I want to go into the filmmaking industry. Filmmaking is a way for me to channel my humor and impress people at the same time. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll probably do something in the Environmental Science field.
What types of movies do you usually make?
They are usually satires of a concept I learned in class, a movie, and/or something topical. An example of this is my short film in 9th grade called The Beattys. In my health class, Coach Beatty was talking about how much his childhood was like the 1985 adventure movie The Goonies. This made me think “What if his childhood actually was just like The Goonies?”. So, some of my friends and I put together this film during our filmmaking elective. It was very successful and even Coach Beatty loved it, but it is still very amateur and not worth the YouTube search.
What roles do you usually play when making your movies?
I usually am the director, writer, and/or an actor. I usually try to do at least 2 of the 3 options mentioned above. I also edit them to get my vision across, but I don’t really want to be the editor when my film career starts.
Since you are so interested in filmmaking, have you done any internships with film companies?
Actually, I have. Kind of. About a month ago, I left English class half an hour early to go to the GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting Station) and help out backstage on a show called the Georgia Inventure Prize. It is essentially a lower budget and college version of the ABC show Shark Tank. I was mostly in charge of moving a table on stage whenever a contestant needed to prop their product onto a table and take it offstage when they were finished. If you pay close attention, the table I was moving all of the sudden became really loud and clanky as I was moving it at one point. Not even the official broadcast could block out the clanky sound the table was making. My other job that night was delivering the envelopes with the 1st place, 2nd place, and People’s Choice award to the CEO of PBS, who would announce the winners. In fact, here is the link to the full video and some pictures of me on set: http://www.gpb.org/georgiainventureprize
In your narrative essay, you talk about something called “The Outdoor Academy”. What is that?
It’s this outdoor adventure semester school in North Carolina that I went to during my sophomore year at High School. We would have actual classes from Monday to Thursday, and went on outdoor adventures such as backpacking, rock climbing, and white water canoeing on the weekends. It was an amazing experience and I am still close with all of my Outdoor Academy friends.
Are there any other interesting stories from your semester in North Carolina?
Yes. There are many, many interesting stories from OA. The most interesting out of the bunch happened in early October when we went on a 5 day backpacking trip. I’ve always enjoyed camping, but I had never had a trip remotely close to this one. When my group arrived at the first campsite, we discovered that we brought the wrong size tent poles, so the guys and the girls on the trip alternated between sleeping in a tent and sleeping under a tarp where all of our gear was supposed to be. The rest of the trek was fun and everyone was having a great time, until the second to last night when it started to rain. On the last day, I was chosen to be one of the leaders of the day, or as they said it at OA “Adasehede”. That day, the storm evolved into a full-on tropical storm. Not a single person nor item was dry. Nevertheless, I showed leadership by entertaining my group with various trail games as we hiked home in the pouring rain for 8 hours, escaping the storm.
Do you play any instruments?
I would say that drumming is my main hobby. When I was 8 years old, my mom made me take piano lessons, but I discovered that I liked drumming a lot better the following year. I have been drumming ever since. While I have not had a whole lot of time to drum this year, it is something I really want to pick back up.
What about sports?
I have mostly played basketball and ultimate frisbee. Galloway does not have an ultimate team, so I joined Atlanta International School’s last spring and have been playing for them ever since. I have played basketball for much longer, but I could not join the team last year and this year because of Outdoor Academy and the fall play Twelfth Night.
Wait a minute. What role did you play in Twelfth Night?
Oh. I was just a random ensemble member. The main reason I got that role was because Twelfth Night was the first school play I had done and I also joined fairly last minute. The two ensemble options were the supporting male lead’s entourage or the leading female’s entourage. Because the theater teachers knew that I was a comedian, I was the only guy in the female lead’s entourage and had to learn how to act really feminine. It was probably hilarious for the audience to see all of these ladies following the main female around and then goofy-old me in the mix.
Do you have any really cool achievements that you want to talk about?
Well, I recently became an Eagle Scout. I did Cub Scouts in elementary school and continued until now. It took around an entire decade’s worth of extra work on top of school homework, but finally completing everything feels amazing to me.
What was your Eagle Scout Project?
There’s this park by my house called “Big Trees Forest Preserve” where all of the trail signs were damaged over the years, and some guideposts were missing. I added two new guideposts to the park and with the help of a cabinetry company replaced all of the signs at the park. I could go more into detail about the process, but it’s probably more convenient to just attach the link to my Eagle Scout Court of Honor speech below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MOcyHAcZdhqtM0vNHSUmXUvpT0_MP0sgeMrG1w342z0/edit
Do you have any really cool memories from your years at High School?
Yes. Besides going to Outdoor Academy, I remember the time where some buddies and I came to school really early one morning to hear Joe Russo, one of the directors of the Captain America and later Avengers movies, speak at Galloway. When one of the Marvel movies was being filmed in Atlanta, Joe Russo sent his kids to Galloway, which is how they even got him to speak in the first place. The three of us missed part of class to introduce ourselves to him. That was the main highlight of my freshman year.
Do you know how this FAQ has to do with anything related to English class?
I’m not really sure if I’m being honest, but it certainly makes this website way more interesting to the one person who will be reading this.