Freestyle is almost certainly the determining factor in my current career path. Without its resources, opportunities, and the extremely valuable skills I was given the extremely lucky opportunity to gain, I likely would not have gotten into such a great art school, and my life would have taken a very different path. Without Freestyle, I may never have pursued filmmaking much past those small home movies made on my phone. Without Freestyle, I may not have met so many incredible people and formed such valuable connections. Without Freestyle, I, and so many others, would have missed out on, in my opinion, the greatest educational opportunity for high school artists.
As you can imagine, Freestyle Academy has been endlessly important to me, so here, to round off my time, is a selection of the best projects I was fortunate enough to be a part of.
The first project we’ll focus on is from the beginning of senior year, during our Reflections unit. We were tasked with writing and performing a 2-minute essay about ourselves. Not directly autobiographical, about our history and experiences, but about us as a person. Something that would give a glimpse into our mind and provide insight into how we tick.
The topic I chose was about my sleep schedule, being a night owl, and how I wished I were a morning person to be able to enjoy the beauty and peace of the morning. This concept can connect to a lot of things in my life, about the person I want to be against who I am. I very much enjoyed capturing the soft, warm, cozy imagery, and I narrated the essay while I was very tired to match the mood.
Next, a glimpse into my current largest project: the Senior Narrative. I have been working for the past 7 months on a massively ambitious film noir, incorporating countless elements and continuing to add on more and more. This is my presentation of my progress on one of the scenes, addressed to Mike Tyler, a professional in the industry, for review and critique.
Moving back in time in reality but far forward in story, we will look at my Junior Explorations project, one of my favorite assignments, because there wasn’t one. At the end of the year, we were given several weeks to lead our own projects and create whatever we wished with the available resources. I took an interest in miniature model VFX for mine, as I always love recreating filmmaking methods and styles of the past to learn how they work. I built about eight or nine miniature skyscrapers out of boxes, recycled plastic, and computer parts to construct a sprawling futuristic cityscape, and also experimented with various compositing tricks, lighting, and effects like holograms.
The Junior Narrative project was also a fun one, but not without its stresses with learning how to organize shoots and manage actors. This was my first time making a narrative from a story I did not write alone, and working together with my partner, Kylie Outten helped me learn more about collaborative filmmaking and building a film together. Keeping organized on who would do what during the process was important.
After the Junior Narrative, a silent film, we learned sound recording so that we could conduct interviews for a documentary. I worked with Lucie Raynaud on a film about the experiences of various Germans from both the East and West sides during the Cold War, and the divide between the two.