Neill Blomkamp’s 13-minute AI short was made entirely with ByteDance Seedance 2.0
The Verge AI · rss · 2026-07-22
Neill Blomkamp unveiled a 13-minute sci-fi short, Nightborne, as a demonstration of generative AI filmmaking.
- The film comes from his new AI startup / production company, Barley Studios.
- Every shot was made with ByteDance Seedance 2.0, a text-to-video generator.
- Characters’ voices and faces were modeled after human actors.
- Blomkamp framed it as a test piece showing what AI can do, with an eye toward making a full feature later.
The Verge’s take is sharply negative, calling it recycled “slop,” but the project is still notable as a high-profile AI video demo from a major director.
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