Artificial Matt
ABOUT
A short film about grief for a dog, told by twenty-five people who never existed. Each character speaks a single line, passing the story from face to face in an unbroken relay. The dog is never named. The loss is carried by what's left behind: a bowl, a bed, a last bite. Every character was designed and directed individually, then animated so their performance could hold a quiet, confessional register rather than a polished one. The film is dedicated to the dogs who left an empty bed by the fire, and to the people still learning to live around it.
SELECTED FRAMES — 8 OF 8
PROCESS
It started as a way to showcase my character design with a consistent narrative throughline. The first version was a world-building piece about anxiety, and it didn't land. What worked was a format borrowed from the BBC's 'Perfect Day' charity video. A relay of faces, each carrying one line, so no single character owns the story. The theme moved to grief over losing a dog, and the rule became restraint. The dog is never named. The first draft had 38 lines; the final film has 25, each a single sentence of six words or fewer. Early drafts read like a public-service announcement, so I rewrote every line in the first person until it sounded confessional rather than instructional. The film opens on three objects instead of a statement: a bowl, a bed, a last bite. The cast came from the Artificial/Matt archive of more than a hundred characters. I chose 25 and cut those whose faces fought the tone. Each portrait originated as portrait stills generated with significant iteration in Chat GPT, and then were animated in Runway, and Seedance, with clips extended by chaining the last frame into a new generation where a performance needed more time. 3-4 generations became 1-2 usable takes. The score was built in Suno to the script's structure. Minor key, slow strings at 60 BPM, resolving to major in the final lines. The first cut was tightened it to 3:41, and meant cutting long holds and moving the dedication from the opening to the end, where it lands as the last line rather than a frame around the film.
Credits
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