Film Production Commons^™

Cashing Out (Documentary), Girard Tecson

Theses and Dissertations

My 30-minute documentary film, Cashing Out, explores my journey into the world of sneaker culture and the major impact it made in my life.

Inkling: An Exploration Of Visual Effects As A Character, Joshua Cooper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Inkling is an animated short film about a creature made of ink falling into a cycle of anxiety. This film explores the use of visual effects in character design. Inspiration for this film was drawn from Absurdist essays and stories and used abstract imagery and cinematic devices to manipulate the audience into feeling the character's anxiety. This thesis briefly examines the foundation of methods pioneered by visual effect artists. To produce this short film, critical decisions in software and animation were made to streamline the process to allow more time to focus on creating a method for the visual effect …

All The Things That Don't Make Sound, Caleb Wyatt

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Longing is a silent call. This film exists at the intersection of both my deepest desires and my greatest fears. All the Things That Don’t Make Sound. How do you articulate a yearning that is so incredibly silent? The desire to belong, the fear that you never will. These are all questions that I asked myself at the beginning of this process. I struggled to find Tulu’s wants because the simple act of yearning is to not speak power to the feeling, it is an act that’s done in silence. Tulu is a character born out of all the things …

Goodbye? Reflections And Stream Of Consciousness On, Underneath And Around The Creation Of “Hello?”, Leonard Shevel Gurevich

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Más Grande Que Una Isla, Georgi Elizabeth Valero

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Más Grande Que Una Isla is a film about the political leanings of Cuban-Americans in Miami-Dade County, highlighting the dissonance in supporting policies that negatively affect the immigration process for others when they were incredibly privileged in the programs and opportunities available to them. It explores these political beliefs by tracing back to their origination, drawing out the privilege in the Cuban immigration experience that has existed for over half a century, leading us back to the present. While the film extends to a broader discussion, exploring the views of the Cuban community in Miami, it is personal at its …

My Last Oyster At The End Of The World, Miriam Ruth Lubin

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Otzar, Nicole Frederique Goldberg

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The Guf, or הָאוֹצָר, is an example of an Otzar . It describes a heavenly storehouse, intended for treasure. There, treasures are souls which blossom and ultimately fall from the tree of life.

These souls are often regarded as birds, and the Guf, their cage. To the tune of a sparrow’s song, angel hands reach down and pluck, selecting a soul for birth. It is said that once the Guf is emptied, and the souls run out, the messiah will come and the world will swiftly end. Birth prolongs the arrival of death with its embryonic beauty, but can simply …

Nothing Happens Here, Kai Diego Parcher-Charles

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Honey, Mason Forman

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

The Culture Of Resistance Featuring Pleasure, Leisure, And Joy, Gabriella Osifo

Scripps Senior Theses

Black students within predominantly white institutions (PWIs) have a unique experience due to the fact that they reside in higher learning institutions that were never meant to hold Black, queer bodies. Residentially, academically, and structurally PWIs display a quality of lacking which consists of failing to provide appropriate resources, acknowledge structural barriers, and address complaints made by students of queer identities, namely Black students, in meaningful and effective ways. Through examining the history of Black student-led movements within the five Claremont Colleges (5Cs) using a Black Existentialism lens, this paper seeks to understand the positionality of this quality of lacking …

The Man In The Fiber Optic Cable: A Short Film, Lucas Cunningham

Pomona Senior Theses

A man runs through a fiber optic cable.

Miss-Adventures: Fantasy And Friendship In The Context Of Animation, Nathaniel Shrage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Friendship is not always magical, as the protagonists learn in "The Miss-Adventures of Molly & Sage." In this buddy-comedy set in a magical fantasy world, the titular characters are two teenage girls who go on epic quests and cause mischief. Many aspects of the story went through changes during the production of this hand-drawn animated short film. However, the main characters and their chaotic friendship remained consistent throughout the animation process. While developing this film, I noticed that my peers responded positively when I referenced my Ashkenazi Jewish heritage in various story elements. The film's artistic style was heavily inspired …

And They Saved My Sorry Ass: A Documentary Discovering Self In Contemporary Fan Culture, Chunxiao Yang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

"And They Saved My Sorry Ass" is a documentary/personal essay film about queer ani- me lovers (including the filmmaker) based both in the US and in China. This film focuses on how these fans express their identities by embodying and re-interpreting anime characters. Experimental methods, such as staged performance, first-person narration and abstract imaging are explored in addition to conventional interviews. This thesis follows the pre-production, production and post-production processes of making this film through 2020 to 2023, also mapping out marketing and distribution plans after finishing the project.

Excuse Me, Everybody, Noah G. Battaglia

CMC Senior Theses

For my senior thesis I planned to write, produce, and direct a short-form, narrative film, entitled Excuse Me, Everybody. The original plot of the film is about a 19-year-old college student named Jacob who feels that his life is turned upside down after taking lewd photos of a fellow female student. While meeting with his psychotherapist, he refuses to reveal to him the true nature of his distress. He ultimately comes to terms with his crime by experiencing a hallucination where an imaginary being named Ego appears to him and forces Jacob to recollect the past events and explain …

Painting And Fear: The Creation Of Death's Visage, Mark A. Felbinger

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Death's Visage is a feature film that was created from an idea developed due to a personal relationship with an artist, who was a professional illustrator and painter. The film follows a young woman who becomes entrapped in a demonic sphere and time zone where her fear is the demon's gratification. She questions the events that are unfolding, which creates herpsychological turmoil, while taking place in the family home that is in an older established middle-class neighborhood.

Death's Visage was a micro-budgeted film produced for $20,778. The capital needed for this film meets the University of Central Florida Feature Film …

The Spoon Theory, Sanne Methorst

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The Spoon Theory is a 3D animated short film that tells the story of a dancer struggling with an invisible disability. There is a variety of media that focuses on the struggles of the disabled, however the spoon theory focuses on a different aspect by exploring disabilities that are not easily seen. The film uses visual symbols to communicate these hard to discern conditions, creating a visually interesting spectacle while effectively conveying an important message. The Spoon Theory invites the viewer to experience a different perspective on life and raise awareness about the unknown struggles of others.

Easy Prey, Annika L. Norris

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Easy Prey is a three-dimensional (3D) animated action comedy short film about stereotypes, expectations, and portrayals of strength that follows a ballerina as she is cornered in an alley. The fight that ensues expresses women's empowerment, physically and emotionally, by challenging preconceptions of ballerinas and the performance of femininity. This expression is founded on the intentional inclusion and exclusion of common cinematic tropes to efficiently convey key information while undermining common stereotypes. The action and atmosphere utilize classic film techniques to heighten and release tension. Easy Prey is inspired by my personal journey in healing my relationship with femininity and …

Tooth Farmer: Exploring 3d Printed Replacement Heads For Stop-Motion Animated Films, Jamie Lachnicht

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Tooth Farmer is a 2-minute hybrid animated short film combining stop-motion puppetry with a 3D environment. Tooth Farmer is a vital story as it was developed over four years and getting closer to the artist's goal of creating a successful stop-motion armature puppet that is durable for an entire stop-motion short. The story is a different take on the Tooth Fairy mythology that varies from culture to culture. This story offers an alternative to the world of the Tooth Fairy folklore. In Tooth Farmer, a little mouse lives inside a person's mouth to help maintain tooth hygiene. The film focuses …

Ruffled: Examining Feminism & Femininity Through Animation, Savannah Berry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The animated short film Ruffled confronts the subjects of Feminism and Femininity through the after-hour musings of a young seamstress. Sewing to patterns and working from their papered paradigms she discovers her unique voice that is both referential of the past while remaining distinctly modern. The struggle twenty-first century Feminists may encounter when determining their place within a history rich with prejudice, confrontation, and triumph is metaphorically represented in each of the character's attempts at garment creation. Within the film, not only does this clothing harken back to vintage apparel but whimsically transforms her surroundings to reflect three visually distinct …

菠蘿包(Pineapple Bun): Exploring Memory And Language Through Animation, Elaine Yang

Scripps Senior Theses

菠蘿包(Pineapple Bun) explores the themes of reconstruction, evocation, and memory through my childhood in Taiwan. Inspired by other Asian American animators, I aim to tell a simple story of connection through my grandfather and I's daily swimming ritual. The film is a 3-minute animated short film following our language barrier and how we engage with each other's differing backgrounds.