Jared Cotton

Emmy award winning director, AI filmmaker & Dad. My grandpa played for the @Nuggets

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

Our new @MetalWarriorOFL video just premiered!
This one is my homage to the urban adventure flicks of the 90s that meant so much to me growing up. Watch AFTERGLOW on YouTube now:
https://t.co/JhHpoL3n1X

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@chetbff Friend

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@Variety Hahaha! He’s 20 @variety 🤦‍♂️ Get fucked by this corrupt system for a few decades, kid. All us out here “defeating the purpose” will see you in 18mo when you have to make budget 🖕

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@javilopen I’ve used @magnific (and Freepik + Magnific) on every AI film I’ve ever made for @MetalWarriorOFL . 10mil views and counting. Thank you to you and your whole team for helping change the way we tell our stories to each other and for giving this filmmaker a second life 🙏

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

If only @nikitabier knew the potential of AI video + truly free filmmakers. YouTube who? Oh, she’s just my @X

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@ben_fellow95428 @MetalWarriorOFL @StoneGreg Love that ad, Ben 😂🙌

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@MinistryOvTrvth @darkestdollx 😂

[Dustin Hollywood @dustinhollywood]

This is a strange take.

Filmmaking has never been defined by the tools used to create it. Directors went from film to digital. Editors went from razor blades to nonlinear editing. VFX artists went from practical effects to CGI. I know, I did some of it in multiple verticals, not just one.

Nobody stopped being a filmmaker because the tools changed.

There was no such thing as a digital filmmaker until there was.

There was no such thing as a CG filmmaker until there was.

There was no such thing as a smartphone filmmaker until there was.

New tools create new disciplines. That’s how creative evolution works.

If someone is developing stories, directing performances, designing shots, building worlds, editing sequences, crafting pacing, shaping emotion, and delivering a finished film, they’re participating in filmmaking. The medium may change. The craft does not.

AI is a new production medium, not a replacement for filmmaking itself. So defining people exclusively by the tool they use while simultaneously acknowledging its growing role in production feels contradictory.

The audience doesn’t care what the workflow was. They care whether the film moved them. That’s always been true, AND WILL ALWAYS BE TRUE.

And ultimately, the people creating meaningful work with these tools will define what this category becomes, not investors, gatekeepers, or people arguing definitions on the internet. Especially when so many of those conversations are influenced by financial incentives, institutional interests, or personal agendas.

History has never been written by the people trying to stop new creative tools. It’s written by the people who use them to make something worth remembering.

😎🤷‍♂️

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@c_valenzuelab This is beautifully articulated!! Unlike his take, which made AI sound purposefully demonic to frighten old folks into voting accordingly. You could describe a DMV employee the same way.✌️b w/u

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@seanward TRUTH ☝️

[Jenny Krakovsky @jennykrakovsky]

AI makes it possible for ordinary people to realise their vision. Logically, the only people who would want to prevent that are a) people who don’t like ordinary people or b) people who don’t have any vision.

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@BLVCKLIGHTai @whyarethis Beautiful post. Invoking emotion is why real ones do what we do!

[BLVCKL!GHT @BLVCKLIGHTai]

@whyarethis Being shit on for being at the bleeding edge of fundamentally life and cultural altering technology is and should be a badge of honor.

When you invoke that type of emotion from people you’re doing something right.

[AI MVS - OCME #1-upload - musicvideoshow.ai @aimusicvideo]

8:00 PM PT
🎶 TheAiCreativeCorner | 3 A.M | X: @NeonPulse24
🎶 Dezknoph | The Deserted Mystic Rust | X: @dezknoph
🎶 Andrea | Crown Demon Freestyle ~ AiKo | X: @AcquireXcel
🎶 S.Oliver | Pimping Ain't Easy Official Music Video | X: @RealBoon22
🎶 Zenith Apex | Constellations Above Constantinople | X: @zenith_apex__
🎶 Zenith Apex | The Bells Opened Zion | X: @zenith_apex__
🎶 Cloaked Worlds | Legends of Scotland | X: @CloakedWorlds
🎶 Hillsbilly Hellfire | The Party Train | X: @CyberMetalRec

8:30 PM PT
🎶 Cloaked Worlds | Neon Sunset | X: @CloakedWorlds
🎶 Pastor Fussycat | TechnoMessiah (Glitch God Remix) | X: @FussyPastor
🎶 CottonCreative | AFTERGLOW — Official Music Video | Metal Warrior | X: @CottonCreative
🎶 NahPlaya | PinkBumper | X: @nahplaya
🎶 Grimfel | Nayri The Witch x A Dark Orchestra x Grimfel - Petty | X: @GrimfelOfficial
🎶 Oatmilk Fan | Flying Through (穿梭) | X: @TheOatmilkFan
🎶 Meesha | February 14 | X: @WyldeChyldeRec | @LYLLegacy

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

😂 @FilmLA are nothing but hall monitors with legislative influence. I hope this post goes nuclear. If there were even one real journalist in this city, this would be a featured article. @VanityFair @THR @latimes @5149jamesli

[Matt Workman @mattworkman]

LA is COOKED, let me explain

I attended “AI on the Lot” at Culver Hotel (basically) and to help promote it I was going to film a vlog WITH MY IPHONE

I have a $10 selfie stick with tiny “tripod” feet and THE SECOND it touched the ground the police showed up and shot me 20 times in the head. I’m writing this from the after life.

But seriously TWO security guards shut me down asking for a permit. Even with a press/VIP pass to the event?! Called manager, NOPE. Permit for a phone vlog at a paid private event.

I’m going to AI generate my next “LA film” from Boston. Please don’t host events in LA.

[Sean Ward @seanward]

The loudest critics love throwing around the term "AI Bros." It’s a lazy stereotype. They picture hustle-culture tech grinders who only care about VC money and scale.
They completely miss the actual revolution.
The real AI Creator community isn't a tech incubator. It’s a wildly diverse group of artists, misfits, and storytellers who were locked out of the traditional gatekept system. For every established legacy name playing with these tools, there are a thousand independent artists with beautiful spirits who finally have a way to share their art with the world.

[Gabriel Valles @GabrielValles]

Reality check: An extraordinarily small percentage of artists will ever work on a handmade animated film from a major studio. You have a better chance of making it to the NFL. If you do work on one, it’s work-for-hire, which means you don’t own the IP. You get paid, and when the project is over, you’re laid off. If you’re lucky and the film does well, you get to work on the next one. There are only a handful of jobs available on these projects, so opportunities for new artists are rare.

Guillermo will get paid for his films until he dies. Most of the crew will get paid once and then hope they can find another job. My son started a stop-motion channel when he was 12. At 21, he gets paid every month from his library of 552 videos. He owns everything and has hard-earned skills.

Guillermo isn’t an animator, model builder, storyboard artist, or character designer. Disney couldn’t draw better than his worst artist. And that’s okay. They are master storytellers who use skills they don’t personally possess to realize their visions.

Here are your options if you have stories to tell through animation: start making films on your own. I don’t care what medium you use, including AI. Build a fan base that can support your work.

If you’re among the tiny fraction of artists who get a chance to work at a major studio, go in knowing that you’ll get paid and own nothing. Don’t act shocked when you’re laid off. Plan on adapting, and use your time at the studio as social capital. I still get a lot of mileage out of having worked on Space Jam.

Use AI as a force multiplier. Prove Guillermo wrong. Show that you can tell great stories using skills you don’t personally have, just like Disney and Guillermo. You now have the power of an entire studio on your computer, and everyone is underestimating you. Show them you’re making stories by humans, for humans.

You can die with the ideas in your head, or you can use AI to help bring them to life.

Whatever you choose to do, ignore the internet mob. They can’t tell stories better than you. They can’t draw. They can’t create characters. They’re not there on principle. It’s a social contagion. They all repeat the same chants and slogans they’ve been programmed to regurgitate. They won’t be there to pay your bills.

And if a big-shot director looks down on you, tell him his opinion might matter when he starts sharing the life-time profits from his movies with the crews who supplied the skills he didn’t have.

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

@prestonharty @MetalWarriorOFL Thanks, man!!

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

Our new @MetalWarriorOFL video just premiered!
This one is my homage to the urban adventure flicks of the 90s that meant so much to me growing up. Watch AFTERGLOW on YouTube now:
https://t.co/JhHpoL3n1X

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

Let’s go @MetalWarriorOFL 🤘

[AI MVS - OCME #1-upload - musicvideoshow.ai @aimusicvideo]

8:30 PM PT
🎶 Cloaked Worlds | Neon Sunset | X: @CloakedWorlds
🎶 Pastor Fussycat | TechnoMessiah (Glitch God Remix) | X: @FussyPastor
🎶 CottonCreative | AFTERGLOW — Official Music Video | Metal Warrior | X: @CottonCreative
🎶 NahPlaya | PinkBumper | X: @nahplaya
🎶 Grimfel | Nayri The Witch x A Dark Orchestra x Grimfel - Petty | X: @GrimfelOfficial
🎶 Oatmilk Fan | Flying Through (穿梭) | X: @TheOatmilkFan
🎶 Meesha | February 14 | X: @WyldeChyldeRec | @LYLLegacy

[Jared Cotton @CottonCreative]

🤘

[Metal Warrior ⚔️ @MetalWarriorOFL]

AFTERGLOW is live 🔥

we’re giving away $100 to 5 random people who:

- like + rt this post
- like + comment on the YouTube video

drop proof below ⬇️

https://t.co/09y2w6Ciw2