AI video · Case study
Hat Trick: what six days behind a ten-minute AI film involved
Watch the film, then trace script, references, generation, voice, audio cleanup and manual editing. The maker describes continuity, pronunciation and on-screen text problems and gives a cost breakdown; failed clips and itemized bills are not public.
Published · Reviewed
The maker presents the film as evidence of learning AI production. Roughly $390 is his self-reported tool spend, not revenue, profit or full production cost; no order or payment is documented.
Check this resultGeoff Nelson made the film to move his existing media-production skills into AI tools. A media veteran loses his job, learns AI and rebuilds an identity across five acts with different visual styles. The film is viewable, and its maker documents six days of generation, voice and editing problems. Hat Trick helps answer how much human judgment a finished AI film still takes; it does not establish that making one earned money.
Verified material
Watch the film: what counts as the result?
An approximately ten-minute, five-act narrative is finished and public on the maker's page and Vimeo.
Hat Trick follows a media professional through job loss, AI learning, five invented cartoon heroes and a new chapter. The maker uses different visual languages across its five acts, including live-action-like imagery, cinematic framing, animation and mixed media. Watch first for recognizable characters across shots and how sound meets picture, then use the production account to trace the decisions behind them.
The public record establishes a finished film and the maker's account. The Vimeo entry is titled Hat Trick Short Film V2 and lasts about 9 minutes 47 seconds; the maker rounds it to ten minutes. The page supplies no exhibition contract, platform settlement or paid-viewing record.
Sources for this section: Geoff Nelson: firsthand Hat Trick production account · Geoff Nelson: original Hat Trick Short Film V2
Public account
Six days and about 72 hours: from five acts to shots
Script, shot breakdown and character references preceded the costlier motion work.
The maker reports six roughly twelve-hour production days. On day one, he used Claude to develop a five-act script and edited its voice and comic timing himself. Across days one and two, he split the acts into 15–30-second scenes with camera, lighting, placement and style instructions. On days two and three, he made 36 images in ChatGPT and Midjourney for references and character design. That is a count of generated images, not 36 finished shots.
Across days three to five, Runway was his primary motion tool and Pika supplemented animation tests; he rendered at least 55 clips in Runway alone. The 55+ is a render or clip count, not 55 distinct final shots or a success rate. Voice, manual editing and graphics filled the final two days. Script, recognizable characters and final rhythm still depended on his decisions across tools.
Documented process
The maker's six-day sequence
Compare the maker's timetable with the film. These are stages of one project, not an archive of every raw iteration.
Day 1 · story
Claude helped structure five acts and dialogue; the maker reshaped voice and comic timing.
Read the day-one accountDays 1–3 · shots and references
After shot breakdowns, he generated 36 reference and character-design images for five heroes.
Read the shot and image stagesDays 3–5 · video and rework
Runway rendered at least 55 clips; continuity and generated audio added rework.
Read the generation stageDays 5–6 · sound and edit
He used ElevenLabs for voice, LALAL.AI to remove unwanted music, then assembled and typeset the film manually in an NLE.
Return to the finished film
Evidence limitThe film shows the final result; hours, counts and sequence come from the maker's account. The public materials do not include all 55 raw renders, a complete inventory of 36 images, same-shot failed and corrected moving clips or reproducible generation settings, so they cannot establish a success rate.
Sources for this section: Geoff Nelson: firsthand Hat Trick production account · Geoff Nelson: original Hat Trick Short Film V2
Public account
Continuity, pronunciation, audio and text caused rework
Four problems called for different responses: re-rendering, voice changes, music separation and manual graphics.
Continuity was the maker's hardest visual problem: separate 15–30-second renders could differ even with the same references in the same tool. He made multiple references for five heroes, checked each clip and chose what to redo. The page does not publish moving before-and-after versions of a specific shot, so this is not a controlled A/B test.
Audio needed separate work. The maker says Runway clips arrived with unwanted music and sometimes combined dialogue with voice-over, so he used LALAL.AI to separate music and ElevenLabs for narration and characters. Geoff was mispronounced; spelling it phonetically as Jeff in voice instructions prevented that problem after costly voice re-renders. The account gives a concrete failure and response, but not the bad audio files or per-take costs.
Generated on-screen text also could not reliably spell words, so the maker built titles and lower thirds manually in his editor. Generated clips did not always leave enough head or tail for transitions, requiring either earlier shot planning or edit changes. The film shows selected footage after voice, mix and manual typography; none of that is captured by the 55+ video-render count.
Sources for this section: Geoff Nelson: firsthand Hat Trick production account · Geoff Nelson: original Hat Trick Short Film V2
Public account
What the roughly $390 covers and what it leaves out
The maker reports about $90 in subscriptions and $300 in credits; invoices, labor valuation and revenue evidence are absent.
The maker estimates approximately $390 spent: about $90 in subscriptions and $300 in generation credits and tokens across tools including Runway, Midjourney, ChatGPT, ElevenLabs and LALAL.AI. He also reports around 72 hours of labor. The breakdown shows why re-renders matter financially, but the page offers no individual invoices, subscription allocation or shot-level usage, and labor is not priced into that figure.
The film's economic role is closer to a portfolio piece and proof of learning: one finished project demonstrates a move from existing production skills into new tools. The maker does not document a resulting client job or screening revenue, and the public record has no viewing payout, customer payment or net profit. Dividing $390 by ten minutes does not produce a reusable per-minute quote or evidence of earnings in six days.
Sources for this section: Geoff Nelson: firsthand Hat Trick production account
Our analysis
For a first attempt, test continuity across two shots
Control story, character, frame and audio task first; record usable footage and rework cost.
A small trial could use a two-shot story with a character and sound material you may use, a set frame and character references. Give the shots distinct story actions, then check whether face, clothes, set and light can cut together. Keep references, prompts, render duration, spend, failure reason and seconds that survive the edit. This is BitShovel's limited trial derived from the maker's experience, not a recipe Hat Trick itself has validated.
Before buying several subscriptions, check billing periods and export terms; specify name pronunciation before generating voice; decide who will typeset screen text before motion renders. The maker makes the film and account publicly viewable, which does not grant permission to republish footage, thumbnail, likenesses or music. BitShovel embeds and links to his original media only.
Sources for this section: Geoff Nelson: firsthand Hat Trick production account · Geoff Nelson: original Hat Trick Short Film V2
Sources and limits
Where the material comes from
- Geoff Nelson: firsthand Hat Trick production accountMaker's case studyChecked
The six-day timeline, tool roles, 55+ Runway renders, 36 generated images, rework and roughly $390 spend are self-reported. The page has no explicit publication date; the maker's sitemap lists 2026-06-15 as its last-modified date, which is not a publication date.
- Geoff Nelson: original Hat Trick Short Film V2Maker's finished Vimeo filmChecked
Original Vimeo film and thumbnail. Its oEmbed metadata gives a 587-second runtime and a 2026-05-28 upload date; the film itself cannot verify hours, costs or earnings.