Auggie Ferns carried one film for 15 years

About fifteen years ago, Auggie Ferns imagined a short film set in the 1970s. Then he went back to work on other people’s films: commercials, a music video, a hotel campaign filmed in India, Japan and Australia. In August 2026 he released his own. SANDBOX runs one minute and 31 seconds, and he made it with AI.

Ferns is a producer and director from Mumbai with 25 years in advertising and film. As a director he has two Cannes Silvers. As a producer he has two Effie Silvers. In the past twelve months he has also finished three films with AI. His GigDay page sums up the rule he works by in four words: “New tools. Same standard.”

01 — The filmsThree films in twelve months

The first was ATHER, in October 2025, a one-minute spec commercial made for the Genero AI Challenge. Ferns came up with the concept, directed it, built the visuals and wrote the soundscape himself.

SANDBOX followed in August 2026. Then, on 11 September, came Signal Lost, which runs one minute and 21 seconds. Its title on YouTube ends with the detail that matters: “Made entirely in 3.5 Days”.

For a man who has produced shoots across several countries, three and a half days is a different kind of calendar.

02 — The craftWhat 25 years brings to a new tool

Ferns did not start in film. He took a chemistry degree at St Xavier’s in Mumbai, then switched, finishing a post-graduate course in film and television production at X.I.C in 2001.

The awards came from directing. Tide “with dirt magnates” won Silver at Cannes and at Goafest in 2010. Inkpad, made for the NGO Door Step School, won Silver at Cannes in 2012, and Bronzes at AdFest, Goafest, Epica, Young Guns and the NY Film Festival.

Then came the producing. Working with The Sweetshop’s Asia division, he delivered a Marriott Hotels project filmed in Mumbai, Jaisalmer, Japan and Australia, and campaigns for Lee Kum Kee and Enterprise Singapore. AIC’s #WeSeeYouCare, which he produced, won two Effie Silvers in 2024.

That is what he brings to AI. On LinkedIn he describes his AI work as “grounded in craft rather than novelty”. His GigDay page lists what he means by craft: story, composition, performance, editing, sound, music, and knowing what you want to say.

“Grounded in craft rather than novelty.”

03 — The methodHe shows the mistakes

Ferns does not hide how the films get made. After SANDBOX he posted five short reels of AI bloopers, the takes that went wrong. He also posted a 21-second clip called The First Generation.

The experiments go back further. In October 2024 he uploaded a two-minute short story told in AI-generated images. In 2025 he tried putting an alien spacecraft over Lake Biwa in Japan.

He also writes his own music. He scored ATHER himself, and he shoots and scores 8K timelapse films of cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. He works, in his own words, “from ideation through to execution”.

Auggie Ferns is on GigDay as a producer and director. SANDBOX waited about fifteen years for him. Signal Lost took three and a half days. The 25 years in between are in both.