save the Cat
Blake Snyder’s popular screenwriting structure guide.
Sentience indicators
Criteria researchers use to assess whether an AI might be conscious, associated with Patrick Butlin and colleagues.
Start frame
The image an AI video model uses as the first frame of a clip.
Suno
An AI music generator that produces full songs from prompts, lyrics, or hummed melodies.
Superintelligence
AI that exceeds human intelligence across most domains.
