Ask a gamer what makes a game unforgettable, and they often describe a feeling: the way footsteps echo in an abandoned hall, the relief of a healing chime, the swell of ambient music as a mountain view unfolds. The invisible force behind those experiences is sound. It is the craft of Haoran Li (M.F.A. sound design, 2019), who builds what he calls “living, breathing, worlds" through audio at HYPERGRYPH, one of China's leading game studios.

Prior to earning his master's degree at SCAD, Li studied musicology in Xi'an, China, a city where history and noise blend into an urban rhythm, marked by the shuffle of chess players by the old city wall, the whipcrack of spinning tops, and the overlapping calls of vendors in the Muslim Quarter. Those sounds, he says, taught him to listen differently.

"Living in that environment made me realize every city has its own soundscape," Li says. “It reminded me that sound can record and preserve collective memory." When he first held a recording mic, he discovered the creative potential of sound itself. “It wasn't just about notes or melody anymore. It was about shaping an experience."

At SCAD, theory became creative practice. His first graduate course was Sound Effects and Dialogue Editing (SNDS 741) with Academy Award-winning sound design professor David Stone. "That was the moment when everything locked together," Li says. "I finally understood: sound isn't decoration, it's architecture."

Vision in sound: Li has worked on feature films including the award-winning To Kill A Mongolian Horse.

That realization shaped Li's approach to every project that followed, including Bricks, a Civil War short film and one of Li's defining student projects. Tasked with capturing and designing historically authentic sound, he learned the power of restraint.

“During the first half, I carefully removed the birdsong we'd recorded. It was beautiful but emotionally wrong," he explains. “Only at the end, when hope returned, did I bring the birds back. Silence became the most powerful element." The lesson: the best sound design sometimes comes from what you don't play.

Li joined a SCADpro collaborative project with Ford Motor Company to prototype voice-assistant concepts, an experience that revealed sound's role beyond storytelling. In user interfaces, sound is feedback, logic, and system language.

At HYPERGRYPH, those lessons converge. Game audio is not linear. It responds to player behavior in real-time. Every footstep, echo, or ambient hum reacts fluidly to action and environment. “Sound in games isn't passive. It's a dynamic character that responds to players," says Li.

As the industry evolves from mobile to VR and spatial audio, Li sees two forces shaping the next generation of sound design: technical depth and cultural expression.

"We need sound designers who understand both the engineering and the artistry, and who can code middleware and compose emotional landscapes."

For students exploring the field, his advice is grounded and generous: "Try different forms of sound work before specializing. Stay curious about technology, recording, synthesis, middleware, and game engines. They're the same language, spoken in different contexts."

From the bustling streets of Xi'an to HYPERGRYPH's digital worlds, Haoran Li has built a career on one belief: The best sound design isn't what you notice, it's what you feel. In an industry obsessed with immersion, that invisible craft has never been more valuable.

Explore Haoran Li's portfolio and recent works on LinkedIn and IMDb. 

This story features additional editorial input by Lindsay Graham.

Big screen dreams are coming true for freshman Pilot Bunch and professor Frank Hall Green, as the much-anticipated feature film Run Amok premieres at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
 
Run Amok, a dark comedy written and directed by Nitzan Bachar "NB" Mager, will be shown on Jan. 26 as part of the competition at Sundance, the legendary film festival entering its final year in Park City, Utah. The film showcases the artistry and collaboration of two of SCAD’s own — professor and producer Green and first year Bunch (B.F.A, film and television) — whose talents shine alongside an acclaimed ensemble cast.
 
"It is surreal to be going to Sundance. People work their whole lives for this opportunity, and I feel incredibly honored,” says Bunch, from Locust Grove, Ga. “What makes it even more special is knowing my mom has always dreamed of seeing one of my or my siblings’ films at Sundance, and now that dream is coming true."

"Being a working actor while studying at SCAD has been an incredible experience,” Bunch continues. “SCAD allows me to balance auditions and professional work with rigorous preparation, giving me the tools to create my own projects. As an actor, I want to gain a deeper understanding of every aspect of the industry, so I can tell my own stories, collaborate effectively, and bring my vision to life on screen.

“What makes SCAD’s film program so powerful is how directly it connects education to the industry,” said Green. “As a working independent film producer, I bring my real-world experience into the classroom so students understand how films are actually made—from story development to post-production. For Run Amok, I brought eight SCAD students onto the production, giving them firsthand experience on a professional set. That’s the SCAD model: bridging the classroom and the career. Our students are learning and working in the same environment as today’s top filmmakers.”

Students and alumni contributing to the production include background casting director and coordinator Anna Jane Gustavsen (B.F.A. film and television, 2024; B.F.A. acting, 2024), along with other alumni and current students who contributed as casting coordinators, editors, set assistants, and office assistants:

●      Brynn Lilley (M.F.A. film and television, 2024)
●      Hadley Holyoak (M.F.A. film and television, 2025)
●      Olivia Graff (B.F.A. film and television, 2026)
●      Kay Tagliaferri (B.F.A. film and television, 2025)
●      Ayush Thayya (M.F.A. film and television, 2025)
●      Jules Santamauro (B.F.A. film and television, 2023)
●      JJ Zink (B.F.A. film and television, 2026)

Run Amok tells a bold, satirical story about a teenage girl who stages an elaborate musical about the one day her high school wishes it could forget. The film stars Alyssa Marvin, Patrick Wilson, Margaret Cho, Elizabeth Marvel, and Molly Ringwald. Run Amok will  premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26 at the Eccles Theatre in Park City. For more info about screenings click here.

Sundancing: Run Amok cast photo (Bunch in red letter jacket) courtesy NB Mager.

"It's really important to have imagery to reflect on an experience. Shoot with film. The way that color and light and shadow are translated on film, I think there's no comparison."

Last week, Grace Ann Leadbeater (B.F.A. photography, 2015) returned to Savannah as a visiting artist and alumni mentor, and to celebrate the publication of her new book Fig Spit. That meant classroom visits, portfolio reviews, mingling in Alexander Hall with photo clubbers and, on Wednesday night, an in-person conversation with photography professor Rebecca Nolan. Seated in the vertiginous glass space atop River, Leadbeater and her wayward coiffure deserved a color photograph worth at least a thousand words.

As a picture: (l-r) Professor Rebecca Nolan, Leadbeater’s husband Jon Meharg, and Grace Ann Leadbeater.

"Something I was really grateful for while I was at SCAD as a student was the ability to focus on the kind of photography that I was really excited about," Leadbeater said. "When I graduated, I moved to New York because I had interned for a Nat Geo photographer there the summer before. A lot of my friends were moving to New York as well, so I knew I would have a community, which is so important." Once in New York, a different epiphany hit: "I didn't realize how important it is to have some kind of plan. To get a job, you need a recommendation. You have to be relational. Your work will not speak for itself."

"How did you finally meet people within creative fields to work with?" Nolan asked.

"I attended the New York Art Book Fair, which is still one of my favorite weekends in New York every single year. When I was there, I met different photographers who I had connected with on Instagram, and I met different publishers. It's how I found Conveyor, the press that published Fig Spit. I found them ten years ago, was very excited about their work, and felt that I eventually wanted to print a book with them."

Juice crew: Nolan and Leadbeater.

On the screen overhead, Leadbeater shared images from her new book, as well as scans from journals she created at SCAD Lacoste, first as a student in 2014, then as an alumni atelier ambassador in 2024. (Leadbeater emphasized the essential influence of professor Tom Fischer (1946-2019), who arranged to have an Imacon scanner shipped to Provence so that she could scan her medium format film.)

"How can I photograph that same place with the same camera, ten years apart? The place has maybe changed in some ways, and hasn't changed in a whole lot of ways, but my own photographic sensibility has changed, so how can I show that?" Ultimately, Leadbeater explained, "I didn't really have to think about it. The things I like to look at and document were different, and that was exciting."

SCAD Lacoste, Leadbeater explained, "is on a small mountaintop, and there's a valley there that's full of cherries, and we would go down there, eat cherries, fill our pockets with them." Vivid pictures of that summertime activity — often enjoyed with the four other female artists in the atelier program at that time — burst from the pages of her 20-page handmade book, appropriately titled Cherries. She shared process photos to show what work really means: "All those strings you see are threads that we used to bind the books as we sweated through our cotton gloves until 2 a.m."

Returning to Lacoste ten years after her original visit meant an opportunity to photograph more fully, and with a more fully developed vision. Cherries became a sort of "trial run" for the fuller, hardcover Fig Spit. Nolan nudged Leadbeater to discuss the many choice that go into making a book: "Not only the sequencing of the images, but the paper choice and the texture of the cover are just as important to the process of bookmaking." Then back to the images.

"I wanted to photograph as much as possible while I was in Lacoste," Leadbeater said. "I wanted to honor the people who were there with me, whether they were there for three months through the atelier program or living there full time. When I feel compelled to make an image, I realize that someone else might not document it in this moment in time, and I feel this urgency."

Limited copies of Fig Spit are currently for sale at shopSCAD.

Event photos: Taren Wāng (M.F.A. photography)

"If they like you, they like you. If they don't like you, they kill you."

There is a wild, willful glint in Luke Cornell's eye as he speaks of lions, cheetahs, and hyenas in "Cornellskop: Freedom From Fear," the capstone thesis film by Nathan Oliva (B.F.A. film and television, 2025). The founder of Cornellskop Animal Sanctuary in Bot River, South Africa does not flinch. "The fact that I'm still alive, and they trust me, is a tribute to them," Cornell says.

Directed and written by Oliva, produced by Jack Bart (B.F.A., film and television), and edited by Grace Lavery (B.F.A. film and television, 2025), the documentary short shows the beauty of zebras and ostriches mingling across the verdant veldt. Cornell feeds a lion named Mojo hunks of raw meat as narrator Peter Coyote intones: "Amid South Africa's troubled wildlife industry, places like Cornellskop offer a refuge for animals rescued from the brutal realities" of poaching and corruption.

"Cornellskop: Freedom From Fear" has been newly nominated for the Television Academy Foundation's 45th College Television Awards. Pretty sweet for a film whose origin dates to Oliva watching YouTube as a kid growing up in Robbinsville Township, New Jersey.

"Watching travel videos, Cape Town became a dream destination for me," Oliva says. "When I got to SCAD, my first friend, James Ross Fraser, happened to be from Johannesburg, and that summer I visited South Africa and just fell in love with Cape Town."

Following his sophomore year, Oliva returned to South Africa to intern at a film company called Moonsport, where he met siblings Dixie and Luca Cornell. "One day Luca said to me, 'You probably think all South Africans have lions as pets. Well, actually I do. They're in my backyard.' I thought that was funny, then I put two and two together and we went and visited Cornellskop. I met their father, Luke, and I thought oh, if I can tell this story, it would be amazing."

Earning his stripes: on location at Cornellskop.

In November 2024, Oliva began filming. "It was my first time directing, normally I'm a DP. I knew I needed to tell a story people might never experience firsthand." Shooting with lightweight FX6 and FX3 cameras, he and his South African crew soon accumulated four terabytes of footage.

Enter editor Grace Lavery, who had met Oliva in Senior Project I: Preproduction (FILM 431). Oliva was able to send proxy files via LucidLink from South Africa to Savannah, and Lavery began sorting and assembling the footage "almost immediately."

"As we dug into the footage, it became clear that the focus was on the animals being targeted, and Luke Cornell's mission and deep passion for protecting and working with them," Lavery explains. "We reworked the film a thousand times, some versions leaning more emotional and music-heavy, others more grounded in the reality of the poaching world. For us, it was really about doing Cornellskop justice and telling their story in an honest, respectful way."

Connecting the dots: Luca Cornell meets a cheetah.

SCAD film and television professor Chris Brannan guided the project's development from the start. "Nathan has a strong cinematographic eye, a genuine curiosity about the world, and the ambition to follow through on challenging work," Brannan says. The professor also taught Lavery in Production Lab: Picture and Sound Editing (FILM 474). "One of Grace's greatest strengths is her willingness to explore every possible avenue in service of the material."

The SCAD team looks forward to the College Television Awards ceremony in Los Angeles along with three days of professional development events March 26-28, 2026. "Cornellskop is a strong example of what a SCAD capstone film can be when students bring together skills developed across the curriculum," says Brannan with admiration.

Meanwhile, "Cornellskop: Freedom From Fear" will continue to screen at festivals, advancing Luke Cornell's sobering message: "If you don't treat your animals properly, then there's not much hope for us as humanity, because that's indicative of how you treat people."

Connect with Nathan Oliva on LinkedIn and Instagram.

From pixel glitches and coffee aromas to United Nations reports and poetic brand identities, Xiaoyue Shen (M.F.A. graphic design and visual experience, 2025) designs at the intersection of emotion and innovation. Her portfolio spans tactile branding, retro-digital experiments, and global collaborations. Each project reflects her belief that design is both seen and felt.

"For me, design starts with emotion," Shen says. "I want people to feel something before they even think about what they're seeing."

Textures and forms combine for Woodkit Coffee Bar.

That philosophy shines through her work. In her Woodkite Coffee Bar identity package, Shen turned the feeling of looking up at a kite into a daily experience. "The café shifts from coffee to cocktails as the day unfolds. I wanted the brand to feel like imagination itself: light, curious, and free," she says. Shen blended handcrafted textures and telescope-inspired forms to capture that sense of wonder.

Her conceptual book, A Story of HAL, takes a different path — one that embraces the imperfect. "I've always been fascinated by the ‘flaws' of early digital culture," Shen explains. "The pixelation, the flicker, the awkward beauty. The ‘90s internet wasn't perfect, but it was full of courage and mystery."
 
The project, with its silver foils and broken image codes, reimagines 2001: A Space Odyssey as a tactile tribute to that era of exploration. The balance of concept and craft earned Shen an Official Selection in Communication Arts magazine's 16th Annual Typography edition, Jan./Feb. 2026. A Story of HAL demonstrates how she turns imperfection into visual poetry, proving that even the language of error can become art.

'A Story of HAL,' a narrative project exploring AI, trust, and control through cinematic storytelling.

That same curiosity and precision led Shen to create The Everyday Space Traveler, a sensory-driven visual narrative that explores how isolation and imagination coexist in modern life. The project's poetic execution and experimental typography earned her a 2025 Red Dot Design Award, one of the industry's highest honors.

"Winning Red Dot showed me that personal emotion can still resonate globally," she says. "It's proof that honest storytelling matters."

At SCAD Atlanta, Shen learned how design creates real-world impact. Collaborating on community and global projects from a large-scale installation with SCADpro x Coca-Cola to her graphic design internship with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), she discovered how to balance creativity with accountability. The Coca-Cola collaboration culminated in a large-scale artwork installed outside the historic Fox Theatre.

"That project taught me patience and respect for process," she said. "It took a long time, and I understood how much communication and coordination were needed to protect brand copyrights."

Shen remembers the moment her mentor, SCAD associate chair of graphic design Sam Eckersley reached out to share that the design had finally gone live.
 
"Seeing it in the real world after all that collaboration was surreal. That's when I truly felt what design for impact means," Shen says. "I like to say that I live in a retro future. Technology changes, but our emotions don't. That's the timeless part of design."

Selected work from Xiaoyue Shen's internship with United Nations Development Programme.

Connect with Shen on LinkedIn and view her portfolio.

Learn more about top-ranked graphic design programs at SCAD.

A tiny flower doodled in the corner of a school notebook. That's where the practice of Ruei Shah (M.A., illustration, 2023) began.

Today, the artist's margin doodles have blossomed into a creative career honored by the International Design Awards and the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles. Shah's illustrated stationery and home goods brand Totocactus is currently expanding across the U.S. and India.
 
The brand is "a dream in the making for over ten years," Ruei says. Sparked by her fascination with paper, binding, and print techniques, Totocactus centers storytelling in everyday objects: notebooks, textiles, keepsake boxes. Patterns repeat like refrains in a song; variations keep the story alive.
 
"Every pattern and every motif must have a purpose, [they are] carriers of meaning, guiding the viewer through the narrative," Ruei explains.

Doodle bugging: homewares design by Ruei Shah. Copyright © Totocactus, 2025

She starts with research and story, sketches extensively (at least ten variations), refines in grayscale for rhythm and hierarchy, and moves to color when the concept and feeling are clear.

Growing up in India ("I was surrounded by layers of visual information"), she absorbed traditional forms including Warli, Gond, and miniature painting. That journey yields illustrations rooted in place yet fluent across cultures.

Corporate experience sharpened the production demands of her craft. As a graphic designer for Hobby Lobby, Ruei learned the invisible rigor behind beautiful things: audience calibration, color management, print readiness, and trend cycles. The discipline manifests in Totocactus releases, where concept, palette, and production are engineered together from day one.

"Preparing files for print taught me precision from setting correct color profiles and resolutions to thinking through how a design will translate onto paper, fabric, and other materials," she says.

Flowered up: homewares designs by Ruei Shah. Copyright © Totocactus, 2025

Early in her career, Ruei delivered more than 30 watercolor motifs for a clothing brand that had only briefed five; later, she walked into the store and saw an entire collection built from her work, a moment that "taught me to value my work, charge fairly, and trust my instincts."
 
On tools, she's pragmatic. A hybrid analog-digital workflow lets her iterate quickly without losing hand-drawn warmth. AI is a reference companion, not a replacement.

"AI can generate incredible deliverables, but it still lacks the emotional depth and human touch that come from lived experience. Right now, I see AI as a collaborator that helps with ideation and speed," Ruei says.

For students and early-career creatives, Ruei's counsel is direct: keep learning, build a portfolio even before client work, design with purpose and audience in mind, and protect your value. "Knowing your worth is one of the most empowering lessons you can carry with you."

What's next? Totocactus is preparing launches in India alongside new collaborations in textiles, kitchenware, ceramics, "affordable yet luxurious" pieces that bring "a little magic into people's everyday lives. Ruei continues to pursue book illustration, where narrative and image meet.

And when she's stuck?

Shah smiles. "When I first started drawing, every doodle began with a simple flower. It's still a creative reset button for me."

Connect with Ruei Shah on LinkedIn.

Shop the wonderful world of Totocactus!

What if activism were embedded in children's books? What if it resembled frogs in bow ties, otters full of curiosity, and gorillas in gentle embraces? For alum Anushua Sinha (M.F.A., illustration, 2023), this question is not a hypothetical — it's a reality she brings to everyday life.

"I like to think of myself as an environmental translator," Sinha says. "Kids might not connect with melting ice caps or biodiversity statistics alone. They do connect with a frog who is leading a marching band."

Anushua's career started with an illustration of that bandleading frog for Our Potpourri Planet (HarperCollins), a book about climate change and the need to save the planet. She sees her work on Our Potpourri Planet as a "make-or-break" moment that led to her first book deal and earned her recognition at the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles' Illustration West competition. It showed that persistence — even when driven by challenging circumstances — can open doors that talent alone might not.

"What started as a job became the piece that others recognized as award-worthy," Sinha says.

Modeling the lively cover of Our Potpourri Planet (HarperCollins).

Through her SCAD thesis, she sharpened her skill at making complex topics accessible without losing their importance. Professors advised her to find a balance between creativity and discipline. "SCAD taught me to weave playfulness into precision," she says. That balance, combining responsibility with imagination, remains a hallmark of her work.

Sinha's illustrations, published in Maritimus Magazine and in collaboration with HarperCollins, Slate, and the Algorand Foundation, animate facts with emotion and depth. A gorilla mother's embrace makes deforestation personal. A husky named Luna turns daily routines into tender comedy. An otter sneaks ecological data into a bedtime story.

"Animals are the bridge," Sinha explains. "They spark empathy and make abstract ideas vivid."

Styled to resemble a painting and rich in texture and patterns, similar to Indian Impressionism, her illustrations draw on Mumbai's visual chaos and the traditions of Gond, Kalamkari, and Madhubani. At SCAD, she learned to translate those influences into a universal language. Now, whether reimagining The Book of Doors or illustrating children's stories, she emphasizes her belief that "decoration shouldn't just look pretty, it should serve the story."

Illustration by Anushua Sinha for Denver Audubon.

While she has been honored by 3x3 Magazine, iJungle, and Creative Quarterly, Sinha still reacts to accolades with disbelief. That humility keeps her grounded. Even in client work, she protects her "doodle spirit," sneaking playful details into deadlines as reminders of why she started. At a time when AI produces instant aesthetics, Sinha champions illustration as art couture — measured, intentional, and built to last.

"It takes longer than a prompt," she says, "but that time and intention are what make it resonate."

Her current projects include children's books, games, and illustrations for magazines like Maritimus and Bento. Each one expands her skills, and they all share a common foundation: empathy interwoven with imagination.

So, can illustration serve as a form of activism? Sinha's work suggests yes. Her frogs, gorillas, and doodles demonstrate that art doesn't need to shout. It can enter subtly, cloaked in color, pattern, and tenderness. In her hands, illustration isn't surface, it's story. It's empathy, and it's activism — disguised as wonder.

Discover more of Anushua Sinha's work on her website and Instagram.

Learn more about how SCAD illustration programs empower the next generation of visual storytellers.

A rabbit slumps in a spaceship. Starlight strafes its face. Marks on a wall indicate many years spent in deep isolation. Then the rabbit — perhaps it's a human being with the head of a rabbit — opens a portal into another dimension, where it witnesses a crotchety grandfather bantering with his family as they enjoy dessert in their cozy home.

"To establish the state of this character, with no dialogue, I was really looking to indicate that the rabbit has some concept of what life on Earth would look like, and that he wants it, or remembers it," says Sam Gualtieri (B.F.A., visual effects, 2024).

The sequence is from the beginning of Gualtieri's "daring and inventive" Academy Award-qualified film Voyage of the Red Rabbit, winner of the Grand Jury "Best Animated Short" Award at the 2025 Florida Film Festival. The film was developed at SCAD as a thesis project in spring 2024 in Visual Effects Studio II (VSFX 448) under the guidance of Professor Joe Pasquale. "When Sam brought in several large library books to show the class ideas, I knew we had a winner," Pasquale says.

Infinite hero: a film still from Voyage of the Red Rabbit.

More than homage, the film accrues visual and emotional power through its synthesis of influences. (Fans of A Scanner Darkly, Daffy as Duck Dodgers, and Moebius' Silver Surfer are in luck.) Stylized 3D renderings and hand-drawn 2D textures combine to retro-futuristic effect. One of Red Rabbit's end credits reads "Artwork inspired by Maurice Noble," a nod to the Looney Tunes layout artist of 1958's Hare-Way to the Stars. "I knew I wanted the spaceship to look something like a soap bar," Sam says.

"During production, Sam was steadfast," says Professor Pasquale. "He knew the story needed to be told with animation and visual effects, and if you want to explore the meaning of life, do it with animation and visual effects. Visual effects doesn't have to mean superheroes blowing up stuff, and animation doesn't have to be bouncy comedy. Sam found inspiration in everything from classic Saturday morning cartoons to hot apple pie. His film shows us what life really means."

Praise be: Voyage of the Red Rabbit "could now break through" at the Oscars, says RoberEbert.com.

"I hadn't made a traditional animated film before, and I hadn't considered it until Red Rabbit," Sam says. Pressed about the presence of pie in his film, he responds: "Those are actual 3D scans of my Nona's pies, and the kitchen is exactly as my grandparents' kitchen really looks."
 
"I had the honor of taking Intro to VFX with [professor] Pat Perrone before her passing [in 2022], and learned about the different ways of combining disparate images using traveling mattes and optical printing. I was observing multi-planar projection, where Disney would have different animation cells stacked on top of each other, and a camera could move forward and backward through these, like, 2.5D vistas. So, I designed a lot of my shots, especially the moving ones, with that in mind."

While Gualtieri pushes the limits of the psyche into deep space, his personal journey is earthier. Born and raised in Philadelphia's historic Washington Square West neighborhood, Sam attended public magnet school Science Leadership Academy, where one of his teachers was alum Anna Walker Roberts (M.A., arts administration, 2014; B.F.A., performing arts, 2013). "Anna really gave me a positive reference point for the culture at SCAD," Sam says.

As a SCAD double degree holder, Walker Roberts speaks with informed insight: "SCAD is an environment marked by talent, which Sam has in spades — yet it's work ethic that makes or breaks success at SCAD," she says. "One must enter into the iterative process and keep learning and improving, and it was this aspect of the culture that I felt would suit Sam. He needed a place to try and fail, find his niche, and build a collaborative network. He gained access to the best equipment and relationships with professors who had real industry experience. Watching Sam's thesis film now, I am deeply moved by the depth of space and soul it explores."

Bocce sketch: Gualtieri's character studies of grandpa Ed.

If Red Rabbit reveals his grandfather's inner child, Sam's own youth is visible. "The way I conceive of the world around me is greatly informed by the pictures that were shown to me at a formative age — my concept of space is influenced by Interstellar, for example," Sam says. "We live in narrow tracks when we're kids, but we're capable of imagining far more then than we do as adults."

Yet imagination, like memory, creates loops. Sam's grandfather's recollections of a beloved pet rabbit grow vivid. The voice of Sam's grandpa Ed is really his grandfather's voice, culled from hours of audio that Sam semi-surreptitiously recorded at his grandparents' house. At one meta moment in Voyage, the rabbit watches a cartoon "The Red Rabbit: Nobody Lives Forever," a phrase uttered by Ed during his rumbling ruminations on life, the universe, and everything.

Gazing ahead to next year's Oscars, and the festival circuit Red Rabbit will ride between now and then, Sam says of his Voyage: "I'm grateful my film was incubated in the SCAD community."

Hare here: Connect with Sam Gualtieri on LinkedIn.

"Always my favorite panel of the year," said film professor Michael Chaney from the intimate stage of the Gutstein Gallery on Thursday as "SCAD Alumni Voices" began. "We get to find out where our students have been, where they're going, and where you might be going as well."
 
What followed was one of the best hour-long blocks at this year's SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The alumni panelists were Sebiye Behtiyar (M.A. acting), Virginia Berg (M.F.A., production design, 2015), Nathan Engelhardt (B.F.A., animation, 2007), Filipe Messeder (B.F.A., sound design, 2016), and EmmoLei Sankofa (M.F.A., sound design, 2014).

"Tell us what happened from the time you received your diploma at SCAD to sitting here right now at Film Fest," Chaney prompted. 

Here are nuggets from each alum's response.

Grad schooling: Chaney speaks with Behtiyar and Berg.

Behtiyar made her feature film debut as the co-lead actor in this year's Preparation for the Next Life. Sebiye: "During my first year studying acting here at SCAD, I was working on projects with my film friends, and I got to know this actress who is also from China, and one day she randomly sent me a message about a testing call and said, 'I think they're looking for you!' I was so nervous, like, maybe this is the one and only chance I will have to speak my own mother tongue [Uyghur] in a film. As an international student, I never expected that there would be a role in the world that would be for me. I put all of my heart into this film."
 
Art director Berg has worked on films including Avatar: The Way of Water and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Virginia: "When I graduated, Georgia had just signed a tax incentive for the film industry, so there were film productions coming to Georgia, and one was The Do-Over by Adam Sandler, and my first job ended up being assistant for his family. Through that experience, I met production designer Perry Blake, who wrote me a letter of recommendation for the Art Directors Guild. I drove out to LA and worked my way up from production assistant, assistant art director, and now I'm an art director. A tough journey, but fantastic to find my way."
 
Engelhardt is an animation supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios. His film Forevergreen was featured during this year's "Professional Animated Shorts" showcase. Nathan: "I always wanted to work at Disney or Pixar or Blue Sky. After SCAD, I packed up my apartment and started driving with my mom to LA. Right around Texas, I said, 'Wouldn't it be funny if Blue Sky called because they're in New York, and we're going in the opposite direction?' And that's what happened. I got my first gig in New York with Blue Sky on Horton Hears a Who! Then I did Ice Age, Rio, and ended up going to Disney for Wreck-It Ralph, and have been there ever since. I just finished work on Zootopia 2."
 
Sound designer and editor Messeder worked on Weapons, Black Phone 2, and this year's festival favorite If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. Filipe: "My junior year at SCAD, I was able to line up one internship at a Foley studio in New York. A year later, I decided to rent the absolute cheapest apartment in the most expensive city in the world and go full freelance and make connections and lean on every one of my colleagues that I had met at SCAD. I started working on a lot of shorts and independent films. Through the years, the people I met working on independent films started making bigger films. I've been working nonstop ever since."
 

Sounds good: EmmoLei Sankofa drops science on composing for TV.

Sankofa (M.F.A., sound design, 2014) is a composer who has worked on TV shows including The Other Black Girl. EmmoLei: "When I was doing my master's at SCAD, I saw what was happening in the film industry in Georgia, and I was like, hmm, maybe I should stay here, but first, let me go to LA for a few years to learn the lay of the land and bring that knowledge back. I'm a woman TV composer, so I knew that was my end goal, but I leveraged the skills that I learned in the sound design department as a production sound mixer to get directors' attention. That was my strategy and it was unconventional. When I came back to Atlanta, I got my first TV show, Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, I did horror work for AMC+, and then Step Up, and here we are today!"

Alumni all-stars (l-r): Engelhardt, Berg, Behtiyar, Messeder, Sankofa.

A lemon balances on upturned soles of blue-stockinged feet. Pistachio-colored sneakers encroach upon a forest green checkerboard tablecloth. "I love punchy colors that evoke joy," says Marleah Flajnik (B.F.A., photography, 2022). "If someone sees my photos and smiles, I feel like I've done my job successfully."

Five of Flajnik's photos, each at least three feet high and bursting with narrative possibilities, line the primary hallway of the Graham Scott, home to SCAD's photography department. They include selections from Lighthearted Youth, a series Flajnik created in Digital Imaging and Compositing (PHOT 114), taught by professor Steven Bliss.

"The one with the orange sweatshirt and orange hairclips and orange nail polish, that's me, I took that photo in my dorm room with a self-timer," Flajnik says. "One of my favorite things about my dorm room at the Hive was that the light was tremendous!"

In 2018, Flajnik came to Savannah from her hometown of Warren, Ohio as a self-described "artsy kid" who "discovered a joy I never knew was possible" at SCAD. She began majoring in advertising, and when her father sent her down his old camera ("a Nikon D3200 he got from Sam's Club") she realized her fate was in her own hands. "I was like, photography needs to be my major."

Photography professor Thomas Sanders taught Flajnik in courses including Commercial Lighting Applications: Studio and Location (PHOTO 314). "Marleah developed a quirky, tongue-in-cheek photography style that is identifiable and marketable. As a student, she was willing to grow, be experimental, and was confidentially humble, qualities that all manifest in her work," Sanders says. 

Marleah Flajnik, Lemon, 2023, Digital print, 45 x 36 in.

Since graduation, Flajnik has worked full-time in her chosen field, first as a fashion photographer at Buckle, now as a digital technician at clothing retailer Aerie. Her strong SCAD connection is exemplified by the "amazing full-circle moment" represented by SCAD acquiring her work.

"When I was a student, I'd look at everyone's artworks on the walls for inspiration, it was always so exciting to see," she says. To have her photographs chosen represent SCAD was "one of my big internal goals," and Flajnik gives a shout-out to SCAD Art Sales executive director Amy Keith for initiating the purchase of the images on display in the Graham Scott.

"The Tony's Chocolonely one, that's one of my favorites," Flajnik says, referring to her sweet photo of SCAD track star and industrial design major Shammah Dosunmu chomping on chocolate. While the image seems focused on a single body part, it elides objectification in favor of what Marleah calls "cheekiness."

"I've always enjoyed abstracting the human form, treating it more as a prop," she says. "There's control that you can have with arms or legs or a mouth, where it can tell more of a story. I love incorporating the human body into my work."

SCAD photography department operations manager Jon Horey supervised Flajnik during her time as a student studio monitor in 2021-2022, an experience that Marleah believes "assisted me greatly in my knowledge, problem solving, and skills in photography, and was a major talking point in taking my role at Aerie as digital technician."

"Working with Marleah in our SCAD photography studio was a genuine joy," Horey says. "Her positive spirit brightened every day, and her creative talent always stood out in her beautiful work. It fills me with pride and happiness to see her photography displayed in our new studio building, a true reflection of her hard work, passion, and dedication."

A joyful job well done.

Connect with Marleah Flajnik on LinkedIn. (Portrait by Michael Parente.)