AI Filmmaking, for Real — Inside My Conversation with Matty Shimura from ElevenLabs

In this episode of AI Insights San Francisco, I had the chance to sit down with Matty Shimura, one of the leading voices connecting creativity, storytelling, and artificial intelligence. Matty currently leads Creator Competitions at ElevenLabs, where he’s helping run the Chroma Awards — an ambitious global challenge bringing together filmmakers, musicians, and game creators under one roof.

But our conversation wasn’t just about technology. It was about what remains human in this new era of AI-powered filmmaking.

From Filmmaker to AI Trailblazer

Matty’s story starts in traditional cinema — over 17 years of filmmaking experience, from short films to VR storytelling. When he discovered the new generation of AI tools like Stable Diffusion, it unlocked a new creative lane.

That spark led to Project Odyssey, which quickly became the world’s largest AI film competition by number of submissions. The success of that initiative evolved into the Chroma Awards, now backed by ElevenLabs and partners like ByteDance, Gemini, and Andreessen Horowitz.

As Matty put it, “It’s like running the Olympics for creators.”

Chroma brings together film, music, and game creators worldwide — and the best part? Anyone can enter, regardless of budget, background, or geography.

The Craft Still Wins

What stood out to me is how Matty repeatedly returned to craft. AI tools evolve daily, but the fundamentals of storytelling haven’t changed: framing a shot, pacing a scene, designing sound, and understanding emotion.

“The ones who really excel,” he said, “come from traditional creative backgrounds. They know how to tell stories — and they use AI to reach the precision they used to spend hundreds of hours achieving in VFX.”

AI filmmaking, in his words, isn’t about skipping the process — it’s about accelerating creativity while keeping the human touch in the loop.

Building Competitions Like Startups

Running these global competitions isn’t easy. Behind every open call are thousands of moving pieces — marketing, partnerships, community management, customer support, and education.

“It’s like running a startup within a startup,” Matty laughed. And it really is. The Chroma Awards are not just contests; they’re ecosystems where companies and creators learn from each other.

I found this part especially relevant for anyone building AI products today: community and competition are fast feedback loops for innovation. They push tools and creators to evolve side by side.

Judging, IP, and Ethics in AI Film

Matty also shared how Chroma tackles one of the most difficult questions in AI art — what’s fair, original, and ethical?

Each submission is human-reviewed, not ranked by views or upvotes. Every piece is scored across clear criteria: production value, sound design, creativity, and adherence to category guidelines. The top 25 per category move to a final round judged by domain experts — from filmmakers to composers to game designers.

On the topic of intellectual property and likeness, ElevenLabs enforces a strict standard. No brand logos. No unlicensed likeness. No shortcuts.

“We want people to create something they couldn’t have made before — not just a rehash of Star Wars or Wes Anderson,” he said. It’s about originality over imitation, a principle I deeply agree with.

Voice, Sound, and the Future of Storytelling

As someone who also uses ElevenLabs tools in production, it was exciting to hear what’s next:

Voice cloning for multilingual production and quick fixes
Text-to-sound effects and music APIs for faster workflows
New emotion and intonation controls that finally make AI voices sound truly human

For me, this is where things get powerful — AI doesn’t replace the creative process; it multiplies it. When used well, it helps creators scale their storytelling, not just their output.

The Human Element Never Leaves

Toward the end, Matty reminded me that filmmaking, even when powered by AI, remains a collective act of creativity. It’s not about pushing buttons alone at home — it’s about community, collaboration, and shared imagination.

“Creativity is part of human nature,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve never made a film before. Just start.”

That line hit me. Because beyond all the hype cycles and tech trends, that’s what this entire movement is about: empowering people to tell stories again — faster, cheaper, and with fewer barriers.

🎥 Watch the full episode

“AI Filmmaking for Real — Matty Shimura, ElevenLabs” on YouTube