Christine Shine On is a graphic-novel-inspired cinematic music video for the song by Cadet A featuring Sha Sabi, following the archetypal journey of Christine, a lone astronaut who survives a catastrophic rocket explosion and crash-lands on a distant, unknown planet. Lost and disoriented, she wanders through a surreal landscape, eventually discovering traces of a mysterious water-like substance, an energy source—and most astonishingly, life. As she follows these signs, Christine stumbles upon a fragment of her destroyed ship, with a radio transmitter miraculously still functional. She contacts Ground Control, sharing her discovery and coordinates. Her message marks a historic moment: the first confirmed encounter with life beyond Earth. A tale of survival, wonder, and resilience, Christine Shine On celebrates the enduring light of the human spirit and the timeless archetype of the explorer.
Christine Shine On has won many awards at festivals around the world, with screenings in LA, NY & the UK, and well over 300K views on YouTube. It also won Best Visual Arts at the Metadisruption AI Film Festival, where it was honored with a full immersive art exhibit.
Here are a few AI tips I posted recently about the making of this video:
🧠 AI tools are like collaborators. Kinda like people, they each have their own quirks, strengths, and surprises. As you get to know them, you can choose the best team for each project. Tools like krea.ai and Freepik allow you to quickly test prompts across different AI image and video models to see which is best for a specific look. You can also build your own workflow for testing models and combinations with more advanced tools like Weavy, FLORA or ComfyUI.
🎬 Hi-quality finishing really elevates AI footage. I used Maxon Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks for the black-and-white film grain, and luma masks in Adobe After Effects to add glowing neon pops of color, semi-inspired by Sin City and the Netflix animated series Arcane. The video was also upscaled in Topaz Labs. That combo helped bring a more stylized, cinematic quality - which now has music blogs calling it “a surreal, cinematic masterpiece”. ✨
🖼️ Runway and Luma AI can be lifesavers for changing aspect ratios. This project started as a 9x16 teaser. When we pivoted to a full 16x9 music video, I used aspect ratio expansion tools to widen many of the shots without losing the original look. This works especially well with natural landscapes. ➡️ Pro tip: In Runway it’s hidden under “Previous Models” > “Gen-3 Alpha Turbo” > then look for the ‘Expand Video’ icon. Luma AI’s expand feature is called “Reframe” and allows flexibility in framing for 6 different aspect ratios.
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