South KoreaMedia and entertainment2024 – ongoingCJ ENM
AI production unit: generative AI short film, animation and drama backgrounds
CJ ENM's small AI team made a 6.5-minute short film in about a month and an AI animation with six creators in five months
Problem
Animation and fantasy content is costly and slow to make. A conventional animated project of the kind CJ ENM described needs about 30 people and at least one to two years.
Approach
CJ ENM set up an AI team of fewer than 30 people, split into creative, technical and business directors. In 2024 four staff from the AI team made the short film M Hotel with more than 10 generative AI tools, some tuned in-house, for images, video and sound. The film won awards at festivals and opened in 20 theaters on 11 December 2024. By mid-2025 the unit had also made the AI animation Cat Bigi and used generated backgrounds in a drama instead of a location shoot.
Results
Takeaway
A small team with generative tools could produce finished short-form work, but the company's time comparison for animation is its own claim and the cost effect was not given.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Media and entertainment
- Business function
- Production and quality
- Innovation type
- Process innovationProduct and service innovation
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Built in-house
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
CJ's own news site reported that the AI short film M Hotel, 6 minutes 31 seconds long, was made by four AI team staff in about a month with more than 10 AI tools. It listed festival awards, including a jury special award at the Busan International AI Film Festival, and a release in 20 theaters from 11 December 2024.
Newdaily covered a CJ ENM briefing on its AI production plans. It reported that Cat Bigi was made by six creators in five months, against about 30 people and one to two years for conventional animation, that generated backgrounds replaced a location shoot in a drama, and that the AI team has fewer than 30 people.
Full details are in the original sources.