High Education

A fast-paced satirical series about drug use in higher ed. When neuroscience student Constance makes homemade study drugs in a school laboratory, a bad batch sends his newest subject into a stupor. When she wakes up, she's lost half her memory, and Constance needs to help her adjust to life at an American University while blending in.

  • Tom Carroll Armstrong
    Director
    Tune Out, Gary's World, Kids React
  • Tom Carroll Armstrong
    Writer
    Tune Out, Gary's World, Kids React
  • Tom Carroll Armstrong
    Producer
    Tune Out, Gary's World, Kids React
  • Anika Backelin-Harrison
    Key Cast
    "Heidi"
  • Natalie Sandone
    Key Cast
    "Sam Doughty"
  • Alex Wagoner
    Director of Photography
  • Liam Worcheck
    Music by
  • Domenick Scudera
    Academic Adviser
  • Project Type:
    Student, Web / New Media, Other
  • Genres:
    Satire, Dramatic Comedy
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 12, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Distribution Information
  • YouTube
    Country: United States
    Rights: Internet
Director Biography - Tom Carroll Armstrong

Tom is a filmmaker based in Collegeville, PA. Tom works part-time as a video producer, editor, and writer at PBR Productions in Perkasie, PA and Quattro Direct in Berwyn, PA, while studying English at Ursinus College, freelancing for small businesses, and making short comedy films. He’s set to graduate in May, 2020, after which he'll embark on a year-long international Watson Fellowship studying the intersection of depression and comedy around the world, while creating a satirical travel vlog, "Gary's World." His comedy musical film about depression, “Tune Out”, premiered at the historic Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA on February 11th, 2018. He studied screenwriting and film studies at FAMU (the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) where developed the feature script, "Stray Cat Blues," and continued writing and producing comedy films.

He publishes several satirical web series on YouTube and IGTV. He had the opportunity to develop his latest web series, High Education, under an academic fellowship at Ursinus where he studied dramatic comedy, satire, and the portrayal of drug use in film from the 1930s to present day. One of his most recent projects is a Click Your Own Adventure (Choose Your Own Adventure before a cease-and-desist from the company of the same name) series called Interactive Doctor, where the viewer's decisions guide the strange narrative.

His dream is to write dramatic comedy for TV and streaming services. He admires “Barry” and everything Abso Lutely Productions.

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Director Statement

Everyone feels like an alien at times. Social conventions are bewildering under scrutiny, and one of the most pertinent conventions for a young adult in America today is going to college. In a place where thousands of other youths are developing their identities against one another⁠—where things move too fast⁠—it's easy to feel like a nonnative.

Some of the most strange, scary, and liberating experiences come from stepping outside our social worlds and seeing it with unwonted eyes. High Education is an alien story. The series is an experiment-gone-wrong tale about a person who loses her memory of social conventions, her capacity for pretensions, and with it, her ability to understand how people interact with one another, and why.

Every year, millions of young Americans are going to college after high school. The social conventions are evolving, but in many ways, never changing. That's what makes a satirical show about a failed memory experiment in a competitive American school the perfect way to tell the story of people who feel like aliens.