Spencer Seagraves (11) stepped onto the red carpet at the 2025 National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Pacific Southwest (NATA PSW) Student Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas, dressed to the nines in an ugly Christmas sweater, as cameras blinded his vision in every single direction, his 14-person crew standing beside him, May 2.
Seagraves is the director and camera operator of Fri-yay Films, a student-run production company formed after a 48-hour film competition brought the group together in late 2025. Fri-yay Films has gone on to make multiple short films, submitting their productions to NATA PSW’s new student production awards. The group’s 2025 short film, “Sweater Weather,” was nominated for best short narrative film award, better known as a student Emmy award.
Seagraves said the NATA PSW nomination came as a surprise to the company, as they submitted their film on a whim.
“We were flipping out because we were [thinking] ‘might as well submit,’” Seagraves said. “And then we saw that we actually made it, and we were so happy. I just have so much fun working with this team. That’s my motivation. They’re all just my friends, and we all film, and we want to get to the best level we can. We want to keep trying to improve, because it’s our passion, really.”
“Sweater Weather” features a woman obsessed with Christmas as she struggles to find a romantic partner who shares her love for the holiday. Seagraves believes that the high points of the short film were the main actress, Harshini Patted (12), as well as the intricate set design.
“The best part of ‘Sweater Weather’ was Harshini’s performance,” Seagraves said. “She made the whole film. The whole movie plays off one joke, and the build-up [for that joke] was great. I’m really proud of the set design [too]. It was hard to take [someone’s] house and then turn it into this Christmas wonderland.”
Fifteen days after being nominated for the NATA PSW, Spencer watched as his production company’s newest film, “Death of a Creative,” won Global Best High School Film at the Global 48-Hour Film Project (48HFP). 48HFP is a competition challenging production companies to write, film, and edit a short film in 48 hours, where they won the awards for Best Score as well as Global Best High School Film.
For the contest, applicants are given specific elements required to be in the film, such as characters and props. For their requirements, Friyay Films was required to have a ghost writer character. They spun the character to be a literal ghost who assists a struggling young writer with writing a book, but ends up ghostwriting the whole book.
Alara McPhee, Fri-yay Film’s screenwriter, said that the production was meant to comment on the overuse of AI in creative writing in the digital age, as well as the effects of this overuse.
“I think people fail to realize that when they’re using ChatGPT, AI does pull from the work of other artists,” McPhee said. “So you’re ripping off other artists, and you’re lessening the value of art as a whole. We needed a ghost writer, and it was more impactful to have [the younger writer] directly drawing from the work of somebody else.”
Seagraves said that the 48-hour film taught him more about filmmaking than he’s learned from past experiences.
“Ninety percent of filmmaking is just solving problems, and when you have 48 hours, there’s gonna be a ton of problems,” Seagraves said. “You want to condense your crew so that you guys can move around and be mobile. So I was directing; I was [the] camera [operator]. I also had to do a bit of sound, and I had to edit. Being the director of the team and taking a lead on a lot of those roles was a great learning experience. I’ve learned more in 48 [hours] than I’ve ever read in a textbook.”
After Seagraves found out the group won Global Best High School Film, he couldn’t believe it.
“We were all freaking out,” Seagraves said. “I can’t believe how great that film turned out. Everyone killed it.”
Beyond the awards, Seagraves said that Fri-yay Films has become a place where new members quickly turn to close friends, due to the intensity of filmmaking together.
“When we’re making a film, you become best friends with the people immediately,” Seagraves said. “Whoever we bring in on Fri-yay, we all just become great friends, and we hang out outside of shoots all the time. It’s just such a big happy family. It feels great to win [awards], but we just have so much fun. We’re hanging out, and we happen to be making a film.”
