benchrSomeone did this
A 95-minute feature film, 15 people, two weeks
Reported by Aitore ZholdaskaliMay 16, 2026Not tested by benchr
What happened
Hell Grind, an action fantasy directed by Aitore Zholdaskali and co-written with Adilkhan Yerzhanov, was made by a crew of fifteen using Higgsfield's Soul Cinema and Soul Cast alongside the Dreamina Seedance 2.0 video generator. The budget was $500,000, of which $400,000 went on AI compute. Production took two weeks. The finished film runs 95 minutes and was screened for the industry in Cannes on May 16, 2026, during the festival but not part of it.
How it was done
- InA prompt per shot, averaging 3,000 words
- ThenEach prompt specified cinematography and physics constraints
- ThenThe generator returned 15-second clips, run again and again
- ThenA human picked the takes — the CEO called it "a feeling of a slot machine"
- Out95 minutes, cut from two weeks of takes
How to try it
The transferable part is the prompt length. A 3,000-word shot description that fixes camera, lens, motion and physics is doing the job a shot list and a DP would do. Short prompts are why most attempts look like stock footage.
What it cost
$500,000 total, $400,000 of it compute, over two weeks.
Someone did this · Not tested by benchr
Partly reproducibleRecorded by benchr on
The tools are Higgsfield's own, and Higgsfield's CEO is quoted in the coverage, so read the enthusiasm accordingly. The production numbers come from reporting, not from the studio's marketing.
About this source benchr read the encyclopaedia entry, which cites the Wall Street Journal (May 21, 2026), Screen Daily (May 18, 2026) and Yahoo Entertainment (May 19, 2026) for the production claims. benchr did not read those three behind their paywalls, so this record is one step away from the primary reporting and says so.
Original source: en.wikipedia.orgAlso covered by Screen Daily