After losing her mother, grandmother and uncle within a relatively short period, Melanie Nox turned to filmmaking as a way to process her grief. Cempasúchil became her way of celebrating their lives and keeping their memory close.
She wanted the film to hold both the beauty and the unsettling side of loss. That intention shaped its world, from an affectionate dance between Lucía and her grandmother to the nightmare that follows.
Melanie brought that established visual world into the all-new PAI, Utopai Studios’ filmmaking platform, halfway through production. She directed its Production Agent to generate and revise footage around the story she wanted to tell.
Her process gives us a concrete example of production intelligence: using a project’s references and creative context to support the next decision, with the filmmaker directing the work.
In Cempasúchil, Lucía returns to her family’s old home after her grandmother’s death and discovers her spirit caught between the living and the dead. Memories and dreams draw her toward an encounter with her own grief.
For Melanie, the Día de Muertos imagery came from her own life and culture. She combined that familiar imagery with Mexican surrealism, old family memories and an eerie, stop-motion-inspired look.
“Día de Muertos has always been part of my life and culture, so the imagery came from something deeply familiar to me. I also lost my mom, my grandmother, and my uncle within a relatively short period of time, and making this film became a way for me to process that grief through art. I wanted to create something that could hold both the beauty and the unsettling side of loss, while honoring the people I love and the connection that remains with us after they’re gone. In a way, Cempasúchil became my own way of celebrating their lives and keeping their memory close.” - Melanie Nox
Melanie developed the story, characters, visual language and keyframes herself. She used Midjourney and Nano Banana for character designs, environments and visual references, and Dreamina to create the first half of the film, including video generation.
About halfway through production, she moved to PAI. She supplied those existing assets through its conversational workflow, directing the Production Agent to create shots, extract keyframes and revise videos.
She reviewed the results, gave specific notes and generated alternatives until she had material she could use in her edit. The references gave each new instruction a visual starting point.
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