Capriccio #1 in E-Phrygian
Logline: An experimental montage music video. An underground study of capricious contrasts. A chugging, yet enigmatic, soundtrack accompanied by an array of mesmerizing images straddling the line between analog video art and disruptive digital processing. Expect the unexpected. All our base are belong to us!
**Winner of BEST WEIRD/ABSURD SHORT FILM**
Absurd (Assurdo) Film Festival, May 2026 (Milan, Italy)
A capriccio (or caprice) is a musical form that features a lively character and contrasting content. This projected series of short works represents my initial investigations into various video art montage techniques coupled with electronic music. The postmodernist approaches taken here are experimental and intentionally fractured, yet they remain anchored with some semblance of structural order. In the music, aspects of popular music and experimental sound design are collided with visuals to match. Having just completed a film processing class involving the art of film souping: a 1960s-70s technique of submerging exposed film in a variety of fluids (i.e. bleach, vinegar, ammonia, detergent, colored fertilizer solutions, dyes, coffee, etc.) to achieve distortions of the captured image, these works are intended to explore combinations of methods of past analog and contemporary digital production to produce rich studies in visual and aural contrasts.
The micro-short film Capriccio #1 in E-Phrygian combines selected elements of pop dance music with experimental sound design. As for the treatment and juxtaposition of moving images, my rule was as follows: present an idea, followed by the absolutely, most-different thing that could potentially follow it.
N.B.: The audio sample of the radio broadcast was obtained from a radio station in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2023. As foreground chatter placed in the overall soundscape, it is intended to function as a textural element rather than a vocal delivery that is meant to be understood, per se.
English translation: "...and now the Russian propaganda media have reported that another exchange of tapes between Ukraine and Russia has taken place. RIA Novosti, the information Russian propagandist has reported that..."
-
Andres LuzDirector
-
Andres LuzComposer
-
Project Type:Music Video
-
Runtime:3 minutes 54 seconds
-
Completion Date:October 11, 2025
-
Production Budget:50 USD
-
Film Color:Color
-
First-time Filmmaker:No
-
Student Project:No
-
Digital Cinema Package:Unavailable
-
Absurd (Assurdo) Film FestivalCinisello Balsamo, Milano, Lombardia
Italy
Winner - Best Weird/Absurd Short Film, May 2026 -
INDIE FILM Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
United States
April 25, 2026
World Premiere
Official Selection -
The Great Film Club, Short Film Open Mic Night #1Hollywood, California
United States
May 12, 2026
Official Selection -
Berlin Flash Film FestivalBerlin
Germany
May 31, 2026
European Premiere
Official Selection
Harnessing the chugging, energetic sounds of contemporary postmodernism as a starting point, Andres R. Luz develops his artistic idiom from the legacy of music history stretching back to medieval and Renaissance stylistic practices, up to those of the present-day.
Andres Luz studied with Jeffrey Miller at California State University, East Bay (B.A. Music, magna cum laude, 2013) and taken private studies in electroacoustic music with Ian Dicke, as well as master classes with Hannah Lash, P.Q. Phan, Zae Munn, Paul Salerni, and Melinda Wagner. Andres Luz completed the Master of Music Composition at the University of Redlands in 2016, studying with Anthony Suter.
In 2022, Andres Luz completed the Doctorate in Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Georgia (UGA), Athens, studying with Peter Van Zandt Lane, Adrian Childs, and Emily Koh. Andres Luz also served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Theory and Electronic Music Composition at the University of Redlands and as the assistant of the Dancz Center of New Music at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at UGA.
His music has been played internationally and notably by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Wind Symphony of the College-Conservatory at the University of Cincinnati. Among his electroacoustic pieces, Andres Luz’s 2017 fixed media work, Premonitions, Landscape at Twilight was selected to be featured on MUSLAB-Cero Records’ album, PLANETA COMPEJO, Volume 4, released in January 2024.
Among the works for large ensemble, Dr. Luz’s dissertation composition project, BULOSAN: ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY for Narrator, Wind Symphony, and Fixed Media (2021, rev. 2023), won the 2023 American Prize in Wind Ensemble Composition, and 2nd Prize in Social Justice-related content, College/University-Level Wind Ensemble Division. The work is included in ABLAZE Records’ Wind Orchestra Masters, Vol. 1 album which Fanfare Magazine’s Ken Meltzer described as “an eloquent and moving work, one I recommend heartily.” In another review by Colin Clarke, Bulosan is lauded as "expertly structured and emotionally powerful," while Natalie Szabo writes that the album documents a "masterful ensemble performance. Five stars."
Andres Luz is a member of ASCAP, SEAMUS, Millennium Composers Initiative, and Society of Composers, Inc., and is published by Murphy Music Press and Post-Classical Music.