The Forest – 2024-Ongoing
An escaped convict is pursued through a dark forest by a monster, and ultimately has to decide whether it’s better to trek through the dangerous woods and hope to come out the other side or be recaptured.
After the success I had in my Storytelling class, I really wanted to turn The Forest into a full blown short film. Filming took place in and around the Payson Lakes campgrounds in July of 2024. My editor and I have been working to finish the post production over the last few months. This was a great opportunity that allowed me to work as the director of a production bigger than a school project alongside an amazing cast and crew. I discovered working with children is a lot of fun, especially when they’re as excited about the production as you are!
Love at First Fright – 2024
Two serial killers pursue the same targets on the same night, leading to a meet cute no one was expecting!
For the 2024 UVU Film Club’s Halloween video contest, I teamed up with a director friend to write, prep, and shoot a script within about a week of being told the contest was a thing. I wrote the script in two days. On the set itself, my role was sound op, which is a role I don’t normally fill so it was both terrifying and exciting to do something I don’t normally do (and it made me much more confident in being a sound op in future projects).
Samantha Cuthbert Advertising Application Video – 2024
A stressed out college student struggles to move forward with an assignment, but her tenacity refuses to allow her to quit.
My sister asked me to help her create a video for her application to the advertising program at BYU. We came up with some ideas of what she wanted, namely that she wanted to emulate the style of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I wrote a small script, came up with a rough shot list and shooting schedule (everything was shot in one day), and then acted as both camera operator and director for the actual filming. We also recruited our other sister to appear in the video, making sure that she drove separately so we could spill the Sonic shake in her car instead of mine. 🙂
Depression Nest – 2024
Depression Nest was directed by the same creative mind as Taco Hell, where I was given the opportunity to be the AD. Unfortunately, I could only be there for the first day of shooting. Fortunately, that’s where a lot of the heavy lifting was done anyway since the focus was the puppet work for the final scene. My job included the usual duties of an AD, but it also came with the added bonus of monitoring our noise levels since we were in a rented Airbnb property and didn’t want to risk noise complaints.
Taco Hell – 2023
Taco Hell was one of my favorite sets to work on because of how fun the concept was and how great the cast and crew were. It was the second set I’d been a part of outside of school overall. I was brought on primarily as the Scripty. I was also asked to step in as a substitute AD when the AD was unavailable. I did the job so well that the director asked me to come back for another project a year later.
The Curious Caper of the Taken Tarts – 2023
During the Halloween season of 2023, my sister and I teamed up to create a murder mystery centering around the story of Alice in Wonderland, with our focus being creating a game you could still participate in even if your character ended up being murdered – so our answer was to have every character be guilty of something!
My sister is a video game designer, so she handled the actual gameplay while I focused on the writing, characters, and all the written clues or supplemental material for the players to interact with. This included things like character dossiers, which gave a brief overview of the character, their relationship to the other players, and important things to utilize or keep in mind during gameplay.
After Hours – 2023
After Hours was one of the first sets I worked on outside of school. I was hired as a PA with duties mostly consisting of organizing equipment and snacks, setting up and tearing down props and equipment, and picking up pizza for dinner. I also became the unofficial scripty. My main job there was to call out the actress’s next line or remind the director of what was next when asked.
The shoot took four days, over two weekends. On the second weekend, I filled in as the production manager since the actual production manager couldn’t make it. So, in addition to my responsibilities as a PA, I was also asked to keep track of time, coordinate with the actors and the crew, create the call sheet, and keep track of the Director’s copy of the script and storyboards. A few weeks later at the premiere I also scanned tickets as we let people into the theater.
Darling Doppelganger – 2023
Darling Doppelganger was a Halloween contest video for the UVU Film Club written by me and my friend, Bethanee Farnsworth. We wrote the script in the course of one day before taking the weekend to make final edits. I then spent the rest of the week sourcing our actors (my roommate played one of the girls and my sister played the monster) and buying props (mainly the prosthetic teeth).
The day of the shoot saw last minute changes to better comply with how the Director wanted to shoot the video. This involved a lot of on-the-fly script rewrites which I accomplished myself. In addition to being the writer, I also acted as the production manager, though really I was more of an AD. I was mostly responsible with keeping us on schedule and preparing what we needed for each shot (mostly spattering blood on windows, helping MacGyver the busted window screen into the window frame, and dealing with spiders for an arachnophobic actress).
Emily Cuthbert Portfolio 