iFilm

orkflow / Recipe Notes — The Gift of the Sea

I began with the story: an 85-year-old man sets out to see the sunrise he had promised his late wife. He dies before reaching it, but after donating his eyes, a nine-year-old boy sees that sunrise for the first time. I wrote the narrative around that connection and planned the scenes to keep both characters’ experiences at the centre.

I then developed visual references and prompts for the locations, characters and key moments. I generated still images and video sequences in multiple versions, refining the prompts for character consistency, natural movement, lighting and emotional restraint. I reviewed the results shot by shot and selected the material that best served the story.

In the edit, I shaped the timing of the man’s journey, the reveal of the donation and the boy’s first sight of sunrise. Sound, music and colour helped connect those moments without overexplaining them. I made the final decisions about which generated material to use, how it was altered and how the film was assembled.