THE MUSICIAN
Short Film
Project Type: Short Film
Project Status: Pre-Production
Writer / Director: Andrew Harrison
Producer: Kristi Ray
Co-Producer: Erika Edwards
Cinematographer: Ryan Dean
Sound Engineer / Composer: Dan Schneider
Lead Actress / Composer / Performer: Ashlyn Uribe
LOGLINE
A young musician playing to empty rooms confronts whether she's worthy of making music if no one is listening.
SYNOPSIS
Harper Davis is a young synth-pop musician living out of her car, grinding through dive bars that couldn't care less. She records every set, posts every performance, checks every like. The numbers never move. The rooms never fill. After getting fired from one venue, she drives through the night to the next one. It's the same story of empty chairs, a voice that's starting to crack, nobody watching. Then a stranger at the bar actually looks at her, and for a few songs it's enough. Her voice lifts. She's singing to him. They end up in the bathroom, and it's quick and hollow and over before it means anything. Then he's gone. The one bit of attention she got turns out to be nothing, and that's what finally breaks her. Her gear, her keyboard, her whole life just scattered across a parking lot at midnight. A bartender finds her on the curb and asks her something she can't answer. Not yet. But the next night she gets back on stage. Same empty room. Only this time her voice is clear, her hands are steady, and she's not performing for anyone. She's just playing. The way she used to as a kid in her room with her eyes closed, pretending people were there. Turns out the empty room isn't a failure. It's where she started.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Musician asks whether art requires an audience to matter. Harper Davis, a young synth-pop musician living out of her car, has built her sense of worth on external proof: the likes, the views, the rooms filling up. When that proof never arrives, what's left of her? The film sits inside a now-ordinary condition — measuring ourselves against a feed, needing to be seen to feel real, the particular loneliness of someone fluent in performance and starving for connection. It touches the precarity of the working artist: the envelope pay, the car that doubles as a home, the toll of chasing validation that never comes. No thesis, no cure. It trusts the viewer to feel their own answer. The story is timely because we're living through the most concentrated experiment in external validation in human history. Metrics have become identity. The creator economy has made performers of nearly everyone, and the feed has made comparison inescapable. Harper is an extreme of an ordinary ache — her breakdown is a heightened version of a cycle most people now know intimately. I come to this story through twenty years in branding and advertising, building work designed to be noticed, measured, and liked. That gave me a direct understanding of how validation operates, how it's chased, and how easily worth can attach to it. The Musician grew out of that understanding. I'm drawn to the gap between what a polished image promises and what it costs. That's where Harper lives.
Meet The Filmmakers
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![Andrew Harrison]()
Andrew Harrison
Writer / Director
Andrew Harrison is a writer and director with 20 years of experience as an art director, creative director and brand strategist. He's created impactful commercial content for national brands including Powerade, Friskies, Channellock, and Fruit of the Loom, leading large-scale campaigns and shaping brand narratives across multiple platforms. He brings this deep experience in visual language and storytelling craft to filmmaking, utilizing all tools of the medium. From composition and performance to sound and silence, to create compelling narratives that are raw and emotionally resonant.
Key Credits: Powerade national campaign, Friskies brand narrative work, Fruit of the Loom multi-platform campaign -
![Kristi Ray]()
Kristi Ray
Producer
Kristi is an award-winning producer and actress whose work in independent film has earned international recognition for over fifteen years. In 2016 she co-founded Honey Head Films, a female-led production company, and has since produced nearly 100 projects, including three feature films. Her work has collectively earned over 50 awards, including multiple Grand Jury Prizes.
Key Credits: A Song for Imogene (producer and lead actress), Honey Head Films (co-founder, 100+ projects), multiple Grand Jury Prize-winning independent films -
![Ryan Dean]()
Ryan Dean
Cinematographer
Ryan is an award-winning cinematographer with nearly 20 years of experience in documentary and narrative filmmaking. He brings a disciplined approach to lighting and composition across diverse production environments, and has worked across narrative features, documentary, and commercials for clients including HBO, Disney, National Geographic, Netflix, and Universal Studios. His cinematography has earned multiple awards including Best Film, Video, and Sound at the AAF Orlando Addy Awards.
Key Credits: Universal Studios' Epic Universe announcement (shot Steven Spielberg), HBO and Netflix documentary work, National Geographic narrative feature work
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![Dan Schneider]()
Dan Schneider
Sound Engineer / Composer
Dan is a composer, music producer, and sound designer with over 15 years of experience across video games, film, and commercial work. He has created music and sound for major titles including Tomb Raider, Dead Space 3, F.E.A.R. 3, and Resistance: Burning Skies, working with top studios including EA, Ubisoft, and Sony. He brings expertise in synth programming, recording, production, and mixing across diverse genres and mediums.
Key Credits: Tomb Raider (composer/sound design), Dead Space 3 (composer/sound design), Resistance: Burning Skies (composer/sound design)
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Nectar Studios
Post-Production
Nectar is a full-service production and creative studio providing end-to-end visual content, blending creative talent with producer expertise across today's technologies and touchpoints. The team's client work spans retail, lifestyle, sports, and entertainment, with a focus on crafting relatable narratives that resonate with audiences and drive long-term engagement. Key Credits: Rooms To Go, Daytona International Speedway, Chevrolet, AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, and Farmers Insurance
Your Help
THE MUSICIAN is a fiscally sponsored project of Cinematography for Actors, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donation will be tax-deductible!