The Global Search for Education: The Legend of the Lost Notes

Posted By C. M. Rubin on Jul 14, 2026

C. M.(Cathy) Rubin in Conversation with Kayla Lucas

This month, audiences can screen The Legend of the Lost Notes on the Planet Classroom Network. What happens when a young writer loses everything — and finds clarity through artificial intelligence?

In this film, creator Kayla Lucas uses VEO and other next-generation AI tools to tell the story of Alex, a writer overwhelmed by scattered research and information overload. What unfolds is not just a rescue story; it’s a reflection on how AI can organize chaos, amplify human thinking, and transform confusion into creativity.

But this film is also a behind-the-scenes experiment in emerging storytelling tools. How do you direct an AI? How do you preserve emotion and narrative voice when machines help generate the visuals? To explore the future of authorship in the age of AI, we sat down with filmmaker Kayla Lucas to discuss her creative process and practical insights for the next generation of storytellers.

The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome artist Kayla Lucas.

C. M. Rubin: Kayla, you built this film using VEO and other next-generation AI tools. Walk us through your step-by-step process from the initial idea to the final cut.

Kayla Lucas: My first step was to create and listen to the voiceover from the script. I believe the audio is a major factor in determining the tone of the final video, so I wanted to deeply understand the feeling the audience was meant to have. Once the audio was complete, I realized the tone should be light-hearted and accessible rather than a strict overview of a product.

With that in mind, I moved into VEO. I focused on making sure the main character, Alex, stayed consistent across scenes, but I allowed the backgrounds and her actions to evolve through different iterations until I found the version that best captured the story’s spirit.

C. M. Rubin: VEO can generate powerful visuals, but the intention still comes from the filmmaker. How did you guide the AI to achieve a consistent emotional tone and character design?

Kayla Lucas: To maintain consistency, I kept certain “anchors” in my prompts that remained the same across every iteration. For example, I always described Alex as a girl with brown hair in a braid, glasses, and a yellow sweater. I also specified 2.5D paper-craft visuals and warm lighting to ensure a consistent color palette.

I was impressed that even if I occasionally forgot a detail, the AI stayed true to the vision I had established. The moments where I could sync the AI-generated lip-sync to the audio were when I knew I had struck gold—it brought the human element and the technology together seamlessly.

C. M. Rubin: What surprised you most about working with AI as a creative collaborator? Was there a moment when the tool pushed your story further than you originally imagined?

Kayla Lucas: I was most surprised by how well the AI maintained the specific visual style. I initially worried it wouldn’t be able to pull off the “hand-crafted” feel I imagined, but it exceeded my expectations. This style made the film much more friendly and engaging. While The Legend of The Lost Notes isn’t a comedy, the aesthetic and certain visual beats make you smile, helping the film feel like a genuine story rather than just an infomercial for a tool like NotebookLM.

C. M. Rubin: For filmmakers who feel intimidated by next-gen tools, what advice would you give about maintaining creative authorship while experimenting with AI?

Kayla Lucas: My advice is to view working with AI as a “give and take” with your ideas. Because scenes in VEO are currently limited to a few seconds, you are forced to consider exactly what needs to happen in that brief window. That limitation is actually a great way to preserve your authorship—you have to make the critical decisions on where to end clips and how to pace the narrative. Sometimes the best way to create is to see what the technology can’t do, and then work around those boundaries to create something truly unique with your own hands.

Thank you, Kayla!