Video Series Without AI: EightSix Builds Sets Out of Cardboard

The Berlin-based company EightSix Brand Studio has launched «The Handmade Series,» a video series created without AI. The eight-part series focuses on music selection in advertising—and, according to the company, was produced entirely without AI-generated images. Instead, the sets were crafted by hand using cardboard and simple materials. The series kicks off with the short film «The Traditional Process,» which is available now.

The series takes a tongue-in-cheek look at one of the advertising industry’s most familiar rituals: selecting music. «The Traditional Process» traces the familiar sequence: briefings turn into playlists, and playlists turn into more playlists. In the end, a whole room full of people sits there listening to 50 tracks and is further from a decision than they were at the start.

Handcrafted

The series was conceived by EightSix co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Shai Hirschson, who also stars in the lead role. The deliberately simple sets were physically constructed out of cardboard, without any use of digital imagery.

«In our industry, it’s increasingly about finding the fastest way,» says Hirschson. «Technology naturally plays an exciting role in this, and we make extensive use of it. But music is deeply human. Taste is human. Culture is human. When we decided to launch a campaign about how we think music should be approached, we naturally had to put it into practice ourselves.»

Rather than presenting EightSix as just another music agency with yet another showreel, the series is intended, according to the company, to showcase its broader mission: to combine human creativity, music expertise, strategy, and technology to rethink how brands use sound.

According to EightSix, the company knows the pitfalls of music selection from firsthand experience. As a «Music Solutions Company,» the firm aims to make the world sound better. In doing so, it goes beyond the traditional model of a music agency that finds, licenses, or produces tracks. It develops tools, products, and processes designed to help brands think more strategically about music from the very beginning. Brand Studio is part of this approach and is intended to provide brand teams and agencies with a starting point for determining how a brand should sound, who it needs to reach, and why a particular piece of music works better than another.

Eight Films About Brands, Agencies, and Music

«The Handmade Series» consists of eight short films. Each subsequent episode explores a different aspect of the relationship between brands, agencies, and music. The series was created by EightSix and produced by Leuchtturm Film and Spirit.

EightSix is a Berlin-based music solutions company founded by Gordian Gleiss, Shai Caleb Hirschson, and Joss Ifan Brightwell. The company combines music strategy, composition, and technology to give brands a unique musical identity and make it applicable across all their touchpoints. The internationally active team consists of 15 specialists.