Mundane Monday
In my short film, Mundane Monday, I wanted to show the impact AI could have on our creative processes at a really fundamental level.
Introduction
What would the near future feel like in a world where AI is a tool that's used for everything?
The study ‘AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking (2025)’ suggests that AI could lead to a lack of deep thought. ​
STORY
BOARD
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POST PRODUCTION NOTES
AI has the potential to create a similar environment to a totalitarian society. But until now it's been a government that suppresses free thought and thinking. But what if no-one makes us let go of our critical thinking? The use of AI simply dissipates the need. The convenience of AI stops us from even wanting to think for ourselves.
Story development
The study indicates that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools reduces critical thinking abilities. This also affected the younger participants more. AI tools are efficient and useful, which means they are being introduced more in schools and earlier in the education system. So, as younger people are affected more and if they will be exposed to AI tools from a younger age, this suggests that as they grow up the majority of the population may no longer be able to problem solve, think critically and make decisions. In this short film I wanted to explore what that might look like. This would use the genre of Near-Future Realism. A sub-genre in science fiction, this type of Realism shows a world in which advanced technology is actually real and well-used. It’s familiar to all those in the world so doesn’t need to be explained and that should come across in the story.
Inspiration
To create the right atmosphere for this I drew right back on the origins of movies to the 1920s and German Expressionism, as well as Soviet cinema. In particular the characteristic lighting and editing practices. These styles are also an influence in abstract formalism, for example Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927). This has a plot and a logical world-setting but it also uses formalism. That is the focus is on taking beautiful frames and compositions to get the story across rather than conventional storytelling.
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Two films in particular were the inspiration for the techniques used in my short film. When thinking about the set and locations to establish tone, atmosphere and world building, my mind went to the movie ‘1984’ [released in 1984 starring John Hurt and Richard Burton]. I drew inspiration from the brutalist architecture of the council estate near where I live and the totalitarian near-future dystopia displayed in the story of 1984. The movie ‘The Brutalist’ [2024] also heavily influenced my choice to illustrate my film using brutalist or modernist architecture, as well as the lighting techniques.
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Drawing on the story and filming of 1984, I took the events that we are seeing today with the use of AI first as a tool to be used by workers in the creative industries. But then it takes away our ability to be creative at all as it reduces our deep thinking abilities and the empathy we need to create original work. Eventually the AI will become the creatives. This sense of what might happen in the near future but based on today is what I wanted to put across in my short film.
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The term The Brutalist can mean the architectural movement in which the main protagonist in the story, Toth, becomes famous, and also the brutal behaviour that Toth witnesses and is subjected to.
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I felt that the movie was constructed and filmed beautifully and the acting was brilliant. I’ve always liked the idea of the stripped back, bare bones nature of brutalist architecture and after watching the movie I thought it would be perfect for this short film. Exploring how AI could create a similar environment to totalitarianism of the 20s and 40s but in a regime that is without leaders.
Production / Filming
I had access to a wide range of camera equipment but needed to work out how I could safely move it around. I specifically chose locations with brutalist architecture to enhance the mundane atmosphere I wanted to create in the movie. I also chose locations close or familiar to me and that were easily accessible. This made it easier to work out the health and safety of those filming and also keep the equipment safe.
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In pre-production I had a shot list of the basic story so I’d know what I’m doing for each scene. During the actual filming I’d try everything, if I had the time. I wanted to try the same shots from multiple angles and frames.
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As I film each scene, I edit them as soon as the filming was done that day, before filming anymore scenes. I thought this would be an efficient way to produce the film and it worked out really well for me. It keeps things fresh in my mind as I go and also means there isn’t a huge amount of editing to do at once at the end.
The type of cuts used for the editing are mostly continuity cuts that take the viewer seamlessly from one scene to the next. I used jump cuts to quickly insert scene 4 (the AI camera closeup) into scene 3 (corridor). The viewer is suddenly jolted along, disorienting the viewer spatially so that it creates a sense of confusion.