Sci-Fi Short Film "academy" | DUST | Online Premiere
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2022
- Six students must complete their graduation from a utopian training facility by answering a devastating moral question.
"academy" by Ian Salazar
Connect with the Filmmakers:
www.academyshortfilm.com/
/ ianslazar
/ kathleen_kenny_
/ natmcelvy
More About "academy":
27. 12. 32. 9. 66. 4. These are numbers. These are names. Six students prepare for graduation from a new kind of training facility. All that remains is one final lesson.
"academy" Credits:
Producing/Directing
Executive Producer: Kathleen Kenny, Nat McElvy, Ian Salazar
Co-executive producer: Travis Cramer
Producer: Austin Gay
Associate Producer: Chloe Knight, Conner Swann
Co-Producer: The Matts Productions
Director: Ian Salazar
Story By: Ian Salazar, Kathleen Kenny, Nat McElvy
Written By: Ian Salazar
Script Supervisor: Kelly McCart
UPM: Chris Cranston
1st AD: Kelsie Adams
2nd AD: Madison Quinton
Camera
DP: Christian Klein
1st AC: Joe McNairy
2nd AC: Jamal Reeves
Camera Operator: Ryan Wood
Still Photographer: Dustin Tan, Nika Burnett
Electric
Gaffer: Buddy Thomas
Best Boy Electric: Jay Harmon
Grip
Key Grip: Christopher Moscoso
Best Boy/Girl Grip: Myles Channing Thompson
Art
Production Designer: Nick Golowko
Art Director: Justin Wallick
Set Decorator: Karina Ardley
Set Dresser: Christian Duro
Makeup
Hair/Makeup: Chelsea Delfino
HMU Assistant: Amanda Thorsson
Stylist: Marly Hall
Sound
Composer: Jason Martin Castillo
Sound Mixer: Cullen Herron
Sound Design: Ryan Pawlak
Re-Recording Mixer: Alexander Verbitskiy
Post
Editor: Brennan Gilpatrick
Colorist: Dante Pasquinelli
Poster Designer: Xan Black
Stunt
Fight Choreographer: Patrick Koocheradis
Cast
Nash: Nat McElvy
Drew: Kathleen Kenny
Damion: Jay Walker
Brenna: Katherine Hughes
Charlotte: Nika Burnett
Simon: Ben Winchell
Student X: Jake Schwartz
Guard: Sean Paul Ross
Voice: Ian Salazar
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DUST presents thought-provoking science fiction content, exploring the future of humanity through the lens of science and technology. From timeless classics to cutting-edge movies, series, short films, and podcasts, DUST acquires, produces and distributes all content types.
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Really appreciate you guys checking out our short film Academy! Can't wait to hear what you guys think!
I knew it! The gorgeous redhead survives🙂
Once the option was given it was obvious who would rebel and live.
The rest of the class were overly ambitious or vacuous.
Nice to see it confirmed, however.
These near future kinds of stories are the most frightening. So well done, thank you to everyone involved! 👍👍
Interesting take on the good bad theme.
Tightly written and well execution.
Thought's on making a follow up?
Where did she go? What is life like in the colony?
I am sorry but isn't the one in bag supposed to live? Is that person not a decoy?
I died when she got handed the toast after she won. All I could think was "A toast to the winner!"
my thought... "now you're toast".... true leadership is a very tough job!!
She just took it without even missing a beat. Toast is her life now.
If there's one thing I've learned in decades of sci-fi, it's that when you're presented with a perverse choice in a dystopia or captivity situation, the answer is ALWAYS to think outside the box.
In this case, everybody sits down and says "No. If you want this guy dead -- you take the responsibility for it. We're not playing your sick little games."
Thus proving you're precisely the sort of civilized, team-player people who will make a colony work.
There is a second option. Everyone kneel down and say we all go.
@@blaiseneyroud7222 yes in a perfect world maybe but people are self-centered and selfish among other things.
One of the few DUST shorts I find satisfying in that there was an actual ‘end’ of sorts… like a well-acted ‘fable’ with a twist of a ‘moral’ at the close… unsettling, for sure.
Bravo!
Yes. An ending is good too
I like a happy ending.
glad you liked it
@@bjb7587 I doubt, that you can even get that at "Disney" these days.
“Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so” William Shakespeare
"In the end we are but a thought." Mark Twain, Mysterious Stranger.
Bill must have had a pretty easy life. "Bad" exists Bill.
Let's raise a (piece of) toast to the colony!
Kudos to everyone involved.
This goes in my scifi collection and thanks for posting!
You made me realise what the toast might have meant. Too funny !
@@peterruiz6117
There's method in my seeming madness, Peter. 😉😁
thanks for watching Billy!
@@iansalazar3354 thank you guys for this gem!
@@iansalazar3354
No, thank _you,_ Ian, it was a pleasure to watch!
The archival footage reminded me of Bioshock. The gradual decline in our education system makes a future like this feel not so distant. Nicely done.
This probably what it would take to straighten things out....I keep seeing videos of college students being asked rediculously simple questions, and the answers tell me that college proffesors are just handing out crack....Nothing more.
@@peterruiz6117 now mushrooms on the other hand, I wouldn’t mind that
Pretty strong Fallout vibe to it as well, I could certainly see the whole experiment as something Vault-Tec would do.
@@peterruiz6117 So in this videos, you think they show all people they asked? Or just those who failed? It is easy to only see the 1% that fails, also the makers of these videos probably want to show you only this. A video with mostly correct answers would be quite boring, eh?
@@butchs.4239 I was thinking how much their clothes looked like vault uniforms, and that this academy is part of the vault selection. A prequel.
"Here is your survival issued toast, good luck out there and survive"
🍞
*Waddles away confused with toast*
Hey everyone! We're super excited for you to watch academy. If you have any questions for the cast or crew, fire away 🔥
Enjoyed this - just so you know, this film wasn't searchable in RUclips (even with the exact name) and nor was it visible in the standard list of Dust films. It only showed up for me in the Playlist "Every Sci-Fi Short Film". Hopefully Dust can re-release it so it gets a fair viewing!!!
What was the book she was reading?
@@emperorofpluto it was a bible (academy standard version)
@@RJKhey we officially launched the video today so it should be public! Thanks for letting us know
The Speaker not appearing to be centered in the Triangle. Was that done on purpose?
I'll fall in with the choir: Nice to have a story that has an actual ending and a point for a change. More of that, please!
Not sure what the point is unless it is to put your own life on the line for your beliefs? Be willing to sacrifice for others? We still don't know WHAT, if anything the hooded one did "bad." No one questioned that - at all. Sounds like a AI version of morality though, If you don't do is THIS way, you are bad and deserve to die.
Congrats to the cast, crew and film makers. Well done. look forward to seeing more like this short film.
I think they ought to do this for people that are running for office. 😄
The idea has my Vote!
filter out those who are actually willing to serve society
Well...we definitely ought to pay them less
This is most definitely one of the most thought provoking videos on your channel, if not THE most. I'm at a loss for words, aside from congrats on a great short.
thank you so much!
Yes you are almost correct, however go back theough DUST catalogue and there are others the , Literally made me weep. I am 73 Years old, so you may not weep, however you will be moved.
"Graduation Toast" should be a thing! MUCH more meaningful than participation trophies!
That would be good and its part of a balanced breakfast. Participation toast.
From the moment the parameters were given, I sort of figured how it would play out. That was pretty awesome though. HERE's a thought... take a few of these shorts, and create "interfaces" for them so that they play out like one longer short... or maybe even like a full featured film... That would be crazy awesome.
Welcome to the 1-hour / 2-hours long themed streams here on DUST… ;D
What a shame that guy never got his swimming pool
They could have drowned him instead of shooting him. 😂
So thought provoking and masterfully executed!!! Love this film
I see what you said there. LOL!
I really find the lack of curiosity of these graduates disturbing. There is no attempt to inquire about the nature of said "bad" thing.
Exactly. Lost me on that. The rest was predictable.
I think it was actually pretty clear that they weren't exposed to any critical thinking at all through their monotone "training" and aren't capable of much reasoning ability at all, in fact, they chose the student with the worst logic to carry on society. What i find most disturbing is that actual viewers of this mediocre film fail to see that this is a dystopian film, instead thinking this is perfectly reasonable and the outcome to be good.
Damn, unexpected! This director should make a feature!
The Apprentice show has changed a lot.
The acting was top notch, the plot was interesting, the execution of the story had me on the edge of my seat! VERY well done!
Beautiful, eerie, unsettling… excellent work & congratulations to all involved
I always think these dilemmas don't address the morality of the authority that brings this situation upon them.
The morality of the authority is irrelevant. Like nature in the real world -- gravity and entropy and such don't care what we think of their rules. Morality is always about how humans choose to behave within the strictures imposed by an aloof, unalterable universe.
@@stevenscott2136 You confuse environment with humans. The authority in this video is the guard and person on the speaker who make the students choose. The video makers want the viewers to look the morality of how the students choose rather than the authority who make them choose.
I enjoyed this film very much. I guessed, near the end, that there would actually be only one survivor out of the group. Whether or not it was intended, this film is an unsettling comment on current social trends in the US.
Well done. Simple setup. Worthy lesson.
Yet another example of the maxim that good writing is more important than histrionics and special effects.
This was definitely one of the better Dust-pisodes. And I actually understood the ending. 😅
√ Short
√ Clear
√ Motivating
√ Satisfying
√ Visually complete
√ Played well
√ Music on point
√ Solid screenplay
@@jkobain motivating?
@@swagkachu3784 probably not for everyone.
A theory I have about this short film lies in the title. Notice that it starts with a lowercase letter which implies a diminished importance. Had the title started with an uppercase letter, it would have implied a greater significance like there being only one Academy. Here, I’m wondering if there are multiple academies testing countless young people the same way we saw here. Watch The Belko Experiment to understand my point better.
An instant classic, Academy is "top of the class" in creativity, innovation & wisdom, using elements from several sources to craft an existential masterpiece (set in a familiar post-apocalyptic/sci-fi world eg the Fallout games) that's deeply archetypal, forcing an intimate examination of our deepest sense of what it is to be "good". Bravo, Ian Salazar, cast & crew (+ "Toast" as mortarboard).
Thanks for watching! 🙏🏾🙌🏾
Excellent showcase of a generic (false) dychotomy in action, ultimately benefiting a discretionary extreme.
Loved it. But now I have questions. The toast. Why? Why did the guard give her to toast? Is there butter and jam on the other side of that door? Do you need the toast to buy passage somewhere? Damn, Now I need to eat some toast.
The ACADEMY?? more like the PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM!! Showed this to my uncle with the South Park poster and he wept in my arms, first time ive looked a man in the eyes in 7 years. Thanks academy!
Huh?
?
If this was a vision of what the near future holds... Then I'm glad to be a relic from the past!
Overall a good short film... Thank you.
Some of the spoken dialogue was hard to hear in a few spots, and I had to rewind a few seconds and replay those parts with closed captions turned on to read it, (ie: "...one FINAL LESSON"...), and in a couple of other spots after that. Perhaps due to an echoing effect in the stage.
I'm really glad I found this little gem of a short. Such a mindbender... I'm not ashamed to admit that my heart was going there for a bit! Great work! I sooo look forward to seeing more from you, Natalie. Great script, actors, Bravo to all involved!
Perfect timing. School starts today.
It appears our reality has a broken AI cause there appears to be a lot of bad in our world.
Excellent portrait of a paradox
This movie is crazy good, like the producing and acting is next level, whoever that redhead is, she's a star. Huge shout out to the filmmaking team, but that redhead has something special, I don't know what it is, but I love her!
That was good. And thought-provoking. Congratulations.
...and bad, and good.
@@MuantanamoMobile
👆👏👏👏😂😂😂
The colors in this short are amazing and it's amazing because most of it probably was achieved with clever lighting instead on heavy color mapping. 10+ for the color grading, lighting and interplay of colors - it's a real visual treat. The message is powerful too, the shots were timed nicely (no long still-standing cameras with little action). The camera work is really nice as well.
Excellent work from everyone involved.. Great story.. Their society is just like ours:
1. double standards where leaders don't follow the rules. Killing 6 people cannot be "good".
2. The majority are obsessed with things and self-gratification
2. Citizens are punished for making 1 bad choice
4. Conformity over everything else
This should be the start of a bigger movie.
I want to know what happens next.
Excellent story.
omg... this is by far the best of the 50-100 dust episodes i have seen. And it is the only one i will really remember. Powerful. BRILLIANT. thanks.
The best Dust mini movie and a fitting parable for today's selfish world 🌎.
Paused 8 minutes in. Observation: Not that these people appear to have the maturity to reason this out... but if they are going to be leaders they should demand to know why only 6 can go. You don't let your teachers run the rest of your life. Take charge.
Right. I'm happy for people who produced this, I guess, but I don't see any authenticity whatsoever. This topic itself is about as stale as last week's muffins, and I'm wondering what shock value there is which some people are ooing over here. Apparently, the people watching these Dust shorts don't ever read or visit their libraries. Pity really.
This is great example of how minimal set decoration makes a great movie.
I LOVE the low-tech, high concept execution. I LOVE the toaster as timer! Wow! Thanks!
Really powerful! Great ending. Bravo to the whole cast, crew, writers, & Director. Could be on the original Twilight Zone. Super pro & very thought-provoking.
That toast looked good. Totally worth it.
Twilight Zone/Outer Limits feel! :) Great job everyone!
The right and good is a function of the shooting speed.
Thank you, Mr. Gatling, Sir Hiram, Comrade Kalashnikov...
I really enjoyed this! it wasn't a predictable ending at all!
well done
Wow. I did..not expect that ending. We need a sequel to this one. Another group--perhaps they choose to overpower the guard and save the condemned or something like that.
What a wonderful small film. I loved what talented folks can do in a small space (physical, budgetary, ...) This would make a heck of an opener to leading into a larger story. But even on its own, loved it!
No matter if the people are good or bad, the man will be bad. Anarchist message? Love it
This is the way natural selection works. Neither good nor bad, the ones selected in generally (but not always) are the fittest for what environment used to be not too long ago. Most are selected out.
Thrilled I found Dust. Apparently, the best place to find true creative writing. Thank you for the great sci fi short films.
This is probably the best short I have seen on this channel. Very indicative of where we are as a society right this minute.
Wow!! This was good!! She was giving up her life for someone she didnt even know, and she wound up being the only one alive!!
I saw it coming a mile away, but the acting was great. Good world building with minimal exposition. Solid.
Excellent new talent ...
A glimpse of what to come paired with experience...
raw. Truth
Although for some reason it was quite easy to see where this was going, I enjoyed this short very much. Great acting and the setting was nice!
Up there with the best of the Twilight Zone, with the toast an even more surreal touch. Great stuff, exposing the corruption always inherent in utopian projects.
This is great, amazing work. But what's up with the toast? he just gonna hand it over dusty no butter after smoking all her friends? 😆👍
Haven’t watched one for a long time. This was good. Thanks. Must watch them weekly.
Definitely one of the better shorts on Dust. I agree with the comments below that it was nice to have an actual ending with the possibility of a part 2.
The very pinnacle of allegory. Chilling.
High sacrifice comes from very noble and humble soul it is unconditional
My main problem with this is that among the six students there was not one that was remarkable in any way - backbiting, sarcastic, self-serving. What kind of a colony would any of them be able to improve?
Why would a 'perfect' society want anyone remarkable?
That's precisely why the test is applied. All the training and conditioning, and they still can't make "perfect" people with any reliability. So they have to identify and cull the imperfect.
And the crude nature of the test virtually guarantees that the colony will be filled with people who are merely "less flawed" rather than perfect. Plus, people who are humane enough to sacrifice themselves will be the most traumatized by surviving the test, making them even more flawed.
The whole project is doomed.
In today's society some now value serving themself over all else. Putting others first is considered a weakness by some, yet doing so is a sign of a deeply good character.. I agree that in a Utopia, people will put others first.
The toast is burnt and crumbling,your hand is shaking,but it's your reward, you've earned it.
The toast was a nice touch.
Very very aawsuum video.
From the start of the last test I knew what I would do, but the end was stunning....But to put extreme importance on self sacrafice, and mercy.. That was very unique.
Awesome short! Love the tension, really makes you think what would you do holding the life of a stranger?
Super immersive, very well done. Thank you.
This could have made an excellent episode for the original Twilight Zone series.
Amazing and well acted.
Not sure I trust that test with such a heavy outcome. Let them live in their own World where everyone will make that same decision.
I'm guessing they had all their curiosity "educated" out of them. As a young adult I remember questioning everything. What bad thing had this person done? Who is this person? How did s/he come to be accused? And more but like ours, evidently their justice is not just. The Lady Justice will be very unhappy we've represented her in this way. I suggest we put a stop to it lest we end up where these students are.
Well. We are doing this now.
Most people only parrot and are told to hate the questioners as "the enemy".
@@tablescissors I fear & am sad to say I believe you're right. But I'm 62 so hating those who ask hard questions has been going on a really long time & is, in fact, one of the major reasons I left the religious faith that I was brought up in!😔
Yep, Saw that coming. Thank you for another great sci fi clip.
This was wonderful! It reminded me of they way some of the stories were on the old twilight zone.
I need more. To see the graduates outside maybe. The mental trauma would be... WOW!!!
Yes, what kind of world does this academy exist in? What is actual life like in a colony?
Woo! So glad this is finally out!
Excellent! From start to finish. Oustanding work all around.
There's an element of sacrifice in love.
Well done!
Thought provoking - with the numbers on uniforms - reminds me of SQUID GAMES... sort of guessed the one(s) that offered to sacrifice themselves would move on the Colony. But didnt guess what would happen to everyone else - Ouch!
Wouldnt mind seeing more to find out what happens next.
She did not chose "good", she chose self sacrifice to save a bunch of a-holes and a supposed criminal whose crime is unclear and who can't be properly questioned.
If all good people do that in real life, we are only left with the a-holes. What good comes from that?
Clearly their world has long past the point of being good if there is this "test" in this first place. I guess it makes sense that choosing only the most irrational and impulsive people to be a part of society leads to bad outcomes.
Well done all involved in making that peace of AWESOME film... wow u guyz.... much love from New Zealand
Wow, this was a good one.
Love the setup fairly basic, low key yet sets the mood and feeling well. The characters were interesting, the situation they faced is an interesting moral dilemma, they were given a choice to end a person's life because they were told that person was bad, when really there was no information or knowledge of what the person had done, or seeing their face either.
Interesting situation there, I find it hard to make a choice myself, even knowing the end result.
I think this test is to see which ones have a mind of their own, who is a follower and who is a leader?
I would be interested to find out what the writer of this was intending.
This is like when you read a story, imagine characteristics and looks in head, then see the authors drawings or pictures of the story and they are different from what your thinking.
I saw it more as a who is willing to sacrafice themselves for others, and who is more afraid of doing the right thing. Not who is a leader/follower, but who is willing to die for someone else, even die for someone that they were told had done wrong. What I find interesting, is it wasn't the religious person, it was the one who appeared to be a "bad girl" at the start, with candy and ciggerettes, that in the end did the right thing.
Okay, so I get most of it. The toast, however, eludes me.
You just redefined the ultimate dystopia.
No person has greater love than to give their life for a friend. Unless maybe for a stranger?
Great work to all involved! Thought provoking.
OMG .... that was the most suspenseful and totally not expected ending. thank you ! You are the bomb !
That was really crazy! I loved the ending! Twisted as hell! More please!!!! ;0)
This is razor sharp. Because I don't know if I could manage to pass that test for a stranger.
She wins and has toast. I'm in love.
THAT! WAS! AWESOME!
Absolutely fantastic.
Wow.
Awesome to see Nika in another film!!
Wow! That didn't end the way I thought it was going to end. Great work!
Needs full length, deserves it.