AMERICAN ALCHEMY • NORWAY DOCUMENTARY PROJECT • 2026
Giving the accounts
a visual language.
Art direction, motion graphics, and AI-assisted reenactments for
a documentary exploring Scandinavian UFO accounts.
RESEARCH • ART DIRECTION & VISUAL DEVELOPMENT • EXECUTION
AI-assisted reenactment / Selected delivery frame
THE PROJECT
Different people, different eras, and a brief with room to find the right approach.
American Alchemy brought me on to create graphics and reenactments for a documentary following host Jesse Michels through Sweden and Norway. The work ranged from introducing researchers Clas Svahn and Rune Røstad to mapping the journey and visualizing accounts described in interviews.
The client had a clear list of needs and left the visual direction open. I started with research and developed the visual direction alongside the production work. I also put together a working process deck to explain the concepts and decisions behind the material.
CLIENT
American Alchemy
PRODUCTION
Summer 2026
2
3
Researcher intros
Route maps
FORMAT
Documentary graphics & reenactments
DELIVERY
Review MP4s & ProRes masters
10
Reenactment scenes
Delivered scope, including alternate versions. Selections below are from the delivery package.
01 / RESEARCH & TREATMENT
A reason behind
the visual choices.
The question behind the Targeted direction, from my working process deck.
“Targeted” direction / Full Clas Svahn introduction, August 3 delivery. I also made a condensed version for tighter cuts.
Before generating footage, I researched the people, places, and descriptions behind the scenes. A daylight lake account and a light over a dark mountain valley needed different treatments. The details in the interviews gave me a more useful starting point than a general idea of what a UFO scene should look like.
For the Targeted direction, I kept coming back to a question: could the freeze frame have a reason to happen within the story? The idea that unlocked it was imagining someone quietly watching and documenting the encounter. A camera flash, developing photographs, handwritten notes, and a file being put away gave the transition a small story of its own.
“Can there be a story-driven reason for the freeze frame?”
02 / INTRODUCING THE RESEARCHERS
Explore the idea.
Give the edit options.
The Targeted concept approached the researchers as a pair: Clas through an archival lens, and Rune through the language of fieldwork. I combined AI, stock, and practical material, including handwriting I shot for the annotations, to build the sequence.
I delivered two directions, “Targeted” and “Graphic.” The later delivery included revised Graphic versions for both researchers, using layered frames and a brighter color treatment. Showing both directions here gives a better picture of how the work developed.
Clas Svahn / Revised Graphic direction, August 14 delivery.
SCREEN A
Practical source material / Name and annotation tests.
The handwriting within the initial Targeted treatment.
Rune Røstad / Revised Graphic direction, August 14 delivery.
Maps that belong
to the expedition.
03 / FOLLOWING THE JOURNEY
The Arctic Seals team’s own hand-drawn expedition map gave me a visual starting point for the three animated routes. I wanted to stay close to its character while making it readable and reusable across the sequence.
I separated the map’s graphic badges so I could move them away from routes and city labels. I also expanded the artwork beyond its original edges, giving the camera room to follow routes without running out of map. The brief intentionally withheld one lake’s exact location, so that detail stayed out of the graphics.
Route map 01 / Oslo to Nord-Odal.
Base artwork / A shared map for the route animations.
Expanded artwork / Extra coverage for camera movement.
Route map 03 / Røros to Hessdalen.
Route map 02 / Toward Djupsjøen and Røros.
04 / BUILDING THE REENACTMENTS
Start with what
was described.
Exterior establishing shot
Created reenactments from the delivery package. These are not archival recordings of the events described.
Each scene began with interview audio and reference clips. I worked from those accounts to develop the setting, point of view, and movement, keeping details such as object shapes and broken water lilies in view because they mattered to the telling.
Where someone’s appearance wasn’t known, the brief called for avoiding their face. Those limits helped guide the framing. I wanted the imagery to support the account without filling every unknown with an invented detail.
Point of view / Keeping the witness turned away.
Another era / A different setting and visual treatment.
The footage still
needed building.
05 / GENERATION THROUGH FINISHING
I used generated footage as part of a wider production process. Maya supplied 3D elements and layout for the opening scene, with render passes for compositing. Camera tracking helped place elements inside generated plates, and Nuke gave me control over integration, cleanup, scratches, and grain.
Upscaling and retiming were part of the finishing work too. The goal was to make each scene hold together in motion and feel appropriate to its period, while giving the editor useful material to cut with.
Scene 01 / Delivered option B. AI-assisted reenactment with compositing and period treatment.
CLIENT / DOCUMENTARY
American Alchemy
RESEARCH, ART DIRECTION & VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
Chris Green / CG Motion
MOTION DESIGN, AI GENERATION & POST-PRODUCTION
Chris Green / CG Motion
HOST
Jesse Michels
EXPEDITION MAP REFERENCE
Arctic Seals
THE HANDOFF
A package built
for the cut.
Project credits
I delivered the maps, researcher introductions, and reenactments across two rounds, with review files, ProRes masters, and alternate takes where useful. The second round included revised introductions and two additional scenes.
What I enjoyed about this project was the chance to carry the thinking through the whole process: research, a visual proposal, practical experiments, and the detailed work of making the shots hold up. Each part gave me something to bring into the next.