Storm director says AI copies made him want to quit filmmaking

Since September, social media users have flooded feeds with AI remakes of the class-photo dance in "Storm," the Yung Lean music video Romain Gavras directed for his Gener8ion project. The remakes swap Lean and his schoolmates for dogs, babies, grandmothers, celebrities, and worse. Business Insider reported on October 22 that the original has drawn more than 40 million views since its April release.

"Storm" runs about seven and a half minutes and premiered on YouTube on April 24, 2026. It follows Lean as a bully at a boarding school until the boys he has been tormenting break into an elaborate dance sequence around him during a class photo. Gener8ion is Gavras's audiovisual project with French producer Surkin, who does the music while Gavras makes the films. The dancers came out of a two-month casting search, rehearsed three days with choreographer Damien Jalet, and were shot in one unbroken take on 16-mm film that took about 15 tries, according to Pitchfork.

What is Genjutsu?

Genjutsu is a video tool from Higgsfield, released on September 1, 2026. It rebuilds part of an existing clip while leaving the rest as filmed. The product page lists one input video of 4 to 30 seconds, up to 30 reference images, and output up to 1080p, with the original motion, camera work and timing preserved. Its two modes are Motion Transfer and Object Swap.

Vulture reported that many of the "Storm" remakes were made with Genjutsu, which can replace an entire crowd, including the 67 people in the video, in one pass. The copies re-create roughly half a minute of the original, the cigarette, the walk up the steps, the dance behind Lean, with the same choreography and camera moves but new casts. Pitchfork listed dogs, babies, grandmothers, Elon Musk, Jeffrey Epstein and Hitler among the substitutions. As the trend grew, Vulture noted, other AI apps began offering ready-made "Storm" templates.

Gavras did not find it funny for long. He told Vulture the copies "made me sad for all the people who put in so much work on our video." He went further:

"A trend like this can make even good work look lame. Part of me wanted to quit filmmaking, move back to Greece, and become an olive farmer."

He said he is exploring legal action, but the logistics of suing the many anonymous users behind the remakes are difficult. He also turned down AI companies that approached him about licensing the film. "There's an economic model coming that we didn't want to be a part of," he told Vulture.

On the tools themselves, Gavras was direct. "They're missing the swagger of Yung Lean. He looks like a dangerous baby," he said. "There's something in the imperfection of humanity, and the interior life of someone who dances or even someone who just smokes a cigarette, that's not quite there yet."

The original has stayed in view. "Storm" was nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards, and Lean and the dancers performed the routine at the VMAs in September. Business Insider reported the performance clip has since drawn nearly 14 million views. Pitchfork reported that staging it live was a way for Gavras to show that AI still cannot reproduce what makes "Storm" work.

The original "Storm" is on Gener8ion's own YouTube channel: GENER8ION - STORM starring Yung Lean.