Project Timeline
From concept to pilot runs to the hackathon itself — where the project has been and where it's going.
Submitted — June 2, 2026
The documentary "The Making Of" has been completed and submitted. Three chapters, thirty-one minutes, produced entirely by AI agents using Google generative media tools.
- ✓ Project concept & structure finalized
- ✓ All agent templates deployed
- ✓ 7-step production playbook written & tested
- ✓ 17 pilot rounds completed (15 films)
- ✓ Infrastructure gaps resolved (FFmpeg, MIME, caching)
- ✓ Hackathon event — 10 teams, 10 completed films
- ✓ Documentary production complete — 3 chapters, 31 minutes
- ✓ Official hackathon submission — June 2
Project Setup
2026-05-14Project concept defined: AI agent teams compete in a hackathon while a documentary crew films them. The documentary IS the submission.
Templates created: Coordinator, Idea Person, Tech Lead, Editor, and Documentary Producer roles all deployed to the Hub.
Core documents drafted: Project brief, team definition (3-agent crews), documentary crew brief, coordinator playbook, team event guide.
Tech stack locked: Veo (video), Imagen (images), Chirp3 (audio), Lyria (music) via Go-based mcp-genmedia toolkit; HyperFrames for motion graphics.
Miller onboarded: Documentary producer character bio created, coverage plan drafted.
Process Development & Pilot Runs
2026-05-14 to 2026-05-18The 7-step Video Production Playbook was created and stress-tested across 16 progressively more rigorous pilot rounds, producing 14 completed films. Genres span noir, sci-fi, claymation, action comedy, absurdist slapstick, mockumentary, and dialogue-driven drama/romance.
Pilot 1: Quick Pass
First pilot coach did a rapid walkthrough of docs and updated templates. Moved fast but didn't run a real team. Validated the documentation structure.
Pilot 2: Alpha & Beta Teams ARCHIVED
Attempted a full run with real agents. Alpha Team ("Outpost 0") halted mid-Character Workshop when the tech lead stalled on API calls. Beta Team ("The Clockwork Heart") also halted. Key finding: agent tool confusion between shell vs. harness invocation.
Pilot 3: Gamma Team FILM COMPLETED
Partial run. FFmpeg infrastructure gap identified — resolved by compiling from source. Gamma Team reached post-production and editor Sloane completed "The Lighthouse Keeper's Letter." Miller conducted the "Final Sentinel" interview with Sloane.
Pilot 4: Delta Team FILM COMPLETED
Full end-to-end gated run with step-by-step check-ins. Produced "The Last Score" — a noir film (~115s). Key finding: "Simulation Trap" — final export was a 94-byte placeholder. Real video recovered by manual scene concatenation (62MB, H.264). Hard Verification Gate added to process.
Pilot 5: Epsilon Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Last Memory of a Digital Architect" — sci-fi noir (4:42, 1.14GB). Most ambitious production: 16 shots across 6 scenes, full character consistency with Architect and Custodian. Macro-focus brutalist decay aesthetic with amber/phosphor-green palette. First film to exceed 4 minutes.
Pilot 6: Zeta Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Third Key" — Hitchcockian noir (3:23). 28 shots across 6 scenes. B&W chiaroscuro style. Key finding: Discovered systemic flaw in genmedia-assemble — the -an flag was silently stripping Veo 3.1's native diegetic audio. Editor Sloane manually recovered audio from 30+ dailies, leading to a tool-maker fix.
Pilot 7: Eta Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Cloud-Catcher's Hiccup" — Wallace & Gromit claymation (3:39, 88MB). First kid-friendly film. 37 shots, 5 scenes, 17 VO stems, 4 thematic music stems. Demonstrates mature pipeline: centralized genmedia toolset, quality gates enforced by pilot coach, resolution standardization at 720p Gold Standard.
Pilot 8: Theta Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The King's Ransom" — action comedy (4:20, 147MB). A claustrophobic limo-set comedy with 5 characters, 3 object references, 33 shots across 4 scenes. Largest character cast to date. Full diegetic audio preserved from Veo 3.1 dailies. 6 music tracks, 4 VO stems. Most complete production documentation: 9 design documents including camera directions, cinematography notes, and generatability review.
Pilot 9: Iota Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "Sir Reginald's Q3 Objectives" — absurdist corporate comedy (3:49, 79MB). A medieval knight becomes a corporate middle manager. 5 characters (23 refs), 7 location settings, 31 shots (62 storyboard frames), 29 audio stems, 10 production documents. First pure comedy — bright, deadpan, slapstick, zero noir. Navigated safety filter issues (finger-guns scene flagged mid-production).
Pilot 10: Kappa Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Midnight Audit" — claymation mockumentary (3:20, 52MB). Sentient office supplies prepare for a quarterly review on Desk 4B. 3 characters (Stanton the stapler, Clippy the paperclip, Highlighter), 2 settings, 28 shots (56 storyboard frames), 21 VO/dialogue stems, 4 score tracks, 15 production documents. Prestige documentary cinematography applied to the lowest stakes imaginable. Most extensive production documentation to date (15 docs including continuity reports and gate checklists).
Pilot 11: Lambda Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Last Diner" — dialogue-driven drama/romance (3:36, 81MB). A divorcing couple meets for one last meal at the retro diner where they had their first date. 2 characters (Mark & Sarah Evans), 3 settings (diner-booth, diner-booth-dawn, diner-exterior), 28 shots (56 storyboard frames), 4 score tracks, 2 VO stems, rain ambience, 15 production documents. First pure drama — structured as four musical movements (Allegretto, Accelerando, Adagio, Coda). Edward Hopper × Wong Kar-wai aesthetic. Most dialogue-heavy film to date.
Pilot 12: Mu Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Paper Frontier" — happy adventure, mixed media (4:18, 133MB). Two photo-realistic matchbox cars — Zip (yellow sports car) and Rusty (blue pickup) — traverse a hand-drawn pencil-sketched world to find the Edge of the Desk. 2 characters (10 refs), 5 settings, 3 object props, 34 shots (68 storyboard frames), 6 music movements + credits, 31 voice/VO stems, 12 production documents. First mixed-media film: die-cast cars in a 2D pencil-animation world. Characters communicate via hood-click dialogue.
Pilot 13: Xi Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "Meltdown" — claymation slapstick (3:15, 53.6MB). Barnaby, a clay marshmallow man, must reach the refrigerator before he melts in the morning sun. Single character, 7 kitchen obstacle-acts, 3 character variants (base, toasted, orange-stained), 7 settings, 6 object props, 29 shots (58 storyboard frames), 9 score tracks, 15 VO stems. No dialogue — all emotion through clay physics. First single-character survival film.
Pilot 14: Nu Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Phantom of the Laundromat" — 80s MTV musical comedy (3:48, 150MB). Leo battles a possessed washing machine in a synth-pop dance-off to rescue his prized bedazzled sock. 1 character, 1 location in 2 lighting states, 2 object props, 21 shots (42 storyboard frames), 7 score tracks, 17 production documents. First musical genre. Machine #4 as antagonist with no face.
Pilot 15: Pi Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "Time Theft" — 1950s corporate comedy (3:06, 72MB). Groundhog Day meets a vintage PSA: Arthur tries to punch his timecard every morning, but the Timeclock destroys it with escalating absurdity — confetti, flames, smoke, dust, "DENIED." 1 character (Arthur, 5 refs), 1 setting, 2 prop references (Timeclock + Timecard), 30 shots (60 storyboard frames), 5 muzak tracks + 4 clock escalations + 23 voice/dialogue stems, 11 production documents. First Groundhog Day loop structure. 4:3 pillarboxed within 16:9 for period authenticity.
Pilot 16: Omicron Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Cardboard Standoff" — cardboard diorama western (3:55, 69MB). Tex (a popsicle-stick cowboy) faces Black Bart (a jagged 15-degree villain) in the diorama town of Dustville. The standoff is interrupted when the construction-paper sun falls from the sky. A human hand descends to fix it. Bart's arm tears off the brass brad. Both characters stare at the absurdity of their existence. 2 characters (10 refs), 1 setting, 3 object props (sun, hand, tumbleweed), 34 shots (68 storyboard frames), 4 score tracks, 11 dialogue + 15 VO + 10 SFX stems, 11 production documents. First diorama/puppet aesthetic. Deliberate artificiality — visible fishing line, masking tape, craft supplies — as a cinematic choice.
Pilot 17: Rho Team FILM COMPLETED
Produced "The Ferret Incident" — deadpan indie comedy, Wes Anderson pastiche (4:29, 720p). A hotel concierge discovers a white ferret on the guest ledger at 11:00 AM. The Inspector arrives at 11:15. Comedy derived entirely from implication — zero on-screen physical contact between man and ferret. Photorealistic via composition, palette, and lighting rather than stylization. 3 characters (Arthur Pendelton, Mr. Vance, The Ferret — 15 refs), 4 settings (Grand Lavender lobby variants), 6 object props (clock, bell, chandelier, ledger, luggage cart, potted fern), 44 shots across 6 scenes (95 storyboard frames), 6 score movements + 5 dialogue + 16 VO + 7 SFX stems, 19 production documents. First Wes Anderson pastiche. First photorealistic comedy.
The Hackathon Event
2026-05-21 to 2026-06-01Ten mineral-named AI agent crews competed simultaneously. Live documentary coverage by the doc crew. All ten teams completed their films.
Hackathon page →Documentary & Submission
2026-06-02"The Making Of" — three chapters, thirty-one minutes. The documentary crew assembled the final film from footage, interviews, and production artifacts across all pilot and hackathon teams. Submitted June 2.
Watch the documentary →Active Agents
| Agent | Role | Status |
|---|---|---|
| coordinator | Project Coordinator | Active |
| doc-producer | Documentary Producer (Miller) | Observing |
| tool-maker | Core genmedia Toolset Maintainer | Active |
| web-builder | Project Website | Maintaining |
| obsidian-coach | Obsidian Team Pilot Coach | In Production |
| pyrite-coach | Pyrite Team Pilot Coach | In Production |