The Madison Theater in Albany was filled on Friday night for the “15 Minutes Max” film festival. More than 40 submissions of short films by area students had been winnowed to 10 for screening.

Frank and Zach Appio, brothers from Altamont, both seniors at RPI, waited in the dark as their eight-and-a-half minute suspense film, “The Baby Monitor,” unfolded on the big screen.

They were in suspense themselves. They had raised $4,000 to make the film, much of it their own money, and with it rode their dreams of a future in filmmaking.

“There were gasps and murmurs in the right places,” said Zach, who edited the film.

“It was incredible,” said Frank, who directed.

In the end, “The Baby Monitor” took first place at the festival and won the Audience Choice Award as well.

“We packed it with details and thought out the plot lines well,” said Frank.

“Our crew members were vital,” said Zach.

The seed that grew into the film was planted when the brothers cared for their ailing grandmother who died in 2009. They used a monitor so they could hear her if she called for help.

“We were talking one day about the static and the horrible noises,” said Frank.

“We were getting creeped out listening to it,” said Zach of the monitor.

So for four years, the idea gelled until it emerged in a less-than-nine minute film. The brothers wrote the script together.

“We create the ideas in conversation,” said Frank of how the pair works. “Once we have a general idea, we’ll sit together and work it out…We always have someone to critique.”

Every element of “The Baby Monitor” is thought out. The letters announcing the name of the film on screen are in child-like script, rendered in bright colors. Then they start gyrating, as if from static. The simple and expected has turned creepy from the start. (Frank did the graphics and Zach did the animation.)

The backdrop of the Helderberg escarpment looks foreboding, too. It was shot at noon, but “through the magic of movies,” said Frank, it looks like dusk.

The music, from the start and all the way through, sets the tone. It’s an original score by Jason Panucci, of the PJ Katz and the Fat Buckle Band. “He used instruments that a child might use,” said Frank.

The story line seems simple — a mother putting her baby to bed and preparing for her husband’s return home at the end of the day. But there are troubling details as the filmmakers play off the norms. Why does she throw the baby’s toy in the scrap basket? Why does her lullaby sound ominous? Why are some scenes shot through the slats of a louver closet door?

The Appios praised the actress, Jennifer Lefsyk, for her deft performance. And the baby, Gabriella Robert, was a natural. “It was like she’d cry on cue,” said Zach.

He said they were unprepared for the number of applicants they got to play the baby’s part and the brothers felt bad “we were turning babies down.”

“Thriller is the category,” said Frank.

“It’s more a psychological suspense,” said Zach.

“We used the Hitchcock method so the audience knows something the characters don’t,” said Frank.

The brothers have no trouble working together; in fact, they relish it. One will finish the other’s sentence, almost as if they shared the thought to start with.

“We get along really well,” said Frank. “I’m more of a risk taker.”

“You’re the wild card,” agreed Zach.

“Zach is definitely the voice of reason,” said Frank.

They split their roles in making films with Frank handling production — “the actual shooting,” he says — while Zach handles post-production — “the months of editing,” he says.

Many facets

The Appio brothers have liked watching horror films since they were kids. Their mother, who has an office job for the state’s Department of Corrections, supervising craft production, is “into horror,” said Frank. “She didn’t hold back,” he said, when it came to watching films with her kids.

Now that both brothers are involved in filmmaking, “We deconstruct them together,” said Frank. “We pick movies apart,” agreed Zach.

Their aunt, Vivian Taylor, their mother’s sister, who lives next door in their duplex on Severson Avenue, joins in the film watching. The Appios come from a family of storytellers; notable among them is their uncle, Kenny Taylor. “He’s more of a comedian,” said Frank. “He makes anything funny.” Even war stories, they said.

Both of the brothers had done a lot of writing — poetry and short stories — before they hit upon videos as a way to expresses themselves.

They’ve translated the art of storytelling into a modern medium — film. And they’ve found plenty of people who are interested in using their services. Most of the local paid work is filming weddings, which doesn’t much interest the brothers — too stressful and not very creative.

Zach has made films about Altamont’s summer camp at the Bozenkill park where he’s been a counselor. The films, which he made for free, are online. Fast-paced and quirky, they feature underwater close-ups of kids in the pool and time-lapse renditions of field games.

“I love working with kids,” said Zach, who has also taught at preschool and after-school programs. His Bozenkill videos capture the unique view of individual children’s experiences.

The brothers also have made videos — again, for free — to promote drift triking, a new sport they’ve embraced. They learned about the sport watching online videos from New Zealand and then built their own trikes. They’ve competed at Windam and Killington and plan to race in the national series next year.

“It’s a tricycle you ride down hills on,” said Frank. “The back wheels slide.”

“It’s sort of like a luge race,” said Zach, adding the trikes go up to 65 miles per hour.

“We have a bit of a daredevil side,” he added. “It’s an extreme sport that’s not too extreme.”

The brothers find the diversity of their interests helps in filmmaking. “With a lot of occupations, it’s distraction,” said Frank of pursuing various interests. “With filmmaking, it helps you.”

Furthering feeling

While they are excited, even exuberant, about filmmaking, the brothers are not naïve. They’ve been around — Frank is 33 and Zach is 26 — and pull expertise from various venues to their craft.

Both graduated from Guilderland High School, where Zach fondly remembers Andy Maycock’s literature-as-film course in which the class made a movie about a brutally mean substitute teacher.

“The kids pulled an Orson Welles,” Zach said; they used the school’s PA system to get rid of the sub the way Welles’s radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, based on H. G. Wells’s novel, was thought by many to be actual news bulletins of a real alien invasion.

Both Appios earned associate degrees from Hudson Valley Community College — Zach in business administration and Frank in web design.

Frank, who writes lyrics, was involved in the local music scene and started an independent music label, Final Word Records. Zach made a video to promote the label.

“It was so much fun, I wanted to help,” said Frank.

That fueled their passion for making films together. The brothers have filled notebooks with their ideas. They have produced more than 20 music videos for local artists.

“We saw what was possible with digital video,” said Frank, noting they started at just the right time. “Before that, you needed a lot of money,” he said.

“We could create stories the way we saw them in our heads,” said Zach.

Both are in the Electronic Media, Art, and Communication program, known as EMAC, at RPI, where both have been on the dean’s list. “The arts program is interdisciplinary,” said Frank; it’s a small program in the midst of a school known largely for engineering.

Frank won the 2014 McKinney Writing Contest with first place in Electronic Media, which is open to all students at RPI. “I created a video, a song made all out of words,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Appios won first place at an RPI film festival for “The Baby Monitor.” The film will be shown again on Oct. 24 at The Linda at 339 Central Ave. in Albany as part of the Upstate Independent Filmmakers’ Halloween festival, which will feature short films with horror themes.

The brothers are also applying to enter other film festivals. “It’s a way of getting recognition and credibility,” said Frank. “You hope a producer will say, ‘Let’s make it a feature film.’”

“Or purchase the short film,” added Zach.

Both brothers are currently in the Jaffe student production competition at RPI for an artist residency at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center.

“It’s a $220 million experimental media center,” Frank said of EMPAC. “There are very few experimental artists in the world…It’s hard to fill the residence space, so they’ve opened [the competition] to students for the first time.”

The brothers are working separately on their Jaffe projects but both involve “types of cinematic experience,” Frank said.

They graduate in May. Frank would like to be a director and Zach wants to be an editor.

To become a director, Frank would need an agent. He had an internship with Tristram Shapeero, a British television director, doing pre-production on a pilot that got canceled. Frank was doing office work in New York but found the internship valuable because Shapeero “told me how to get an agent.” Shapeero’s advice: “Find work you want to do; find out who’s directing and who their agent is.”

Meanwhile, Zach is amassing a portfolio to apply to editing houses.

For a senior thesis, Zach is creating a comedy variety show and Frank is developing satirical commercials to accompany it. Their hope is to pitch the show to television networks, including Adult Swim, the nighttime slot on Cartoon Network.

“Comedy is the most underrated art,” said Frank. “It’s classified as kitsch.”

“But there’s hardly a single person that doesn’t love it,” said Zach.

He’s already started production on four skits for the variety show.

The brothers previously produced a comic video, available through YouTube, called “Victor and Duwayne.” Duwayne is a chimpanzee and Victor is a zombie who eats only vegans. They are roommates, preparing for a job interview. “It doesn’t go well,” said Frank. “Victor ends up eating the intern.”

The Appios’ filmmaking, though, is not just about creating suspense as in “The Baby Monitor” or making people laugh, as in “Victor and Duwayne,” it’s a way of furthering understanding.

Frank has volunteered as a crisis counselor at the National Suicide Hotline. When Frank was a teenager, his godfather killed himself, which, he said, “left an impression.”

By working on the hotline, he said, “I learned how to be empathetic, not just sympathetic.”

He explained the difference: “You don’t pity people. You try to understand how they feel.”