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rfalconvargas · Archive

Film & Video

Cinematic studies, edits, animation, and short-form storytelling — the part of the archive devoted to moving images, atmosphere, rhythm, and visual narrative, from analog 16mm to 3D and motion graphics.

Section

Film & Video

Series

8 sub-sections

Works

31 films & videos

Years

2017 – 2026

Series 001

16mm Film

A set of analog films shot on a Bolex 16mm camera in RISD’s Film Practices course with Professor Ramón Rivera-Moret and TA Carter. Working on real film — finite rolls, hand-metered light, and no digital undo — taught me to make every frame a decision.

Each piece pairs a short look at the idea and the process with the finished film and a longer reflection.

Series 002

Award-Winning & Competition Films

Short films made for international youth and environmental film contests — UNAOC PLURAL+, Bow Seat’s Ocean Awareness Contest, RFK Human Rights’ Speak Truth to Power, and the One Planet, Many People video contest.

They span climate, migration, diversity, and the ocean. Yusra Mardini was a YoungArts Winner; Ocean Acidification took Global 2nd Place in the Young Reporters for the Environment International Competition and 1st Place in YRE Puerto Rico (2020); The Road to Zero Emissions won a One Planet, Many People scholarship (2021) and 225 Million placed 2nd in the same contest (2018); How to Boil A Planet received a Bronze Award (2021) and Future Oceans a Distinguished Honorable Mention (2019) from Bow Seat; Diversity was a finalist in the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival (2019); and Open Arms was a finalist in Speak Truth to Power (2021). Each page links to its competition.

Series 003

Blender 3D Animation

3D animations made in Blender for RISD’s Computer-Generated Imagery 3D course — creature studies, constraint experiments, and speculative worldbuilding.

Each piece is part of learning lighting, modeling, and animation from first principles.

Series 004

Motion Graphics

These intro motion graphics were envisioned and produced circa 2015–2021, and are inspired by mid-2010s vaporwave, retrofuturistic aesthetics and Adobe After Effects YouTube tutorials. Creating them taught me about Adobe After Effects, layers, colors, fonts, animation, and editing. These intro videos and transitions were displayed numerous times in my local high school’s morning announcements, which are seen by over 500 students and faculty.

The goal with these intros was to invite the school audience to an exciting aesthetic that may be unfamiliar but that would add visual variety and a novel feel to the morning announcements. During 2015–2021, I was Lead Producer at the AudioVisual club, responsible for creating all morning announcement intros, templates, and edited videos for the school, extracurricular activities, and sports teams.

This taught me the beginning of creating a consistent editing and brand system for the school’s morning announcements club. These motion graphics include a Thanksgiving-themed intro, a Saint Valentine’s-themed intro, and an intro for the school newspaper, La Lanza.

Series 005

Experimental Film

Process-driven experiments where the design exercise itself is the subject — using repetition, the body, and constraint as mark-making systems.

Series 006

Puerto Rico Cinematic Stories

Recent cinematic shorts — confrontational, atmospheric character studies that look directly at feeling. Currently shown as works in progress.

Series 007

Short Films

Narrative shorts made in and around RISD’s Film/Animation/Video program — personal, character-driven, and quietly observational.

Series 008

2D Animation

Hand-built 2D animation — allegory and internal struggle made visible, frame by frame.