At 12 a.m., senior Rozalyn Franklin adds the finishing touches to her newest silent film while sipping sparkling water and listening to Brockhampton. After editing at home and school, she surprises herself at how long it took her to edit a one minute film. Franklin was selected as one of six for the mini shorts section, with her being the sole female finalist.

Franklin has recently been named a nominee for the Miami International Film Festival for her film “Roz’s Oranges.” Franklin’s film was an experimental commercial for a fictional brand of oranges. The Miami International Film Festival features monthly winners for each category, including but not limited to, student films and web series.

To mimic the goodness of eating a fresh orange, Franklin gave the commercial an orange color grade. In the end, she added an animated drawing of her logo for her brand of oranges in order to appeal to children, her intended audience age group.

“I imagined the shot in my head first, of someone standing outside of their front door with their legs crossed eating an orange. That image sort of inspired the film,” senior Rozalyn Franklin said.

Franklin became interested in filmmaking after watching short films on YouTube as a sophomore. She wanted to make people eager to watch a well produced film. She began writing scripts and screenplays as a sophomore and has been bringing them to life through film this past year.  

Franklin was caught between pursuing writing or film, and went to California College of the Arts (CCA) for a pre-college film program this past summer to figure out which one she preferred. Prior to attending, her films had been more cinematically oriented rather than fully developed stories. After being able to experiment with new ways of producing film and learning a new perspective on storyboarding at CCA, Franklin realized the love she had for film. She has gained her inspiration from one of her favorite directors, Spike Jonze. Jonze’s films, “Her” and “Being John Malkovich,” were the main sources from which she drew inspiration for her films.

When Franklin returned, she began making films with developed stories and was able to use the skills she had learned at CCA. For example, she now realized that if she needed to, she could use herself as an actress. If Franklin has no actors for a film that she wants to make, she will write a screenplay for it, and produce it later. For her, filming and screenwriting go hand in hand. This is due to the fact that she likes deciding what story she will tell, and how she will tell it. She feels that screenwriting helps her achieve this goal, while filming makes the idea come to life. Unfortunately, Franklin’s film Roz’s Oranges did not win.

“I could have made the shots more cinematic and steady, but I think that they were really looking for a story. My film was more of a commercial,” Franklin said.

She is currently not working on any projects, but will be later on.