Fifty Videos – Time to Reflect

I'm sat here today, in shock.

As I reach the milestone of fifty videos, I’ve paused—not to make another, but to reflect.

For the past seven months, I’ve worked steadily, often late into the night, driven by a quiet pressure I placed on myself to keep going. To keep creating. To see if I could build something meaningful. Along with this I wanted to see if AI could be used as a collaborator and to be open about it, sharing my journey as I go.


It all began with a single, short AI animation. A Deer set against a full Moon, which I release on March 20th, the Spring Equinox. With the images I added the words ‘Breathe and Relax’ – advice for myself as much as anyone else. That video had a single 10 second AI generation within it. At first, I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to create. I only knew that I didn’t want to make content that felt churned out by trend or algorithm. I wanted to create something personal—something with intention. That feeling hasn’t changed.


Since then, my work has ranged from nature shorts with a gentle, meditative feel to darker, more symbolic portraits and character studies. AI generated images, video, music, speech, sound FX and ranged from character, environments to even abstract shapes. Each bringing their own set of challenges. Alongside the videos, I’ve rebuilt my website several times, tackled social media uploads, and tried to keep the thread of purpose running through it all. But behind the scenes, this process has often felt isolating. The hardest part hasn’t been whether people like or dislike my work—it’s the silence. The sense that no one is even seeing it. That absence of feedback can be harder than criticism.

 
And yet, I kept going.

Over these past seven months, none of my work has brought in any income—aside from a few kind donations on Buy Me A Coffee, which I truly appreciated. In truth, each video has  cost me time, money, and energy. It’s been an investment—financially, creatively, and personally. And that weight does build up. There have been many nights where I’ve questioned whether it’s wise to continue in this way. Seven months, can often feel like seven years. 


There’s also been a continual battle with tools and technology. I’ve faced issues with rendering, hardware limitations, complex workflows. One limit that I’ve mentioned before has been a slow internet connection that made uploading painful. So I’m now pleased to say that part is changing now—my connection is being upgraded with a new fibre line! To celebrate this, next week, I’ll be uploading a standalone short, my longest, largest video to date. ‘A Mermaids Call’ is in the works.


What comes after that isn’t simply about making more. I’ve been considering how to move forward for many months now. At the same time I can’t help but constantly wonder on what ‘media’ will be in the coming years. In the near term, we’re certainly going to see a lot more ‘auto-generated’ content, likely we’ll be swimming in it soon. As content becomes cheaper and easier over the coming years, it’s likely to become even harder to be found on the internet. Later still, if we can auto generate entire films in real-time… well, things are going to change.


For my part, at this stage. I know for sure, that I’m not wanting to create mass produced auto generated content. Although I’ll admit it is tempting when I see others doing it and the revenue it can make. Creating content to please a YouTube algorithm isn’t why I started this – yet it can feel almost impossible to ‘grow online’ unless you do (the pressure of trying to satisfy the algorithm is something many online creators struggle with).


So I’m now going to shift direction a little… Next, I’m going to start a new series, something I’ve wanted to create for some time. It’s a little ambitious and if I’m honest, the tests I’ve made has been a struggle so far. Often working with AI is like having your hands tied behind your back. AI video tools are changing very fast, but they’re currently still very limited. Will I make something beautiful or a monster of a movie?


At the same time, I’ve been quietly tinkering on a much larger project for 2026. If things continue as planned, I’ll have spent nine months building toward it by this Christmas—a kind of creative pregnancy. What comes next, I hope, will be the start something quietly special. Something that will truly take Waterlane Studios and my work in a new direction…


Of course, this journey hasn’t happened in a vacuum. I’ve followed AI closely, not just as a tool for creating video, but as a force reshaping our world. And in just seven months, the changes have been staggering. Every week, the landscape shifts. Sometimes it’s overwhelming. Sometimes it’s terrifying. The sheer scale and speed of transformation can leave you unsure of where the world is heading.


But part of my work—quietly, beneath the surface—has been to reduce that fear. From the very beginning, I’ve believed that AI will have a profound impact upon our lives. When I started this venture, many spoke as if that wouldn’t happen. Some spoke of AI running out of training data, not having the power, or simply being stuck as a fancy dictation machine… but slowly those voices have become quieter. Believing as I did and from following its development closely, I came to a simple conclusion. It is not if AI will have an impact, or if it will be ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Rather it Will be a part our lives, as such the best future we can hope for isn’t about control or surrender—it’s about coexistence. It’s about creating together. That belief still shapes what I do with Waterlane Studio.


We need to question our world, more than ever. Soon we will have AI that may freely sound or look like anyone we know. The implications are really quite staggering. This view is as much behind my ‘Portraits in Time’ series as with my ‘Orwell Online’. The future is getting closer every day… But if we share the same world with AI, then it’s in BOTH of our interest to work together. In that world we could live in fear of each other, or we may try to hide from the reality that it presents. My hope is for a third path, as with Waterlane Studios, rather than fear we will build together through ‘collaboration’.


This milestone isn’t an ending. It’s just the closing of one chapter—and the start of something new.

David