EP 063 · 73 MIN HOLLYWOOD'S BEEN DEAD. THIS IS THE BODY.
Midjourney V8 Countdown + Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0 and Higgsfield Fallout
The short version
Drew Brucker and Rory Flynn preview Midjourney's V8 countdown (rating party round two, an edit model expected within a month, native 2K under discussion) while Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.0 raise the bar for AI video. Rory demos a Claude Code skills library he built from scratch in about six hours, and the two dissect Forbes' reporting on Higgsfield's broken creator promises and fake Nano Banana giveaway.
Key takeaways
- 01
Midjourney's edit model is expected within a month of V8 shipping, alongside a possible native 2K mode and a personalization overhaul.
- 02
Drew and Rory expect a March AI-video pileup: Kling's release cadence points to another drop, and a Veo update (VO4) may land too.
- 03
Ask the LLM how it wants data before dumping files on it — Rory likens a messy handoff to a detective's string board versus a clean case file.
- 04
Build small, reusable Claude "skills" instead of one rigid agent — Rory's orchestrator stacks them per project the way a contractor calls in subcontractors.
- 05
Higgsfield allegedly throttled image generation after advertising free Nano Banana access, then framed a 65% price cut as staff "giving up their November paychecks."
- 06
A trending-topics-to-"hypocrisy map" writing structure isn't just for comedy: Rory says the same pipeline he built for a comedian-style bit is repurposable for brand marketing copy.
Receipts · said on the record
“I sent the same answer, the same question, to Opus 4.6, and it fixed the problem in six seconds while the other one was just like running around in circles. This is the dumbest thing ever.”
“I like how Grok does it. I mean, it's fine. I feel like it's a risk for them a little bit if they get rid of batch four and your entire user base who loves you is using batch four and everyone likes batch four.”
“AI has data, artists have damage, and damage is what makes art. The guy in his apartment, one dude, laptop, 45 minutes, made something that looked like a Marvel movie … Hollywood's been dead … just the first one to notice the body.”
“Remember this one, they did a apology campaign. So they claimed they were going to replace 100,000 art jobs with employees bowing on camera and they announced that a 65% price cut framed as we're giving up our November paychecks.”
“One of those undefeated things that's always going to be the most important thing ever for any of us. It's the only thing we can't get back.”
Chapters
- 0:00:00 Winter chaos & NYC survival
- 0:03:59 AI’s quantum leap moment
- 0:06:51 Radio vs podcasts analogy
- 0:08:55 AI series vs Hollywood model
- 0:10:59 What a Game of Thrones (AI) sequel actually means
- 0:14:14 CGI patchwork & filmmaking
- 0:16:14 AI replacing exec decisions
- 0:18:03 Seedance & model hype
- 0:19:48 Midjourney V8 timeline
- 0:20:15 Midjourney rating party (Round 2 + on)
- 0:23:18 2K native resolution talk
- 0:24:26 Batch four replacement
- 0:25:48 Edit model improvements
- 0:26:14 v8 text rendering progress
- 0:27:03 Arbitrary resolution support
- 0:29:06 Personalization in v8
- 0:30:36 Mood boards as leverage
- 0:32:18 AI overwhelm & X fatigue
- 0:34:12 Claude agents & automation
- 0:36:04 “Something is happening”
- 0:39:45 AI skill-building strategy
- 0:45:47 Pattern matching workflows
- 0:48:54 Silicon Valley middle-out
- 0:50:24 Claude comedy experiment
- 0:53:24 Word clouds & ad thinking
- 0:55:14 Hollywood recycling IP
- 0:58:41 Marketing narrative engine
- 1:03:57 Higgsfield controversy
- 1:11:36 Final thoughts & sign-off
Questions this episode answers
What does Fast Hours expect from Midjourney V8?
As of this episode, Drew and Rory expect the edit model within a month of V8 shipping, discuss a possible native 2K mode, a reworked personalization system, and a new mass-generation flow that trades resolution for volume, similar to Grok's.
What happened with Higgsfield?
Drew and Rory discuss Forbes reporting that Higgsfield didn't pay creators it had promised promotion deals to, throttled image generation after advertising free Nano Banana access, and ran an "apology campaign" that framed a 65% price cut as employees giving up their paychecks.
How did Rory Flynn build his Claude Code skills library?
Rory says he spent about six hours asking Claude how it prefers to receive data, then built a library of small, reusable "skills" modeled on his own real-world skills, which an orchestrator agent mixes and matches per project.
What is Rory's "creative analogy engine"?
It's an agent Rory built that pulls trending X topics, maps the opposing arguments into what he calls a "hypocrisy map," then writes in a target voice; he tested it on comedian Andrew Schulz's style and says the same structure is repurposable for brand marketing copy.
Are Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.0 discussed in this episode?
Yes. Drew and Rory say Seedance 2.0 is shaping up as the next Sora-style hype cycle, with an architecture a fellow YouTuber compared to Nano Banana's, while Kling 3.0's release timing helps them guess when Midjourney and Veo will ship next.
Show notes
After a short break, the boys are back! And Episode 63 of the Fast Hours podcast goes off the rails in all the right directions.
With Midjourney v8 expected next week, Drew and Rory zoom out and ask the bigger question: does v8 matter as much as we think?
Because while everyone waits for v8, Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.0 are raising the bar, Claude Code and Claude Cowork are quietly changing how builders operate, and Claude Agents are turning workflows into autonomous systems.
Meanwhile, Higgsfield is melting down in public, Hollywood is panick-maxxing, and creators are realizing that building “skills” inside LLMs might matter more than generating prettier images.
This episode breaks down: • Why Midjourney v8’s native 2K and edit models matter • Why personalization could be the real differentiator • How Claude Code is quietly enabling operator-level leverage • Why skill-building beats agent hype • What Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.0 signal about video AI • The real lesson behind Higgsfield’s fallout • Why the creative skill gap is widening right now
This episode moves from Midjourney roadmap analysis to AI workflow engineering to business survival strategy.
If you care about Midjourney v8, Claude Agents, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0, system prompts, autonomous workflows, or where creative leverage is actually going…
This one isn’t optional.
