“The Fisheries Agency – An Elof Tale” began as a late-night exploration of GenAI video tools with my friend Peter Öberg. Inspired by the nostalgic charm of old Swedish silent films, we decided to create a one-minute silent film, featuring Peter’s larger-than-life, fictionalized grandfather, Elof. With GenAI as our tool and a vintage aesthetic as our guide, here’s how we turned a simple idea into a quirky short film, complete with classic silent-movie vibes.

The Fisheries Agency – An Elof Tale started as a spontaneous project born from a late-night creative jam session with my friend, Peter Öberg, in autumn 2023 (September 29, to be exact). Our conversation that night drifted toward the possibilities of GenAI video tools, and soon enough, we were brainstorming wild ideas about the kinds of short films we could create with these tools. One tool we used, Pika, was still in beta, with several limitations, including an embedded watermark on all clips, but that didn’t stop us.

We couldn’t resist the urge to create something simple yet unique. Inspired by old Swedish newsreel clips that played before feature films in theaters from the 1920s to the 1950s, we envisioned our project as a short, silent-style film. We aimed to capture that vintage aesthetic, using intertitles (text slides) to drive the storyline and a crackling old record for background music. This approach gave us both a theme and a set of creative boundaries, allowing us to turn the limitations of AI into a stylistic choice.

Crafting the Storyline and Style

Peter suggested his grandfather “Elof” as the protagonist. Elof, as Peter remembers him from family stories, was a bit of a character—a spirited entrepreneur with a reputation for doing things his own way. We set ourselves a one-minute time limit to keep the story focused and fun. With this loose structure, we brainstormed scenes and plot points to showcase Elof’s personality.

With the basic storyline sketched out, we split up the tasks. I created the initial images and generated clips, while Peter assembled the movie’s foundation by organizing frames, adding text slides, and working on sound. Once my clips were ready, I sent them to Peter, who arranged them into scenes, added sound effects, and applied vintage-style filters for that classic silent film look. In just 6-8 hours—from ideation to final product—we had a one-minute “trailer” for The Fisheries Agency, a quirky homage to Elof’s fictional exploits.