What Do Airships and Traditional Filmmaking Have in Common?
You’ve probably seen the famous photo—the burning Hindenburg, marking the end of passenger airships. But do you know how many similar disasters happened before that with the Zeppelins?
𝗭𝗲𝗿𝗼
The problem with airships wasn’t safety—it was iteration speed. In the early 20th century, they were competing with airplanes. Airships were as comfortable as train compartments, while airplanes were rickety stools with propellers. Yet, airplanes won. Why? Because they crashed—literally every week.
The entire story is described by Alexander Rose in his book Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World.
𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. Yes, it took years. Yes, it was brutal. But in the end, airplanes adapted. Airships didn’t
Now, look at the film industry. The industry hasn’t crashed yet, but it’s definitely struggling. Just a week after our previous post, Village Roadshow Pictures filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Paramount and WBD are deeply in debt.Traditional filmmaking is an airship—years of work, massive budgets, one shot to succeed.
Meanwhile, TikTok, YouTube, and streamers operate like airplanes: experiment, fail, adapt, repeat. Do they have a low success rate?
Absolutely. But there are many of them. And they learn fast. So how do we keep the strength of traditional long-form storytelling while adding speed?
The answer: 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴.
Testing ideas quickly, getting audience feedback, and adapting scripts and directing choices before filming.
That’s exactly what we’re 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿—AI-powered tools to make filmmaking fast and adaptive 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 sacrificing quality.