August 18 2026, 12:45 pm | BY Ricki Green | No Comments
Award-winning filmmakers Nicholas Carlton (left) and James Lawler (right) have today launched Gobstopper, an AI creative studio making brand campaigns and original IP. Based in Melbourne, the studio works with clients anywhere in the world.
Gobstopper offers AI motion and stills production, plus hybrid work extending or scaling live shoots with generative tools. The studio sells monthly subscriptions — a guaranteed volume of finished creative at a fixed cost — alongside standard brief-by-brief production.
Says Carlton: “The internet is awash with AI slop. AI gives you infinite choices. What’s scarce is the judgement to make the right ones — aka taste.”
Alongside client work, Gobstopper is developing its own slate of original IP.
Carlton was previously a director at leading production company Airbag, with clients including Ford, Hyundai, TAC, and Hungry Jack’s, and directed on the SBS drama Hungry Ghosts and Foxtel’s Wentworth. He also created the pioneering 2008 web series OzGirl. He’s an ADG Award winner, a Webby honoree and a Good Design Award recipient. He most recently worked in tech as the founder of Spoony, a VC-backed social platform, and spent the past six months building Parallax, an AI filmmaking platform now being folded into Gobstopper’s production tooling.
Lawler was one of Australia’s most in-demand music video directors (The Amity Affliction, The Getaway Plan) before becoming creative director of Australian production company, Visual Domain. His short film Pleasures of the Damned screened at St Kilda Film Festival last year.
The two have worked together for fifteen years.
Says Carlton: “Jimmy’s one of my best mates and the person whose taste I trust most in the world. He introduced me to AI filmmaking last year and saw its potential for real creative work early.”
Says Lawler: “I’ve watched hundreds of briefs die between what a client could imagine and what a shoot could deliver. AI doesn’t just save those briefs. It’s opened up ideas nobody would have dared brief in the first place.”
Gobstopper is now taking briefs from brands, agencies and producers — get in touch at [email protected], and watch the reel below.