From the start, I saw Alienated as my way to steal like an artist, while also growing as an one. Throughout my years at SCAD, I have seen countless short films, and with each of them something sticks out to me. Sometimes I see things that maybe didn’t work for me for one reason or another, and sometimes I see things I really like. Whatever the case, I learned from all of these shorts. With some I took note of aspects that were super important to me, and with others I took note of the pitfalls I would want to avoid in my own work. Alienated was always meant to be a project that accumulates all of the things I personally find important in a short film, and now that production has wrapped, I can say confidently that I feel my team and I accomplished this.

        Alienated never was meant to be particularly thought provoking. I know, kind of a strange thing to say right out the gate. But, what I mean by that is that for this short film I didn’t want to tie my team down to a specific theme or personal story. I didn’t want viewers to leave being confused or thinking we were preaching to them. Above all, I wanted to spend my senior year of college making something I am genuinely proud of, something that pushes my skills past what I thought was possible; something that leaves viewers impressed and entertained with smiles on their faces, and I wanted to do so with my friends. I’m so happy to say I feel confident we have done just that. 

        My inspiration for Alienated came simply from the fact that I grew up watching shows and movies having to do with aliens and monsters (ex. Ben 10, Pokémon, Gravity Falls, etc.) As a kid, I had so much fun watching those shows, they were the reason I even realized animation is a career in the first place! Sometimes, watching them was almost like a form of escapism. I felt motivated to tell this story because I want to give audiences this same feeling of fun and escapism that I felt as a kid watching those shows. Alienated was a great way to push myself as an artist, by trying out different mediums, programs, and ways of working, and a large part of this learning comes from my team members, Delaney, Ryan, Kaylee, Jalen, Meghan, Annie, Ashley, and Sydney, who are all much more talented than I could have ever hoped for. Alienated is the most collaborative project I have ever worked on. The final product is almost completely different from my original pitch, and I would have it no other way! This is a project that I view as full circle, because it's the type of animation that would have inspired me as a kid, and I got to do it with 9 of my friends.