Se7en Days – AI Short Film Chroma Awards 2025

A 21-year-old boy’s desperate bid to break a 7 sleepless NIGHTS, a risky decision, led him to a reality where he could no longer tell if he was Randy Gardner.

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Inspiration

The inspiration for "Se7en Days" came from a real-life incident about sleep deprivation that was covered in the news. The psychological impact of sleeplessness in young stars was compelling and felt timely—driving the urge to translate these realities into a creative story

What it does

"Se7en Days" is a short psychological thriller that explores the living problem of insomnia among young individuals. Through the lens of its central character, Randy Gardner, the film draws attention to the consequences of severe sleep loss, identity crisis, obsession, and mental health struggles.

How we built it

The entire short film was created utilizing advanced AI and creative tools:

Script and Story: Written and visualized based on narrative brainstorming around the true story of Randy Gardner.​​

AI Video Generation: Tools like Hailuo AI Video and Luma AI were used to generate scenes and assist in designing visuals and images for the film.​​

Editing and Production: The editing was carried out using CapCut and Clipchamp, integrating non-linear timelines and visually jarring effects to express psychological breakdowns.​​

Cinematic Choices: Heavy use of black-and-white except for the final reveal in color, as well as handheld camera perspectives, practical lighting, and ambient sound design were core parts of the build process.

Challenges we ran into

Some significant challenges included:

Maintaining character consistency across AI-generated footage, especially with faces and movement continuity.​​

Rendering video at high quality was time-consuming due to the complexity and non-linear structure, but the result justified the effort.​​

Integrating dreamlike, hallucinated visuals while conveying a coherent narrative thread required careful cinematic planning.​​

The blend of reality and imagination meant frequent troubleshooting, both creatively and technically.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The output was emotionally and visually impactful, highlighting both the technical possibilities of AI and the storytelling potential it offers.​​

The narrative successfully captured the blurred boundaries between dream and reality, which was central to the story's thematic goals.​​

The use of AI tools to create a complete short film stands out as a personal achievement in creative innovation.

What we learned

Gained hands-on experience with AI-powered video and image generation tools, demonstrating how they can unlock new forms of creativity and storytelling.​​

Learned to tackle narrative and aesthetic challenges with both technical and artistic approaches.​​

Realized the importance of symbolism (such as the use of the number 7 throughout the film) to reinforce core themes like obsession, aspiration, and mental collapse.​​

Explored how mathematical and psychological motifs (for example, the recurring motif of seven: seven days, drops of water, missed calls) can be expressed visually and narratively using LaTeX in supporting material:

For instance, the countdown can be rendered as:

Days Left

7 − n Days Left=7−n where n n is the current day of sleep deprivation.

What's next for Se7en Days

"Se7en Days" is intended to be a standalone short film, self-contained and complete in its exploration of identity, obsession, and reality using film and AI. The project demonstrates the future potential of combining story-driven content with cutting-edge technology for expressive, impactful narratives.

Built With

  • capcut
  • elevenlabs
  • hailuo.ai
  • kling.ai
  • luma.ai
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