The reject gallery

We throw away most of what we make.

Every scene is generated in candidate waves and scored against the subject’s reference photos — aging drift, wrong gear, invented text, warped anatomy, plastic skin. Frames that fail are discarded before anyone sees a delivery. This page publishes a selection of our own failures, because a portfolio that only shows winners is a highlight reel, not evidence. Two frames below were overruled and kept by the founder — we publish those too, labeled as overrules.

The numbers behind this discipline are published receipts, not marketing: in the founders-cast shoot of August 28, 2026, 32 of 36 generated candidates were rejected and the 4 frames that shipped scored 88–96% against the 85% threshold. How the Quality Gate works — rubric, promises, and the receipt file — is documented on the fidelity page. Every image on this page is AI-generated founders-cast material and labeled as such. Score never outranks the eye.

The four passport-style frames below are the newest entries, and the whole thesis in one case: we generated them of our own founders, all four passed the numeric identity gate — real audited scores of 1.10, 0.96, 1.20 and 1.26 against the 0.85 bar — and the founder rejected every single one on likeness the day they went live. A facial-recognition score is necessary, but it is not sufficient: the last few percent is perceived likeness, and the subject is the final gate. So they came off the passport page and the looks, and moved here — where failures belong.

Rejected AI-generated frame: the subject's likeness drifted in a face-off scene — Identity mismatch — the subject's likeness drifted. (The belly tattoo is real: real tattoos on real people are allowed.)

Rejected AI-generated frame: legible Thai storefront signage in a market scene — Legible market signage — the no-text checklist killed the whole round.

AI-generated frame with half the face at the frame edge — QA rejected it, the founder overruled and kept it — Overruled — founder keeper. QA rejected the half-face crop; the founder kept it because the frame is fantastic.

Rejected AI-generated frame: terrier with erect ears instead of Dexter's floppy ears — Wrong dog — erect ears. Dexter's are floppy.

Rejected AI-generated frame: subject's face turned away from camera in a proposal scene — Her face turned away and down — pose-guard violation.

AI-generated Tokyo night frame with a magenta cast — QA flagged it, the founder overruled and kept it — Overruled — founder keeper. QA flagged the magenta cast; the founder kept it — the cast reads as film character.

Rejected AI-generated passport-style photo of founder Mathieu against an off-white booth background — passed the numeric identity gate at 1.10, vetoed by the subject himself — Subject veto — identity chip 1.10, a numeric PASS. Mathieu, on his own frame: “the better one, but it's still not me and it's still not a good picture.”

Rejected AI-generated passport-style photo of founder Mathieu in a navy tee — identity chip 0.96, a numeric pass the subject said does not look like him at all — Subject veto — chip 0.96, a numeric PASS. Mathieu: “this does not look like me at all … it's that last 4% that really matters.”

Rejected AI-generated passport-style photo of cofounder Piya with a chin-length black bob — passed the numeric identity gate at 1.20, rejected in the founder review — Founder veto — chip 1.20, a numeric PASS. The ruling: “Gift Passport 1 is not good.”

Rejected AI-generated passport-style photo of cofounder Piya, bare-skin look with natural freckles — the highest chip of the four at 1.26, still rejected with the whole passport set — Founder veto — chip 1.26, the highest numeric score of the four, and “the more accurate one” of her pair — still rejected with the whole passport set.

Why publish failures

No magic — discipline.

The whole trick is real reference photos in, a directed scene out, and a selection pass that rejects most frames before you ever see them. Paid shoots pass the same selection discipline: every delivered photo is scored against your references by an independent AI judge, below-threshold frames are regenerated at our cost, and if you disagree with our own Quality Gate there is a full refund even after download — no questions (7-day, 100%).

Style note: analog film-border looks — black frame edges and all — are available on request.

The Quality Gate works for you too.

Four one-time tiers from $9.99. Same Quality Gate, same receipts, at every price.Book my shoot — $9.99