Stian Smestad
Film Director
London, UK
Film Director merging film, AI, and virtual production into hybrid storytelling workflows. Alongside directing global ad campaigns, I design and prototype AI-driven tools and small software systems for creative practice.
Over the past year, I’ve led lectures and workshops on the practical use and implications of generative AI in film.
Stian Smestad
Film Director
London, UK
Film Director merging film, AI, and virtual production into hybrid storytelling workflows. Alongside directing global ad campaigns, I design and prototype AI-driven tools and small software systems for creative practice.
Over the past year, I’ve led lectures and workshops on the practical use and implications of generative AI in film.
Stian Smestad. Selected work.
Directing & generative AI work
Refined Visuals
Global Campaign Direction
Directed international campaigns for adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Netflix and Philips.
Global Campaign Direction
Directed international campaigns for adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Netflix and Philips.
Refined Visuals
'Odori' Hybrid Short Film
Directed a virtual production dance film later independently rebuilt using generative AI into a completed 4K animation.
'Odori' Hybrid Short Film
Directed a virtual production dance film later independently rebuilt using generative AI into a completed 4K animation.
Interactive Concepts
'adidas Outdoor' Global Campaign
Director and Co-Creative Director. Through concept development, production, and execution of international campaign.
'adidas Outdoor' Global Campaign
Director and Co-Creative Director. Through concept development, production, and execution of international campaign.
Collaborative Spaces
'CTRL RIOT' GenAI World-Building
Independent experimental identity and 'label'. Creating synthetic musicians, music videos and AI-driven narrative films.
'CTRL RIOT' GenAI World-Building
Independent experimental identity and 'label'. Creating synthetic musicians, music videos and AI-driven narrative films.
Collaborative Spaces
'Hayley' Short documentary
Vimeo Staff Pick (1.2M+ views). A 90-second portrait on fear filmed at 2,800m in the Dolomites.
'Hayley' Short documentary
Vimeo Staff Pick (1.2M+ views). A 90-second portrait on fear filmed at 2,800m in the Dolomites.
'Clinuvel' Documentary Portrait
Portraying a man living with EPP, a rare skin condition that requires complete avoidance of daylight. Shot in NYC, it combined intimate interviews with studio-based character portraits of individuals with related skin conditions.
'Clinuvel' Documentary Portrait
Portraying a man living with EPP, a rare skin condition that requires complete avoidance of daylight. Shot in NYC, it combined intimate interviews with studio-based character portraits of individuals with related skin conditions.
Systems & software development
Minimalism in UX
Long-Form AI Writing Tool.
Making a structured AI-assisted writing system to help writers enter flow and quietly compound a record of your creative journey. (MVP)
Long-Form AI Writing Tool.
Making a structured AI-assisted writing system to help writers enter flow and quietly compound a record of your creative journey. (MVP)
Actors rehearsal app.
Designed interactive AI-assisted theatre rehearsal application for youth theatre group. Also had to build a pdf to text converter and a audio/text forge to sync text to audio. Build with Replit, elevenlabs, Gemini.
Actors rehearsal app.
Designed interactive AI-assisted theatre rehearsal application for youth theatre group. Also had to build a pdf to text converter and a audio/text forge to sync text to audio. Build with Replit, elevenlabs, Gemini.
Brand Storytelling
LLM tools.
Built agentic LLM pipelines for structured, memory aware to e.g. concept testing across product and business ideas, including custom GPTs configured via .md instruction files, node-based Agent Builder flows, and notebooks using uploaded context files.
LLM tools.
Built agentic LLM pipelines for structured, memory aware to e.g. concept testing across product and business ideas, including custom GPTs configured via .md instruction files, node-based Agent Builder flows, and notebooks using uploaded context files.
Minimalism in UX
AI creative tools.
Developing generative workflows for visual continuity, world design, control nets and aesthetic development for moving image work. (Using ComfyUI, Nano, legacy Gen image & video models, customised agents and Notebook. Mostly in cloud, but Odori was rendered on a RTX 3070i laptop in ComfyUI.)
AI creative tools.
Developing generative workflows for visual continuity, world design, control nets and aesthetic development for moving image work. (Using ComfyUI, Nano, legacy Gen image & video models, customised agents and Notebook. Mostly in cloud, but Odori was rendered on a RTX 3070i laptop in ComfyUI.)
Minimalism in UX
Teaching & industry engagement
Lead Designer, Freelance
AI Lecturer and Workshop Lead
AI & Media for film profesionals, Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
AI Lecturer and Workshop Lead
AI & Media for film profesionals, Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
Brand Designer, VisionWorks
Speaker at film and AI conference.
AI from a Directing perspective at
Filmpool Nord, Sweden.
Speaker at film and AI conference.
AI from a Directing perspective at
Filmpool Nord, Sweden.
Junior Designer, Bright Studio
Education
Lead Designer, Freelance
MA Interaction Design
London College of Communication (UAL), UK
MA Interaction Design
London College of Communication (UAL), UK
Brand Designer, VisionWorks
BA (Hons) Film Production
University for the Creative Arts (UCA), UK
BA (Hons) Film Production
University for the Creative Arts (UCA), UK
Junior Designer, Bright Studio
Film Foundation Course
European Film College, Denmark
Film Foundation Course
European Film College, Denmark
Junior Designer, Bright Studio
Diploma in Immersive Media Production (XR)
Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH), Sweden
Diploma in Immersive Media Production (XR)
Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH), Sweden
Get in touch
Get in touch
Please reach out with any questions .
Phone
Phone
+47 9767 5250
Link to Goolgle Creative 5 Portfolio
Film Director merging film, AI, and virtual production into hybrid storytelling workflows. Alongside directing global ad campaigns, I design and prototype AI-driven tools and small software systems for creative practice.
Over the past year, I’ve led lectures and workshops on the practical use and implications of generative AI in film.