Alienated is a short experimental film about a girl slowly becoming disconnected from the person closest to her, told through texts, voicemails, and her gradual transformation. I wanted to make something that felt more like an atmosphere than a traditional narrative, using pretty, almost dreamlike imagery against something increasingly unsettling. The makeup, lighting, sound, and pacing were all really intentional in building that contrast and creating a world that felt slightly removed from reality. I filmed it treating it more like a proof of concept, because it’s something I’d love to remake in the future with a bigger budget. More than anything, Alienated was the first time I genuinely enjoyed directing. I made the film almost entirely on my own, which gave me the freedom to make decisions instinctively and experiment without having to compromise the image I had in my head. It's still the only film I've made that I can look back on and feel completely proud of. It's imperfect, but the atmosphere, visual language, and process all feel distinctly mine, and making it showed me how much I actually love directing when I have the space to create something entirely my own.
