AI for Research Efficiency, episode 13: How this series is made
Narration: an AI-generated voice (ElevenLabs).

[0:00] How this series is made
Every episode of this series was researched, written, drawn, set to music, checked and rendered by AI agents, working from the command line.
And at each turn that mattered, a person made the call.
AI for Research Efficiency. Episode 13: How this series is made.
So far, this series has shown agents at work on research. This time, the work is the series itself.
In this episode: one production, from the brief to the render, with real figures from its own records, and the decisions a person kept.

[0:43] 1. The brief
One: the brief.
It began with a few lines from the owner: a series on AI for research efficiency, 90 to 180 seconds a video, from getting started to real examples.
The agents turned that into a brief for each film: the subject, the audience, the purpose, the length, and where it will be seen.
Then the research found that too short for the content, and the owner agreed: quality over arbitrary limits.

[1:14] 2. Research, every fact sourced
Two: research, with every fact sourced.
Every figure and quote, on screen or spoken, goes into a facts file, with its source and the day it was read.
A check compares the script and the screen with that file, and flags anything it can't find. The sixteen films carry 456 facts.

[1:38] 3. Three looks, one choice
Three: three looks, one choice.
The agents drew three looks as style frames: Plain Text, Signal Blue, and Lab Notebook. The owner chose Plain Text.
Then a novelty check compares each new film with the studio's earlier ones, so no two look alike. A series may share its own style.

[2:02] 4. A script on a beat
Four: a script, on a beat.
Each line is written for the ear, then placed on a grid of bars at 100 beats a minute, so the words, the picture and the music land together.
A free local voice reads a first draft, just for the timing.

[2:21] 5. A voice chosen by ear
Five: a voice, chosen by ear.
For the first film, the agents cast 18 voices, and read the whole script with 12 of them.
The owner listened, and chose option 9: Eric. That's the voice you're hearing now, in every episode.

[2:40] 6. Pictures and music as code
Six: pictures and music, written as code.
Each scene is a small program: give it a moment in time, and it draws that frame. A browser renders 60 frames for every second of film.
The music is code too, on the same beat, and every key click lands on the frame where a key is pressed.

[3:04] 7. Ten checks
Seven: 10 checks.
The brand, the facts, the rights to every image and sound, the mix, the frames, and more. Each must pass, or warn with a stated reason.
The mix check, for one, wants every spoken line at least 19 decibels above the music.

[3:26] 8. The review and the fixes
Eight: the review, and the fixes.
Each film is then reviewed on its stills, against 20 rules from the research. Across the sixteen films, the reviews drew more than 200 notes, and most are already fixed.
The owner adds notes too. Film three now says its review ran unattended, because the owner asked for it.

[3:52] 9. Render and deliver
Nine: render, and deliver.
Drawing episode 4's frames, more than 19,000 of them, took under 3 minutes. Then come the captions, the chapters, a companion page, and an upload kit for YouTube.
Nothing is published until the owner decides where, and when.

[4:14] What the person decides
So, what does the person decide?
The subject and the audience. The look. The voice, by ear. What each film stresses, what may be shown, and when it goes out.
And on 4 October, one more: make the rest of the series side by side. Nine agents worked at the same time, one episode each, and this episode is one of the nine.

[4:43] By the numbers
By the numbers, with all sixteen films finished, this one included: 80 minutes, and 548 narrated lines.
Film 3's review alone took 18 agents 17 and a half minutes. And the first six films went from the first commit to rendered in under 4 hours.

[5:07] Try it
Pause here, and try it. Write a brief for your own project: subject, audience, goal and length. Ask your agent to research it, every fact sourced, and keep the decisions for yourself.

[5:24] Review and next
So: agents do the work, checks catch the slips, and a person makes the calls.
That's the series. Next: your own project.