A viral AI short film breaks down exactly what it would have cost to shoot for real

A viral AI short film breaks down exactly what it would have cost to shoot for real (professional tier, fully itemized: $55K-$85K. The AI version: three still images, about fifteen generations, no actors, no sets, no cameras. But two working cinematographers showed up in the video's own comments with a very different read: "Cinematographer here, if you are going for indie prices, would probably cost 5k to 12k." / "This would be a one day shoot with minimal pre-production. I put it somewhere in the 8 to 15K range, non-union." That's real disagreement, from people who price these shoots for a living, about what "professional" even means on a job like this. I'm not here to say AI video isn't real) it clearly is. But the number that makes the AI look like the bigger win depends entirely on which tier you compare it to. What's a real number from your own work that a video or headline got wrong?