My Work
In my digital communications class freshman year of college, each student was assigned the task of creating a video artist's statement. We had to talk about ourselves, our passion, and our work while showing it through visually aesthetic and pleasing footage. I decided to incorporate multiple passions of mine in order to really show my authentic self through my statement. I used new and previously taken footage to show my range of work and create a sort of montage to pair with the words I was saying.
In the fall of 2023 I was the Cinematographer/Director of Photography on a short film called Spells. I worked with multiple other students to help bring this script, written by Josie Bowen, to life. I worked closely with Josie, who was also the director, to make sure I was lighting the scene, using the proper lens, and getting the angles to match her vision for the film. I also worked with the gaffer to help me physically set up lights for the scenes. This shoot took us about ten hours to film.
In the fall of 2024 I created a short film/music video for my color theory class. I took inspiration from the song "Story of My Life" by One Direction and created a film about re-discovering your childlike joy and passion. I used new footage along with footage my father took of me as a child to create a sense of nostalgia and childlike joy. To relate it to color, I made the footage of older me in the beginning of the video, dim and desaturated, while the footage of younger me is vibrant and colorful. As I rediscover my passion for filmmaking the dim colors of older me transition to match the vibrance of younger me.
In the beginning of the 2024 winter quarter my film class was assigned to create a visual essay about an emotion. The goal was to portray the emotion you chose through various silent shots. Since it was a requirement there be no sound, it made it a very visual heavy project. I chose to do mine on anxiety. Originally I did not want to because I believed it might be too hard, but that became the reason why I chose it. I wanted to challenge myself to create something difficult and learn from it. I came up with the concept of having tight, close up shots on symptoms of anxiety (such as shaky hands, sweating, etc) to create that boxed in, tight feeling I get from my own anxiety.
This is a video I made my sophomore year of high school as a project for a school competition. It was the end of 2020 and I had just spent half of my Freshman year online due to covid. By being alone, and on the internet so much as a result, I saw so many videos about insane things continuously happening throughout the year. In 2020 I also began editing trailers as a hobby. So when I saw all these videos of continuous tragedy, It seemed almost like a movie to me, which is when the idea struck to create a trailer as if the year 2020 was a movie. It's longer than a normal trailer of course, but it takes major events from every month of the whole year, minus December.
During my winter break I challenged myself to create a short film. I wrote, storyboarded, filmed, and directed it on my own, with the help of my friend Josie and my Mom to be my actors. This experience taught me that it is important and incredibly helpful to know the shots you need before you begin filming. I also got to learn a really cool editing trick where I made a knife float in one of the scenes. Getting to play with lighting and camera angles also helped me learn more about cinematography and was really fun to do.
In spring of 2024 I went on a trip to Tybee Island with my friends and recorded footage throughout. At the time I was obsessed with the song "End of Beginning" by Djo so I paired it with that footage, turning it into a montage/music video of the trip. This video was a good practice for my editing skills because there are lots of clear, sometimes fast, beats that I had to listen to in order to cut footage and match it to the music.
In the summer of 2024 I created a music video/short film to a slowed and reverb version of the song "Once Upon a Dream" sung by Lana Del Ray. I filmed this in Laurel Grove cemetery in Savannah and aimed to portray a sort of uneasy feeling. As if the statues were watching you. This video was my first attempt with color grading and I was successful in getting it to the dark, eerie look I envisioned when making the video.