Dustin Hollywood disputes Dreamina's feature-film credit support for a 90-minute Seedance 2 film

• Dreamina declined the credits requested for The Last Artist, according to emails published by dustinhollywood.
• A 90-minute film would consume roughly $7,000 in Seedance 2 credits or $18,000 in Seedance 2.5 credits under his estimate, which assumes eight iterations per shot.
• No IP changed hands, Hollywood later confirmed in the discussion.
• Credit grants enable work other creators cannot afford, says AIandDesign, a participant in Dreamina’s Creative Partner Program.

Dreamina’s Originals announcement promises computing power and distribution resources. Its call for projects runs through December 2026, while the discounted Power credits in the credit-store screenshot expire three months after purchase.

Filmmaker Dustin Hollywood opened the dispute by warning creators against submitting their IP to Dreamina in his initial post. The emails he subsequently published show Dreamina expressing enthusiasm for The Last Artist, requesting a credit estimate conditional on finance approval, then declining the allocation after internal review.

Hollywood budgeted eight iterations per shot for a 90-minute feature in his production estimate:

• Seedance 2: approximately 1.2 million credits, valued at $7,000.
• Seedance 2.5: approximately 3.2 million credits, valued at $18,000.

He favors 2.5, saying Seedance 2’s artifacts and inconsistencies fall short of his theatrical-quality target. The iteration count is the budget’s expensive assumption.

Credit consumption varies with the model, feature and generation settings, according to Dreamina’s pricing page.

Hollywood valued the proposed combination at approximately $17,000 to $28,000 in his account of the discussions:

• Generation credits, subject to approval.
• $10,000 in marketing support, controlled by an agency selected by Dreamina.

He says no cash was offered to him at that stage. In a later reply, he clarified that he expected to negotiate additional compensation if the project moved forward.

Hollywood said he had not received a contract and confirmed that no IP changed hands. Compensation, licensing, distribution and ownership would still have needed negotiation.

Dreamina’s Originals team also addressed submitted materials in the published rejection email: projects that do not proceed would have their materials retained only for internal project record-keeping, with no use for model training.

AIandDesign questioned whether the correspondence supported Hollywood’s broader accusations, arguing that it showed a company evaluating a potential collaboration and declining a credit request.

Dreamina’s Creative Partner Program rewards qualifying social posts, according to AIandDesign’s account of his participation:

• Post a video longer than 60 seconds and tag Dreamina.
• Receive 10,000 credits per qualifying post.
• Earn up to five rewards, or 50,000 credits, per month.

He argued that creators without the money to fund generations themselves can face a choice between subsidized production and making nothing. That defense concerns access to tools through the CPP, alongside Hollywood’s separate dispute over financing an Originals feature.

Hollywood says one unnamed client paid him $318,000 for six commercials this year, and described his separate working relationship with CapCut positively in a reply comparing his experiences.

He plans to make The Last Artist independently or with another studio.