Director made an $80M-looking holiday film with AI for just $1.5M
lmoroney · x · 2026-10-13
Director Tom Walsh told Variety how "Merry the Christmas Witch" got made: an $80M traditional budget became a $1.5M two-hour film, completed in 10 months with roughly 50 people.
The team still staffed foley artists, editors, sound designers and a composer. Human actors recorded the script to guide movement and sound; Walsh later switched to AI voices (Phatty Acid, ElevenLabs, Seedance, Nanobanana) after sync issues. His advice: "The quality of your AI production depends on the quality of your traditional production staff" — line up the traditional roles before opening the generator.
Related event: AI Christmas Film Made for $1.5 Million Instead of $80 Million(2 posts)→
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