my projects

Return of Silence (Halloweenish Film)

I really like this one. "Halloweenish" is the name of the competition the DSOA film department puts on for Halloween every year. Every DSOA Film student (no matter their grade) is required to enter for a grade, but anyone can submit a film to enter! The only requirements are that the film must take place on the Dreyfoos campus, and it must have some element of something related to Halloween: anything spooky, mind-bendy, dark, or horror-inspired. (There's quite a bit of leeway in what quantifies as "related to Halloween," as you can probably imagine.)
Around the time of Halloweenish 2024, I got extremely sick and wasn't in school for almost a week straight. I missed every single Halloweenish film day (we get time to work in class). Needless to say, I was STRESSED out. My film teacher wasn't exactly known for her grace in extending deadlines, so if my film wasn't done by the cutoff, I would simply recieve a zero. MIRACULOUSLY, I managed to scrape together an idea, and, with the help of my friends Dani, Lily, and some other kind souls, I filmed the entire thing in one morning class period (about an hour), and edited it all by the end of the day.
Believe it or not, I WON.
It was actually insane to be sitting in class when they announced the winner, and have it be ME! Keep in mind, I was up against all the students in the entire film department, so this was a big surprise that I was NOT expecting! I still have the hoodie that I won :)

Laugh Track (Truth Film)

Super proud of this one too! This was a bigger project, and it took a long time to write, film, and edit... filming especially took a long time, but with the help of amazing actors, it turned out great! I made this film for a school project about telling the truth through filmmaking. We were doing a unit on "cinéma vérité", literally "truth cinema", and the challenge was to create a film that represented our personal philosophy about what the "truth" means in filmmaking. Click here to read my short essay about what truthful cinema means to me! Big thank yous to my actors: Seth Thompson, John Cutrone, Peter Ward, and George Garamy!

The Secret Life of Jenna Ross

I made this film for one of my senior deadlines, and it turned out to be one of my favorite films I've ever made. I don't even really know why. Just watch it. There's some issues with the audio in parts, but just ignore that... This film couldn't have been made without my INCREDIBLE actors, Coral Hodges and Adin Darling!! A super special thank you to them!! Adin BECAME Franklin. Honestly amazing to witness. The song used is Kokomo, IN by Japanese Breakfast !!
Click here to read the script!

Back to Your Roots

This is a film I made for one of my senior deadlines. I'm really really proud of how this one turned out. I think it's the longest film I've ever made, actually! I love the strange ambience of the home depot garden section at night. A big thank you to Coral, who is the main reason this film was able to be made... I couldn't have done it without her working as my camerawoman!! <3

Communicate With Me (Old Jury Project)

This film is pretty old. It was one of the first "lengthy" films i made (rather than just a few seconds), and i'm pretty sure it was the first time in high school I took a camera home to work on a solo project, then edited it on premiere pro. So this film has a special place in my heart.
It being a "jury project" means that it was a project made for my film jury, what film students had to do at Dreyfoos as a stand-in for an end-of-year exam. I think the prompt was something like, "create an excerpt from an imaginary full-length film."
The idea was definitely there! Even now, I'm proud of the shot of the shadow moving across the wall, because I think it's a cool visual (and it took FOREVER to rig up the lights to get the effect), even though the whole thing is grainy as hell because I didn't know how to shoot in the dark.
I'm thinking of remaking this at some point! The song used is "Communicate With Me" by GRLwood!