Cover design by Ioana Surdu.
LOGLINE
A detective and her wife are trapped in separate artificial realities, each believing the other is dead. As they pursue the same suspect in a missing-children case, their worlds begin to merge.
STORY
In Vortica’s lower districts, children are disappearing. Blaz Salvat and Aiko Hoshino are married detectives pursuing the same case from separate artificial realities, each convinced her wife has been murdered.
Incomplete records, abandoned laboratories and evidence of illegal neural experiments lead toward Lior Shalev, a former research subject who helped develop MNEMO’s technology for connecting human minds. Pursuing him brings each detective into conflict with institutions invested in keeping his research alive.
With official support restricted, each woman continues assembling the case from the traces left across the city. As their worlds begin to merge, contradictions in what they experience force them to re-examine both the evidence and what they believe about their wives’ deaths.
Finding the children means pursuing a suspect who may be guiding the investigation itself. For Blaz, the trail also exposes a childhood connection with Lior and the consequences of a choice she has tried to leave behind.
CORE
BLAZ is a thriller driven by the search for missing children. The case develops through physical evidence, institutional obstacles and discoveries that change what the detectives can establish about their suspect. Their merging realities complicate the investigation by making their own experiences part of what must be examined.
The investigation carries a queer love story shaped by grief and guilt. Blaz’s need for control and Aiko’s concern for others influence how each pursues the case, while their marriage gives personal weight to the search for truth.
STORYBOARDS · VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
EMPLOYEE FILE NO. 12/458
Detective · Investigative Division
A pragmatic and disciplined detective who escaped poverty through police work. Used to maintaining her mechanical arm and solving problems through practical action, Blaz relies on control and self-sufficiency. After Aiko’s apparent murder, she continues the missing-children investigation despite institutional resistance. The evidence draws her toward Lior and a childhood connection that challenges her judgement.
EMPLOYEE FILE NO. 13/458
Detective · Investigative Division
Blaz’s wife and fellow detective. Empathetic, lively and committed to justice, Aiko pays attention to people Vortica routinely overlooks. Believing Blaz has been murdered, she investigates the same disappearances and follows the evidence toward Lior. Her decisions and discoveries form a parallel investigation as the two realities begin to merge.
CRIMINAL FILE NO. 21/458
Suspect · Missing-children investigation
A former participant, collaborator and operator in MNEMO’s synchronization research, Lior has unusual knowledge of the technology. Evidence from the disappearances points toward him, while powerful interests limit official action. He believes synchronization can protect people from suffering. His past connection with Blaz makes pursuing him a personal confrontation as well as a criminal investigation.
Character illustrations by Ioana Surdu.
Vortica is a dense, overcrowded and mechanically advanced city where technological innovation coexists with poverty, decay and constant repair.
Moving bridges, elevators and shifting connections between buildings shape daily life. Most residents navigate the city through this shared infrastructure, while private vehicles and restricted routes remain privileges of those who can afford them.
Neural interfaces and cybernetic augmentations exist alongside old monitors, physical controls, exposed gears, patched cables and worn machinery. Technology has weight, occupies space and needs continuing care. Its condition reflects the resources available to the person using it.
MNEMO supplies medical and professional implants, including equipment used by the police. Its experimental neurovisceral technology connects interfaces in the brain and body, coordinating perception with bodily feedback. Synchronization between subjects depends on suitable implants, individual calibration and physical equipment.
Official maintenance is expensive. In the lower districts, older devices, improvised repairs and clandestine workshops keep people functioning. For those whose implants support essential bodily functions, access to care can determine whether they survive.
Vortica Police Department logo by Mathis Bernagou.
BLAZ WEAPON DESIGN · WIP
DEVELOPMENT
BLAZ is being developed as an approximately 90-minute animated feature. A completed shorter screenplay provides the story foundation, while the expanded feature-length screenplay is in development.
Feature screenplay development centres on the missing-children investigation, the progression of evidence across Blaz and Aiko’s parallel perspectives, and their confrontation with Lior.
BACHELOR TEASER
A 3D teaser of less than one minute is being developed as Daniela Henao Ortiz’s bachelor project. It focuses on Vortica’s mechanical cityscape, clandestine augmentation culture and the film’s atmosphere.
Target completion: February 2028.
PROOF OF CONCEPT
A separate narrative proof of concept of approximately ten minutes is planned for a later stage, following development of the feature-length screenplay. It is intended to support the financing and production of the feature.
SEEKING
A producer, production company or animation studio interested in partnering on screenplay development and the next stages of the feature.
BLAZ MAILING LIST
Follow the development of BLAZ.
Occasional updates on the screenplay, visual development, bachelor teaser, proof of concept and future production milestones.
No fixed schedule. Only when there is something worth sharing.
PROFESSIONAL ENQUIRIES