If you attended Tucson High School, the setting for Olivia Barnes' post-apocalyptic film "When the World Went Quiet" might seem familiar.
Barnes filmed the 8-minute movie at the high school in March, when school was out for spring break.
And while it's a zombie film, don't expect to see the walking dead going after the film's main characters with a hungry look in their eyes.
"I took it down to its moral groundings, where it's all about survival, and every mistake can cost you a lot," Barnes said about her film, one of 16 to be featured in the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television 2026 "Magic Hour" screening Wednesday and Thursday, May 13-14.
It took Barnes a few months of jumping through Tucson Unified School District hoops to get approval to film in the school for four days. The junior film major also turned to crowdsourcing to raise $1,300 to cover the rental and insurance fees.
But setting her film in a school was fitting.
Scarlett Cavaness is Lexi Parker in Olivia Barnes' short film "When the World Went Quiet," one of 16 films to be featured in the University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television's Magic Hour showcase.
"When I was thinking about this film, I thought about different locations. I thought about like a hospital, an abandoned museum," Barnes said of her film, which she wrote, directed and edited. "But the school was an interesting concept to me because it's a place of academia; it's a place of change, and I feel like that is also a symbolic idea to my character."
In "When the World Went Quiet," the Parker siblings, Lexi (Scarlett Cavaness) and Aaron (John Aguirre), follow a mysterious radio signal into an abandoned school, which is new for Lexi; she never experienced high school.
"She never got to experience the normal world that we get to so I feel like showing that difference with a high school, with somebody who has never known what this was, it was an interesting concept to me," Barnes said. "It also played into the symbolic idea of her being able to change in this space."
Once inside the school, Lexi and Aaron need to put aside their differences if they want to survive.
"I feel like having that type of tension was great for an idea where it's a person fighting for respect," Barnes said. "Because they're fighting for this respect, they can't make mistakes."
Setting the story in a zombie apocalypse "just heightened that tension for that framework," she said.
This is the first film Barnes, who grew up in Casa Grande, has made since coming to the U of A. She said she was inspired after getting a chance last fall to work on indie filmmaker Emily Binns' Old West drama "Make the Devil Pay," filmed at the historic Mescal Movie Set in Benson.
The UA School of Theatre, Film & Television has been hosting "Magic Hour" since 2011, showcasing short films by junior majors. The films, between six and eight minutes long, will be screened Wednesday and Thursday beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Marroney Theatre, 1025 N. Olive Road on the U of A campus. Admission is free, but you must reserve tickets in advance through magichour26.eventive.org.
Other films to be screened:
- "Citizen's Arrest" by Maddy Wertz. Mila is on the verge of putting the whole town under citizen's arrest unless her ex-cop bestie can stop her.
- "Cutthroat" by Annie Houglum and Logan Tyler Hall. An aspiring actor betrays his friend to land a dream role, but karma steps in when a manipulative director pushes him to the breaking point.
- "Dirty Work" by Mia Trachy and Dena Alaniz. A girl finds out that her online boyfriend isn't who he seems when she convinces her friends to break into his home and steal his prized possession.
- "Grey Scale" by Blake Pettit and Benjamin Evans. A college burnout and former pianist rediscovers his lost passion to learn Mozart's "Moonlight Sonata" after he is confronted by his subconscious.
- "Inconsiderate" by Sandi Bramlett. A scenic road trip could doom a pair of friends' relationship.
- "It's Just a Dream?" by Gabby Hartman and Crystal Thomsen. A surreal dream state shifts Lucy's reality, forcing her to face her fears and confront the unknown as she figures out who she wants to become.
- "MF! (Mezzo Forte)" by Ellie Moffet and Ellen Walker. A passionate musician tries to reclaim first chair by chasing perfection in her final audition.
- "Piñata" by Crista Valenzuela and Enrique Camou. Talk about payback: A young man gets turned into a birthday party piñata after dissing his neighbor.
- "Rx" by Milena Gauchat and Elijah Schmadel. A slacker caring for his grandfather finds himself in over his head when he invites his best friend over to get high.
- "Sacred Archive" by Nicole Lease and Francisco Montes. An android sets out to trap the person whom he saw killing his friend.
- "Smile, Please" by Caroline Rosen and Madeline Heinrich. A supporting actress is unsure of who she is or what's next as she faces the final episode of her 1950s sitcom.
- "Till Death" by Dominic Solano and Aimee Franklin Plat. A wife suffers from an illness that puts her family in danger.
- "Verament" by Dara Sam and Abram Romero. A jealous boyfriend thinks his girlfriend is cheating, but what he discovers is more than he bargained for.
- "Wild Wasteland" by Jesse Bravo. A defiant wife who was captured and considered property fights to free the women of her village.
- "Xerox" by Eden Bae. Envy spirals into obsession for a man who finds his confident look-alike when he was searching for himself.
