“In the distant future, an engineer gets ejected from the mothership in a malfunctioning escape pod where she must come to terms with her inevitable fate.”

Narrative Short

Runtime: 11:20

Genre: Sci-Fi / Drama

Director Statement

From the second I saw Star Wars for the first time, I wanted to make a sci-fi film. Despite my young age, I remember being in complete awe at the special effects and set pieces of the film, they were quite literally out of this world. I became obsessed with ILM and practical effects, researching how movies made space come alive. With this research, came a profound love of film; I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up: make movies. From that point on, I wanted to make a sci-fi film that called back to the ‘old ways’ of filmmaking by utilizing miniatures, practical sets, and real props for the actors to interact with. Fast forward to my days at SCAD, where I have been given the luxury of incredible resources and the ability to do just that: make a sci-fi film that harkens back to the ILM days of filmmaking, which is exactly what I plan to do with THIN AIR. I have been heavily inspired by works by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, but also filmmakers like Bill Hader and Ari Aster, and plan to bring a style that merges between that 70s era of movies and also a more modern era of Indie A24 and Neon movies.

 Making this film as practical as possible is of the utmost importance for me; I plan to have multiple miniatures built that can be shot in the same fashion as seen in Star Wars, along with a full practical escape pod set in which our actress can move around in and interact with. On top of the set, costumes will be handmade, along with all props our actress may have to interact with. IT WILL BE IMMERSIVE. My hopes with this approach is that the claustrophobia and spaces feel and look as real as possible, not only to the audience, but to the actress, ideally elevating her performance. 

When audiences watch THIN AIR, I want them to truly believe in MOVIE MAGIC, see that it “if a bunch of college students can do that, so can I,” and be inspired to go out and make films themselves, the same way I felt when watching Star Wars for the first time.