What started as two ridiculous characters, a music video, and a lot of experimenting is becoming something much bigger.
Space Chiken & Bacon theCat received a $10,000 NewNarratives grant from NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, funded by Absurd AI.
This support gives me the chance to develop the world for a short film while testing emerging filmmaking tools inside the structure of a real production.
Applied use of these tools matters to me.
Can they hold up within an actual production process? Can they help a filmmaker make stronger work, move faster where it makes sense, and still maintain creative control?
I’m less interested in making “AI content” than I am in figuring out which tools genuinely help make better films.
For this project, Absurd is becoming part of the production process itself. I want to see how the platform holds up when the work requires continuity, performance, iteration, and all the other demands of an actual short film.
The next phase is about building out the world, refining the visual language, and letting these characters become more fully themselves.
And now they’re going to start talking.
You’ll finally get to know Space Chiken and Bacon theCat through their personalities, their relationship, and the way they move through this strange little universe together.
You can read more about this year’s NewNarratives grant recipients in MovieMaker.
More Chiken.
More Bacon.
More chaos.
Music: “Spy Movie Swagger - Brick,” created with Suno
Sound Effects: Motion Array
Tools used in the announcement:
Nura Studios | Showcraft
ByteDance | Seedance 2.5
Google DeepMind | Nano Banana
OpenAI | ChatGPT Images
P.S. I created the announcement clip in Nura Studios’ Showcraft, which I only recently got access to. I spent a lot of time dialing in the lighting and final look, and I’ll do a separate post breaking down how I made it and what I learned.