One night, one new campus. Every kind of art except the one we make every day. A proposal for a one-day on-campus experience at the American Film Institute.
Campus life at AFI is intense. Every day, we pour everything we've got into making films. But a lot of us are artists in other ways too — painters, musicians, poets, photographers, dancers — and we almost never get to express that side of ourselves here. The most creative moments I've experienced come from the intersection of different mediums of art, and AFI has all the raw ingredients for that. We just never mix them.
For one night, we take over the Warner Brothers building on the AFI Campus and turn it into something it's never been: a space for every kind of art our community wants to make. No classes, no workshops, no film screenings. A transformed space for expressing ourselves in any way we want.
This isn't just for fellows. I want faculty, staff, and administration to participate — not just attend. I'd love to see what the camera and equipment rental technicians make out of all those lights that haven't been rented out. What the post-production faculty projects onto the walls. What the screenwriting fellows sound like when they read their poetry out loud instead of formatting it into a screenplay.
Directing, producing, editing, cinematography, screenwriting, production design — everyone gets to make something that isn't a film. Teams are encouraged but not required.
The people who teach us filmmaking are artists too. This is their chance to show us a side we've never seen. I want them creating alongside us, not supervising.
Friends, family, alumni who want to come experience the campus in a completely new way. The building deserves to be seen like this.
Teams of artists take over different spaces in the Warner Brothers Building and create installations. They can be anything — a sound piece, a painting wall, a light sculpture, a DJ set, a spoken word corner, an interactive projection. The only rule is: make something you don't normally get to make here.
We'll form a planning committee with representation from each of the disciplines, as well as the faculty. We'll decide on a theme or creative prompt early — not a constraint, but a jumping-off point. Something loose enough that a DJ set and a light installation can both respond to it. Artists need real time to develop something they're proud of. We'll open signups, assign spaces, and distribute key information: available equipment, technical specs for each room, and any constraints.
Talk to heads of student council groups and make sure every discipline is involved. Go around school, talk to people one-on-one, get them excited. Assign promotion responsibilities to one or more members of the planning committee. Work with artist teams to cross-promote and create material together — posters, flyers, a simple webpage, teaser stills or a short video. Ask every participating artist to engage with promotion and activate their own audiences. Nothing too fancy, but everyone should be pulling people in.
Teams take over their spaces and build. The energy of setup day is half the event — people wandering through, seeing what everyone else is making, getting more excited.
Check every installation, make sure power and tech is working, confirm the space is safe and ready. Last chance to troubleshoot before doors open.
The campus transforms. Audiences move freely between installations — watch a DJ set in one room, paint in another, sit with spoken word poetry in a third. No schedule, no assigned seating. Explore and engage.
A shared moment to bring everyone together — maybe a final collaborative piece, or just a space where everyone can reflect on the night. Then we clean up and go home creatively recharged.
There's a specific moment I'm designing for. It's when you walk through the door into WB 102 — a door you've walked through a hundred times on your way to class — and the space behind it is completely different. Maybe a team of wily DPs have turned the whole thing into a light show. Maybe the production designers have converted it into an indoor beach. Maybe Dean Ruskin's performing slam poetry to the beat from the real Slim Shady.
The creative moment isn't any single installation. It's the feeling of walking through a space you thought you knew and realizing it can be something else entirely. That's what I want people to carry with them after the night is over — the sense that this campus, and the people in it, have more to offer than what fits inside a film.
The biggest logistical challenge is getting institutional buy-in for using the campus this way. The Warner Brothers Building isn't typically available for non-curricular events at night, and there are real considerations around security, access, and liability.
Work with AFI administration early to reserve the building and specific rooms. Present a clear plan with setup/teardown times, capacity limits per space, and a commitment to leaving everything as we found it.
Coordinate with campus security for extended hours, building access, and any fire safety requirements for installations using lighting or electronics. Get the right protocols in place so the school feels confident saying yes.
Inventory what teams need — power drops, projectors, speakers, lighting rigs. Work with the G&E and post departments to borrow or allocate gear. No one should have to spend money to participate.
Each discipline has a student council rep. Loop them in early so they can champion the event within their cohort and make sure every discipline has a presence, not just the usual suspects.
Keep it simple — work with the existing food vendors from the campus cafe to cater snacks and drinks. People should be able to grab something and keep exploring, not sit down for a meal. Definitely no alcohol on campus, so good coffee, snacks, and plenty of water to keep everyone going.
Every team is responsible for restoring their space to how they found it. Build teardown time into the schedule — the event ends, but no one leaves until their room is clean. The building needs to be ready for classes the next morning. No exceptions.
The real metric is simple: do people want to do it again? But since we need something more concrete, here's how I'd track it.
I don't want AFI After Dark to be a one-off. I want it to become the thing people look forward to every term — the night the campus becomes something different, and we all remember why we came here in the first place.
Drag the lights around and make something cool!
Thanks for reading! Looking forward to hearing from you.