Death Walks Into A Bar

A two-and-a-half-minute neo-noir about a hitman whose final contract is Death himself, written and directed by Tim Simmons and generated end to end with Seedance 2.5 on Dreamina, three days after its general release. A sequel to his March short Dragon Blue, the claim he makes for it is narrower than the usual capability demo: not the frames, the acting.

"No actors. No set. No cameras." What he says finally happened is that he stopped scanning for glitches and just watched the performances. Performance has been the last honest holdout in generative video. Simmons, a former Sony Animation insider, is a credible witness on where that line sits. One caveat: the film was published as a showcase for Dreamina's Seedance 2.5 rollout.