Director Spencer Seagraves (11) and Westview’s own student run Fri-yay Productions organization brought home awards in three of four eligible categories for their short film “Radman” in the 2025 Excalibur Film Festival, a 48-hour film (48s) competition for San Diego high schools.

Seagraves said this type of film—where writing, filming, editing, and scoring are done all within 48 hours—is both challenging and riveting. For these projects, the genre, character, props, and one mandatory line of dialogue are revealed right before the process begins. 

This story follows the main character, Radman, as he gains his powers from a magic watch and fights various villains. 

“I was inspired to do it because I’ve been doing 48s since I was 7 years old,” Seagraves said. “I hadn’t heard about this [particular competition] until this year. So, of course I was going to do it.”

Despite having years of experience in filmmaking, Seagraves said he had never taken on as much responsibility as this production. 

“I had a few teams when I was a kid that would make fun films with my buddies, but this is my first time that I’ve officially been a director,” Seagraves said. “This is the first time I’ve put together an actual crew of people and given people legitimate roles. To me, it’s a team sport. I’ve always just been creative, I love to tell a story, and this has just been my love since I was a kid.”

To add to the difficult nature of creating a 48-hour film, Seagraves had never worked with or even met his production crew prior to working on “Radman.”

“The day before shooting, I went to the theatre company, and I walked in during the third period,” Seagraves said. “I asked the whole class if anyone was interested in working on a film crew, and there were six people I had never met in my life before the 48 that I worked with. I [had] never spoken to them, I didn’t know who they were, but they all killed it. It was amazing. It was kind of crazy how experienced they felt, even though it was their first time ever doing it.”

Despite this novelty, Seagraves said their strong team chemistry led them to go above and beyond. With the help of script writer Alara McPhee (11), Seagraves and his production team worked non-stop to get the film done on time.

“What I was most impressed with was the efficiency, because for ‘Radman,’ it was eight different scenes, which is basically unheard of for a 48—you want to keep it minimal. You want to have one, maybe two locations, and a very simple story. But we had so much fun driving around and kind of being hectic and doing whatever worked.”

Taraseus Murphy (11), who played Radman, said he was excited to have been a part of the production. Having previously taken private acting classes and auditioned for Stranger Things, Murphy’s passion for acting was apparent, landing him the lead role. Despite the excitement, Murphy said the position was unexpected. 

“Originally, I was just gonna do the score and maybe have a small role, but everything changed,” Murphy said. “I went to sleep thinking I was just gonna be a background actor, and I woke up the next day, and I got that text, I’m the main actor. I was told that I was gonna be the main actor 30 minutes before filming, so I had to prepare myself and get into that character. For ‘Radman,’ I had to become the character, and the funny thing is, I didn’t even know the script. I kind of was going scene by scene. Spencer was a great director, but there was some improv.”

Because of the short time period allotted to each aspect of completing the film, the team adhered to a rigid schedule that helped keep them motivated, according to Murphy.

“We were filming the entire day, we needed to get all the shots and all the angles, and it was [exhausting],” Murphy said. “But having the crew there and all my friends was very great, it was a tiring [yet] fun filming process. My amazing girlfriend was there too, supporting me and making it easier to push through and get the film done.”

Seagraves said that he anticipated surprises because of how wild the process can be. But rather than feeling overwhelmed, he said Murphy thrived in the chaos and was able to not only act but create an original score for the film. Since they were 6, Murphy and Seagraves have done projects together, including starting a YouTube channel, inspiring them to continue their partnership into something bigger.

“The nature of the 48 is you sign up to do whatever, and you never know what you’re going to end up doing,” Seagraves said. “Because we have to write, we stay up all night, and in the morning, we tell our crew to be on standby. [Murphy] has actually wanted to do 48s with me since we were 10, but the past eight films we’ve done, he’s somehow always not been available. This was the first time I’ve actually had [Murphy] be able to work on one, and he killed it. He not only was the [lead] actor, but he scored the entire film originally, and it was phenomenal—great, amazing work.”

On top of starring in the film, Murphy used his talents to compose an original score with his best friend, Isaiah Torres (11). They also took charge of sound effects using online production software.

“The score was made by me and [Torres], who I usually produce with outside of filmmaking,” Murphy said. “It’s a hobby I’ve always been interested in, and he too, so we kind of just put it all together that one night. We were just about done with filming, and I had 24 hours to create the score. [Torres] helped me with half of it, so the whole night we were just making music, trying to find the right sounds, especially the theme song.”

Seagraves said their efforts paid off because Westview won three of four eligible categories at the festival, including Best Overall Film, Best Acting, and Audience Choice. With fewer  resources than other schools because of a smaller film program, Seagraves said he was proud of what they were able to accomplish.

“It was amazing to get the recognition, [as] we are a very competitive group,” Seagraves said. “It’s also nice to represent Westview in something. Westview is kind of seen as being the little brother in the arts; I feel like we’re not taken seriously. The competition we had as well, it was just amazing to see their work, and there [were] so many talented people there. For us to put everything we have on the table and to actually go out and win was just amazing.”

Murphy said that despite playing a role in their victory in the Best Acting category, he recognizes the talents of the other schools. He also said his previous acting courses helped him learn how to use his facial expressions and body language to convey emotion.

“There was a lot of competition that I thought would have won best acting, I have to give it to them,” Murphy said. “Cathedral had some good ones, Rancho Bernardo had good ones. So it was a surprise, honestly, because I thought a lot of side actors would win. And I didn’t really say much, I was just kind of acting with my body and my face, but we ended up just being the best so I’m really happy about that.”