Making God Update [13.03.26]: $1.6M Raised, Insight Film Partnership, New Interviews, Film Completion & Hopeful of Streamer Sale

Firstly, thank you for believing in us when Mike and I were just two people with one camera who wanted to make a film about risks from AI for the public who we think are dangerously out of the loop… and so we set off on our journey to create Making God. We knew it needed to be cinematic, streaming service quality production, and told the story in an accessible & funny (darkly comic) style to teach the billions of people (concerned parents, citizens, and more) who watch most their long form media on streaming services as of 2026.

Manifund donors were among the first people to believe this film was worth making. You got us off the ground, and we haven't forgotten that! A lot has happened since our last update.

Here's where things stand as of 13.03.26:

1. We've now raised or secured approximately $1.6 million toward the production of Making God. This includes philanthropic investment, co-production finance, and private funding commitments. When we launched on Manifund, we were two people with a camera and a conviction. That's no longer quite the situation... Latest trailer here.

2. When we started, Making God was a documentary about AI risk. Now it's become something more - a film about people power, about the public's right to understand what's being built in their name, and about what happens when the most consequential technology in human history is developed at speed with almost no democratic accountability. We're not just covering the race to AGI. We're asking whether anyone is going to stop it and whether, if enough people know what's actually happening, they might demand something better. We think it's the film the moment needs and one that will be a worthwhile accompaniment to other AI related media, too.

3. After returning to London, Mike and I formally incorporated Tail End Films Ltd, our new production company, built specifically to make cinematic, high-quality, accessible films about the risks the world faces from AI and other emerging technologies. Making God is our flagship project, structured through its own legal entity, Making God Ltd (a Special Purpose Vehicle which makes it easy for a sale to a Netflix or HBO, pick your streamer…).

4. We've also entered a co-production partnership with Insight Films, one of the UK's most respected documentary production companies. Their credits include Apollo 13: Survival (Netflix, 2024) and Scout's Honor (Netflix, 2023) - both high-impact, widely seen documentaries that reached millions of viewers globally. This partnership gives Making God serious distribution credibility and a direct pathway into conversations with major streaming platforms. We expect to have more to announce on that front as we approach completion.

5. We've hired three senior producers from Insight, an assistant producer, and an experienced Director of Photography to take us through the final leg of principal photography. This is now a proper production - not the two-man band Mike and I started with! The infrastructure is in place to deliver a film that belongs on the world's biggest screens. In addition to Geoffrey Hinton, Gary Marcus, Roman Yampolskiy, and Sir Stephen Fry; we’ve got so many more that I’m excited to share with you but can’t just yet…!

6. Principal photography runs through May 2026. From there, we move into the edit over the summer, with a festival strategy targeting IDFA, Hot Docs, Sheffield DocFest, and Sundance 2027 as our headline ambition. With the hope of having a Making God which is undeniable and gives us the best position of securing a sale with a major streamer. Our distribution strategy also includes pursuing a meaningful theatrical cinema release alongside festival submissions and streaming platform acquisition. The film is being produced in 4K to a standard suitable for cinema exhibition, and we intend for a portion of the film's revenue to come from theatrical screenings to the paying public!

7. Also, TEF has other projects you should listen out for, too. Sometimes the sale of a documentary can come with a commitment to purchase another film (which could be a documentary of a feature film). As such, we are looking for some Tail End Films seed money/donations to begin the pre-production of these slate of projects (most likely a feature length fictional film, and perhaps a 3-part docuseries, etc) so that as we reach our strongest negotiation position - the distribution and sale of Making God - we have our next AI risks project ready to cook. 

8. To do this, we need funding as soon as possible to make sure TEF can fill the public’s favourite streaming services with high quality, engaging and cinematic films about the societal risk they face over the next couple years or so. If you want to DM me on Twitter or LinkedIn, or email me at connor@tailendfilms.com I’d love to chat about both TEF’s next slate and Making God.

Thank you again to everyone who donated early. You made this possible! We think the next time we give you an update it’ll be about something even more exciting… 

Connor & Mike, Tail End Films & Making God

Thank you, Michael. These are very fair questions! Mike has answered them here below:

Totals and scope

The total required to complete Making God is $1,400,000. We have received $350,000 so far through a mix of donations and investments. We have a further $400,000 promised in private investment. That leaves $650,000 to raise to finish production, complete post, and run an international festival and sales campaign. The $1.4M total includes the festival and sales budget, including the previously referenced $102,000 festival route line.

On the 2023 UK budget survey: it covers everything from micro-budget indies to broadcaster features. Our comparison set is feature documentaries intended for international distribution, with multi-country shoots, legal clearances, festival deliverables, and streamer-ready masters. Those commonly land in the low seven figures. Our $1.4M target is disciplined for that category. The earlier $730,000 figure was a minimum route to a festival-only cut. We are budgeting for a distribution-grade film because that is the appropriate path to broad impact.

Spend to date and why

We have spent about $300,000 to date. That has produced more than 50 hours of filmed material across multiple countries, including interviews with Geoffrey Hinton, Will MacAskill, and Gary Marcus.

Since March 2025, we've have taken $70,000 combined in salaries and have deferred a further $40,000 until investment closes. Our day rates are below union benchmarks and lower than other key crew. The remainder of spend is production: crew fees, rentals, insurance, legal, travel and accommodation, and production administration. Any equipment purchased is owned by the company and recorded on the asset register. No personal assets were bought with production funds.

Why this split: the value sits on screen and in a clean rights position for sale. Most spend therefore goes to filming, travel, crews, and lawful clearances. Modest pay for the core team keeps the project moving across months of prep, shoots, and edit, and we have kept that lean with deferrals to protect runway.

Going forward, donated funds are used for production and post costs that benefit the film directly. Producer and director compensation in post is planned to be covered by private investment.

Structure, sale, and donors versus investors

Tail End Films Limited will be the production company. A dedicated SPV will be created soon holding the Making God IP and contract with investors, which gives buyers a clean chain of title.

We will seek to sell the film for more than it cost to make, while being candid that documentary outcomes are uncertain. Investors participate under a standard recoupment and revenue-share waterfall, administered to buyer requirements and, if appropriate, through a collection account manager. To avoid any perceived mismatch between donors and investors, we have invited large donors to convert to the investment round on the same terms as other investors, with a sensible minimum ticket of $10,000. Donors who remain donors keep their credit and we report impact transparently.

Interviews and narrative

The general public has not been widely exposed to figures like Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, and when they are, the material is rarely presented in a way that is both engaging and clear. Our job is to translate credible concerns into a compelling, accessible story for a broad platform audience. We will announce additional contributors once clearances are in place, and we only include claims that are corroborated and legally cleared.

On the early behind the scenes clips you saw: those were internal sizzles. In the film we appear only when it adds stakes or clarity. Otherwise the audience stays with the material.

Post production: what we are paying for and why

We are aiming for a streamer-ready feature documentary. That means resourcing the edit properly and budgeting for deliverables, rights, and quality control that buyers actually require.

• Post production studio. Ensures the cut is properly resourced and delivered on schedule with QC, subtitles, and delivery elements buyers require.

• Archival licensing. For worldwide, all media distribution, long-term rights across territories cost more than festival-only use, so we budget up front rather than weaken the film later.

• Stock B-roll reserve. Used only where filming is impractical and a licensed shot completes a sequence. We prefer to film ourselves and will commission remote shooting where that is the smarter option.

• Motion graphics and design. Builds a clear visual system so general audiences can follow complex ideas. Mike leads creative and does hands-on work to keep costs efficient.

• Composer and musicians. Secures a quality score with stems and cue sheets on terms a buyer accepts. Where a composer prefers some back end, the cash fee can reduce.

• Contingency. A prudent buffer for multi-vendor work and international clearances. If it is not needed, it is not spent.
  

These are ceilings, not targets. We will lock fixed bids where possible and redirect savings to the cut or reduce the top line.

Track record clarifications and links

• SB-1047 short. Mike handled motion graphics and editing. About ten working days of art direction was typical for the scope and budget.

• Campaign totals. The 60M figure is cumulative across platforms while Mike was Creative Director at Control AI. The 32M figure refers to the cross-platform performance of Your Identity Isn’t Yours. That campaign had significant paid media by design, roughly half of its impressions, and it produced outcomes including more than 3,000 letters to UK MPs and coverage on ITV News. We can share per-platform analytics that separate paid and organic performance on request.

• Collaboration with Max Tegmark. Mike collaborated on a deepfake demo at Davos in January 2024. Coverage: https://www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/01/18/davos-elite-worry-about-deepfakes-and-disinformation

• Apollo Research. A three-week engagement, one week of pre-production and two weeks to deliver a motion-graphics explainer of their scheming research. The video is on Apollo Research’s YouTube channel.

• Commercials. Starbucks was a B2B spot with Pyramid Productions for franchisees, so it is not publicly hosted. Mike can provide the production contract. Pale Waves was a lyric video for She’s My Religion that ran on socials; a short snippet is on Mike’s Instagram. Mandarin Oriental was an early social commission, example: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CHNy_ocnTPT/

• Long form directing. This unfortunately was a hallucination by an AI model we used to edit the Manifund project copy. While Mike has been directing Making God since March 2024, he has not directed any other documentaries before this one. We will endeavour to not make that mistake again!

Governance

We keep a detailed cost ledger with receipts and reconcile monthly. We work with legal counsel on releases, music, archival, and E and O insurance. Donated funds are ring-fenced to production and post costs. Investor funds flow through the SPV that holds the IP, with standard recoupment and reporting. We clear music and archival on worldwide, all media, in perpetuity terms, bind E and O prior to delivery, and maintain signed releases and a full chain of title.

If anything here needs further detail, Mike is happy to share a more granular cost breakdown and, when legal and licensing allow, private screeners of selected scenes. @michaeltrazzi

@CriticalReason hey! We are in the process now of setting up a new Manifund grant proposal for post-production (hiring a team of editors, composing original music scores, making it streaming service ready!). Would you be willing to make another grant so we can finish the film? Happy to jump on a call, too.

@MarcusAbramovitch hey! We are in the process now of setting up a new Manifund grant proposal for post-production (hiring a team of editors, composing original music scores, making it streaming service ready!). Would you be willing to make another grant so we can finish the film? Happy to jump on a call, too.

@JLK hey! We are in the process now of setting up a new Manifund grant proposal for post-production (hiring a team of editors, composing original music scores, making it streaming service ready!). Would you be willing to make another grant so we can finish the film? Happy to jump on a call, too.

@retard_human_ai hey! We are in the process now of setting up a new Manifund grant proposal for post-production (hiring a team of editors, composing original music scores, making it streaming service ready!). Would you be willing to make another grant so we can finish the film? Happy to jump on a call, too.

Making God Update [4th July 2025] - Geoffrey Hinton & Yoshua Bengio Interviews Secured, Funding Still Needed

Updates:

• We have secured interviews with two of the ‘Godfathers of AI’ - Prof. Geoffrey Hinton & Prof. Yoshua Bengio.

• We have wrapped our first 'leg' of production. We are now back in London to plan the rest (and largest part) of our filming in the UK, US, and Canada. We still have around 10-12 interviews to film.

• We now have a funding gap of just over $150,000. Please help us finish filming today by donating.

• Below we have some stills from our last shoot.

@AntonMakiievskyi sure can!

Total raised so far:
We’ve brought in £105,242.14 (≈ $139,922.58) across the last 12 months.

Break-down of where that came from:

• £28,000 from Greg over the last 12 months – paid for the all of our production kit and pre-production

• £6,174 from a private donor on 8 Mar 25 – covered the move to SF to start shooting and generating buzz, first month’s accom and car. Setting up Manifund and doing lower-production value shoots to prove a type of "proof of concept"

• £1,477.51 from Daniel F on 27 Mar 25

• £6,800 via Manifund on 14 Apr 25 – initial set of Manifund grants

• £20,539.70 via Manifund on 15 Apr 25

• £18,380 (21 Apr 25) and £18,312.50 (25 Apr 25) from a private donor

• £5,558.43 via Manifund on 12 May 25

On how much more we need to raise:

• ≈ $150 k to finish principal photography (8-10 more key interviews, UK shoots, LA reshoots, full crew each time).

• ≈ $351 k for post-production (roughly this will look like editor 15k, assistant 10k, colour 10k, sound 8k, motion-GFX 40k, archival 12k, composers 18k, rights 30k, Dir/EP 60k, misc/contingency 30k, deliverables 18k).

In short, we’re looking at another ~$500 k to get to a festival-ready master - cheap by Netflix-level documentary standards, but enough to hit that bar. And this is without the around $100k we imagine we will need to marketing and advertising.

What we spent:

Pre-Production – roughly $38 k (Mar 2024-Mar 2025)

• Bought first-wave kit (camera, lighting, sound, storage).

• Flights London to SF to start the project.

• Insurance, legal and other admin.

• Research, ideation, story work (two months of wages for me & Mike).

• SF accommodation for the first month.

Production-to-date – $102.7 k (Mar 2025-Now)

• Added a second camera plus extra lights and accessories.

• Travel: SF-NY flights, SF-LA drives, on-the-ground car hire for every interview/B-roll run.

• Six weeks of accommodation split across SF, NY and LA.

• Gary Marcus shoot in NYC (8-10-person crew over two days).

• Seven expert interviews in total (six of them shot one/two-man-band style when funds were tighter).

• 5 + hours of behind-the-scenes, plus ten public-vox-pop interviews.

• Admin, software subs (DocuSign, LLMs, Notion, etc.).

• Wages for Connor (EP) and Mike (Director).

That spending has gotten us about one-third of the doc!

Next we head back to the UK shortly for more interviews and BTS. While those are happening, we’ll keep fundraising through the summer, then return to the US with a full crew for the remaining shoots and any reshoots.

Hopefully this helps!

@jeff3454 thanks for your donations! Can you please (if you'd like) email me on connor.axiotes@gmail.com - we'd love to say thanks.

@Austin thank you! We appreciate it.

@michaeltrazzi hey!

All in all just above $17,000. 9/10 people on set also included myself, Mike, Gary and our film photographer.

A Netflix shoot is usually minimum $20k, and we want our shoots to be at that level as our aim is to break into film festivals and then streaming services. That's why we had 4 cameras! (Three FX6s and one FX3).

So I would pay this price again though because we have something that is an intriguing interview and super cinematic looking. Which was our purpose with this documentary.

It was a particularly expensive shoot because:

• We had less than one week notice to sort the whole shoot and as we are in SF, fly over to NYC and hire a local crew.

• Because Gary Marcus was coming to NYC and no longer has an office here, we had to pay for a filming location (when hitherto we've been using people's offices and homes).

• Our AirBnB was expensive because there was a chance we might have had to house crew and do some b-roll filming there, so it had to suit both those things.

• We had to ship extra luggage on our flights.

I will note that I've been quite successful at getting price reductions on things like crew and gear hire. And I'll continue to fight for value. Mike is also quite experienced with these bigger shoots so he has a good intuition for what should cost what.

Regarding the burn, we also raised $50,000 privately in the last few weeks. So although the interview a significant cost, we thought it was worth it. BUT to finish the documentary we still need to raise a lot.

Michael you should come help us fundraise aha! We could use your expertise.

[Costings below if you'd like a look!]

'Making God' Update [12th May 2025] - Gary Marcus Interview, NYC

***Watch our exclusive teaser clip of the interview on X/Twitter and LinkedIn***

We spent the last couple weeks in New York and hired a full crew (around 9/10 people on set) to film a professional cinematic interview with Gary Marcus.

@Connoraxiotes David "Duvenaud" Former Anthropic Team Lead it should have said.

‘Making God’ Update [13.04.25]

High-Level Summary:

• We spent the last couple weeks on filming for our “Proof of Concept” - to show funders of the quality of our documentary.

• We have conducted 5 cinematic interviews among civil society, unions, legal experts, and AI experts. We have provided stills, but it should be noted they are yet to be fully edited. But they do give an indication of style and high quality.

• In order to increase the likelihood of film festival acceptance and streaming service acquisition thereafter, we need additional funding over the next two months to hire a full production team and gear. Mike filmed these interviews by himself and I (Connor) interviewed.

• Next steps: edit up these 5 interviews to show as our Proof of Concept video; hire full production team for new shoots and reshoots where necessary; get more great interviews; continue fundraising.

For the last two weeks, we have conducted 5 interviews, and have more in the schedule for the next couple weeks.

1) Prof. Rose Chan Loui is the Founding Executive Director, Lowell Milken Center on Philanthropy and Nonprofits at UCLA.

• We went to UCLA for a conference on AI and Nonprofits, and later filmed Rose in her family home. As we entered her home we met her Husband and her two dogs. Rose beamed at us and showed us into her office, hoping we wouldn’t find it too messy. It wasn’t!

• When we sat down to interview, Rose spoke to us about: her work in nonprofits; being dragged into the AI conversation through her legal background; the history of OpenAI as a nonprofit; Delaware Public Benefit Corporations and Anthropic; Sam Altman’s firing and OpenAI board hopes and worries; the worries she has for her family around the development of AGI.

• On 3 separate 80,000 Hours podcasts she amassed millions of views for her expertise on AI lab nonprofit structures.

2) Prof. Ellen Aprill is Senior Scholar in Residence and taught Political Activities of Nonprofit Organizations at UCLA in 2024.

• Ellen retired last year but came back to UCLA to work at the center focused on nonprofits. Like Rose, she’d been dragged into the world of AI and is worried about its implications for the world. As we turned up to her drive, Ellen ushered us into her family home. We were briefly introduced to her husband, Sunny, a retired lawyer, Ellen asked if we didn’t mind setting up as she called a student and went through their work. Even after retiring it seemed Ellen hadn’t lost her enthusiasm to teach and support.

• Ellen spoke to us in her home office about: the incorporated missions of nonprofits; valuing nonprofit AI research labs; her worries about the future; and her optimism about humanity.

3) Holly Elmore is the Executive Director of Pause AI US.

• She spoke to us in Dolores park at a leafletting session where her and other Pause AI volunteers gave their spare time to educate the public on risks from AI. The public seemed interested in what they had to say, but most smiled and carried on with their day. Holly and other volunteers spoke to us about the reason for protesting. Their solution to mitigating risks from AI is a ‘pause’ on the development of AI.

4) Eli Lifland is the Founding Researcher at the AI Futures Project, and a top forecaster.

• He spoke to us about: his work in forecasting the development of AI and in particular artificial super intelligence; a brief history of deep learning; what are LLMs?; his work on AI 2027 predicting when ASI might flood the remote job economy; his worries about AGI lab race dynamics; a race to the bottom on AI Safety; US-China race dynamics; his hopes that we slow down a bit to get this right; the burden of predicting possible catastrophe and the rest of the world being seemingly not aware and unprepared.

5) Heather-Rose is Government Affairs Lead in LA for Labor Union SAG-AFTRA.

• She spoke to us about her: political campaigning to educate Congressmen and Women on risks from AI; serves on SAG-AFTRA’s New Technology Committee, focusing on protecting actors' rights against AI misuse; she became interested in AI safety in 2020 and has since been advocating for regulations on AI-generated content and deepfakes; job loss concerns, too.

Civil Society

• We have also been interviewing the general public about their views on AI and their worries and hopes.

Upcoming Interviews

1. Cristina Criddle, Financial Times Tech Correspondent covering AI - recently broke the Financial Times story about OpenAI giving days long safety-testing rather than months for new models).

2. David Kokotajlo, Former Anthropic Team Lead.

3. John Sherman, Dads Against AI and podcasting.

Potential Interviews

1. Jack Clark (we are in touch with Anthropic Press Team).

2. Gary Marcus (said to get back to him in a couple weeks).

Interviews We’d Love

1. Kelsey Piper, Vox.

2. Daniel Kokotajlo, formerly OpenAI.

3. AI Lab employees.

4. Lab whistleblowers.

5. Civil society leaders.

Points to Note:

• The legal interviews focus on Sam Altman and OpenAI as the Professors are legal experts in the field of nonprofit reorganization. Future interviews will focus on other AGI labs, too. Like with the Eli interview, which focuses on the other players in the field.

• The stills are from interviews with a 1-man crew (just Mike, our Director). Future stills of future interviews will be even more cinematic with a full (or even half) crews. This is what we need the immediate next funding for.

Austin has set up a really great atmosphere here at Mox, and was welcoming and helpful every time I visited.