Dylan Antscherl’s To a Selkie is a love letter to Berwick and Scottish folklore that’s bound to tug on your heartstrings this ATVA’s.
Dylan talked to Brig about his filmmaking process and how personal the project is to him. More than a traditional short film, To a Selkie is a story of growth and change, wrapped around the myth of one of Scotland’s most iconic beasts, the Selkie.
This particular Scottish monster hits home for Dylan. During our conversation, he highlighted how, even though the Selkie is a monster, it’s not an outwardly hostile one.
Dylan spoke of how the Selkie relates to his growth and change, as the film itself is personal to Dylan as it’s entirely shot in his hometown of Berwick.
“I kind of wanted to switch things to my real life…The only way I could do something more serious was by doing something personal.”
Coming off of his previous ATVA’s entry The Fishman, Dylan went on to speak about how he wanted to try something different with this film.
“I wanted to make something that maybe on the off chance my family would quite like to watch as opposed to The Fishman”
Image Credit: Dylan Antscherl
When talking about his experience creating The Fishman compared to To a Selkie, Dylan expressed how his thought process was completely different between both projects. Whilst The Fishman was a film dedicated to Dylan’s love of horror and comedy, straddling the lines between both genres whilst exploring a genuinely compelling plot focused on love and revenge, To a Selkie is a moving short film that ditches a traditional plot for a more interpretative story.
“I’ve been super busy in my final year and to write something super strong would have been a real challenge…My goal was to leave it kind of open and you can do whatever you want with it.”
This interpretive slant manifests itself primarily through the use of the Selkie itself. The audience is never fully aware of if the protagonist (played by Dylan himself) is a Selkie or not. However, the point of the film is not to explore whether Dylan is or isn’t a Selkie, as Dylan puts it, “If i’m a Selkie, that’s cool, if I’m not that’s cool too”. Instead, To a Selkie asks the audience to drink up the gorgeous cinematography and locations, all emphaised by the soundtrack of Ye Vagabonds.
“I kind of felt the music like that would really convey the kind of environment that I want the audience to be see…This Celtic hometown that I love”
Dylan wasn’t alone when making To a Selkie. He was able to wrangle together a couple of AIRTV mainstays to help him out, specifically Ben and Nathan McQuaid, as well as Logan Killard.
“They’re always up for helping me so the two of them and Logan, they’ve been making their films for the last few weeks. I’ve been helping them with that stuff too. And when it came to my mind, I just requested a couple days… We go down and just see what we can shoot. Big fingers crossed to see the seals because they’re often not there.”
Image Credit: Dylan Antscherl
“We kind of just found it when we were walking around, thinking would that look cool? We just kind of try it out and see it if towrks. The GoPro stuff was sick and that’s where we showed the water with something going on underwater.”
Dylan lends a lot of the film’s appeal to the music and location, rather than the work he and his crew did. He claims that he “just shot this beautiful place and used beautiful music”, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
To a Selkie stands tall because of the combination of factors that led to its production. The tight schedule forced Dylan and his crew composed of the McQuaid twins and Logan Killard to find a story as they explored Berwick, but it also adds to the wandering feel of the film. There’s no narrative to confuse the gorgeous cinematography, so the audience is gently persuade into embracing the music of Ye Vagabonds and following along with the possible Selkie as he longs for the freedom of the sea.
As always, Dylan Antscherl has delivered another fantastic project that’s well worth your time.
Stay tuned to Brig as we cover other ATVA 2025 entries.
Featured Image Credit: Dylan Antscherl
Third year Film and journalism student
Gaming and Tech editor
Horror fanatic
