This was an exciting project from 2023 that pushed the envelope for deepfake execution. We were approached by the director, Willemskantine, just days ahead of the shoot with the proposition of doing a celebrity-endorsed deepfake for Sevdaliza's upcoming collaboration with Grimes.

Using traditional machine learning would have been time and cost-prohibitive, particularly with 5 unique talent needing face replacements across the duration of a 3-plus minute video. Luckily, we had just brought in a young VFX / AI artist named Jim Derks who was up for the challenge. After running some quick tests on his commute home, he shared proof-of-concepts that gave us the confidence to agree to the project and share with the director and talent.

We worked closely with Willemskantine to plan the shots and provided realtime previews and live compositing on-set. We also provided instructions for all the celebrity talent to capture their own stills for use in AI as none of them were available on the day of the shoot. Sevdaliza is known for pushing boundaries, creatively and technologically, and was very engaged in the process. She attending the colour grading session with Vanessa Aparicio and spent time in the suite with VFX artists, Jim Derks and Nils Crompton.

The collaboration between Sevdaliza, Willemskantine, and Glassworks would continue for two additional projects - a collaboration with Karol G that garnered 52M views and the 2025 release Strong Because You Are.