My CGI films have been exhibited and screened internationally, with highlights in Athens, Milan, New York, and Los Angeles.

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The main character sits at a bar modeled after the Park Hyatt Tokyo, blending inspiration from Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations Tokyo episode and the film Lost in Translation.

Film Stills

A tropical beach framed like a jungle hideaway, designed after the Bahamas destination where travelers swim with pigs.

Main character in a cold plunge, referencing wellness culture and the aesthetics of travel influencers.

A close-up of the character’s hand pausing on a globe, capturing the moment of chance in choosing where to travel next.

I designed Freya Stark’s aesthetic to honor her real-life legacy while incorporating the survivalist visual style from the game The Long Dark.

A Precarious Night at Plumb Point (2023)

Overview
A Precarious Night at Plumb Point is a haunting 24-minute cinematic short that immerses the viewer in a first-person voyage through a surreal cruise ship. Designed like an open-world simulation, it blurs the line between reality and introspection.

Guided by an internal monologue, the lead character drifts through atmospheric environments such as a cavern, a brine pool, and a shipbreaking yard, each reflecting his inner turmoil and existential longing.

Drawing inspiration from first-person exploration games and cinematic trailers, I invite viewers to navigate a world where perception shapes reality.

Roles / Credits

  • Writer, Director, Editor, Animation, Lighting & Cinematics, Simulations — Jake Couri

  • Foley and Sound Design — Kris Force

  • Environment Artist — Francou Bosch

  • Voice Artist — Matthew Curtis

Software / Tools

  • Unreal Engine 5

  • Adobe Premiere Pro

  • Metahuman Creator

  • LiveLink

  • Quixel Megascans

  • Mixamo

Screenings / Exhibitions

  • 2024 Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, GR

  • 2023 VRAL, Milan Machinima Festival, Milan, IT

The main character resting in a salvaged chair within the shipbreaking yard, a space designed to mirror his sense of inner collapse.

Film Stills

Flower and greenery detail inside the cruise ships promenade, modeled after Central Park, blending constructed leisure with natural intrusion.

First-person perspective navigating a salt tunnel, an environment designed to feel both geological and dreamlike.

Film Stills & References

Reference image of the G-11 cargo parachutes that inspired the film, commonly used for military airdrops.

A Stone’s Throw (2022)

Overview

A Stone’s Throw draws inspiration from the late sixteenth-century print series Nova Reperta, in which the invention of oil painting is depicted among other discoveries of the modern world. In this work, I reconstructed and digitized that process and placed it inside an abyss-like environment reminiscent of simulation games, where tasks are endlessly performed in search of reward.

The character goes through the traditional steps of making oil paint: grinding stone into pigment, adding oil, working the mixture with a muller, and using a palette knife to prepare it for painting. These actions are repeated in stripped-down loops, gestures both embellished and futile. In this environment, pigment can never truly be harvested, and tangible outcomes never arrive. The piece questions cycles of labor and repetition in simulated worlds, where effort does not necessarily lead to reward.

Roles / Credits

  • Writer, Director, Editor — Jake Couri

  • Music and Sound Design — Kris Force

  • Modeling and Animation — Tal Hershkovich

Software

  • Blender

  • Adobe Premiere Pro

Screenings / Exhibitions

  • 2023 Storefront Media Gallery, 4Culture, Seattle, WA

  • 2023 Digital Rorschach, Green Kill, Kingston, NY

An NPC stationed on the ship’s bridge, endlessly monitoring radar screens, a figure of routine amid the surreal voyage.

The main character seated at a computer, searching for information, a moment of quiet reflection within the drifting narrative.

CHEAPSHOT (2020)

Overview

CHEAPSHOT unfolds through fragmented but parallel storylines, where the search for meaning becomes part of the experience. A boy performs EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), tapping his body in a gesture of self-regulation. In another space, a mushroom grow room pulses with quiet biological life. A tardigrade slowly expands in scale, impossible to contain. Elsewhere, a printing press churns, stamping out cycles of repetition, while a harpoon waits suspended in tension.

Oscillating between these disparate environments and actions, causality is put into question. Characters and viewers alike are strung along, piecing together clues from microbes, machines, and ritual. Gentle rhythms offer comfort, but eventually reveal that through lines have been cut and what felt like coherence has led us astray.

Roles / Credits

  • Writer, Director, Editor, Lighting, Environments, Simulations — Jake Couri

  • Foley and Sound Design — Aaron Emmanuel

Software

  • Blender

  • Adobe Premiere Pro

Screenings / Exhibitions

  • 2021 Storefront Media Gallery, 4Culture, Seattle, WA

  • 2020 Darkest Before Dawn: Art in a Time of Uncertainty, Ethan Cohen KuBe, Beacon, NY

  • 2020 0rphan Drift, Public Records TV Public Access, Brooklyn, NY

Prospectors (2024)

Overview

Prospectors is a short film I created about how travel has changed throughout time, from daring old school expeditions to the social media era of digital tourism. It follows three characters who each see exploration in their own way: one inspired by the real-life adventurer Freya Stark, one modeled after a globe-trotting chef who now explores through his avatar, and a main character who struggles to balance authentic cultural exchange with the polished, packaged version of travel we see everywhere today.

I used a mix of historical references, contemporary storytelling, and 3D cinematic tools to bring it all together. At its core, I’m asking: when we “discover” new places, are we really connecting, or just consuming?

Roles / Credits

  • Writer, Director, Editor, Animation, Lighting & Cinematics, Simulations — Jake Couri

  • Foley and Sound Design — Kris Force

  • Environment Artist — Francou Bosch

  • Voice Artist — Matthew Curtis

Software / Tools

  • Unreal Engine 5

  • Blender

  • Adobe After Effects

  • Adobe Premiere Pro

  • Metahuman Creator

  • Metahuman Live Link

  • OBS

  • Quixel Megascan

  • Mixamo

Screenings / Exhibitions

  • 2024 Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, GR

  • 2024 DCTV, Tribeca, NY

Exterior corridor detail from the cruise ship as the main character prepares to sneak onto the bridge.

Jettisoned (2022)

Overview
Jettisoned is a short experimental film inspired by cargo and airdrop mechanics commonly found in popular video games. It reimagines the descent of a G-11 cargo parachute assembly, told from the point of view of the payload itself. Instead of delivering supplies or touching ground, the cluster of three canopies drifts endlessly through the atmosphere. Clouds disintegrate and reform, suspending the viewer in a cycle of anticipation for something that never arrives.

Roles / Credits

  • Writer, Director, Editor, Environment Artist — Jake Couri

  • Modeling and Animation — Tal Hershkovich

  • Music and Sound Design — Kris Force

Software

  • Blender

  • Adobe Premiere Pro

Clouds slowly drift into frame, breaking the empty sky and setting the stage for a descent that never completes.

The main character performing Emotional Freedom Technique, tapping on his body as a form of self-regulation.

Film Stills

Film Stills

A harpoon launching into frame, a moment of sudden violence breaking the film’s rhythm.

The character “using” a glass muller to grind pigment into oil, reconstructing one of the traditional steps in making oil paint.

The character scraping the paint mixture with a palette knife, repeating the final motions of preparing paint.

Close-up view of a tardigrade’s mouth, magnified into something both alien and familiar.

A quiet campfire scene, the main character’s cowboy hat left behind to suggest he’s elsewhere.