AI LENS screens three films shot through a generative camera
The University of Nottingham research project generates imagery in real time while a cast and crew shoot, and its first three films get a free screening on September 29.
Key takeaways
- AI LENS, a creative research project run through the University of Nottingham's Virtual and Immersive Production Studio and the UKRI Turing AI Fellowship programme, holds a free public screening of its first three films at Broadway Cinema in Nottingham at 7pm on September 29, 2026.
- The three shorts are Basilisk, directed by Richard Ramchurn, The Last Call, directed by Floyd Parker, and Amorphous, directed by Sumit Sarkar, according to the event listing.
- Ramchurn, who developed AI LENS, told local radio the system adds generative effects in real time while keeping a full cast and crew on set, rather than replacing them.
Three short films made with a camera system that generates imagery while the scene is being shot will screen for free at Broadway Cinema in Nottingham on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, according to the event listing.
The films are Basilisk, directed by Richard Ramchurn, The Last Call, directed by Floyd Parker, and Amorphous, directed by Sumit Sarkar. The listing puts the start at 7pm in Screen 1 and says a live Q&A follows the programme. Admission is free, and tickets are booked through Eventbrite.
The system behind them, AI LENS, is a research project on how filmmakers and artists can work with artificial intelligence in real time. Rather than generating a clip from a prompt and editing it afterwards, AI LENS produces imagery during a shoot, which the project describes as allowing more embodied and experimental ways of working with generative tools. It is delivered with the Virtual and Immersive Production Studio at the University of Nottingham and AlbinoMosquito Productions, and it sits inside the UKRI Turing AI Fellowship project Somabotics: Creatively Embodying AI.
Ramchurn, who developed AI LENS, told local station Erewash Sound that the three films span several genres and that the point of the screening is to show the system adding real-time effects while a full cast and crew stay at the centre of the filmmaking.
The screening starts at 7pm on September 29, 2026 at Broadway Cinema in Nottingham, with a Q&A afterwards; entry is free and booked through Eventbrite.
Sources
- eventbrite.com - event listing: date, venue, film titles and directors, project partners
- erewashsound.com - interview with the developer on how the system is used on set
- somabotics.ac.uk - project site confirming the Somabotics research programme and its partnerships