As I approached the end of production, I realised that the stepwell environment looked a bit too clean and pristine, which didn’t fit the tone of the film. This pushed me to revisit the environment before moving on to final lighting, sound, colour grading, and eventually the title and graphics.
Damage
Because everything inside Unreal was already properly organised, replacing meshes was simple, I could update models without disturbing the existing layout or camera work.
I went back into Blender and created a geometry nodes setup that allowed me to generate controllable damage effects on the architecture. For general meshes, I added parameters to control both the amount of damage and the scale of the noise driving the broken surfaces.
For the steps of the well, I expanded the setup with an array node that let me adjust the number of steps and the curve length. This helped me recreate the full structure procedurally while adding believable wear and tear. I also converted the mesh into a two-slot material, giving me control over material blending inside Unreal Engine for further refinement.
Music and Sound Effects
Sound design was another tool for storytelling in this film. I began by gathering a library of sound effects, rain, factory ambience, water dripping, motorbike hum, footsteps, and drinking sounds, and layered them according to the visuals.
Even with these sounds in place, the film still felt flat in certain moments, so I decided to add music as well. This was new territory for me, as I’d never worked on music production before. I tried searching for a single background track, but nothing matched the shifting tone of the film.
I experimented with several AI tools for music generation and sound design, but the results were either too distorted or sounded unnatural within the scene.
Eventually, after a full day of trial and error, I ended up layering three different copyright-free tracks with the sound effects. The combination worked reasonably well for the short film’s atmosphere, though it made me realise how valuable a dedicated sound designer would be. In the future, I would love to collaborate with someone who can compose a more cohesive and intentional score.
Editing and Title
Overall there was not much editing required as the Unreal Engine sequencer covered everything, so I save time at this stage. Only the title was needed to be done, for which I came with an idea towards the end of this project.
I chose the word ‘भ्रम’ pronounced, bhrum or bhram, is a Hindi word with Sanskrit roots. It has multiple meanings among which, Illusion, confusion or wandering about are a few. For this story, the word can be loosely translated to a mirage. As the protagonist is wandering and searching for water in a desert, he sees an unnatural spring of water leading to even bizzare cave.
The title also refelcts on the fact how humanity is exploiting the earth’s resources, living in an illusion of Utopia, while the nature is depleting. It is a look back to the vernacular ancient architecture like the stepwell, that were meant to preserve these resources.