Nichols School Film and Acting Classes Collaborate on Short Film shot at the Buffalo Science Museum and Screened at the NorthPark Theater

Led by Andrea Mancuso and Kristen Tripp Kelley, the Nichols Upper School Film and Advanced Acting classes collaborated on four short films united by the theme of Untold Stories. Students served as directors, screenplay writers, actors, art directors, production managers, editors, sound designers and cinematographers. Teams chose genre, four character types and two plot points at random, and all teams shared a common prop (skeleton key) and line of dialogue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (“there are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, that are dreamt in your philosophy”). We shot largely on location in one day at the Buffalo Science Museum. We couldn’t help but be inspired by the recent on-campus film work of our alumni James Grachos, Liz Cappuccino and Michael Thompson. Michael Thompson joined us to capture some footage that’s used as connective tissue between the shorts. Student collaborators overcame many obstacles in all phases of production through creativity, flexibility, critical thinking, and cooperation. We were reminded that collaboration is rarely easy but always rewarding as it pushes our limits and celebrates both individual skill and collective vision.