What should you ask an AI production company?

Ask an AI production company how it will deliver your particular film, sequence or shot. Useful answers connect creative control, scheduling, permissions, revisions and finishing to the brief, with evidence of the team’s role in the work it shows.

A showreel can establish visual capability. It cannot, on its own, establish how a supplier handles a late note, a returning character or the supporting records a commissioner requires. Those questions belong in the conversation before you commission.

What did you actually do on the work you are showing?

Ask the company to distinguish its own production work from work associated with an individual’s earlier credit. Direction, supervision, consultation and delivery of a finished sequence are different contributions.

A clear credit does not need to be inflated. The answer should identify what the team was responsible for and what other departments supplied. For confidential projects, ask what can be demonstrated privately without encouraging a supplier to break another client’s restrictions.

Use the same standard for your own project. Agree whether the company will create material, supervise a process, supply a team or take responsibility for a finished deliverable.

How would you approach this scene?

Look for a sequence-level response. Which elements should be filmed? Which can be generated? What needs design work? Which parts are likely to need conventional finishing?

A useful proposal identifies an uncertain part instead of implying that every requirement is routine. Ask what test would resolve that uncertainty and what decision would follow from the result.

Be cautious about a demonstration that avoids the difficult feature of the brief. A static landscape may be good work, but it does not prove a character interaction or a transition into existing footage.

Who directs and approves the work?

Establish the creative decision maker and the production contact. Then ask how notes move between them, the artists and editorial. The process should provide a way to consolidate instructions when several stakeholders are involved.

Ask what is presented at each stage. Early design options, a rough assembly and a final master should not all be judged by the same criteria. Clear review stages make it easier to give useful notes and avoid reopening settled decisions by accident.

Find out how an approval is recorded and linked to the material reviewed. A casual message approving one version should not be treated as approval of later changes.

How will continuity be maintained?

Ask how the company will manage recurring characters, wardrobe, locations, screen direction and the scene’s timeline. Request a demonstration across a sequence where continuity matters, rather than several unrelated successful shots.

For a series, discuss what happens when an element returns in a later episode. The team needs a way to carry approved choices forward and identify intentional changes.

Also ask who checks the shots in editorial. A review process that considers each clip independently can miss problems at the cut.

What permissions and records will you deliver?

Ask how source materials, performers, designs and music are cleared for the intended use. Find out which records the supplier will provide and which remain your responsibility as producer.

Do not accept an assurance that one service’s commercial terms settle every question about the finished film. Ask how uploaded references and the final outputs are reviewed, and how unresolved issues are escalated.

The documentation should be understandable to your production and legal teams. Ask for a redacted example or a description of a normal handover if actual client records cannot be shown.

What does the price include?

Ask whether the proposal includes design, editorial, supervision, review rounds, sound, finishing and delivery checks. Confirm the intended quality and the actual files you will receive.

Identify how work outside the agreed scope is authorised. A price can be clear without being fixed for every possible future creative change. The important point is knowing when the scope changes and what happens next.

For mixed production methods, identify any external costs and dependencies. Make sure the schedule includes approvals and access to the people or material needed to proceed.

How will the work be protected?

Describe your confidentiality and security requirements before the supplier chooses a production approach. Ask where assets will be stored, processed, reviewed and backed up, and who can access them.

If isolation is required, ask which activities fall inside the proposed boundary and which still involve external systems or support. The answer needs to describe the actual arrangement, not just use a reassuring label.

What happens at delivery?

Agree the recipient, technical specifications, acceptance process and correction window. Ask how the company will identify the approved versions, provide supporting records and handle any outstanding exceptions.

A good supplier should be able to explain these arrangements in ordinary production language. You should leave the conversation understanding what is being commissioned, who is responsible and how you will know the work is ready.