The Dane

How it is being made

This project started out with an idea for a character. I had some time to kill on a flight from the UK to the US, so I decided to develop the story around it.

Those who know me know this character is actually me. I wanted to do a character consistency test using a contact-sheet method I had developed, and one of the best ways to do character consistency in AI is to use someone you know very well. Any nuances in how I look, I would now quickly enough.

I started with this image (below single) I made using my personal profile settings in Midjourney. I then took that and created a simple contact sheet (second image below), then put him in an environment (third image) then developed a character sheet from these. The character sheets work best when he is in an environment and not in a white or grey “studio” background, I discovered.

I 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.

I had been experimenting with these character sheets in other projects as it has 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 I then turned into the video below.

From this test scene, I began to develop ideas for a whole story, which I mapped out using more contact sheets, below. Within only a few hours, I got 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.

I continue to work on the project, and it needs a real editor’s touch, but you can see how it is coming along below…