The Nightreel

I built a video studio that works while I sleep.

In 6 days, by talking to Claude Code. Now I'm opening the notebook: what worked, what broke, and what every video actually cost. The ebooks are being written, and people on the list read them first.

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What it really cost

Pulled straight from the system's own AI spending ledger. No estimates.

  1. 60-second 3D Short, first versionan AI video clip in every scene$2.40
  2. Same format, after tuning42 s, 10 scenes, only 3 animated by AI$0.70
  3. Narration for a 12-minute documentaryvoice picked by ear among three models$0.033
  4. Profile picture for a new channelone image, one try$0.135

Server costs and my time aren't in this table. In the ebooks, they are.

What broke along the way

Tutorials show what worked. The rest is what teaches you. A few pages from the notebook, in the order they happened:

  1. The voice that read its instructions out loud

    I asked the voice AI to narrate "like an epic storyteller". It did, and read the request too, right in the middle of the audio. A 1:41 narration came back at 2:47.

    What I changed: every narration is transcribed and checked against the script before it's accepted. A voice that improvises gets rejected automatically.

  2. The model that answered the questions

    The script said "Did you know…?". The cheapest voice model didn't read the line: it answered it.

    What I changed: I switched models and started comparing voices side by side, on the same passage, before choosing.

  3. Two of me working at the same time

    Videos kept failing for no visible reason. A forgotten process from an earlier session was still running old code and fighting the new one for the same queue.

    What I changed: one lock per video, and a check that runs before any debugging starts.

  4. It thought so hard it never answered

    A text model spent its whole response budget reasoning and returned empty JSON. I paid for silence.

    What I changed: on calls that only fill in a format, reasoning stays off.

  5. From $2.40 to $0.70 without a worse video

    Animating every scene with AI looked great and cost a lot. Most of a Short doesn't need generated motion: it needs a camera.

    What I changed: only the hook and the highest-impact scenes become clips; the rest is a still image with a slow camera move.

Each story becomes a section in the ebooks: the symptom, how I found the cause, and the exact request I gave Claude Code to fix it.

The ebooks

Three books written from what I built, broke, and fixed. None is finished yet: whichever the list asks for most gets done first.

Beginner, being written

Claude Code from zero

From installing it to your first project that works.

For people who have never used AI in the terminal, or tried it and decided "it doesn't work".

What you'll learn

  • Install it, open it in the right folder, and have a first conversation that actually produces something.
  • The CLAUDE.md file: what to put in it so the AI stops forgetting your project.
  • Asking well: context beats any "magic prompt". Bad and good requests, side by side.
  • Plan mode, permissions, and when to let the AI act on its own.
  • Reading what the AI changed before accepting it, with Git as your safety net.

Advanced, being written

Claude Code as a team

Skills, MCP, subagents, and several sessions working at once.

For people who already use it and want to stop doing by hand what the AI can do alone.

What you'll learn

  • Skills: teach a task once and call it by name. The 8 I use, open.
  • MCP in practice: the AI opening a browser to test its own screen, deploying, and sending email.
  • Subagents and parallel sessions, with Claude Code alone or an orchestrator like Orca.
  • Worktrees: each task in its own copy of the project, so no session steps on another.
  • Making the AI prove it's done: tests, screenshots, and review before you even look.

Intermediate, being written

AI video

From script to published video, for under $1.

For people who want to make videos with AI, from 3D Shorts to documentaries, without losing quality or spending a fortune.

What you'll learn

  • A video's journey: research with sources, script, narration, images, editing, and publishing.
  • Narration that doesn't make things up: picking a voice by ear and checking every sentence before accepting it.
  • 3D Shorts with Remotion and three.js, with the AI writing the code for each scene.
  • Six art direction rules that make simple shapes look expensive.
  • Where to spend and where to save: how the same Short went from $2.40 to $0.70.

Mark the ones you want. Your picks go with you when you join the list.

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Who it's for, and who it isn't

You'll like it if you

  • are curious and want to see what AI really does;
  • write code and want to go beyond autocomplete;
  • create content and want to make more without the quality dropping;
  • enjoy behind-the-scenes, real numbers, and explained mistakes.

Better skip it if you

  • are looking for guaranteed passive income;
  • want to post 50 videos a day copied from other channels;
  • expect a magic button that saves you from reading.

What I won't do

Show revenue screenshots. The channels started in October 2026 and aren't monetized yet. I'll publish the numbers as they come in, including if it doesn't work.

Say it's easy. It was six intense days, and I already knew how to code. The beginner ebook exists to shorten your path, not to pretend there isn't one.

Charge you by surprise. The full ebooks will be paid. When one is ready, you get the price first, decide if you want it, and read it before everyone else.

From the first commit, on October 13, until today: 135 commits, 41 releases in production, 52 thousand lines of code, and 4 channels in two languages. I didn't type most of those lines. That's what the ebooks teach: how to steer the AI until you get there.

Questions people have asked me

Is it free?

Joining the waitlist, yes. The ebooks will be paid: people on the list see the price first, pay less than at launch, and only buy if they want to. There's no automatic charge.

Do I need to know how to code?

For "Claude Code from zero", no. You need to be able to open a program and follow instructions calmly. "Claude Code as a team" and "AI video" assume you're comfortable in a terminal.

What is Claude Code?

It's a tool from Anthropic where you talk to the AI inside your project folder. It reads files, writes code, runs commands, and tests, always with your permission. It's what I used to build everything on this page.

Will I make money with this?

I don't know, and be wary of anyone who says they do. What I can promise is to show what it costs, how long it takes, and what did or didn't work on my channels. The decision is yours, with the numbers in hand.

Does it work with tools other than Claude Code?

The ideas do: context, review, cost, sources, automation. The commands and examples are Claude Code's, because that's what I use every day. When I talk about orchestrators like Orca, I explain what changes.

The channels are in Portuguese and German. Is this in English?

Yes. Everyone who joins from this page gets the emails and the ebooks in English. The system itself works in any language; mine just happens to start with those two.

Will I get spam?

No. You get a note when an ebook is ready and, now and then, a behind-the-scenes update from the studio. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and you can reply to any of them: I'm the one who reads it.

What happens to my data?

I keep your email, name, interests, and what you wrote, only to send you what you asked for and to decide which book to write first. Emails go out through Resend, which stores your address for that. I don't sell or share it with anyone else. Every email has a link to leave, and you can ask me to delete everything by replying to any of them.

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