Creator spotlight: Mark Wachholz

Mark Wachholz, a filmmaker in Berlin, built his horror short, Unblind, using AI tools that make sound pull you deeper into the story. Set around Emily, a blind girl under her mother’s strict control, Unblind uses sound to shape what the audience can’t see.

For the mother’s voice, Mark chose Anna - Female Classroom Teacher from our Voice Library. A fitting choice for a horror, in a way. Mark also used our Sound Effects model to capture Emily’s whispers and her mother’s distant calls. These voices and sounds aren’t just background; Mark pushed our settings to the edge for depth. This gave him freedom in building highly expressive moments, especially for whispers, screams, and sobs, which don’t rely on matching specific voices but add to the eerie ambiance.

By maxing out options like Stability, Similarity, and Style exaggeration, Mark let the details amplify the tension. He took a creative leap by using sound effects as voices for extra range. For moments like a whispered confession or a shout from behind a door, he didn’t rely on standard voice models alone. Instead, he used our SFX tool to produce these sounds, prompting with lines like “A woman shouting: ‘Emily, open the door!’” for just the right feel.

In a smart twist, Mark used our tools to create a haunting hum—a tune to echo throughout the film. Rather than composing from scratch, he again prompted our sound effects tool to create a young girl humming, then took that clip to another platform to extend it into a song. The final touch is subtle, but you can hear Emily hum the same tune she hears on an old record, layering the story with a small but chilling bit of continuity.

Mark’s approach isn’t about pushing boundaries for the sake of it—it’s about getting the most out of every tool and building an intuition of their limits. The result really tells a story.

Find Mark’s work on YouTube and X.

About Mark

Mark Wachholz is a Berlin-based filmmaker with a 20-year background in writing, spanning novels, video games, and film. This year, he created award-winning concept trailers for The Day the World Prayed and Riefenstahl and is dedicated to pursuing projects using AI in cinema. Unblind, his horror short, serves as both a standalone film and a glimpse into a larger story, with a script currently being explored for opportunities with industry giants.