Ever since I bought my first camera the summer before college, I committed myself to creativity through video. My goal was to connect with people, build communities, and tell stories, and I’m proud to have accomplished all three. I’ve worked with artists, companies, student organizations, and connected with so many people I would never have expected just from exploring film and video.
Some of my favorite memories come from working in marketing promoting my startup (@ootdfashn) or UMich’s builder community (@v1michigan), where I met some of the most talented and technical people at Michigan. Learning marketing strategy with video as my primary deliverable in an early stage startup/community taught me the importance of quality, quantity, alignment, and iteration.
However, I couldn’t help but feel drawn away from the creative side of filmmaking the more I pursued entrepreneurship. The longer I committed myself to building a company through growth and video, the less fulfillment I got out of filmmaking. The logical side of my brain started to dominate what was initially a creative escape from engineering and business.
Around November of last year (2025), I took a break from building my startup (@ootdfashn) and decided to commit myself to creative commissions. I was hoping this would reignite my spark for video-making, and I’d be able to go back into the startup world refreshed and ready to build. During this time, I worked on numerous projects including: filming and editing a dance choreography for FILSOC, filming and editing MSU aDKPhi’s class reveal, and even co-directing and producing DECEMBER’s music video as LIZETTE’s debut song.
This was a LOT of fun, and I met and worked with some amazing people. Shoutout to Meekel T-Riney, Justin Lagman, Lizette Mina, WSU FILSOC, and MSU aKDPhi. I was able to storyboard, film, and edit without the burden of caring about views, engagement, or conversions. After pursuing these projects throughout November and December and a nice winter break in early January, I was ready to involve myself back into the startup community.
Just last month, I joined Milieu (a skincare startup founded by Nathan Shatz), where I currently do some very light work on video as a growth contractor while learning marketing strategy. I also joined V1 Michigan (the premier startup club at UMich) to scale their social media presence on the growth team.
Going into these roles, I restructured my mentality. The goal is simply to improve my video-making and editing. I wanted to get as good as I possibly could at making engaging, high-quality short-form video edits. Instead of seeking creative fulfillment out of scaling, I’m seeking progression and upskilling. I’m also seeking virality and learning how people interact with different videos.
This, however, still leaves a gap in my filmmaking. I view my work for V1, Milieu, and OOTD as marketing and not filmmaking. I view it as scaling, not storytelling, and I’ve been starting to dissociate this video work from what I really want to get from film. Don’t get me wrong, I love video editing and marketing. Learning strategy and new technical skills within video making has been extremely enjoyable. However, my initial purpose for filmmaking was to connect with people through authentic storytelling.
My yearning to tell an authentic story through filmmaking has been exponentially increasing, especially as I continue to meet creatives through clubs like the Midnight Club run by Adhav Rajesh. More recently, I got accepted into Shift Creator Space (a creative community at UMich), and I’m constantly inspired by the people within it.
Because of the culmination of creative unfulfillment, inspiration through community, and motivation to build something meaningful, I decided that I am going to be producing my first short film over this semester and during the summer. Instead of working full-time, I want to explore my creative potential and make something truly meaningful. I’m so grateful to have the privilege to do so, and I’ll be sharing my entire journey on social media.
It’s been a difficult year trying to decide what career I want to pursue; however, it’s always been easy to determine what I want to do with my life, and that’s to connect with people, connect people, and tell their stories. My goal with this film is to do exactly that. I still have a ton of work to do as this is just the beginning, and I don’t have much direction yet. If this writing is something that resonates with you, however, please let me know. I love talking to people and meeting people, and I believe the more perspectives I have the more beautiful the story I create becomes.