STRANGE LIGHT
Genre: Grounded Sci-Fi
Comps: Nomadland meets Starman
LOGLINE: In a sun-bleached Texas town, a grieving woman struggling to keep her small business afloat forms an unexpected connection with a gentle drifter, only to discover his true origin is far beyond anything she ever imagined.
SCOPE: When this project came to us, we loved the script by Alex Child and the vision from director Hiram Bleetman. Hiram needed to bring the world created by Alex to life in a way that would help him to secure the final funding he needed before going into production. A low-budget indie film, it was important for Hiram to gain pre-visualization assets from the project, assisting his vision and cutting costs when it came to location scouting and shot setups. We got to work on creating our cast of characters, key locations, and crucial moments from the script.
WHAT WE DID
WORLD BUILDING
With such a beautifully written script to work with, it was a joy to bring the location of Stellar Vista to life. Director Hiram Bleetman gave us a clear direction: focus on scope, scale, size. Townspeople should be dwarfed by oil refineries, buildings, and expansive skies. Characters should feel local, grounded, and above all else, real.
KEY SCENES
There were many stunning visuals to choose from in this slice-of-life story. Working closely with the production team, we created the moments that we believed best told the story even as still images before creating a single video clip. Our focus on key visuals led to the eventual decision to create the proof-of-concept video with zero dialogue.
PROOF-OF-CONCEPT VIDEO
With such rich characters and beautifully described locations, it wasn’t too challenging to turn this script into a 2-min proof-of-concept. To prove just how powerful visuals can be, we produced this video with zero dialogue. This short, emotionally rooted piece perfectly captures the characters, world, and tone of this hangout movie with a subtle sci-fi twist. Great care was taken to keep the piece feeling real, even when showcasing the dramatic finale.
PITCH DECK
To accompany the proof-of-concept video, we used many of the production stills and some custom-made images to create a stunning pitch deck, ready to share with potential investors.
HIRAM BLEETMAN — Director, STRANGE LIGHT
"Working with Jon on this project has been enjoyable and professional from start to finish. The proposal we received clearly mapped out the deliverables, timeline, and costs. From the first kickoff call, everything ran smoothly and communication was frequent and transparent. I wasn’t sure how AI would handle this type of grounded, low-key film. But Jon is some kind of AI whisperer and didn’t settle for anything less than the exact tone we needed. Seeing the essence of STRANGE LIGHT come to life like this has made me even more excited to direct the full feature, and given me some insight into how to shoot it."