Commercial Production / Los Angeles
Onsetology plans commercial film and AI video production around what must be photographed, what can be transformed, and what should be created entirely with AI.
From our Los Angeles headquarters, we connect creative development, live-action production, AI VFX, fully generated filmmaking, editorial, color, and finishing for brand films, branded content, and campaign systems. The result is a production path designed around the campaign image and its real delivery requirements—not around a predetermined tool.
Every production path can begin with Creative Development & Worldbuilding to define the concept, characters, environments, visual system, storyboards, and production method before execution.
For projects created without photographed plates, explore our fully AI-generated film production workflow.
Onsetology field guide · Updated August 26, 2026
01 / Production Paths
Live Action + AI
Performance, camera movement, lighting, and practical interaction are photographed while selected environments, transitions, or visual elements are designed for controlled transformation in post. The shoot and the AI workflow are planned together so the source material supports the final image.
Explore AI-Assisted Physical ProductionExisting Footage
Approved footage can be audited shot by shot for background replacement, set extension, wardrobe or prop changes, effects, cleanup, and other image work. Generated material is treated as production material that still needs tracking, compositing, color matching, finishing, and review inside the edit.
Explore AI VFX for Live-Action FootageFully Generated
When the concept is best served without a photographed plate, the film is developed through human-directed worldbuilding, shot creation, continuity, editorial, compositing, sound, color, and final delivery. The process is built around a visual system and a real edit rather than isolated generated clips.
Explore Fully AI-Generated Production02 / Process
We clarify the audience, message, must-have product or performance details, formats, usage context, approvals, and the visual moments that carry the idea.
Representative shots are mapped to physical capture, AI-assisted post, fully generated production, conventional VFX, or a hybrid of those methods.
Reference frames and short motion tests establish style, identity, movement, integration, and edit potential before the full shot list is produced.
The hero edit, compositing, sound, color, cutdowns, aspect-ratio versions, review files, and final masters are completed within one delivery plan.
03 / Production Notes
Commercial production is not improved by making every frame look generated. The useful decision is what the audience needs to recognize and trust: a performance, a product, a material, a location, a brand world, or an action that carries the message.
Those priorities determine what should be photographed, what can be transformed, and where a fully generated image creates a stronger idea. They also give reviewers stable criteria when several visual directions are being explored.
A campaign usually needs more than one master. The visual language has to survive different durations, crops, platforms, text-safe areas, and moments of emphasis without losing product clarity or continuity.
Shot planning therefore includes the hero edit and the intended version set. Framing, action, graphic space, transitions, and delivery specifications are considered before the most expensive or least reversible image decisions are made.
The first motion test should contain the conditions that make the idea difficult: fine edges, reflective surfaces, changing perspective, motion blur, product geometry, interaction, or continuity across a cut. A simple beauty frame cannot answer those questions.
If a representative test survives the intended edit and delivery context, the team has evidence for scaling the method. If it does not, the production can change the shot, the source material, or the technique before the risk spreads through the campaign.
05 / FAQ
Budget depends on the brief, production path, number and complexity of shots, source-footage condition, live-action needs, motion tests, review rounds, runtimes, versions, finishing, and delivery requirements. We scope after reviewing the creative and representative footage; there is no universal flat price.
We work across AI-assisted live-action production, AI VFX for footage that already exists, fully AI-generated film production, and the creative development that defines the world, characters, and production method before execution.
No. A commercial can remain grounded in photographed performance and use AI only for selected environments, wardrobe, props, transitions, or effects. The production path is chosen from the brief and the image—not from a requirement to use one tool everywhere.
They overlap, but commercial production describes the complete brief-to-delivery system. Depending on the project, that can include creative development, live-action capture, AI VFX or fully generated shots, editorial, sound, color, a hero film, cutdowns, vertical versions, and final masters.
Yes, when the source footage, motion, edges, continuity, and rights support the requested change. We begin with a shot audit and representative motion test before expanding the approach across the edit.
An engagement can include a hero film, cutdowns, aspect-ratio versions, social assets, selected VFX or image transformations, color-managed review files, and final delivery masters. The exact list is defined before production and finishing begin.
Yes. Onsetology is headquartered in Los Angeles, works through production hubs in London and Shanghai, and supports production and post-production workflows worldwide.
They are defined during development, not assumed. The production plan identifies who can approve characters, products, references, likeness, music, copy, and final usage. Tool selection and source material are reviewed against project requirements, and delivery requires an agreed approval record and organized source files.
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