showcase

Hi! I am Megan Halsey and I am a film student at Freestyle Academy. For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about film and film making. I love analyzing films, and although there is a film analysis class offered at my school, I felt like the Freestyle program would have been more valuable to me and it absolutely was.

For my showcase, I have chosen to present the short film activity from the beginning of the school year (titled “Be-Leaf in yourself) and my Senior Narrative (titled The King Paradox). I chose these because I think they best highlight my growth as a writer, director, communicator, and schedule coordinator.

Be-Leaf In Yourself

This story follows a girl who finds comfort in a tree that is planted at her school. One day she comes to the try and finds a handful of cute notes taped to the tree.

This project was one of the first ones I made for Freestyle ever, so although it was a starting off point, it still means a lot to me. I know there is so much of it that has room for improvement, but that is actually why I chose it.

The King Paradox

This story is about Detective Declan West who must solve a missing persons case for a girl, Olivia King. But, when he goes to interrogate the girls who were supposed to be present at the time of the disappearance, they go from witnesses to suspects.

This project also means a lot to me because of the volume of work that was necessary to pull this off. This project was assigned to us in October of 2021 and is still being perfected as of May. Luckily, I had the best film partner in the world who made this process significantly easier.

I am a first year senior so I was held to a different standard than my film partner, Stella. I had the option to do the junior narrative film, which is a short film with no dialogue. In the end I decided it would be a really fun challenge to take on this massive project with no idea how to do it. In the end, I am so happy I made the decision I did because I not only had the opportunity to work with Stella and many other amazing Freestyle and non-Freestyle students to make this project a reality.

I look forward to using the skills I have learned at Freestyle and continuing to strengthen my skills as I proceed with life after high school at Syracuse University in the fall. I can’t wait to improve and make more projects I can truly say I am proud of.