cs.MAApr 9, 2026

Sima 1.0: A Collaborative Multi-Agent Framework for Documentary Video Production

Authors: Zhao Song

Organizations: Simons Institute, UC Berkeley

Abstract

Content creation for major video-sharing platforms demands significant manual labor, particularly for long-form documentary videos spanning one to two hours. In this work, we introduce Sima 1.0, a multi-agent system designed to optimize the weekly production pipeline for high-quality video generation. The framework partitions the production process into an 11-step pipeline distributed across a hybrid workforce. While foundational creative tasks and physical recording are executed by a human operator, time-intensive editing, caption refinement, and supplementary asset integration are delegated to specialized junior and senior-level AI agents. By systematizing tasks from script annotation to final asset exportation, Sima 1.0 significantly reduces the production workload, empowering a single creator to efficiently sustain a rigorous weekly publishing schedule.

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