I am Stian Smestad.

I’m a filmmaker working at the intersection of storytelling and emerging technology.

Over the past few years, my practice has expanded from traditional directing into hybrid virtual production, generative AI workflows, and tool-building experiments.

I’m interested in one question:

How can new technologies deepen creativity — not just accelerate it?

ODORI
Hybrid Virtual Production → AI Reinvention

Odori began as a live-action virtual production experiment — filmed on green screen using motion control and realtime Unreal Engine environments. The project collapsed in post-production when the 3D pipeline proved too ambitious for the resources available.

Rather than abandon it, I rebuilt the film using generative AI tools, teaching myself Stable Diffusion workflows and custom pipelines to transform the unfinished footage into a fully realized animated version.

Odori became a hybrid filmmaking experiment — combining choreography, realtime 3D, AI generation, and traditional editing into a single process.

It represents persistence, technical curiosity, and a refusal to let ideas die.

HAYLEY – 90 Seconds About Fear
Vimeo Staff Pick · 1.2M+ Views

Before walking a 52-meter highline at 2800 meters in winter, I asked Hayley Ashburn about fear. She answered with a quote from Frank Herbert’s Dune.

The result is a 90-second portrait about confronting fear — filmed in the Torri del Vajolet and set to Tristana by Nils Frahm.

The film reached over 1.2 million viewers and was selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick.