Who We Are

We are a group of students & alumni from the Savannah College of Art and Design working on creating our final short film before graduation. Our team is comprised of incredible artists and filmmakers, all of whom have unique voices that deserve sharing with the world.

Our Producer:

Chelsea Nott is an award-winning producer and filmmaker from St. Louis, currently based in Savannah, Georgia, where she is earning her B.F.A. in Film & Television at SCAD with minors in Producing and Business Management. Her work includes Deuce, recipient of the AGBO Fellowship at Slamdance LA 2025, and A Fairytale Romance, which won Best Student Short at the Kerry International Film Festival. Passionate about development and production coordination, she focuses on bringing imaginative, character-driven stories to life through visually compelling narratives.

Our Writer:

Nevin Allen is a screenwriter, poet, journalist, recent graduate from SCAD's Dramatic Writing program, and bonafide Pennsylvania boy.

Our Directors:

I’m Mark Owens, and I’m super excited to be directing on “A Brick Short”! I’ve always loved storytelling, in its many forms, and I think this film will bring much needed attention to one of the most elusive objects of them all: Bricks. When I’m not working on movies, I enjoy spending time outside, playing hardcore Minecraft, and going on runs around Savannah. I only have one kidney, but I like to think that makes me efficient. I didn’t need the other one!

Liam Arnold is a filmmaker from Baltimore, MD. He always knew he wanted to be an artist but his film career started in 2017 working on independent short films. Since then, he has worked in several departments including Production, G&E, Camera, and Sound as well as directed his own independent projects both professionally and at the Savannah College of Art and Design. This broad range of experience and strong artistic drive have given Liam the tools to create unique character-driven works that stay with audiences even after the credits roll.

Bill Smelser is a comedic filmmaker from Savannah, Georgia. His previous films include WALLA! and Cloth and Wire, two low-budget absurdist shorts. Bill is looking forward to working with the team and his fellow directors on bringing this fantastic story to life.

Our Production Designer:

Zoey Ball is a production design student from Norfolk, VA, pursuing her B.F.A. in Production Design with a concentration in Set & Art Direction at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work on shorts like After Vice, A Fairytale Romance, and AMA-gi—all traveling through festival circuits—focuses on crafting spaces that feel lived-in, raw, and full of story. She approaches design with a socially conscious eye, shaping every wall and corner so the character and mood of the story are felt in every space.

The Story

They say comedy comes in 3's, and our film took that literally.

One Brick Short is a 3-in-1 short film about the strange lives of bricks, and the stranger lives of the people they meet along the way. Comprised of 3 micro-shorts with 3 different directors, each chapter will feature a mortar-based antagonist.

Keystone: An abstract artist hides a key in a brick.

Ground Up: A struggling coffee shop owner throws a brick through his competitor's window.

Foundation Issues: A headstrong college student's first date is crashed by (guess what?) A brick.

Why We Need It

$5,000 is no drop in the ocean, it's a significant amount of money. So how are we using it you ask?

For one thing, our story takes place in 3 separate locations. Those locations are typically local businesses who graciously allow us to film on their property. To say thanks, we always try to compensate them as much as budget allows for while still remaining friendly to being a student production. This often takes up 20-25% of our budget, in this case: $1,000.

It also goes without saying that films can't be made without a crew. Each chapter of our story will take one day and one location to film, we means we'll need 3 days of brand new set ups, layouts, and design that our crew will be all hands on deck for. To support this, we need a large spread of hearty meals to keep them fueled and moving. This can cost upwards of $1,000 for a crew of our size.

Of course there are other costs like camera equipment, transportation, production design, and more - all of whom will share the remaining funds to help bring our world to life at the grandest scale we can manage. And we need your help to do so!

Connect With Us!

First off, thank you for reading this far - we appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read about our thesis film.

If we've convinced you to donate and you want to stay connected with us, please follow us on social media below!

If we haven't convinced you and you're really curious as to whether or not we'll pull this crazy thing off, you should also follow us on social media below! We'll post special behind the scenes content and more as we go through this process.

Instagram: @OneBrickShortFilm