Add a heading It starts with a spark—a feeling, an image, a scene in your head that refuses to leave. For filmmaker and visual storyteller Bernhard Ensomo, this spark used to live in the margins of comic books he sketched as a child. Now, it takes life in digital canvases, cinematic frames, and increasingly—in the abstract intelligence of a tool called Midjourney.We sat down with Bernhard to understand how AI isn’t replacing creativity—it’s reshaping it. In his world, Midjourney isn’t the artist. It’s the assistant—fast, tireless, powerful, and deeply dependent on the human behind the vision.

Childhood Comics, Star Wars Dreams, and the Making of a Visual Thinker

Bernhard’s creative journey began in the pages of his handmade comic books, heavily inspired by Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Japanese manga aesthetic. But it wasn’t until he picked up a camera that he understood what he truly loved: storytelling with Midjourney and visuals. “I was always drawn to the visual rhythm of scenes—how lighting, camera movement, and framing could tell a story without dialogue.” Years later, when he stepped onto a commercial set in Luxembourg as a director, he brought a new tool with him: Midjourney. He wasn’t using it for final visuals. He was using it to translate a feeling into something the entire team could see—before the cameras even rolled.

Midjourney on Set: From Moodboards to Scene Direction

It was during that commercial shoot that Bernhard realised how much faster the content creation process could move. Using Midjourney, he created multiple moodboards, lighting references, and environment designs in hours—what would’ve taken days with traditional methods. Actors understood the mood. The DOP understood the lighting direction. Even producers could visualize the final outcome. Suddenly, creative ambiguity had a visual anchor.

What makes Bernhard’s work with Midjourney stand out isn’t just how he uses it, but how he speaks to it. Instead of generic prompts like “sunset cityscape,” he inputs details like “backlit silhouette, 35mm lens, teal-orange grade, volumetric fog, symmetrical composition.” The result? AI-generated frames that look like stills from a Nolan film.

“The prompt is your script. If you don’t know how a camera works, how light behaves, or how mood is built—you won’t get meaningful output.” Midjourney doesn’t replace the cinematographer—it amplifies the one who knows the craft.

Solving Real Challenges with Midjourney

Bernhard shared a particularly striking example where Midjourney was a game-changer. “I recently created a key image for a TV production—a group photo in a specific style, with costumes, multiple characters, and lots of visual variables. It was the very first image the audience would see at the beginning of the episode—shown fullscreen and printed at 1.20 meters wide. So it had to be rich in detail, cinematic, and set the entire tone for the story”.

He explained how Midjourney was essential in achieving that look, especially with its new reference features that allowed him to fine-tune composition, mood, and styling in ways that would’ve been nearly impossible within the time and budget constraints of a traditional shoot. This was a perfect example of how content creation can be enhanced by AI, not replaced by it.

Integrating Midjourney into Moving Images

Bernhard has also mastered the blend of traditional editing and generative tools. “I start by perfecting the still image—refining the reference until it feels as close to final as possible. Once the image is polished, I use it as a reference input in tools like Runway or Kling to generate motion. That image serves as both visual anchor and inspiration.”

He often uses the stills to generate prompts, sometimes with the help of custom GPTs to craft the most effective phrasing. This combination of refined imagery and strategic prompting helps him create motion that stays true to the original vision, proving that storytelling with Midjourney can extend beautifully into video formats through motion graphic overlays and compositing in After Effects or similar software. For Bernhard, Midjourney has become more than a toy—it’s an invisible team member. He uses it not just for visualizing fictional worlds, but also for branding projects, personal content creation, and digital campaigns.

“Even if I’m working on a small budget, I can pitch a million-dollar concept.”

And that’s where the real magic lies: democratizing creativity. Small creators, indie brands, even content coaches can now simulate Hollywood-level aesthetics—if they understand the emotional logic of imagery and the art of storytelling with Midjourney.

It’s Not Man vs. Machine—It’s Man x Machine

As we wrap our conversation, Bernhard says,

“At the end of the day, Midjourney can’t feel. It can replicate, remix, and simulate—but it can’t dream. That’s still our job.”

He’s not worried about AI replacing creatives. He’s excited about creatives who know how to work with AI—those who treat it not as a shortcut, but as a collaborator. In his hands, Midjourney becomes an intuitive extension of his storytelling muscle—quick to visualize, but always grounded in human emotion.

Bernhard Ensomo’s work reminds us that the future of content creation and storytelling doesn’t belong to technology. It belongs to those who know how to harness it with heart.AI will evolve. Prompts will grow more complex. But that first spark—the one Bernhard felt sketching comic book panels as a kid—that will always come from us.

Bernhard’s story highlights how Midjourney isn’t just for concept artists or tech enthusiasts—it’s becoming an essential tool for modern storytellers. If you’re looking to dive deeper into how to use Midjourney in your own creative process, we recommend exploring The Ultimate Midjourney v7 Masterclass with Margarida Barreto. It’s a fast-track, hands-on course designed to help you unlock the full potential of generative AI—from beginner to expert. Whether you’re a filmmaker, designer, or digital creator, this could be the next step in transforming your ideas into powerful visuals.

Visual depiction of what can be done using midjourney