Out of Time (2022)

Out of Time is a very personal film. It was not only the first film I've ever directed at college, it also contains a narrative that heavily mirrors my personal life. For class we were tasked with creating a 3-5 minute experimental film, and the idea for this short simply came from experiences I've had in the past. My freshman year of college was very strange, I spent a lot of time reflecting on high school, a period of my life which I knew I could never truly revisit. The real kicker came during the end of my freshman year when I became really sick. I might as well have disappeared because one minute I was on campus, the next I wasn't. I left on a cold, rainy morning in early May, my father picking me up at the crack of dawn because I couldn't sleep with my excessive coughing. Just as I felt like I missed out on a lot of closure with high school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt like my first year at Penn State simply ended without any notice or warning; one minute I was at school, the next I was gone. When I came back to campus about a month later, to visit some friends who live in the area, I had the most amazing evening. During my final night, I explored the mostly deserted campus, tracing back all the important moments of the past several months which have shaped me into who I now am. The most emotional part of this was visiting Irvin Hall, my home for many months. I grew attached to this building, I once lived there yet now it was nothing more than a locked, empty building. I never felt more detached yet connected to something in my life. Directing and writing Out of Time blessed me with the exceptional opportunity to harness these complex feelings.