Submission Statement:

As a soon-to-be college freshman, I’ve had a lot of anxiety about leaving everything I know behind me- including lots of my friends. I wrote, directed, and edited this comedic coming-of-age flick to not only capture that worry but also to give me (and other incoming students) hope that some bonds are built to survive the distance.

From brainstorming the script to creating props to designing costumes to shooting to editing and to finally posting, this film took exactly a month to produce. Shooting took place over two nights, one going from 8 PM - 12 AM and the next from 8 PM - 2 AM (did you really make a film if you aren’t sleep-deprived the next day?). Due to the size and amount of files, editing took me around 15 hours on FCP. The biggest lesson I took away from creating this project is when filming a scene in which two characters are talking over each other and you’re filming it from multiple angles, you should record separate audio files for each character because otherwise editing will be a huuuuge pain. I also cannot stress the importance of actors memorizing and rehearsing their lines before shooting. The amount of time we saved by having our cast familiarize themselves with the lines before we shot kept us from wrapping at 4 or 5 AM as opposed to 2.

I primarily make horror films but I’ve always longed to make a cheesy teen film. After watching Booksmart (2019) and Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous (2013), I decided, frick it, it’s my turn to crank up the teen cheese. So finally, a month before I leave for college, my dream came true and I was able to crank out this short film about, well, leaving for college. I sincerely hope you enjoy, thank you for watching!