Student Short

Jacob Kellar is the co-founder of Family Portrait Productions along with Raven Young. As a filmmaker, Kellar strives to tell stories from unique perspectives while presenting themes that challenge who we are as people. With a background in acting as a child, he respects and appreciates the amount of detail that goes into every character action. One of his favorite roles during the filmmaking process is working on characters with the cast. Kellar enjoys the creative collaboration that takes place and how it leads to new discoveries about characters not written on the page. Kellar has written and directed two shorts, “Dandelion Petals” (2019) and “Our Family” (2021), both while attending film school. Kellar looks forward to diving into the professional world of filmmaking.

Jacob and Brittany are a brother and sister directing duo. They were born and raised in Southern California and recently graduated from Biola University's School of Cinema and Media Arts with their BA in film production. At a young age Jacob would be driven to a career in filmmaking after watching the special features from the Lord of the Rings. Later on, Brittany would also join in on making film a career after visiting the Universal Studios backlot. As recent college grads, they are excited for this new chapter in their careers and are looking forward to collaborating on many more projects in the future.

Travaé Davis is an old soul who enjoys to read, sit in parks, play chess, and collect pithy quotes. He is a lover of philosophy, conspiracy theories, allegories, and darker stories. Obsessed with character misery, Travaé believes uncanny often shrouded emotions contain a substantive amount of romance, candidness, and authenticity. Magical realism and death always find a way into his stories. He is currently pursuing a BFA in Film Production at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts.

Lukas Baier grew up with filmmaking and worked on professional film sets already as a teenager due to his parents. He first studied philosophy and communication science in Salzburg and during that time worked as an assistant director, for film production companies and broadcasters. In 2012 he began studying feature film directing at the University of Television and Film Munich, which he completed in 2020 with his film “The Other One”. The film premiered at the Max Ophüls Preis film festival in Germany. Lukas is currently working at Beta Film as content editor developing international series.

Director- Marc Van Holt is a visual storyteller based in Los Angeles, California. Marc is an MFA student at the University of Southern California majoring in Film and Television Production with an emphasis in visual effects and directing in a virtual world. Marc is set to graduate in May 2021. He currently works part time as a videographer and editor for USC Dornsife and local independent film productions in Los Angeles.

Writer/Producer/Cinematographer- Alyssa Amer is a graduate of New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study with an interdisciplinary study in business and dramatic writing. During college, she worked as a distribution consultant at FilmDistrict and interned at Scott Rudin Productions, The Weinstein Company, and FilmNation Entertainment. She has produced ten short films. Alyssa moved to Los Angeles after spending most of her life in New York City. Upon moving to Los Angeles, she worked as an Executive Assistant, Coordinator, and Jr. Accountant at numerous entertainment companies. During the summer of 2016, she attended a feature film class taught by James Franco and co-wrote a feature film produced by Elysium Bandini Studios. She has also written film shorts for the online horror channel Crypt TV. In addition to writing, she worked as one of the Assistant Directors for 2018 Oscar Nominated short film, DeKalb Elementary.

Currently, her academic track at USC is cinematography with a focus in horror filmmaking. In addition to traditional filmmaking practices, she studies virtual production utilizing animation, motion capture, and gaming engines. She plans to pursue an interdisciplinary oriented career in filmmaking.