Romain Gavras, who directed GENER8ION and Yung Lean’s “Storm” video, said in a Vulture interview published October 20, 2026 that the AI clones of its dance scene, many made with Higgsfield’s Genjutsu tool, “made me sad,” and that he turned down AI companies that asked to license the video. A copyright lawyer told Vulture that suing is close to impossible in practice.
The original took real bodies and real film. “Storm” came out on April 24, 2026 as a seven-and-a-half-minute video for “Storm I” and “Storm II,” two tracks by GENER8ION, the project Gavras shares with the French producer Surkin. Its last scene puts Yung Lean, smoking, in front of 66 schoolboys who explode into choreography by Damien Jalet. Vulture reports the boys came from a two-month casting search, rehearsed for three days, and were filmed in one unbroken take on 16mm, about 15 tries in all.
What are the “Storm” copies?
In September, according to Vulture, social feeds filled with clips that rebuilt about half a minute of the scene, same moves and same camera, with Lean and the class replaced by dogs, babies, a penguin, a grandmother, Erling Haaland, Elon Musk, Kim Jong-un, Hitler and Jeffrey Epstein. Vulture says many were made with Genjutsu, which Higgsfield released in late August: a user uploads up to 30 seconds of footage and a few reference images, and the tool keeps the motion, timing and camerawork while swapping people, costumes and scenery. Vulture puts the price at about $7 for a 15-second HD clip, and says other AI apps then offered ready-made “Storm” templates. Neither Vulture nor Stereogum reported view counts for the copies.
It made me sad for all the people who put in so much work on our video. A trend like this can make even good work look lame.Romain Gavras, to Vulture
His daughter sent him the first one he saw, a dog. He also said the video was never meant as a statement about AI: “It’s a study of male toxicity, fragility, and violence.”
Why not just license it, or sue?
Gavras said a few AI companies asked to license “Storm” and he said no: “There’s an economic model coming that we didn’t want to be a part of.” He pays for passion projects by directing ads, he said, but “‘Storm’ was supposed to be pure and I can’t stain it.”
The lawsuit route runs into a crowd problem. Vulture calls the choreography almost certainly protected by copyright, and Los Angeles copyright lawyer Aaron Moss pointed to a 2023 appeals ruling that revived a choreographer’s case against Epic Games over a couple of seconds of dance: if that got past a motion to dismiss, he said, 30 seconds of dozens of dancers should too. But liability usually lands on whoever presses the button, which here means thousands of anonymous users in dozens of countries. “The practical ability to sue over most of these copies is close to zero,” Moss said.
The platforms built their tools to catch copies. A clip where every face, costume and wall has been swapped is a harder match to make.
What can a director actually do on the platforms?
The tools exist, but each one has a gate:
- YouTube Content ID scans every upload against reference files, then blocks, monetizes or tracks matches. YouTube says it is only for owners of “a substantial body of original material that is frequently uploaded.”
- YouTube’s Copyright Match Tool and its “Prevent copies” option find re-uploads; per YouTube’s help page, potential matches that “weren’t copies” are not blocked from upload automatically but listed for the owner to review.
- A copyright removal request works one video at a time, and YouTube asks claimants to consider fair use before they submit.
- YouTube likeness detection, still experimental, flags AI-altered faces of enrolled creators who verify with an ID and a selfie video. In the “Storm” clips, the faces are exactly what got replaced.
- TikTok takes copyright reports through a form or in-app, and says it will use “best efforts” to stop the same video reappearing.
That is the gap Gavras is standing in. The takedown machinery Sony has used at scale is built for owners with catalogs and staff, and laws like Denmark’s proposed voice-clone ban protect people, not a camera move. Music videos are now in the same spot audio was, where even a real one gets accused of being AI.
Gavras answered the only way he found. GENER8ION closed the VMAs on September 27 with 66 dancers, almost all new, recreating the scene live with Lean, who licked an ice-cream cone instead of smoking. “Storm” lost all four VMAs it was nominated for. “Today, at least,” Gavras said, “I’m not crying in front of the machine.”