AI is shaking up creative industries, from Nvidia's DLSS 5 for photoreal gaming to its uses in animation, and filmmaking is no exception. News coverage of AI's uses often frames it as either a threat to jobs (which it is) or a shortcut to flashy visuals (also true). But filmmaker Kavan Cardoza, also known as 'Kavan the Kid', has a different take: AI isn’t a magic bullet; it’s a tool, and its effectiveness depends entirely on the filmmaker using it.
Cardoza runs Phantom X, an AI-native studio producing The Chronicles of Bone, a serialised dark fantasy that reimagines public-domain characters, such as Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Peter Pan, in a post-collapse world dominated by a vampiric empire. The series is developed in collaboration with Freepik, whose tools help Phantom X scale world-building and visual development without dictating story or authorship.
