The question is rarely “which is best” and almost always “which is right for this brief, this budget and this deadline”. Each route has a job it does better than the others.
Live-action film
Best when human performance, texture and place are the point: a salon, a showroom, a chef at work. It costs more and takes longer, and it is the hardest thing for a competitor to copy.
Photography
The workhorse. Fast to produce, easy to adapt across channels, and ideal for product, packaging and identity systems that need a large, consistent library.
AI-assisted production
Powerful for concept films, impossible scenes and fast iteration. It works best when a strong creative director steers it and when the brand is clear about where synthetic imagery fits and where it does not.
Choose the route by the job it has to do, not by what is fashionable this quarter.
