Written by: Jehiely Balabarca
In a quiet room on campus, three students sat at two pianos, playing in unison. They weren’t rehearsing for a recital. They were trying to capture a feeling, a moment in an animated film that hadn’t yet materialized.
The project is Deep Space, an animated short film produced by Southern students, set to an entirely original orchestral score. It is a collaboration between the School of Music and the School of Visual Art and Design.
Behind the music, storyboards and pixel-perfect frames were students learning how to build a film. But building the film required something bigger: Trust the process and have a shared purpose.
“It’s given me a whole new level of appreciation for what it takes to make something like this,” Matthew Kimbley, senior music theory and literature and piano performance major, said. “You don’t just write notes; you hope they fit. You’re working with someone’s vision, someone who sees the world through movement and light, and you have to honor that.”
For Evan Eslava, senior animation major, and director of Deep Space, the collaboration between departments was a dream.
“I was always amazed by the immense talent and creativity the music department had,” he said. “I imagined what could happen if we brought that together with the visual side of Southern—artists creating something bigger, something unified.”
The music team, composed of Kimbley; Susanna Ziesmer, junior psychology and music theory and literature double major; and Samuel Vargas, senior music theory and literature major, worked closely with Eslava throughout the process. Weekly meetings, detailed notes, scene breakdowns and constant creative exchange became the norm.
“We always opened in prayer,” Eslava said. “And somehow, we just clicked. They brought our characters to life through sound.”
He described the energy between the teams as electric.
“It felt like the Holy Spirit was in the room with us,” he said. “We were students, yes—but we were also professionals in that moment. No ego, just collaboration. Just purpose.”
One of the students translating the story’s emotional core into sound was Ziesmer.
“Evan has been an anchor,” she said. “He had a strong vision, but he also gave us space to be creative. That balance made all the difference.”
Ziesmer, who joined the project after being invited by her advisor, described the experience as an emotional and academic intersection.
“Working on this score let me connect my two majors in a really personal way,” she said. “I was constantly thinking about how the characters would feel and then how to translate that feeling into a sound.”
For her, one of the most powerful scenes came during the film’s climax, when the main character faced a heartbreaking decision.
“The pacing of that moment was everything,” Ziesmer said. “The music had to build tension without rushing. It had to hold its breath.”
Kimbley said the animation team would send rough clips and outlines of each scene, along with emotional cues and story intentions. From there, the music students composed drafts, which were revised through a back-and-forth process that often stretched into late nights and multiple rewrites.
“There were moments where we thought we had it,” Kimbley said, “but the animation team would come back and say, ‘Not quite.’ And that pushed us to go deeper, to really understand what they were trying to say with every movement.”
That refining process, though exhausting, created moments that felt almost magical.
“There’s a big climax near the end,” Kimbley said. “I remember watching the raw animation while listening to the music I had composed for it. And it just clicked. It was like the story finally exhaled.”
The orchestral score was recorded live, and the entire production was treated with the same care and complexity as a full studio feature, according to the creatives.
“It doesn’t feel like homework,” Ziesmer said. “It feels like art.”
The creators hope Deep Space will inspire more interdisciplinary projects at Southern.
“There’s so much talent here,” Kimbley said. “And when we bring our departments together, something really beautiful happens. We stop being students trying to get a grade and start being artists with something to say.”
Ziesmer echoed that sentiment.
“I think this can open doors for more students to collaborate across majors,” she said. “To take risks, to trust each other, to learn new languages—whether musical, visual or emotional.”
As the film prepares for its final release, the team isn’t focused on accolades. They just hope people feel something when they watch it.
“That’s what music and film do best,” Kimbley said. “They make us feel.”
