The startup CYBERFILM.AI CORPORATION (known as CyberFilm®) was founded in 2021 by brothers Russell and Andrew Palmer of Toronto, Canada.
Russell Palmer (President & CEO) was inspired a few years ago when he saw his first GPT-3 demo and got access to the playground, to see what stories AI could write and what it would tell us about it and humanity. He has worked for the last 15+ years as a Product Manager from Seattle to Silicon Valley, at Microsoft, Samsung, JPMorgan Chase's AI Lab at Stanford Research Park (Palo Alto), and the pioneering AI start-up Viv Labs with the founders of Siri.
Andrew Palmer (Chief Story Officer) is an Author, Screenwriter, and award-winning Director/Producer. He founded Synapz Productions Entertainment Company to create, develop and produce Canadian entertainment content. Andrew has worked as an Assistant Director (AD) for the last 15 years on movie and television sets in Toronto and Vancouver (including hit shows "Suits" and "The Boys"), and is a member of the CMPA, DGC, and WGC.
CyberFilm makes software products for content creators and filmmakers. Their expertise is in both Filmmaking and in Artificial Intelligence, particularly Generative AI.
CyberFilm's first product "Saga" was initially launched in April of 2023, with an upgraded and rebranded version rolling out in the Fall of 2023 and a third major version launch in February 2025. It assists filmmakers to write and produce stories - first to ideate, then plan the structure, and finally help write any and all aspects of a feature film. This includes the plot, themes, b-story, characters, acts, one-pager, beat sheet, screenplay, and storyboards with previz animation. In the coming year we're adding new templates for Television Series, new languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hindi, and Mandarin), longer video generation for animatics, and synthetic video CGI for full length videos and films.
CyberFilm's headquarters is in San Francisco, with a satellite office in Toronto, and remote employees in Montreal.
CyberFilm boostrapped starting in 2021, raised a Friends & Family round in 2023 including from Shed Capital Inc. of Canada, and Angel investment from famed investor Jason Calacanis (LAUNCH Fund 4; All-In and This Week In Startups podcasts).
"Generative AI-powered tools for the next generation of filmmakers, helping creatives make more of their best work, even faster."
The mission of our company is to democratize Hollywood filmmaking, empowering anyone with the passion and desire to create a Blockbuster-quality movie on an Indie micro-budget. Silicon Valley startups have a mindset to do more with less, but Hollywood budgets have blown way out of control - becoming almost a bragging point and perceived validation of a quality story. However, diverse original stories are no longer being told in favor of built-in audiences through franchises, and VFX artists are overworked and out of reach to all but top studios. We think Generative AI can help; help grow the industry, grow jobs, grow quality and quantity of films, and grow the world's enjoyment of cinema into the future.
As children, our co-founders Russell and Andrew were obsessed with movies - so much their parents hardly needed a babysitter (they could just put on a VHS tape of Ghostbusters or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) to captivate our attention rewatching for hours. After playing the tapes so often the brothers literally burned up them up in the VCR. With no tape left the Palmer brothers would act out the scenes for fun - after realizing they had them all memorized. With some skills learned making these homie movies, and after a few school plays, the boys had short stints as child actors for the CBC, and landing a few paid gigs including Sears advertisements. They also made home movies using the family video camera, and productions skills at Computer Camp programs (perfecting stop-motion and claymation using their favorite toys). This blossomed into dozens of videos filmed through future summer camps and programs in High School, making a number of short films and learning tools of the trade like editing, blocking, and other industry skills.
While both later studied Computer Science & Engineering at University, the brothers differed in their paths when Russell moved to Silicon Valley to work as a Product Manager building Artificial Intelligence, and Andrew went back to Film School (majoring in Creative Writing) to pursue a career in the film industry, working his way up on Hollywood production sets from Toronto to Vancouver now as an AD (Assistant Director), having worked on hit shows like "Suits" and "The Boys".
In the summer of 2021 while taking a Stanford course on AI Product Management, Russell received an A+ on his course paper for "how AI could disrupt an industry" (writing about the Hollywood film industry) with insights from Andrew on the varying tasks and roles. They wrote notably wrote about how AI could improve and grow the film industry (while noting harmful things to watch out for and push back against, especially in terms of ethics and job replacement). His professor at Stanford serial entrepreneur Dr. Ronjon Nag encouraged them to start a company, having a timely and original idea, as well as Founder-Product Fit. After researching the startup idea through Y Combinator "Startup School" they built a working prototype, performed customer interviews, and were ready to incorporate their startup CyberFilm in the Fall of 2021, launching the Saga app to the public soon after.
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Russell graduated from the Computer Science & Electrical Engineering Program at the University of Western Ontario, landed his first job after graduation as a Program Manager on the Microsoft Office team in Redmond, Washington at Microsoft headquarters. Afterward receiving his greencard, Russell moved t
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Russell graduated from the Computer Science & Electrical Engineering Program at the University of Western Ontario, landed his first job after graduation as a Program Manager on the Microsoft Office team in Redmond, Washington at Microsoft headquarters. Afterward receiving his greencard, Russell moved to Silicon Valley in 2017 to work as a Product Manager at Viv Labs, an AI start-up pioneered by the founders of Siri, where he saw firsthand an AI company being built from the ground up through acquisition by Samsung. Afterwards in 2020, Russell was recruited by JPMorgan's West Coast AI Lab at Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, with a team of AI experts from Google, Facebook, and other top companies, to dive deeper into Machine Learning and Big Data. The sum of all this experience was invaluable to Russell. After working for the largest software company in the world, then the largest hardware company, and finally the oldest and largest Wall Street bank, Russell felt the time was right to start his own venture and he co-founded CyberFilm AI with his brother Andrew, a filmmaker.
After graduating from Computer Engineering at McMaster University, and pursuing and education in Film & Television Production at leading Canadian institution Sheridan College, Andrew joined the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), where he harnessed his unique blend of technical expertise and storytelling prowess. Andrew has worked on a varie
After graduating from Computer Engineering at McMaster University, and pursuing and education in Film & Television Production at leading Canadian institution Sheridan College, Andrew joined the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), where he harnessed his unique blend of technical expertise and storytelling prowess. Andrew has worked on a variety of productions from independent features to network television and streaming series, to multimillion dollar blockbuster films. In 2014, he founded Synapz Productions, an enterprise that has since crafted a diverse and captivating portfolio. This includes the publication of five literary works, the release of nine memorable songs, and the production of three award-winning films. Notably, Synapz Productions has given life to the animated series 'Yuki vs. Panda,' adapted from the Source Point Press comic series, 'Turf Wars,' a gripping one-hour drama set in the Toronto tow-truck industry, and 'Awake,' a thrilling 90-minute sci-fi feature produced in Unreal Engine with motion capture. Andrew is very excited about working with his brother, Russell, to build SaaS tools for the next generation of filmmakers.
"The app helped me put together a better story than I could have done alone. It helped me play the What If game in ways I couldn't have imagined."
- Rhys Ryan (Founder of Scenechronize)
"It asks the questions you need the answers for."
- Stew Lyons (Producer of Breaking Bad; Better Call Saul; Everybody Loves Raymond)
"I tested out your amazing SAGA program and was really impressed with how it works – pretty amazing tool for story development for filmmakers."
- Tim Peternel (Producer of Buffalo '66; American Psycho)
"This is really intriguing, because you are correct that almost all storytelling (movies, books, tv commercials, plays, speeches) uses a similar structure that has evolved over thousands of years. I would love to play with it. Curious to see if you build in a 'twist' engine, since some of the most iconic movies (books, etc) take these familiar models and 'break' one aspect. (Think of Pulp Fiction scrambling the time line, or Memento going in reverse, etc).
I can't help it. This is just such a cool use case for AI."
- Marc Randolph (Founder of Netflix; Entrepreneur and Investor)
"The app is useful overall and the Logline component and Script tab was quite helpful. The UI was nice to have everything in a centralized place. Interesting suggestions in the Acts that sparked ideas.
Have been integrating SAGA into my current screenwriting workflow and what Russell and the team have built thus far is super promising. The help of the SAGA platform structure and AI assistance has been great and allowed me to maintain creative control of my process."
- Kenny Geiler (Indie Screenwriter/Producer)
"The storyboarding feature is amazing. I loved playing around with it. With a little time spent on prompt engineering/tweaking it captured my vision with ease. It almost distracted me from the writing."
- Jared Levine (USC School of Cinematic Arts; Business of Cinematic Arts; Screenwriter)
"First, thanks a lot for saga, it’s an amazing tool. I love it, really. The language, the dialogues, the actions are more reliable than chatgpt."
- Vincent T. (Hollywood Screenwriter)
"I really liked this [vision] on how one would use AI in the cinema industry. A really original commentary [and great write up]."
- Stanford Prof. Ronjon Nag (SCI 52 - Artificial Intelligence: Deep Learning, Human-Centered AI, and Beyond) 2021
"It Read My Mind" - FilmCourage with Russell Palmer - The Story Behind AI Screenwriting App SAGA
Panel on the future of creativity (co-founder Russell Palmer).
Pitching Jason Calacanis live on TWiST with Q&A.
Part 2 of co-founder Russell's interview with FilmCourage, discussing Hollywood's reaction to AI and their SAGA app.
How AI is Taking Over Hollywood and Changing Filmmaking Forever with our founder Russell and award-winning NYT correspondent Craig Smith.
Watch our co-founder Russell's speech (6:03:41), followed by a panel talk (6:40:00) with Civitai, Pika Labs, and more.
One Day AI Will Create Story Structures That Don't Exist Today - Part 4 of Russell's interview with FilmCourage
Clips from our interview with Craig S. Smith of the New York Times, for the Eye On A.I. podcast.
Hear from our founder Russell and other leaders in AI and the Entertainment & Media industry like NBCUniversal and Runway
Part 5 from our interview with FilmCourage on AI in filmmaking.
Watch our founder Russell pitch VCs Jason Calacanis and Khosla Ventures, on the famous "This Week in Startups" podcast.
AI may never be able to make a movie with just Sora and today's tools. From our interview with Film Courage in LA.
A 3-part essay on the founding mission of our company, and how we think AI can help - not hurt - the Hollywood film industry.
Our speech from the 2022 IQ Conference (International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers) in Edmonton Alberta, turned unofficial TEDx talk for the metaverse.
Feature and Q&A interview with co-founder Russell in the October issue of Unicorner News.
Interview with Western Engineering and Alum Russell Palmer, Co-Founder of CyberFilm AI and creator of SAGA.
The Filmmaking Assistant Hollywood Didn't Know It Needed - How Russell Palmer is leading Hollywood into the AI era
Quick talk about AI and Hollywood on the Twelve Labs Multimodal Weekly podcast.
AI Venture Pulse presents the AI On Tap podcast. Interview with Russell Palmer on Revolutionizing the Film Industry with AI.
CyberFilm AI is rewriting the Hollywood script. Plus: CEO Russell on AI x creativity and the future of Hollywood...
DirectMediaLab conducted an interview with Russell Palmer, CEO of CyberFilm, in early January 2024.
Generative AI for Filmmakers and Creatives with CyberFilm AI's Co-Founder Russell Palmer.
Downloads
A quick 3-minute demo showing the main features of Saga.
A 4-minute demo overview of our app Saga.
A 15-minute recording of a user writing fan fiction on Saga.
The first 5 episodes in a course teaching screenwriting and filmmaking using Saga, from our studio Synapz.
Part 1 of 3 in a guide to writing a Feature Film with Saga.
Our co-founder Andrew writing an original screenplay using Saga, with script sample available for download in the video description.
We are available to comment in news publications and speak at conferences on the topics of Generative AI in Filmmaking, technology, ethics, and more.