We miss the sets, not the stress.

KYA existed before the AI boom and found its shape when the technology arrived. A client needed a campaign in six days on not much money; everyone else had quoted him three months and a much bigger number. We took the job and the risk, and hit day six on the third cut.

Here's the honest version of what changed. We don't miss the stress of the old process: budgets defended line by line, months of argument over casting, wardrobe, props and locations before anyone had seen a frame. What we miss is the sets. A film used to be made by a lot of talented people in one place, and you could feel that in the work. We haven't replaced that and we won't pretend we have. What survived is a smaller room with the same argument inside it: a director, an editor, an artist and a client, working the film over until it's right.