A PERSONAL AI SHORT FILM / A PRODUCTION CASE STUDY
Five Minutes
Late.
The cake doesn’t make it.
The connection does.
From script to screen
One story.
Six stages of craft.
A young baker sets out with the perfect birthday cake for her grandfather. An awning, a flock of pigeons, and a runaway cart turn the delivery into a disaster. What survives is the reason she made the trip.
This personal project brings together story development, visual design, editorial timing, Unreal Engine previs, and AI filmmaking. The materials below follow that progression, from planning the story to delivering the final film with audio.
01 / SCRIPT & STORY
Give the spectacle
a reason to matter.
The story is built around a simple emotional reversal: she thinks the gift is the cake; he is happy that she is there. Each accident increases the physical stakes before a quiet ending changes their meaning.
The perfect gift.
A baker. A three-tier cake. A note for Grandpa at five.
Everything goes wrong.
The awning takes the top tier. Pigeons take the middle. A cart collision sends the rest toward the porch.
Something remains.
One candle. An apology. A seat saved beside him.
“Sorry, Grandpa.”Story summary based on the supplied storyboard sequence.
“There you are.”
The storytelling decisions
Escalation you can read.
The diminishing cake makes the stakes visible without exposition: three tiers, two, one, then a scrap.
A change of pace.
The frantic journey gives way to a held moment between the baker and her grandfather.
Development note: the story changed
An earlier script explored a shutter accident and a candle recovered from the scooter. The later boards use pigeons, a porch crash, and a surviving candle on the helmet. These pages present that later direction.
02 / STORYBOARDS
Make every beat readable.
Three storyboard pages map the journey from the bakery to the final shared smile. Wide shots establish the action; reactions and inserts connect the geography to the character. Select a page to inspect it.
03 / VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
A world worth
getting lost in.
Warm stone, sunlit streets, painterly surfaces, and a yellow scooter give the film a consistent visual language. Character turnarounds, prop studies, and environment designs establish the reference library for the shots.
04 / ANIMATIC
Find the rhythm
before the render.
The animatic brings the planned shots into an edit, making it possible to judge the duration of each gag, the clarity of the action, and the space needed for the ending.
05 / UNREAL ENGINE PREVIS
Design the camera.
Resolve the action.
Unreal gives the dynamic shots a spatial foundation: camera paths, blocking, and timing can be explored in 3D before the final image is generated. These three exports expose that working stage.
Camera intent in the boards: a Dutch top-down view for Shot 03, a wide-to-close push-in for Shot 09, and collision coverage for Shot 11. Compare these ideas with the previs exports above and the finished edit below.
06 / FINAL RENDER + AUDIO
Bring it all together.
The finished film unites the visual development, shot design, performance, edit, and audio. Play with sound to experience the final delivery.
From an idea to a finished sequence.
Story clarity. Consistent design. Intentional cameras. An edit that serves the emotion. This is the thinking I bring to a production.
Let’s build something together ↗Back to my reel ↗