Ep. 278 I Adapt or Die: A Working Filmmaker with AI in 2026

From Documentary First by Documentary First | Christian Taylor

May 21, 2026 · 55 min · Season 6 · Episode 278

About this episode

Armin Korsos discusses the impact of AI on filmmaking and the importance of original ideas in the industry.

Adapt or die. What does that actually look like for a working filmmaker? Chicago documentary filmmaker Armin Korsos has a working filmmaker's answer to the question every documentarian is wrestling with right now. If you're not using AI, you will be losing work to people who do. In this conversation, Armin walks through how he turned 20 hours of pre-production paperwork into 30 minutes, how he uses AI image generation to send 40 pitches in the time it used to take to send 8, and why he believes the only currency that still matters in this industry is original ideas. In Episode 278, Christian sits down with Armin Korsos, founder of the Chicago production company Caymanite and co-founder of Filmmaker Friday Chicago, a film community event series that grew from 50 people at its first event to over 1,700 unique attendees in its first year. Born in the Cayman Islands to Hungarian parents, raised in the Chicago suburbs, and trained at Columbia College Chicago , Armin uses commercial production work to fund the documentary and narrative projects he cares about. He has a working filmmaker's take on AI (use it now or lose work to the people who do), a hard-earned theory about original…

People in this episode

Host: Christian Taylor

Guest: Armin Korsos

Topics covered

filmmaking
AI in film
documentary production
creative community
original ideas
pre-production efficiency

Keywords

AI
filmmaker
documentary
pre-production
original ideas
Caymanite
Filmmaker Friday Chicago

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Caymanite, Filmmaker Friday Chicago, Columbia College Chicago

Places: Cayman Islands, Hungary, Chicago, Chicago suburbs