The Dane
How it is being made
This project started out with an idea for a character that Laurence gave Joe. To kill some time on a flight from the UK to the US, Joe decided to develop the story around it.
Those who know him know this character is actually Joe. We wanted to do a character consistency test using a contact-sheet method and one of the best ways to improve character consistency in AI is to use someone you know very well. Any nuances in how he looks, we would know quickly enough.
We started with this image (below) that he created using my personal profile settings in Midjourney. We then took that and created a simple contact sheet (second image below), then put him in an environment (third image), and then developed a character sheet from these.
We then worked up an idea for a situation that would show this character in an emotional state. One more vulnerable than the stereotypical menacing state we normally find these characters in.
We had been experimenting with these character sheets in other projects, as they have helped ease the character and environment consistency issue, which is a common problem in AI in 2025.
This was the resulting contact sheet for a scene test, which was then turned into the video below.
From this test scene, ideas for a whole story were developed, which were mapped out using more contact sheets, below. Within only a few hours, you can get a sense for the whole look of the story and film.
Very quickly, as you turn the stills into videos, you begin to see gaps in the story and can revisit and fix them quickly. Doing this ahead of shooting for real is a huge asset.
Still a rough edit and work in progress, but you can see how it is coming along below…