Trevor Smith got his start in videography by shooting wedding videos in high school. Today, he’s the Texas Team Manager at Deliberate Media, Inc. where he helps brands grow through stunning video and high-performance ads. On his own time, Trevor creates short films—two of which have been shown at South by Southwest.
I spoke to Trevor about how his work as a creative is being impacted by AI, and whether he sees this technology that’s taking over all our lives as an asset or a liability. I kicked things off with one of my favorite questions:
First of all, Trevor, how do you define creativity?
Trevor: Creativity is just that feeling of wanting to express yourself, not necessarily toward any end goal, but just wanting to get something out. I got started with video at a young age. I had a webcam and would do little stop-motion animation projects. When I was bored, it made me feel good, it made me happy. It was a way of expressing myself. So for me, creativity is very much tied to expression.
How do you feel about AI and its impact on your creativity?
Trevor: As a tool—something that can augment creativity—I think it’s really helpful, especially in video editing. With things like podcasts or multicam shoots, AI can be extremely useful. We recently used it for a podcast we work on, and it handled the initial cut. It would automatically switch the camera angle to whoever was speaking on screen. That’s basic editing work that would normally take a long time to do manually.
So it sounds like you’re a fan. No mixed feelings?
Trevor: There are definitely a lot of artists and animators who have qualms with AI—especially around how it can take existing imagery and remix it into something new, sometimes without consent. But as an ideation tool, I think it’s super helpful. For someone who can’t afford to pay an artist or who’s just working through a rough idea, AI can be a great way to get visual concepts out.
What are some of the AI tools you use in your daily work?
Trevor: Auto-cutting tools, like I mentioned with the podcast, are big. You can get a solid first cut of a podcast or multicamera shoot with very little effort, which speeds up the process a lot.
Another one is in music editing. We often use Epidemic Sound for background music, and they’ve got a great AI-powered tool. Say you have a song that’s 30 seconds, but you need it to be 23. The tool will cut the song down automatically—and it still sounds seamless. You don’t have to manually chop up the audio yourself.
We’ve also used AI to stylize video. For example, we did a project with Shakey Graves. We shot a lot of pre-tour footage—some of it was edited in the traditional way. But then a video editor I was working with took some of those shots and ran them through Runway, which let us add an ethereal, fantastical feeling on top of the footage. That blend of real and surreal created something really unique.
Do you worry that AI will take away your job?
Trevor: No, I don’t.
Oh, that’s interesting! Why not?
Trevor: I think at the end of the day, stories told by people are always going to feel different. It takes a little humanity to put real emotion into something.
If anything, I think AI will make my job easier. For example, take cameras—better autofocus powered by AI is a win. And if editing tools can take away the fluff like syncing clips or creating rough cuts that will just give me more time to focus on the story itself. There’s real power in that.
Shana Burg is the Principal at Shana Burg Digital. She is the author of “Poof! The Disappearance of a Writer in the Age of AI.“