Aimie
In the dynamic world of video production, the conversation around AI often swings between fear and hype. But for businesses focused on measurable results, the answer lies in effective, practical integration.
We sat down with Mads Waadenseholt, the founder of MW Film, a video production company specializing in content that strengthens brands and generates sales for its clients. Mads shares MW Film’s journey of leveraging AI to transform their workflow, elevate quality, and - most importantly - make smarter business decisions.
The MW Film Story: From Challenge to Creative Momentum
Mads founded MW Film in December 2019, expecting a busy 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delivered an immediate challenge. Instead of a rapid takeoff, the business had to wait.
"Covid cancelled everything and only in 2021-2022 the business started to generate momentum."
This early lesson in resilience has defined MW Film's approach: focus on the core mission of delivering tangible results for clients. For Mads, AI is simply the latest tool to ensure that core mission is met efficiently and with high quality.
AI as an Advisory Board: Pre-Production & Business
For MW Film and Mads, AI is not a gimmick but a team member dedicated to handling the "smaller and more tedious work." The integration starts long before the camera rolls, functioning as a powerful pre-production and administrative assistant.
The Pre-Production Workflow
- Note organization & summary: After a client meeting, the raw notes are passed to ChatGPT to be formatted and summarized, immediately clarifying the project's direction.
- Script & angle development: ChatGPT is used to format the script/storyboard, formulate certain key points, and generate ideas for the best fitting angle - a crucial step for videos designed to generate sales.
- Scheduling: AI helps format and organize the complex production schedule.
Business Advisory
Mads also uses ChatGPT as an invaluable sounding board for business strategy.
"I use it as a second opinion on business matters or how to handle certain situations. It acts like an advisory board."
By sharing key business information with the AI, Mads can get fast, knowledgeable feedback, speeding up decision-making when a human mentor or partner might not be available or fully briefed on the situation.
The Editing Suite: MW Films' Favorite AI Tools for Post-Production Power
While the on-set camera work remains strictly human-powered, the magic of AI is fully embraced once the footage is loaded into the edit bay. Mads' approach is to use AI to handle technical, time-consuming tasks, allowing his human editors to focus on the creative flow.
The three key areas where AI delivers the most value are subtitles, music, and visual effects:
1. Subtitles & Translation (The Time Saver): Mads is particularly impressed with a recent feature in Adobe Premiere Pro.
"Most recently Adobe Premiere Pro added a feature where you can now translate subtitles to other languages using AI - Very useful" Mads notes.
This simple automation eliminates tedious manual work and significantly opens up possibilities for multi-language projects.
2. Music Search & Voiceover (The Creative Assistant): MW Film utilizes the extensive libraries found in Artlist.io and Audiio.com (Hans AI). Instead of endlessly scrolling, the team can feed the AI a reference track, and it will search for similar songs, drastically cutting down on licensing time. Artlist also provides AI voiceover and video generation capabilities used to quickly visualize concepts for clients.
3. Visual Effects (The Budget Extender): For intricate detail work, like cleanly isolating and removing an object from a frame, MW Film turns to Adobe Firefly and Photoshop AI. These tools bring capabilities that were once only possible with large budgets and specialized VFX skills directly into the everyday editing suite.
This strategic use of AI ensures that every minute saved on a technical task can be funneled back into improving the quality of the final narrative.
Upcoming Video: Bringing Childhood Photos to Life
The true test of AI in a creative business often lies in a novel, high-stakes project. Mads shares a fascinating upcoming commission that relies heavily on AI to tell an intimate personal story.
MW Film is creating a portrait video for a top athlete, sponsored by a major brand. The goal is to tell the athlete's story using old childhood photos.
"We got some old photos from when he was a kid. We would like to try and tell his story and make these photos come to life."
The AI solution involves using motion tools to transform static, old images into short, moving clips - potentially 3 to 5 seconds long - giving the historical elements an engaging, emotional flow. This project represents a critical step for MW Film.
"...that's the first case where I really need it (AI) to work." - Mads explains
This kind of application demonstrates how AI isn't just about automation, but about unlocking new storytelling formats that wouldn't be possible within a typical commercial budget, making the final product more authentic and emotionally engaging for the brand’s audience.
The Tangible Impact: Time, Quality, and Better Decisions
For MW Film, the impact of these tools is felt most significantly in three areas:
1. Saving time: AI handles repetitive tasks like subtitles and pre-production formatting, allowing the team to be faster in delivery.
2. Quality improvement: The time saved is reinvested into the creative execution.
"It has freed up time that I then put into stuff I didn't have time to do within the budget. So in that way it helped improve the quality.”
3. Operational efficiency: Mads reports being faster in making better decisions thanks to the reliable second opinion from AI, which knows the business intimately.
Creativity and the Future: Why Authenticity is the Premium Brand
Mads is direct about the role of a commercial filmmaker:
"Many filmmakers see the craft as art. But that is only in feature films, TV shows, etc. What we do is a craft that needs to give results."
AI helps MW Film achieve those results by ensuring the story structure fits the platform, format, and psychological model proven to work. As for the fear that AI will replace creators, Mads is confident:
"I don’t think that CEOs will make an AI video in an hour and be happy with it rather than hiring a professional to do it. Furthermore, I think the value of authenticity will only go up. If you want to be a premium brand there are no short cuts."
He predicts the future of the industry will move away from the current "hype" of weird use cases and towards a more professional integration where AI "will help enhance certain things" rather than generating a whole video from scratch.
Mads' Advice for Small Businesses Getting Started with AI
Mads offers clear, actionable advice for any small business feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of AI tools:
- Identify the pain points: Look at the tasks that seem the most repetitive and tiring.
- Search for solutions: Think if it could potentially be possible to automate parts of it, then search on YouTube or platforms like Aimie for existing solutions or use cases.
- Start where you already are: Many tools you already use - like editing software - are integrating AI, making the barrier to entry lower than you think.
Want to stay updated on the tools Mads is excited about? Our platform is designed to help businesses explore case studies and keep updated with new AI tools and use cases - just like Mads does! Check other inspiration articles out here.