Outgrown
Ava mourns the loss of an important friendship as she prepares to set out to Harvard and leave her childhood behind.
One of my final acting debuts (thank god) and one of our earlier films that seemed like was kind of knew what we were doing. Thanks to the talented Faith Rodriquez as Director of Photography, we made a cute short about growing pains and moving on. We all have friendships that we’ve outgrown, which this film explores.
We made outgrown on a $0 budget (meaning we spend about $50 to feed people). This film was part of a 2020 project I started, where we selected a genre and made a film in 24 hours with what we had around us. We challenged ourselves to think outside of the box and just go out and make a movie. I find that so many people get wrapped up in the technical stuff that they forget the whole reason this is a dream career; because it’s fun. Our 24-hour challenges weren’t about making the best films that the world has ever seen so much as they were about making something fun and that we were proud of. Overall, I’m really proud of the work that was put into this film, and I’m grateful for the friends it bought me along the way. You can check out the behind-the-scenes of Outgrown below!
Share Me
After ignoring a strange message, weird things begin to happen in Killian’s home.
Share me was my 2020 spring semester final project. Due to the pandemic and lack of resources, I had to be flexible and make a lot of changes at the last minute. I had to use resources I already had at my disposal, including my Canon T6i, a couple of box lights, and of course, my ever-so-helpful siblings as my talent. I’m proud of the results considering what I had to work with, and I think the biggest lesson I learned while making this film is that all you have to do to make a movie is get up and make it. The results may not be the greatest, but you learn so much more by doing.
Trails End Drive
Cole drives to his cabin in the woods to clear his head and get some work done before his big deadline; however, things seem a little off, and he discovers that he’s not entirely alone over on Trails End Drive.
We shot this film up in Sedona, AZ, on a Black Magic Pro 6k. I was inspired to make this film because I feel that, as an artist, we’ve all struggled to find a balance between work and play. While we love what we do as filmmakers, it can often be taxing to meet deadlines and do what needs to be done to put food on the table while staying authentic to your art. This film explores the tensions, anxiety, and guilt we often feel trying to fight burnout and meet client expectations.
I wanted to experiment with framing and color more, so I used this film as an opportunity for that. We also threw in some fun transition ideas that I got from TikTok, and I’m pretty impressed with the results. While Trails End Drive was simply a fun passion project to help us improve our filmmaking skills, we’re hoping to take it to fests and see where it goes form there.