“AI Is No Gimmick” — Eunjoon Lee on Art, Technology, and winning the MetaMorph Award

What did AI enable you to do in your film that would have been impossible—or unimaginable—without it?

Eunjoon Lee: Working with AI on Diner Date was an incredibly exciting and liberating experience. It allowed me to instantly bring to life a variety of characters and imaginative scenarios that had existed only in my imagination until then. The ability to quickly create, iterate, and refine these elements transformed my creative process, pushing the boundaries of traditional filmmaking. AI expanded my artistic toolkit as a filmmaker and opened up new possibilities for visual storytelling and emotional expression that were previously difficult or unimaginable to achieve.

Did your vision for the film change once you started working with AI tools? If so, how?

Eunjoon Lee: My vision didn’t simply change. It was sharpened and strengthened by learning how AI works and what its limits are. From the start, I approached the project with a clear plan, setting moods and references carefully to control AI’s natural unpredictability. Rather than letting AI dictate the film, I maintained full creative direction, using AI as a flexible tool. This process helped me clarify and realize a very deliberate vision, a light-hearted, comic film with emotional warmth, rather than letting the AI randomness steer the project off course.

How did AI shape the emotional tone or atmosphere of your film? Was that an intentional choice or a surprise outcome?

Eunjoon Lee: From the start, I intended the film to feel light-hearted and entertaining. I meticulously planned every scene, setting clear reference moods to keep control over AI’s inherent randomness. By understanding AI’s strengths and limitations early on, I was able to carefully design the project so that it remained my vision first and foremost. The result is a film that balances a light, comic tone with an underlying emotional warmth. Combined with upbeat music and quick pacing, Diner Date feels both funny and lovable, which was very much intentional rather than accidental.

Were there any limitations with current AI tools that you had to creatively work around?

Eunjoon Lee: Absolutely. AI is still developing, and many of its capabilities are emerging. I’m excited for future advancements but believe it’s important for artists to embrace AI’s current imperfections and explore new forms of art through them. One major challenge—especially for AI films—is maintaining character consistency. This technology is improving rapidly, but for Diner Date, I had to carefully edit images and videos to keep characters visually consistent across different scenes and acting variations. These creative strategies allowed me to maintain smooth narrative flow despite AI’s limitations.

If you could re-do one part of your film with next-gen AI capabilities, what would you revisit—and why?

Eunjoon Lee: If I could re-do Diner Date with access to next-gen AI capabilities, I would like to expand the story by leveraging improved AI technologies for character consistency and subtlety of expression. While the film features a variety of imaginative characters, current AI tools sometimes struggle to maintain visual and behavioral continuity across scenes. My new film, Memory Market, already utilized more advanced AI to overcome these challenges, enabling greater control over character coherence and emotional nuance. With enhanced AI, I could further develop the story by delivering characters that remain visually and emotionally consistent throughout, using refined micro-expressions and nuanced gestures to deepen the storytelling. This would strengthen both the emotional impact and the narrative flow.

What does winning the Meta Morph AI Film Award mean to you, especially at this moment in the evolution of storytelling technology?

Eunjoon Lee: This award means a great deal to me personally and philosophically. As a professor and filmmaker, I have dedicated years to exploring how emerging technologies reshape not just the making of art but also how we perceive and experience it. Receiving recognition for Diner Date feels like validation that AI-native storytelling is no gimmick. It’s an entirely new cinematic language. We are witnessing the birth of a new grammar of emotion, rhythm, and visual logic. Being part of this early wave experimenting, learning, failing, and connecting with other creators is deeply meaningful. This is not just about AI as a tool; it’s about reimagining what it means to tell a human story in an age of post-human creativity.

Once again, thank you for recognizing Diner Date and for creating a platform that celebrates this evolving intersection between technology and storytelling. I look forward to staying in touch and seeing what exciting work emerges from this global creative community.