D. Francis Murray

Direction

Conception · Trailer

Writer · Director · Editor · Special Effects · Score · Sound Design

A transcendent dark fantasy short, nearly dialogue free, running six minutes and thirty three seconds. Currently on the festival circuit, with a feature length expansion in development.

No CGI. No AI.

Creation

Structure and scene breakdown before any pages: longhand, typed, thumbnails, then an animated story reel. On set, RED Komodo, a small core crew and a lot of practical problem solving.

Hand drawn storyboard thumbnails
Directing Margo on location at the Wilshire Tower
Practical creature element

Practical Effects

Real cloud tank effects. The Light Being is a dancer in front of a projector. The Phantom is a frame by frame jitter process, animated and smudged by hand. Every effect was handcrafted.

Shooting a projected element in camera
Cloud tank element
Behind the scenes, talking through an effect

The Grade & The Mix

Three levels, three looks. Defocus, grain and gate weave stepping down as she ascends. Final 5.1 and stereo re-recording mix at Sony with Eric Huezo, the score planned in pre-production to a BPM walking grid.

The angel, built from projected light
Diffraction through water
The dance sequence
The dance sequence
Final mix on the dub stage
On the dub stage at Sony

Cast and Crew Screening

Held on the Anthony Quinn stage at Sony Pictures, one of the studio's flagship dub stages.

Q and A after the screening
Cast and crew at the screening

In Development

A feature slate written and designed in parallel. Genre entertainment with detailed world building.

Trophies The Cursor Conception Feature RoboHooker Exordium The Icon of God The 33

Beyond Conception

Every project picks its own tools. Conception is practical and in camera by choice. Other work here leans fully into AI generation or animated concept art, depending on what the project calls for and what it can afford.

Gat Dang

Music video for "Gat Dang" by ilostit aigo. Directed, fully AI generated. A shoot like this, built the traditional way with puppets and models, would run into the millions. This took three weeks. Over 100 custom biomechanical creature designs and countless impossible hallways, every shot hand composited and retouched in Photoshop. Custom compression artifact effects tie it together, cut in sync to the beat.

Concept Reels