A piece of art sat unrealized for years because my cinematic ambition exceeded the tools and resources available to me. Then the technology caught up with the imagination.

Back in the fall of 2019, my daughter was born with a rare and scary health condition that meant that, as a family, we had to drop everything and go live in the hospital for a week or two at a time without warning.

This was all still new and fresh when a group of collaborators, the people I trusted most in the world, tried to remove me from a film project that I had invested almost $20,000 into.

When I wouldn’t let them get away with it, they theatrically staged a walkout and took to social media to announce their departure from me and from my show.

I gave no public response at the time. Mostly because my attention was monopolized by what was happening with my family. Partly because I thought I was taking the high road.

What I did instead was write a diss track directed at the ringleader of the scheme, the main culprit, the guy who seemed to think that the fact I was investing in his vision and his IP somehow meant the project belonged to him, and that it would be as easy as hip-checking me out of the way and releasing the project without my involvement.

I had a vision for what I wanted the music video to be. But even using the cardboard-and-foil-wrap production values of my YouTube videos at the time, the scope of what I saw in my head was still way too big.

So I never recorded the song. Years went by.

Then I became obsessed with generative AI in much the same way I had once become obsessed with the indie comics hustle, and later obsessed with reaching 100,000 subscribers on YouTube.

The thing that grabbed me was the realization that the solo auteur suddenly had access to tools capable of bringing some very wild cinematic visions to life.

Earlier this year, Z. Thrillington finally recorded the song, and I got to work on the video.

I spent months prompting, generating, editing, compositing, and creating the illusion of sweeping single-take shots by stitching multiple generated clips together.

Then, halfway through the project, I was invited into the Dreamina Creative Partner Program and got access to some of the most advanced generative video tools on the market.

Suddenly, everything accelerated. I went from being halfway through a project that had already taken months, to finishing the rest of it in just a few weeks.

And now, seven years after I first saw the thing in my head, I’ve finally made it.

For me, “On Another Call” feels like the first true expression not only of what these tools are capable of in my hands, but of the kind of cinema I’ve been questing after this whole time.

If “You Up?” was my take on Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Viva Las Vegas, “On Another Call” is Danger: Diabolik and Thunderball, with a little bit of Giant Robo.

The song may have started as a reaction to something that happened in 2019, but seven years later, that part almost feels secondary.

The thing I couldn’t make then is real now.

And if anybody sees Lee Howard, tell him that he is, in fact, the bro who got an ego in the lyrics of this song.

Check this out. I was just reviewing some of the work we did when all of this stuff first started, when all this poetic menace stuff first appeared, and the long series of questions and answers that led to that discovery and all of the plans that were made. And I saw where we were quite strict about setting plans for the Beatles movie to be the main thing. But sort of despite myself, this whole Z Thrillington kind of thing came about, and the more I did it, the more I realized that is something that I could be consistent with. And not only that, but in the last week I've had four different people reach out to tell me, people I haven't talked to in years have reached out to tell me they like the new music. Then out of the blue today, an account I've never heard of before that's about twice as big as mine put up a Z Thrillington shout-out post on X. He literally said, "this is a Z Thrillington shout-out post." So it sounds like the thing to do might be to treat Z Thrillington as the main thing that I do no matter what and build consistency with that. 

The song is about those relationships that burn hot for a while but end suddenly—often without warning or explanation. In the song, the couple gets their happy ending. But in real life, it’s usually not that simple. “You Up?” — both the title and the chorus — is a nod to those late-night texts that give the relationship its fire, even if it never lasts.

It’s drawn from several real stories. One was a short, electric fling where those “you up?” texts often led to 3am meetups. In others, things started out intense, only to end in silence, ghosted without closure. 

The story in the lyrics starts with a man and a woman talking late into the night, flirting with the idea of a midnight rendezvous. But in the second verse, she disappears — off to fulfill her obligations as an international spy. It’s played for laughs, but it came from something real. We’ve all been there: someone vanishes, and we fill in the blanks with our own assumptions. But the truth is, we never really know what someone else is going through (or what secret mission they might be on). All we have is the silence, and the stories we tell ourselves to fill it. 

“You Up?” takes that moment of mystery and turns it into something cinematic, romantic, and maybe even a little redemptive. Listen to the song for the full story.

I discovered AI video a little over a year ago. It immediately revolutionized my whole approach to my art and even my hopes and dreams. I've been learning the tools and developing workflows that will be leveraged for years to come. 

There's that old saw we've all heard about the need to focus on one thing. I've experienced a lot of twists and turns since my business hit the rocks during lockdowns when that was a thing. Now, thanks to the tools I've discovered and the connections I've made in the AI video community, I'm more clear on what that one thing is than at any other point in my career so far.

Many of you know my origin story - how I made my own comic books, photocopied them at Staples, and sold them in the street to make rent. They featured a cartoon version of me in fictionalized versions of the real life adventures that inspired the work. 

In an era when I couldn't afford a computer or a smartphone, this was how I advanced technology while telling my story. Something bespoke and hand made. This was my poetry, my movies, my art. I fancied myself a street preacher, hiding the good word in plain sight. 

From there I got discovered and worked on a late night TV show, almost got my own comedy series, and reached the top of the YouTube mountain with nearly 5 million subscribers. I was in the middle of parlaying that success into a movie when my collaborator tried to steal the project, thinking that since he owned the IP, he also owned the film. 

As a business setback it was an expensive lesson but as a personal setback it was nearly debilitating. The guy used the birth of my daughter with a rare liver disease and my absence from the scene while I was spending weeks at a time in the hospital, as an opportunity to gossip and turn friends into enemies. It was as if he was staunchly determined to end things on bad terms with me. To this day I have no idea why. 

Lockdowns were a process of trying to keep the momentum going on YouTube even though I couldn't make any of the types of videos I've been successful with, dropping everything to spend another few weeks in the hospital out of nowhere every few months, while trying to get another film project going. 

I was inches away from launching a Kickstarter to fund a short film that takes place in the psychedelic sixties when I discovered the AI video community, and the tools that were developing. I wondered how long it was going to be before I started seeing people creating bona fide entertainment with it, beyond sci-fi test shots of futuristic war scenes and women walking on rainy Tokyo streets. 

I started interacting with thinkers like @dustinhollywood, @diesol, and @BLVCKLIGHTai. I was inspired by brilliant storytellers like @tashacaufield, @trishacode, and @meanorangecat. Like comics in my street art era, and YouTube after that, AI video was an obsession that I knew would dominate my career and creative output for the next decade.

I've been learning what the tools can do, watching them evolve, and figuring out how to bring my creative vision to life with them. It's been many fits and starts in terms telling stories, doing experiments, and figuring out how best to express my passion.

I've played everything close to the chest up to now, like everyone will be blown away when I unleash my masterstroke. But like I've had to learn the hard way multiple times, success has never been about working in secret towards one big moment. Success is about being prolific, shipping frequently, experimenting and iterating. 

And now, as much as I'm nervous to talk about it before I've built momentum, I'm too excited about what I'm doing to not share what I'm working on. On Friday September 26, my friend @zThrillington is releasing his next single, "You Up?" The music video is going to be a tribute to cinema of the 1960s like Breakfast at Tiffany's, Viva Las Vegas, and Danger: Diabolik.For all the ideas I have and the scripts I've written, at this stage all I want to do is bring my AI-generated rap star alter ego to life. @zThrillington's got songs in the can and ready to go all the way to next spring.

• I Got the Sauce
• The OG Villain
• Still Going From the Night Before
• Why Can't We Be In Love?
• On Another Call

And more. All of this to say that even though I haven't been as active on here, I've been working hard behind the scenes to create an entertainment experience like no other that will unfold over the coming months and beyond. Follow @zThrillington on X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for the full experience. 

Shout out to FCG Studio on X who posted the first ever appreciation post for Z. Thrillington. Soon to be your favorite AI persona's favorite AI persona!!

The idea of Macho Man Randy Savage and Kool-Aid Man as a tag team called The Oh Yeah! Brothers has been an obsession of mine for over a decade.

There was this magical period when my YouTube was just starting to take off — no money yet, no upload schedule — just pure creative fire and the wild hope that video success could draw attention to my comic books.

In that in-between moment, I created a comic called Captain America vs Thor on Opening Weekend. Long story short: Cap and Thor are throwing down at the Thor movie premiere… when BOOM — Macho Man and Kool-Aid Man smash through the wall like a tag team from a Saturday morning fever dream.

This moment marked the very first appearance of The Oh Yeah! Brothers — a chaotic, hilarious, deeply personal idea that I just brought to life again in my new AI film.

This is where it began.