Rob McLellan Returns To Independent Film With 'My Week With Sera'

The British filmmaker behind the viral science-fiction short 'ABE' returns with an unconventional 28-minute documentary that challenges expectations of what AI-generated cinema can be.

More than a decade after his science-fiction short 'ABE' attracted Hollywood attention, British filmmaker Rob McLellan is exploring a very different kind of storytelling.

His latest film, 'My Week With Sera', is a 28-minute fictional documentary following an extraordinary young woman through the streets of Japan. Shot in the style of an intimate, observational travel documentary, the film blends humour, romance and quiet moments of human connection into a story that deliberately avoids the spectacle typically associated with AI-generated filmmaking.

There is, however, one unusual detail about its central character.

Sera is an elf.

And neither she nor the world she inhabits was filmed using conventional cameras.

A Different Kind of AI Film

Set against the bustling streets of Tokyo and the quieter coastal landscapes of Japan, 'My Week With Sera' follows an unnamed cameraman whose chance encounter with a visiting elf develops into an unexpected friendship.

Sera is curious, impulsive, occasionally infuriating and frequently hilarious. Although she comes from a civilisation very different from our own, her fascination with everyday human experiences gives the film much of its charm.

Rather than constructing a conventional fantasy adventure, McLellan approaches the premise as though Sera were a real person being followed by a documentary crew.

The camera frequently struggles to keep up with her. Conversations unfold naturally, sometimes awkwardly. Scenes linger on apparently insignificant moments, allowing the audience to discover the character through her behaviour rather than exposition.

It is a deliberate departure from the increasingly familiar visual language of generative AI demonstrations, where spectacular imagery often takes precedence over narrative or character.

For McLellan, the technology is simply another way of putting a story on screen.

The Filmmaker Behind 'ABE'

McLellan first attracted international attention in 2013 with 'ABE', a disturbing science-fiction short about a malfunctioning robot whose understanding of love has taken a sinister turn.

The film became an online success and attracted the attention of Hollywood, eventually leading to a feature-film development deal with MGM.

The experience introduced McLellan to the machinery of studio filmmaking, but also placed him in a creative category that proved difficult to escape: the director of dark, high-concept robot stories.

His interests, however, have always extended well beyond science fiction.

Over the following decade, McLellan built a career in visualisation and virtual production, working at the intersection of traditional filmmaking and emerging real-time technology.

His experience includes senior creative and supervisory roles in virtual production, where filmmaking techniques, digital environments and real-time rendering increasingly overlap.

That combination of traditional storytelling instincts and technical experience would eventually provide the foundation for a new approach to independent production.

Rediscovering Creative Independence

For independent filmmakers, ambitious storytelling has historically required significant financial backing, particularly when a project involves fantasy characters, international locations or extensive visual effects.

Generative filmmaking tools are beginning to change that equation.

While the technology remains imperfect, it offers filmmakers the possibility of creating images and performances that would previously have required substantial crews, complex production logistics and considerable budgets.

For McLellan, the opportunity was also deeply personal.

“I wanted to get back to the kind of films I made when I was younger. Small, personal stories about people and their relationships. Somewhere along the way, filmmaking became about bigger concepts, bigger budgets and all the machinery that comes with them. With Sera, I wanted to strip all that away and just spend time with a character I loved. The funny thing is, it's taken this extraordinary new technology to let me make films the way I used to.”

His approach is not to imitate the scale of Hollywood filmmaking, but to explore what becomes possible when those traditional production constraints are reduced.

In 'My Week With Sera', this freedom is expressed through unusually modest storytelling choices.

Instead of enormous battles or elaborate action sequences, the film concentrates on conversations, fleeting expressions, spontaneous humour and the peculiar intimacy that develops between its two central characters.

The result is a film that uses highly sophisticated technology to pursue something surprisingly simple: an emotional connection with its audience.

Making an Imaginary Person Feel Real

The greatest challenge in creating a character such as Sera is not necessarily visual consistency or technical realism.

It is convincing the audience that she exists beyond the immediate requirements of the story.

Throughout the film, Sera demonstrates a personality that is playful, contradictory and occasionally unpredictable. She can appear aloof one moment and disarmingly affectionate the next.

Her relationship with the cameraman develops through shared experiences rather than conventional romantic storytelling, with the documentary format allowing the audience to observe their growing closeness without always being told what to feel.

This approach extends to the film's cinematography.

Long lenses, imperfect handheld framing, naturalistic lighting and foreground obstructions create the impression of a camera operator responding to events as they happen.

The aesthetic is intentionally observational rather than polished.

It is an important distinction for a film created through generative technology: the images are carefully constructed to appear as though nobody is constructing them.

Beyond the Technology

The emergence of AI-generated filmmaking has prompted considerable debate across the creative industries, particularly around authorship, employment, artistic value and the future of traditional production.

Those discussions are unlikely to disappear.

But 'My Week With Sera' approaches the technology from a different direction, asking what kinds of stories an independent filmmaker might now be able to tell.

For McLellan, whose career has spanned conventional directing, Hollywood development, visual effects and virtual production, the film represents another stage in a long relationship with emerging filmmaking tools.

More significantly, it marks a return to personal storytelling.

Where 'ABE' was built around a disturbing science-fiction premise, Sera is built around a personality.

The film ultimately succeeds or fails not on whether its audience is impressed by the technology, but on whether they care about the young woman at the centre of it.

And perhaps that is the more interesting question for the future of AI cinema.

Not whether a computer can generate convincing moving images, but whether a filmmaker can use those images to make an audience feel something.

'My Week With Sera' is an independent short film written and directed by Rob McLellan.

For screening information, trailers and further details, visit robmclellanfilm.co.uk.