AI Shortform Content Generator part 1

Written By perry higgins

AI Shortform Content Generator part 1

By Perry Higgins

🚀 Why We’re Doing This

At Pez Productions, we believe in being innovators of process. And with AI rising like a caffeinated phoenix on the horizon, we’ve started looking at video creation in a whole new way.

It’s no longer just about pressing record and cutting clips — it’s about automation, storytelling, and generating cinematic chaos at scale with minimal effort.

So, we set out to build something wild: a fully automated AI-driven shortform video machine.

 

🔧 Getting Started with n8n

We kicked things off using n8n, a powerful no-code/low-code automation tool. We grabbed a helpful template:

“Fully Automated AI Video Generation & Multi-Platform Publishing”
By Juan Carlos Cavero Gracia

Did we just plug in our API keys and hit go? Sure.
Did it work? Absolutely not.

The JSON paths were broken, the flows didn’t connect, and debugging it meant diving deep into the wiring. That’s when I started learning how n8n actually works — and how I could bend it to my will.

Yes, it's an expensive way to learn (shoutout to all those API calls), but it's hands-on experience that matters.

 

n8n with modifid “Fully Automated AI Video Generation & Multi-Platform Publishing” template by Juan Carlos Cavero Gracia

 

🧠 Custom Prompt Engineering (Where the Magic Happens)

To bring the chaotic solo video editor narrative to life, we built four custom prompt stages using OpenAI.

1. 🧠 Tagline Prompt

This creates five quick mini-stories from a single input idea. It uses the caption, the environment, and the main theme to lay out the bones of the narrative.

2. 🎨 Image Prompt

This is the beast.
It combines everything and spits out a structured first-person GoPro-style prompt that Flux (via PiAPI) can understand.
I’ve rewritten this one over and over again — it’s the most important prompt, because it shapes the entire vibe of the video.

3. 🗣 Voiceover Prompt

Simple in structure, but I’m still refining it. The timing is tricky — some clips run too long and cut off the end, so I’m constantly adjusting phrasing and pacing.

4. ✍️ Social Caption Prompt

This generates the captions for posting. Still a bit repetitive right now, but it’s improving — more sarcasm, less fluff.

 

📸 The Full Pipeline (Step-by-Step)

Here’s the breakdown of how everything comes together:

  1. Image generation → Flux via PiAPI

  2. Voiceover → ElevenLabs (already part of our workflow)

  3. Image-to-Video → Kling Video API

    • This is the slowest (and priciest) part. Each generation takes up to hours and costs $1.30–$2.30 per call

    • I’ve now added conditional checks in n8n to avoid triggering the next steps if videos are still processing

  4. Combining assets → Creatomate

    • Cool tool, but expensive if you’re not using it at scale — we may swap this out later

  5. Posting → upload-post.com, which:

    • Posts automatically to Instagram and YouTube Shorts

    • Saves a backup to Google Drive

    • Sends the result to Discord

I’ve also been manually uploading a few TikToks, but that’ll be automated next.

 

💸 Real Costs (So Far)

In just the first 48 hours, we’ve spent:

  • $25 on PiAPI

  • $1+ in small testing calls

  • ElevenLabs = already covered by existing subscription

➡️ Estimated cost per final video: £2.50–£3.50
To make it worth the cost, this would need to be done at scale or used in client-facing services.

 

🧪 What’s Next?

We’re planning to run this system until Saturday, July 12, 2025, while we:

  • Look at alternative render APIs for cheaper video generation

  • Tighten up timing issues in the voiceover

  • Test manual triggers for broken flows (now working better!)

  • Possibly replace Creatomate and upload-post.com with custom options

  • Build more advanced workflows now that we have a solid base

 

🧲 Ideas for Monetisation

This isn't just a fun experiment — we’re exploring how to offer this to clients or build products from it:

  • Blog series + breakdowns (like this one)

  • Automation-for-hire services for agencies and creators

  • Prebuilt workflows/templates for Notion + n8n users

  • Subscription-based AI content creation

 

🔔 Want to Watch It Happen?

Come follow along as the chaos unfolds:

We’re uploading at least once a day while the experiment runs — see it fail, evolve, and (hopefully) win.

perry higgins