Independent filmmaker Alex Zarfati has signed with talent company Viral Nation after finishing the short FBI thriller Fail Safe. He has built a following of about 140,000 subscribers on a YouTube channel where his recent videos talk openly about using generative AI for the heavy lifting on his productions.
Zarfati began as a composer on other people's documentaries before moving into editing and directing. His turn to YouTube came from rejection: after pouring money and time into Law of the Goat, a pre-pandemic docuseries about a hungry young MMA team that producers liked, he pitched it to Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, had doors shut one after another, and he kept being asked whether he could attach well-known influencers such as Logan Paul. He decided to become an online name himself so he would not need one.
That took time. His first video drew 768 views. He started posting in 2022 and spent about a year getting almost no traction, until a behind-the-scenes video he made purely to his own taste took off. His uploads now draw tens of thousands of views each, around 150,000 a month in total, mostly from viewers interested in filmmaking, and he also sells a filmmaking course that he says teaches others to open doors for themselves. His recent uploads go further, saying generative AI has made him "dangerously creative".
He accepts that AI in film is contested, says he understands people who reject it outright, and calls it a large grey area. Used responsibly, he argues, it lets independent filmmakers make a small production feel much bigger. His argument is about budget: rather than spending thousands on an aerial shot with police cars, he uses AI for that kind of scale and puts his money into the cast. His one firm limit is that he will not replace speaking actors with AI, and he says that with Nolan-size funding he would happily shoot real locations and practical effects.
Fail Safe, which he spent over a year making and is now taking to festivals, stars Nikolas Kolasinski and Nicoletta Hanssen, whom he chose after long casting rounds for, respectively, an intimidating presence and a sincerity he believed. His next project, The Divide, has him writing, directing and starring, which he jokes is unwise so early in a career but a way to show what he can do as a director. He uses YouTube to show process as well as finished work, and no longer needs to be asked whether he can bring a famous influencer to the table.
At Viral Nation he is represented by agent Alonso Benavente and head of programming Paul Telner, who has developed creator-owned projects there for years and says creators should "greenlight themselves" now that Hollywood is paying attention to creator-made films such as Iron Lung, Backrooms and Obsession.
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