IF LIFE’S A GAME
Stadium to stratosphere: a self-cast anthem and a game-HUD system, ending on a line I wrote in 2018.
- Role
- Writer · Director · Editor · Producer · Lead (self-cast)
- Format
- Anthem film + action short with a HUD design system
- Year
- 2026
- Made with
- Anthem: Higgsfield · Luma Ray 3.2 (created with Luma · @LumaLabsAI · #LumaCPP) · ElevenLabs
- Note
- Not affiliated with any brand, team, league or tournament.
Brief
A self-cast anthem that runs from a packed stadium to the pitch to the curve of the Earth, and a game-world short where every level is a new fear. Both close on the same line, from a song I wrote in 2018: “If life’s a game, we are meant to play.”
Director’s statement
I wrote that lyric years before I could build the image to go with it. Now I can put myself inside the frame, in the crowd, on the pitch, sitting on the edge of the planet, and keep it me from shot to shot. Pt. 1 turns the idea into a game: a creative at his desk pulled through levels, each one a fear, with a live HUD tracking the run. The HUD isn’t decoration. It’s a design system, built so the world can keep growing.
Three decisions
-
01
Hold the likeness.
The same face in the crowd, on the pitch, in the arena and in orbit.
-
02
The HUD is a system.
Name bar, tier and target states built as reusable motion graphics, not one-off overlays.
-
03
End on authorship.
The closing card is my own lyric, credited.
Sequence
Authorship Ledger
- Human-authored
- Lyric and tagline; narrative; direction; edit; HUD design
- Machine-generated
- Footage (Higgsfield; Luma Ray 3.2 on the anthem); narration voice (ElevenLabs)
- Likeness & consent
- The filmmaker’s own
- Disclosure
- Tools credited
Credits & disclosures
- Written, directed and edited by Xander Simms
- Tagline from “Let Go” (2018), Xander Simms
- Created with Luma (anthem) · @LumaLabsAI · #LumaCPP
