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How Culver City is quietly emerging as a new mecca for AI filmmaking. Oct. 16, 2026 Updated 11:16 PM PT See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set Los Angeles Times as preferred * Culver City's mix of Hollywood studios, tech companies and available office space is drawing a growing cluster of AI filmmaking startups eager to reshape the industry. * The companies tout new creative possibilities, using generative tools for everything from short-form crime shows to commercials and film effects. * But unions and many Hollywood workers fear AI will take jobs, even as studios explore hybrid productions and secure protections against fully synthetic performers. The heart of Screenland is cozying up to artificial intelligence. The open space in Culver Steps typically hosts community events and movie nights. But on Wednesday, it turned into a job fair for companies looking to hire talent for AI studios. Companies showed off their life-like AI videos, urging emerging talent - and out-of-work creatives - to join them as they worked to reinvent traditional filmmaking. "It's a great breeding ground for this new filmmaking," Dave Clark, cofounder of AI film production studio Promise, said about Culver City. "To the independent filmmakers here, it's time to take back power." The event was part of LA Tech Week, a citywide event organized by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. March 27, 2026 Culver City is already home to big names in Hollywood and technology like Amazon MGM Studios, TikTok, Apple, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recently, a growing cluster of AI studios, including Promise, TrueShort, Native Foreign, and PhantomX, are expanding in the neighborhood. Luma AI, a $4-billion Palo Alto startup that makes generative AI video software, opened a facility in Culver City last year. The company's Dream Lab occupies a 7,000 square feet space and employs a team of 13. "Culver City is the future of AI and filmmaking," Caroline Ingeborn, Luma AI's chief operating officer, said in a statement. The companies said they are drawn by the legacy studios they hope to rival. The fact that space is available and affordable thanks to the general decline of the entertainment business in L.A. also helps. Proponents of AI see it as an antidote to high production costs and say it allows creatives to make films that otherwise would never be made. However, many in Hollywood, its unions, and the public at large are suspicious of the surge in AI use, worried it is stealing the work of human creatives and taking people's jobs. The new wave of AI filmmakers have accepted the rise of AI as inevitable, and are forging ahead, increasingly in Culver City. The city is not opposed to it. "We're a hub for the creative economy that is continuing to evolve," said Adam Troy, Culver City assistant city manager, in a statement. "We look forward to what's next in the space and what businesses see their future here in Culver City." July 27, 2026 TrueShort moved into Culver City last month, taking over most of a 5,000-square-foot office space near Amazon's studio. The AI studio has raised $17 million and employs about 45 people. Around 75% of them are creatives: filmmakers, editors, sound designers and composers. Its streaming app hosts short-form true crime audio and video shows that are fully AI-generated. On average, a 10-minute episode costs about $10,000 to make and takes about 10 days to go from idea to release. "The next Netflix or the next Disney is going to come out of AI this time," said Nate Tepper, cofounder of TrueShort. "And, in a way, it kind of needs to be a startup because the big incumbents are not going to move as fast. They're going to be afraid of backlash." The company outgrew its Santa Monica office and is now located near Culver Theater. "It is cool being next to the other bigger lots like Sony and Amazon, only because it's inspiring," Tepper said. "We want the lot. We want to become the big studio." Oct. 9, 2026 Culver City-based creative studio Native Foreign makes AI commercials for brands that are more open than Hollywood about AI use. It has done ads for Virgin and Toys R Us. It made one of the first AI-animated shorts, "Critterz," using OpenAI's software and planned to help make a movie based on it, but OpenAI pulled out of the project and canceled its video-making AI model. "We don't have the kind of opportunities that maybe some huge huge studios and companies have, so we are able to bag above our weight with these tools," Nik Kleverov, co-founder of the company, said on a panel at LA Tech Week. May 13, 2026 Google-backed Promise is another Culver City-adjacent AI studio that's a proponent of hybrid productions, where human actors work with AI specialists. The company uses AI to generate backgrounds, visual effects, and synthetic humans for its slate of films, but a lot of the performances are shot on soundstages across L.A. using actors. In late 2024, the studio acquired Curious Refuge, an online AI school that teaches traditional artists and newbies to use generative AI tools for filmmaking. Promise moved close to Culver from Venice in June. Excitement about AI grows even as the industry puts up guardrails to contain it. The actors' guild SAG-AFTRA has secured special protection against fully synthetic performers in the union contract signed this year. However, some Hollywood veterans point out that the industry has fought over technology before. Alex Cancado, who spent years in visual effects and has worked on over 80 movies, now works in the AI Studios division of Amazon MGM Studios. Aug. 31, 2026 Pitching the crowd of creatives on Wednesday, he said the transition from practical effects to computer graphics was equally fraught. "It was a challenge getting CG to be accepted by directors and producers," Cancado said. Much of the buzz around AI use for big productions started with a conference in Culver City called "AI on the Lot," which started in 2023. It has since grown to thousands of attendees. The organization also sponsored the job fair on Culver Steps and a networking happy hour for media AI companies in Culver City. It estimates that AI media companies with $2 billion in backing have converged on the city. Mike Gioia, a founder of AI on the Lot, attends City Hall meetings and is trying to build momentum around the concept of a "Culver cluster" - bringing more companies and individuals working in AI to the neighborhood. "We want to make Culver City the capital of AI media," said Gioia. More to read. Inside the business of entertainment. The Wide Shot brings you news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production - and what it all means for the future. By continuing, you agree to its Terms of Service, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that Los Angeles Times and its third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in its Privacy Policy such as personalizing your experience and ads. Nilesh Christopher is a technology reporter for the Los Angeles Times, focusing on how artificial intelligence empowers, harms and reshapes communities. He first joined The Times in 2025 through support of the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism.

Los Angeles-based actors are losing jobs in the fast-growing micro drama industry to AI-generated performers, marking an early test of artificial intelligence's impact on Hollywood. Hannah Lowery, Blake Manning and Faith Orta are among several young actors who secured roles in short-form mobile series only to have productions shift entirely to AI. TrueShort, backed by Khosla Ventures and Jeffrey Katzenberg's WndrCo, can produce 20- to 30-minute shows for $1,000 to $3,000, compared to $100,000 to $300,000 using human actors. In China, where micro dramas originated, AI productions are expected to generate $3.5 billion in revenue this year. The shift threatens an important income source for emerging actors, with nearly a third of LA casting opportunities in early May for micro drama roles. Industry experts say viewers still prefer human performers, though some producers report platforms demanding AI-only content.