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An AFI THESIS FILM

Tomboy, 2011

Thirteen-year-old Elisa and her best friend Valerie have done everything together. 

The Florida Project, 2017

Recently, however, Elisa is noticing the ways in which she is continually trying to keep up. When Elisa accompanies Valerie to a party at her high school boyfriend’s house, she is confronted with how their dynamic may be shifting as well as the expectations of the adult world she is entering. Elisa yearns to lean into her sexuality, though also finds herself clinging to her last bit of childhood.

When Valerie shares some unexpected news, Elisa is left processing the sudden isolation she feels, the ways in which she is falling behind, and what this means for the future of their relationship. In The Mood is a tender, turbulent, and darkly comedic coming of age drama about accepting your friend despite the different rates in which we grow.

Aftersun, 2022

Waterlilies, 2007

Thirteen, 2003

I was an early bloomer.  I entered middle school covered in sweatshirts and baggy clothes, eager to hide any evidence of growing up. While deep down it felt exciting and like I wanted to flash the world, being caught with boobs also felt like a social felony. For me, coming of age was rooted in the early loss of my dad and a feeling of fear and guilt for moving past that.

As the youngest in a large family,  becoming an adolescent felt like a sort of landmark for the passing of time and grief, or like I was supposed to be a little girl forever. I’d watch in awe as my best friend would get a new boyfriend, meanwhile, I couldn’t even hold sweaty hands with the boy she’d set me up with. My friends having sexual experiences before I did felt like a personal betrayal in the same way I felt I was betraying my family for growing up.

Growing at different rates is a common experience for adolescents, and the way it affects our deepest friendships, particularly as women, fascinates me. I’m interested in the way a person’s sense of self-worth, confidence, and growing sense of femininity can be defined by comparisons with the people they love most. Mostly, I’m interested in the power and longevity of friendships, the ways they are tested, and how this forces us to grow. 

DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER

Lilly Lion is a lion and a second year Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute. Her diverse background in theater, dance, and youth education has made her a sensitive and observant storyteller. Lion is an award-winning writer and director and has screened films at festivals across the world, including Tallgrass Film Festival, Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival, and London-Worldwide Comedy Film Festival. Her most recent short, IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, recently won Best PNW Short at the Tacoma Film Festival. Lion holds a BA in French and Cinema Studies from University of Oregon.

SCREENWRITER

Ceci is an Argentine, bilingual Screenwriting Fellow at the American Film Institute in LA.  She's most excited about stories featuring women figuring out who they are. Most recently, Ceci wrote, produced, and played the lead in NEON RAGE, a short comedy drama that premiered at Charlotte Film Festival. In 2020, Cecilia wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in DO IT AGAIN, a short comedy about the cycle of online dating in NYC. It was the "Best Acting Duo" Winner and "Best Screenplay" Finalist at Top Shorts Film Festival. Ceci grew up in Washington D.C. and attended Wesleyan University, where she received her B.A. in Theater and Psychology. She has appeared in film/tv, plays, and improv shows around New York, and does voiceover work in English and Spanish.

Yang Qian is a Producing Fellow at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Hollywood, LA. She earned her BA degree in Media and Arts from Duke University. She has worked as an independent producer both in China and in the United States. She also worked at the 2020 Xining FIRST Film Festival, which is the most successful festival for rising talents in China. Her interest lies in the intersection of epistemology, visual culture, and feminism. With such interest and a strong background in media art research, and documentary filmmaking, she is confident to provide different perspectives while preserving the essentials of powerful visual storytelling. 

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Jessica is keenly interested in bringing communities together as well as creating visual stories that are experimental and sensational. Being technically curious has led her to continuously incorporate new technology in her practice. She is the founder of HEX.VIDEO, a female-driven production company based in Toronto.

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Nicole Baroudi is a Production Design Fellow at the AFI Conservatory. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Earning a BA in Graphic Communication Design, she specialized in narrative visual storytelling, and also completed Set Design courses in the UK. Having freelanced in her field, she brings her design background into her filmmaking. She has designed six shorts and has worked as graphic designer on several films; most recently the feature, THE LEMURIAN CANDIDATE. Through her work, she is particularly interested in exploring coming-of-age narratives and female-driven stories.

Elise Beers (E) is a Seattle-based Choreographer and filmmaker with Earth Works Dance. Beers is currently studying editing at AFI and is doing Improv comedy in LA. As a media arts creator, she has edited documentary work of traditional ceremonies, narratives, music videos, and screen dance. Beers currently has a BFA in Dance Performance Choreography and Filmmaking from BYU. In addition to climbing mountains and spending time with her dog, she likes reading, writing, and the craft of storytelling. Her drive for filmmaking is fueled by nature and a desire to share all types of human experiences.

The world-renowned  American Film Institute Conservatory is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of visionary filmmakers. With a long legacy and an unparalleled dedication, AFI Conservatory has consistently earned its place as one of the most renowned film schools in the world. In 2023, The Hollywood Reporter named the AFI Conservatory the #1 film school in America for the second year in a row.

With highly selective admission, class sizes are small with a maximum of 140 graduates per year. Alumni go on to make enormous cultural impact that resonates and endures across the world. Over the past five years, AFI graduates have accumulated a staggering number of accolades and recognition, with 13 Academy Award nominations and 4 wins, along with 96 Emmy Award nominations and 15 wins.

​ Patty Jenkins (Directing '00) MONSTER, WONDER WOMAN

​ A ri Aster (Directing '10) HEREDITARY, MIDSOMMAR, BEAU IS AFRAID

Amy Heckerling (Directing '74)

CLUELESS, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

Brad Falchuk (Screenwriting '94)

GLEE, AMERICAN HORROR STORY

Matthew Libatique (Cinematography '92)

A STAR IS BORN, THE WHALE

Rachel Morrison (Cinematography '06)

BLACK PANTHER, FRUITVALE STATION

Andrea Arnold (Directing '92)

FISH TANK, AMERICAN HONEY

Susannah Grant (Screenwriting '91)

ERIN BROCKOVICH, THE SOL OIST

Sharon Seymour (Production Design '84)

ARGO, THE TOWN, OLDBOY

Steve Golin (Producing '81)

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

David Lynch (Directing '70)

MULHOLLAND DRIVE, BLUE VELVE T

Affonso Gonçalves (Editing '93)

CAROL, DON'T WORRY DARLING

Christopher Gay (Editing '06)

12 MONKEYS, MAD MEN, MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN

Anne Garefino (Producing '88)

SOUTH PARK, THE BOOK OF MORMON

We are a passionate team of female filmmakers and can't wait to share this film with you. We need support to make it happen! Any amount is a huge help towards bringing In The Mood to life. It's not only a contribution towards our film, but an investment for our future careers.

We shoot in April 2024 and we need donations by Feb 2024. 

Thank you for your support! 

As AFI Conservatory is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, your donation to our film will be received directly through the institution and may be tax-deductible up to 100% in accordance with the law. Donors will receive a receipt to the email provided during check out and an acknowledgement will be sent in the mail within 4 weeks that can be used for tax purposes.

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Make checks payable to "American Film Institute." Make sure to include a return address with the check so AFI can send a letter acknowledging the donation!

American Film Institute

c/o 6666 In the Mood

2021 N. Western Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90027

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Any form of donation helps, and will also be tax-deductible! Services such as post-production, coloring and production locations are gladly accepted. Please contact us for more.

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5 Things I Learned While Making My AFI Thesis Film

Jeremy merrifield learned a lot while creating his award-winning film at afi. he tells nfs all about his process for his award-winning film, balloon..

I’ve been an avid reader of NoFilmSchool since its earliest days as a blog with only Ryan Koo posting. I’ve never tired of the film school debate this site was founded on. Anyone who knows me knows I have long been against film school -- I’m not one for traditional classroom learning. For me, I need to be doing it and I place a lot of value in seeking out and building my own miseducation. So, I don’t typically advocate an academic setting—that is unless there is a specific use. For example, I need a degree because I want to become a heart surgeon. And that’s exactly why I ended up at the American Film Institute. Not because I wanted to be a heart surgeon, but because I had a specific use. 

I went to AFI for two major reasons. First, I wanted the “four picture deal” (to quote one of my favorite AFI directing faculty members, Rob Spera). While at AFI, students make four movies -- three in the first year, and a thesis film in the second. Try as I might, I probably wouldn’t have made four films in two years without AFI -- and definitely not at the level I was able to make them. This is mainly because I needed collaborators to take my craft to the next level.

While at AFI, I had the great fortune of learning from talented filmmakers. This means faculty like Peter Markham, who teaches an incredible course on visual language. Also, Patty West, who manages thesis production with savvy, studio exec-style mentorship, and this guy, Chris Schwartzy … This also includes Q&As and master classes from visiting filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Barry Jenkins, and Asghar Farhadi.

But some of the best filmmakers I learned from are the ones I was working with on a daily basis. Attending AFI allowed me to join a community of filmmakers who I will continue to learn from and work with in the future.

1. You’re always pitching or “What’s in it for them?”

For my thesis film, I made a coming-of-age superhero short called B alloon . The story for Balloon started as a very personal one, based on a memory I had from my childhood: A massive balloon release at my junior high (before we knew the environmental ramifications of such an event). When I was putting together the team, I knew exactly which filmmakers I wanted to work with. I had some longtime collaborators from back in New York (producer Kate Chamuris, production designer Jerry Marsini, and line producer Alex Peurye) and I had met several new collaborators at AFI (producer Christina Cha, cinematographer Frances Kroon, editor Bowei Yue, and co-writer Dave Testa). It was a student film and none of us were getting paid, so I really needed to shape the project around what inspired all of us.

I wanted the team to feel as connected to the story as I felt. At the time, we were seeing the Harvey Weinstein story break and our nation’s gun violence problem reached terrifyingly high levels. And what did these incidents of mass shootings have in common? Guns, yes, but also boys. It was always boys pulling the trigger, never girls. The question we asked ourselves was, “why?” How can so many boys grow up to be men displaying toxic behavior? This question galvanized our team and really set our story development into motion.

2. Get the money — and get it on the screen!

At AFI, you’re in the heart of Hollywood. This means we have the opportunity to work with many union professionals in the industry, including SAG-AFTRA actors, DGA assistant directors, and Teamsters in the transpo department. But this also comes with a slew of financial commitments that an average short film doesn’t incur. This is both good and bad. It’s tough because you’re looking at having to raise a lot of money to make a fifteen-minute flick. The positive is you’re working with established talent on your project -- and experience counts!

You’re also getting a taste of how to tell stories within the myriad of production logistics that comes with making movies in the Hollywood landscape. 

Besides crowdfunding, one way we went about raising money was by going after corporate grants.

This is a big advantage to producing at a non-profit organization; this made up more than 50 percent of our total capital. We had a theory that if we raised the base capital on an AFI thesis film, we would have spent a lot of money to make a film that looks like it cost very little. But if we raised an additional 20 to 30 percent capital, we actually could get a lot more for our money. Because it was a student film, there were a lot of discounts offered to us, as well. So, a little more capital opened a lot more doors. This allowed us to work with visual effects and camera equipment that we wouldn’t have gotten at the base budget level. Those were all skills that excited the team to be able to learn and take with them into their careers. If a short film is a calling card, this allowed us (especially the producers -- see #1) to show we could do a lot for very little!

3. Great a great AD and learn how to work with actors

When you set out to make a movie, you’re often told “no kids, no animals.” This is because both of them need extra time and money to accommodate. Besides the fact that we had to have a wrangler to work with our caterpillar (spoiler alert!), we were also working with a cast full of minors. Though it definitely presented its challenges, I think a lot of this can be resolved with preparation (see a theme?).

First and foremost, get a great AD. We were fortunate to have the incredible John “Tag” Tagamolila step in as our first assistant director.

He felt certain that what we were attempting was impossible for a student production. That said, after we showed him the amount of preparation we had done, he came on board and took the whole operation to the next level. We also had the incredible Daphne Boelsma as our lead studio teacher. I’ve heard people groan about studio teachers and seen them treated like an adversary to the filmmaking process. But that’s not true. The right studio teacher will take care of your young cast and be a partner with your AD in helping to make your days. 

The other big challenge we faced with young actors was the material. Amidst this seemingly simple superhero origin story, there was a very raw and gritty look at what it was like growing up today. In order to get the best talent to come in, I had to pull a controversial scene out of the script and tone down the language. This was a big risk.

We still had people refuse to audition for the film and one parent protested the use of the word “bitch” (though, strangely, several other words which are not printable here were “okay”). Once we locked our cast, we used our table read to foster a conversation with the actors and parents. We told them how we wanted to change the script and why. It was really important to establish trust and to let our young actors and their parents be a part of the creative process. Language and certain themes can feel exploitative, but with this approach they were consenting because they believed it would better tell the story. 

Lastly, in regard to material, I was worried parents might over-rehearse their kids. So, I never gave the actors a scene with the actual dialogue in the film. What I really didn’t want was to have an actor roll up on set and do the scene without any life or spontaneity in it.

But, as a former actor, I wanted to give my cast a chance to prepare. I wanted to do everything I could to set my actors up for success, just like I wanted for anyone on my team. So, we crafted a version of the script with dialogue where every character was saying exactly what they were feeling. This subtext version of the script served as an emotional roadmap for the scene. Then, on set, I’d ask them, “would you really say that?” The answer would usually, be “no” or “actually, I think I’d say [insert line here].” And we’d go again and try that.

We had a great cast and all I had to do was create an environment that fostered authenticity. So, we often threw the script out and just let them talk (or not talk) to one another. For me, this yielded some really spontaneous moments that I was so happy we caught on camera.

4. “Set your team up for success”

I remember once seeing a trailer for Werner Herzog’s MasterClass.com course on filmmaking. In it, he said, “storyboarding is for cowards.” I love Herzog, but Fitzcarraldo  we were not. For a sixteen-minute short film with six shooting days, three major stunt sequences, two special effects sequences, over sixty visual effects shots, a cast full of minors, and more than a hundred volunteers, I think to not have boarded would have been reckless. Boards don’t just include traditional storyboards either; it also includes overhead floor plans of what every setup will look like. This is particularly important when there are many different equipment pieces in the mix. We had multiple cranes, jibs, scissor lifts, massive green/blue screens, and other major pieces across different departments.

Unless you want a traffic jam causing hours of lost time, they all have to know where they need to be in order to pull off every single shot. 

We found that the key to storyboarding is to start early and include your collaborators every step of the way. You don’t want to show up one-week out with some magical, micro-managed vision that no one had the time to prep for. You also want to give your team a chance to provide feedback on the boards. A movie can’t be made by committee, but it can’t be made without one either. That’s why they are your team: let them help you make the boards better! Your film will only benefit!

My iPad has become my single most valuable production tool. The massive binder I used to lug around has all gone paperless. I even use it as my director’s monitor now, paired with a Teradek Serv Pro .

I use an app called Shot Lister , which gives me an hour-by-hour shot list of how the day will go. In my production meeting, my AD and I will walk the team through every shot on the hour-by-hour and pair it with a storyboard and floor plan. If a location doesn’t have a blank floor plan for a set, we will create one with MagicPlan paired with a laser disto. Once I have a blank floor plan, I like to do my overhead layout in an app called Shot Designer , but it can be a bit time-consuming. So, in a crunch, I’ll bring the floor plan into my favorite sketch app and just draw right on it. For this, I really like Adobe Sketch  -- where I also do all my storyboards.

Here's the shot list for the gym sequence, which was both stunt and VFX-heavy.  

Above is an overhead floor plan of one setup using Shot Designer. The “onion skin” layers are overheads for the many other setups in this scene.

5. Festivals or “You’re not alone!”

We completed the movie in January 2019, a year after we had started pre-production. This is largely due to the kind of post-production time a movie like this requires. It was all-hands on deck in order to get this kind of film delivered within the extremely tight deadlines imposed by AFI. We could not have done it without the brilliant work of our post-production team, led by our tireless editor, Bowei Yue.

When we started submitting to festivals, it was kind of a dead zone in the festival season. We didn’t hear from our first festival for many months. And when we did, it was rejection after rejection! 

Then, out of the blue, we found out we would premiere at Palm Spring International Film Festival ’s Short Fest. If you can get your film into Short Fest, you are very lucky because they do a wonderful job welcoming their filmmakers and fostering community. Soon after our Palm Springs premiere, other festival acceptances followed. Now, here we are, a finalist for the Student Academy Award and we just qualified for the Oscars by taking home Grand Prix at HollyShorts ! 

It continues to astound me how audiences are moved by the film: laughing, gasping, and even crying as it comes to its final exhilarating sequence. But the point is no film is for everyone and it’s completely subjective who will respond to anything. So, research, research, research.

Choose festivals that program the kind of film you made. Be honest with yourself. Where does your film fit in the festival circuit and the greater market as a whole? I think the best stuff always has some heartstring buried inside of it that drove you to make it and will drive the right audiences (and festivals) to see it.

Walt Disney said, “we don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” The goal is to keep making movies and to tell the stories you would want to see -- and you will find you’re not alone. You will find your film playing somewhere...but also budget at least a couple thousand dollars in festival submission fees!

These are just a few of my takeaways from the process of making Balloon . Some of these might seem obvious, but I had to experience them in order to really educate myself. However you choose to learn moviemaking, there really is no better way than to be doing it. For me, that meant film school, but for you it may mean some other journey. And whatever that journey is, I wish you well! 

Feel free to comment below if you feel I’ve left something off or completely disagree with something I learned. I want to learn from you!

And also, find me on social: @jeremydirects. For upcoming screenings of Balloon , visit balloonmovie.com and sign up to be notified when screenings happen in your area.

Jeremy Merrifield is an award-winning writer-director who has worked on stage, screen, and in commercial advertising. While studying directing at the American Film Institute, Jeremy made four films. His most recent film, BALLOON, stars Paul Scheer (BLACK MONDAY) and Jonah Beres (Hulu’s PEN15). It won the Grand Prix at HollyShorts and is a finalist for the Student Academy Award. His production company,  DREAM THREE FILMS , is currently developing a slate of projects including a feature film version of his short, LINE, based on his experiences growing up in a southeastern commercial fishing community and the devastating effects of climate change. In New York’s Broadway theater community, Jeremy worked on such projects as MISS SAIGON, CATS, LES MISÉRABLES, and MARY POPPINS. Prior to that, Jeremy provided consulting and creative direction for Fortune 500 companies such as Lucent Technologies, Canon, and Pfizer. He can be reached at jeremymerrifield.com | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook .

How to Create a Film Score Without Instruments

Composer ceiri torjussen on how sounds from moths became the signature sound of nightwatch: demons are forever..

Most people think the only way to create a film score is from instruments, but that’s not the case at all. Music for films can be made out of anything, really.

Musician Emil Richards ( Mission: Impossible , Jurassic Park ) became well-known for supporting this theory. Emil was constantly banging on objects everywhere he went, to see the sounds each item would produce. Before his death, composers such as Danny Elfman and Michael Giacchino would come to regularly for these sounds. He is also the man behind the famous finger snaps in The Adams Family theme.

When it came time to score Shudder’s Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, the sequel to the 1994 Danish horror film Nightwatch , composer Ceiri Torjussen knew he wanted to do something unique with non-musical sources, as he does with a lot of his sci-fi and horror projects. Since moths are present in both this film and the original, Ceiri recorded moth wings and buzzes and found that when manipulated and slowed down, produced a sinister rhythm. These recordings quickly became one of the signature sounds in the score.

In the below interview Ceiri discusses everything from his Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever score to creating new sounds from uncommon places.

Editor's notes: the following interview is edited for length and clarity.

No Film School: First off, what led to your career in music?

Ceiri Torjussen: Music is what I’ve always done since I was a pretty young kid. I studied and loved the natural sciences also, and my mum wanted me to study medicine. However, I knew I’d be way too absent-minded for a ‘serious job’ like that, and would most likely leave a scalpel inside a patient or something.

I started out playing the trumpet and sax in youth orchestras, bands, jazz groups, etc. I also had piano lessons but I found practice too boring, so I started to improvise and compose my own pieces. That led to me writing a string quartet at about the age of 16, and from then on I was pretty smitten with the idea of becoming a composer.

Also, my dad was a director/producer for our local Welsh TV station and made mostly documentaries. My first gig was doing little bits of music for one of his documentary shows and that was the first time I used a (very early) digital sequencer to create music. I then did a degree in music at York University in the UK, followed by a Masters in (classical) composition at USC in LA, where I also started scoring short films for the students at the film school. My first real gig out of school was orchestrating for composer Marco Beltrami ( Scream, Terminator 3, A Quiet Place ). I learnt so much orchestrating and later writing additional music for Marco, especially since he had a similar background to me in composing concert music.

NFS: Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is a sequel and the first film was scored by another composer. Did you use any of the same sounds that were in the first film or did you want to go in a completely different direction?

Torjussen: We went in a completely new direction. Ole didn't want me to reference the original film in terms of themes or 'sound', so I had pretty much a blank slate from which to start.

NFS: Did the director, Ole Bornedal, have a pretty clear idea of how he wanted the score to sound in pre-production or did you have more room to experiment? What did your collaboration with Ole look like?

Torjussen: I was actually brought onboard way into post, once they already had a rough cut of the film. Ole was very open-minded about how the score should sound. He did give me some notes as to where he thought music could come in and out, so these were some good guideposts to start from.

Also, a cool thing about this film was that Ole and Anders Villadsen (his editor) had used almost no 'temporary music' as they were editing. This was very refreshing for me since most of the films I score often come with a temp score from early in the edit. It's nice not to feel influenced or creatively stifled by a temp score so I'm thankful for that!

NFS: How would you describe the Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever score?

Torjussen: Spine-chilling and terrifying! Ole originally said that he wanted an electronic score, but this approach evolved as we progressed through the film. The final result is a mixture of hard-edged electronic sounds alternating with gentler cues featuring piano, strings and softer ambiences.

NFS: Did you give any of the characters their own themes? If so, can you talk about those?

Torjussen: Yes, I did. My “themes” are not always melodic though. Emma, the lead character, does have a rather lyrical theme, first heard on piano. However other characters’ themes are much more abstract. For example, the arch villain, Wörmer, has a slowly undulating texture of low bassoons, bass clarinets and dark analog synths. Kind of a sinister wheezing which I thought was befitting this old, evil character.

NFS: We heard you incorporated sounds from moths into the score. Can you elaborate on this?

Torjussen: For the creepy character of Bent, we thought it would be fun to represent him as some kind of insect. Since moths make an appearance in both this and the original film, I decided to use moth wings and buzzes as the basis for a new, unique sound to represent Bent.

I recorded some local moths near our house in Topanga Canyon and was able to manipulate the source sound by pitching it down several octaves and varying the speed. It turns out that moth wings end up having a cool, sinister rhythm if pitched and slowed-down intensely. This became one of the signature sounds in the score.

NFS: Did you use any other sounds from non-traditional “found objects” in the score?

Torjussen: I made use of “infinite glissandos” a lot. The idea is to have a pitch that sounds like it’s constantly ascending or descending ad infinitum . I did this using Shepard and Risset tones—superimposed sine waves that continuously slide up/down and seem to go on forever. Doubling these synthesized sounds with things like violins created a creepy effect that continuously built tension.

NFS: Are moths the most unique object you have ever used for sounds in a score? Or do you try to do something unique like this in all your film scores?

Torjussen: In almost all of my scores (especially in my horror and sci-fi scores) I like to create original sounds from non-musical sources. I approach it as a creative challenge: “how could I make this insect, this iron girder or this bonfire come to life musically?” It means thinking about how the particulars of a sound’s frequencies and timbre can be exploited.

With software these days we can dissect a sound completely then put it back together again, but in the process bring out the features of a sound that we’d like to emphasize and that could be ‘playable’ on a keyboard, say. In the case of my moth for instance, an interesting feature for me was how, when the wings flapped at a certain velocity you heard a specific pitch. Then when you slowed the sound down, the pitch started to disappear and you just heard a percussive noise. Transitioning form ‘percussion’ to ‘tone’ (or vice versa) was an effect I used a lot. I could also drop the pitch of the flapping artificially which then gave me a sinister ‘throbbing’ sound—very useful and quite haunting.

NFS: What was the most challenging scene in Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever to score?

Torjussen: Ole needed me to write some music for the hospital Halloween parade (when Bent is trying to escape the hospital via an impromptu parade of patients using toy instruments and hollering. The music needed to synch with the dance and shouts of " Hey! " on screen, so it was a bit tricky. I managed to find a tempo that worked in the end though, so I wrote a new piece and we recorded it at my studio using my collection of toy instruments, some ukulele and tuba. The cue features my 7-year-old daughter, Anwen, on plastic piano-horn, party noise-makers and mini pan panpipes.

Also, Anwen, my wife Tricia, and I contributed some shouts to the cue which synch up to those on-screen. This was definitely the most fun cue to write!

NFS: Did you learn anything in particular from working on the film?

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an AFI Thesis Film

An elite race of aliens coexists with human beings. They live and work among us, leading lives almost indistinguishable from our own save for one key difference: they reproduce by implanting their offspring in a human host—those hosts in turn raising the newborn aliens as their own. When an ordinary man is forcibly implanted with his alien boss’s parasitic offspring, he asks his wife to help him remove the parasite, a dangerous and illegal act that places both their lives at risk.

ABOUT THE FILM

PROGENY is a short thesis film created by a group of filmmakers as part of their MFA degree from the AFI Conservatory. It is a suspenseful, science fiction thriller set in an alternate version of present-day rural America. The film seeks to explore the struggles of working-class Americans through an intriguing, entertaining sci-fi story.

Tanner and Emily are all of us. Hard-working people, just trying to make ends meet in a world that gets tougher every day. They toil in their unforgiving jobs, whether it’s at the factory where Tanner is under the constant scrutiny of his unsympathetic manager, or at the hospital where Emily’s critical support of the surgeons goes unappreciated.  But when they get home, they find sanctuary in each other, and in their little backyard garden. It’s their dream to own their own garden shop someday, but saving up the money to start a business seems impossible.

When Tanner is invited to go on a hunting trip with his boss, a wealthy alien, Tanner gladly accepts. He hopes to find a moment to speak to the alien about his garden shop idea, hoping to secure an investment in the business. But when Tanner finally gets the chance, the alien attacks him, pinning him down and slicing into the back of his neck, depositing a parasitic gestational sack which wraps around Tanner’s spine.

When Tanner gets home he is shaken. He doesn’t know what to do. He hides the gestational sac from Emily at first, but when it is eventually discovered, he pleads with her to help him do the only thing he can imagine. He wants to have it removed, and he needs her help…

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I love the ooey gooey stuff.

Alien. The Fly. Even Ghostbusters has its fair share of goopy slime and bodily transformations.

A story (like a body) can take many forms. A drama about truckers who are used by their company with little regard for the value of their own lives is interesting, but put it in space and throw a deadly Alien in the mix, now it’s fun. Observing the way drug abuse destroys relationships and cripples the addict can be moving, but make that addict a six-foot-five arthropod and now you have my attention. Grad students make a breakthrough in science but the world continues to doubt them? Okay… The breakthrough is that they can catch ghosts —I’m in!

So I could tell you a story about how the ruling class takes advantage of hard-working Americans, about how they manipulate us through coopting popular narratives and shaping them to suit their personal and economic interests. I could tell a story about how the greatest systems of control utilized by the wealthy are the ones that are self-enforcing, about how they trick us to try and succeed within the system by allowing just enough of us to achieve the appearance of wealth, keeping alive the myth that it’s possible for anyone. But Eisenstein covered that base almost 100 years ago, and frankly it was a little dry then too.

I’d rather tell you about the alien’s grotesque insertion appendage, the greasy gestational sac it discharges and the fibrous, invertebrate tendrils that tear open the flesh at the nape of your neck so they may wrap around your spine and integrate themselves into your nervous system, sucking the life force out of you to feed itself. There’s a story that is shocking, disgusting, and appalling.

And I love it.

Film Institue

The AFI Conservatory is a non-profit, 501 c3 organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form. As such, AFI was most recently ranked at No.1 among all the film schools in the country by The Hollywood Reporter. Established in 1969, the two-year Master of Fine Arts program provides training in six filmmaking disciplines: Directing, Cinematography, Screenwriting, Production Design Editing and Producing. Admission to AFI Conservatory is highly selective, with a maximum of only 140 graduates per year. The AFI Conservatory is dedicated to celebrating excellence in the art form and to creating national education initiatives that inspire artists and audiences alike. A dedicated group of working professionals from the film and television communities serve as mentors in a hands-on, production-based environment nurturing the talents of tomorrow's storytellers. Over half of the incoming students are women, and nearly half are filmmakers of color. As students of this world-renowned organization, your donation is received directly by the AFI Conservatory and is 100% tax deductible. Once processed, our team receives your exceptionally kind donation direct to our production account to be used immediately toward locations, cast and crew fair pay rates, equipment and camera rentals, insurance and festival preparation upon final cut of the film.

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AFI Thesis Film 2401-WIDOW’S PEAK

AFI Thesis Film 2402-A LIGHT THAT DOESN’T DIM

AFI Thesis Film 2403-FCBK

AFI Thesis Film 2404-DEAD GIRL

AFI Thesis Film 2405-INSTINCT

AFI Thesis Film 2406-MARASCHINO

AFI Thesis Film 2407-BEST EYES

AFI Thesis Film 2408-FOWL PLAY

AFI Thesis Film 2409-DADDA

AFI Thesis Film 2410-THE HICKS HAPPY HOUR

AFI Thesis Film 2411-SHANGRI-LA

AFI Thesis Film 2412-IN FOREIGN

AFI Thesis Film 2413-THE WITCH PRICKER AND THE HARE

AFI Thesis Film 2414-ROLLER WORLD

AFI Thesis Film 2415-PATAKHA

AFI Thesis Film 2416-THE APPLE PICKER’S SON

AFI Thesis Film 2417-IN THE MOOD

AFI Thesis Film 2418-DANDELION

AFI Thesis Film 2419-LITTLE BIRD

AFI Thesis Film 2420-TEEN MARY

AFI Thesis Film 2421-AZUL

AFI Thesis Film 2422-POOLBOY

AFI Thesis Film 2423-IRON LAKE

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Graduate Studies in English & World Languages

MA English Thesis Defense Announcement- “Audio Description and Silent Film: Using visual rhetoric and principles of disability studies to create an AD track”

The Department of English and World Languages is pleased to announce Mary Miller successfully defended her MA English thesis. Her creative work, titled “Audio Description and Silent Film: Using visual rhetoric and principles of disability studies to create an AD track” included creating the audio description track for a 1924 silent film, Sherlock, Jr..  The audio description work was informed by disability studies and rhetorical studies, with the thesis including extension discussion on the rhetorical choices made in creating an audio description for a film.

Her work was chaired by Dr. Emily Baldys with committee members Dr. Jill Craven and Dr. A Nicole Pfannenstiel. Her work was successfully defended June 4th, 2024.

Congratulations Mary on all you’ve accomplished in our graduate program!

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