DRĂCULEA: NYC Penthouse Party

Inspiration

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"Drăculea" is dedicated to my grandparents, Leah and Dell Jones—two people who loved storytelling, cinema, and imagination. This film was born during a 10-day sprint for the Curious Refuge AI Horror Film Festival, where I challenged myself to build an entirely original supernatural universe from scratch.

I've always loved Dracula, vampire mythology, Burning Man culture, and modern gothic aesthetics. With Dracula in the public domain, I wanted to create a completely new interpretation—not a remake—featuring original characters, factions, and lore.

What I Learned

This project taught me how to push AI tools to achieve cinematic realism, especially under extreme time pressure. As the film progresses, you can visually see my growth—each scene becomes more polished as I learned better lighting, world-building, continuity, and character consistency.

I also learned:

how to combine multiple AI pipelines for production-quality results
how to construct full environments (NYC skyline, the penthouse, the elevator) with geographic accuracy
how to direct digital characters for emotional beats, comedy timing, and supernatural action

How I Built It

The world of Drăculea includes:

a modern NYC penthouse designed as Dracula’s supernatural embassy
three fully original vampire wives (Valeria, Freya, and Cassia), each with unique personalities and costumes
an entire cast of werewolves, witches, Frankenstein’s couple, and the Butcher of Budapest
accurate NYC skyline views using Google Earth as reference for camera blocking, reflections, and realism
a complete lore bible setting up a long-running supernatural universe

I used multi-stage production:

Character generation with consistency pipelines
Set design using AI environments + custom composites
Storyboard → shot list → scene blocking
Motion + expression guidance for emotional and comedic beats
Editing, color grading, pacing, VFX layering, and audio design

Challenges

Generating consistent characters across dozens of shots
Matching lighting and angles between AI models
Building environments with real-world geography accuracy
Rendering complex supernatural moments (time-freeze, shifting eyes, fangs, teleportation)
Producing the entire film in just 10 days

Despite the challenges, this became one of my proudest early post-film-school projects.

Tribute

This film is a tribute to my grandparents—whose love of cinema and storytelling inspired me to create a brand-new Dracula universe that feels modern, stylish, humorous, and deeply cinematic.