by Kristen Nevarez Schweizer

January 1, 2025

“I’ve always known how it’s supposed to finish. Four years ago, I wrote a letter to the project, and I promised: ‘I’ll take care of you, and I’ll protect you.’ Because I was excited about it, but I knew how much work it was going to take… and that there’d be moments when I’d want to give up. I don’t even know where the letter is anymore, but I kept the promise.”

Filmmaker Daniel Jones says this with brief eye contact and a humble smile. 

I’ve interviewed artists across genres before the release of new work and find most either look away when describing the process or stare deeply into my eyes as if we’re both characters in a telenovela. I witness artists disconnect from me or reality. They tend to diffuse or heighten the creation process as if downplaying or adding drama can stave off or assure…something. But Jones sits comfortably as he describes the extended gestation of his film AHOY! From Picardy.

AHOY! From Picardy is an interactive animated film for Apple Vision Pro. Though over 9,000 new apps are submitted across Apple’s App Stores each week, Picardy is currently featured on the front page of their Vision Pro store. In 2020, Picardy was an Official Selection of the Cannes XR Development Showcase. A decade ago, it was an idea from Jones’ childhood.

“My family and I went to Catalina a lot growing up. My grandpa had a boat, and [the islands] felt like a time capsule that never changed; an idealized version of California: Hollywood, plus cowboys, plus Art Deco, plus ocean research. So I thought, what if I wrote a song that captures how this felt as a kid? But when my other grandfather died, we were packing up and selling his house, the floor was ripped out, and I stood in this once warm place—a time capsule that held all these memories now busted open. And that changed the song.”

These comingled ideas evolved. Jones married his musical talents with his career as an animator and story designer and his forward-leaning interest in new technologies. 

“I saw the first news stories about Virtual Reality, and I just thought “THAT!” What if I could tell PIXAR-style stories but get to those certain feelings that a film can’t make me feel like I’ve gotten a hug right when I need it?”

In 2016, he released Channel Island Suite, a four-minute virtual reality experience for the now-discontinued Oculus, now Quest line of VR headsets. The atmospheric immersive adventure is like Disneyland’s old-school darker rides, with viewers taking in awesome visuals alongside uplifting music. The lyrics inhale: “Then I’d find that one shining moment / chase down and keep it, I swore” and exhale: “And you said heaven cared / it was as close as could be / and it was finally fine to leave / something lasting was keeping me.”

Jones describes his first film release as anticlimactic. Six years ago, virtual reality headsets were considered a niche luxury held back by limited graphic ability. Technology and interest in VR content have grown alongside Jones’ skillset as an animator and confidence as a storyteller.

“After Channel Island Suite, I looked forward. I got this dream, “Could it be fun to open up a camp on that island?” and “What would go into that?” Or what about a new channel island that doesn’t actually exist? It’s bigger and wilder, with weird caves maybe. And everything would feel scaled up and fresh. But it seemed so far out of my range.”

So Jones wrote his letter to the project before the embryo of his then-unnamed starring character. AHOY is his first solo film with a voiced protagonist, but Jones is well trained in whimsical personification thanks to time spent as a freelance animator and working on projects like the viral KONY campaign that Invisible Children ran in 2012. 

“I was buying time for years, learning and working on other people’s projects to earn two weeks where I could work on my own. So when it came to [film protagonist] Picardy, I sketched him a billion times. Then, one day, with this one little sketch, “Oh, I know who this character is now!’” Jones laughs, “But the lyrics for the song took a lot longer.”

At the forefront of a new art form, Jones navigated early, constantly evolving technology while simultaneously handling a solo filmmaker’s countless decisions within the atmosphere, theme, music, and narrative. His persistence in the tediously detailed medium of spatial animation has timed out well. In October 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “At $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product. It’s an early adopter product. People who want to have tomorrow’s technology today — that’s who it’s for. Fortunately, there’s enough people who are in that camp that it’s exciting.” In 2024, approximately 400,000 headsets have been sold.

Jones says, “My dream is someone who brings their VR glasses to a party. Or, I picture a techie at Christmas, wanting to show their mom what they are into right now, and putting the glasses on her and showing her Picardy. There is [an abridged quote by PIXAR storyboard artist Joe Ranft] that ‘a movie is like throwing a party and everyone is allowed to come.’ I love the idea of family or friends gathering and watching it.”

I asked Jones for a word to describe his piece, and he chose: Invitation. This word is also featured in his film description, “Follow the caretaker of a broken island where it no longer rains. Picardy crafts an elaborate invitation—a vision of the future—for the one person who can fix it. This is your invitation to join in and begin anew. Step into a world of possibilities where Picardy’s vibrant, hand-drawn “hologram visions” transform the dusty ground, painting a picture of an island brought back to life.”

That’s when it clicks why Daniel Jones can remain sincere as he describes Picardy. He bestows this piece the way someone gifts a carefully chosen souvenir to a loved one after a journey. This fresh 16-minute mixed-media experience sits between the genres of video game, family film, music video, and immersive theatre, so it’s difficult to describe, but I’ll call it: an available seat at the campfire beside an open-handed artist.

Jones says, “I’ve been working on these lyrics since 2017, and I just finished it two weeks ago because I didn’t know the last word. I’ve probably written a hundred pages for this one song. I knew eventually I’d find it and was willing to wait because when it comes, I just…know. And now we’ve lit the candles and turned on the music, and it’s time for the party.”