Milo Eaton is no mediocre senior. In fact, he’s the co-president of the Sleepy Hollow High School Film Club and the director of ‘Mediocrates,’ a short comedic film that was featured at the Nyack International Film Festival (NIFF) that was held the first week of April. NIFF is one of the most popular emerging and innovative film festivals in the U.S., with a large number of new-but-unknown feature films, documentaries, and shorts.
Milo first learned of the film festival when he attended the Emerson Pre-College Digital Filmmakers Program, which offers rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors an opportunity to explore video production concepts. In order to enter the program he had to submit a portfolio of his work and several essays.
Milo’s film is a mockumentary about an ancient Greek philosopher named Mediocrates who is responsible for the world’s most popular philosophy, “mediocrity.” This character was born when Milo was joking among friends during his freshman year.
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“We studied Greek philosophers in Global History Honors, and we were doing a project about Socrates. I made a joke to my friends, ‘What if he was only mediocre and they called him Mediocrates?’” said Milo.
Over the years the joke stayed in the back of Milo's mind. When the opportunity to write a short film arose, he jumped at the chance to bring his character to life. He worked over the summer between his junior and senior years perfecting his script. He then continued to make adjustments during the filming process.
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In order to create his film, Milo utilized AI programs such as ElevenLabs AI to turn his written text into real-life-sounding voices and Midjourney AI to generate images based on the text and his direction. For music he was able to acquire film festival rights for screening purposes through YouTube. Milo then used the video editing software Adobe Premiere Pro to put it all together.
“I used AI to generate the voices from my writing and the images from my writing and prompts. I didn't rely on cameras or costumes,” said Milo. “This was modeled after History Channel documentaries with narration over images.”
Although it is Milo’s first year being part of the film club, he had previously been part of the Sleepy Hollow Digital News team. Both activities helped him hone his skills and allowed him to grow creatively.
“I am extremely proud of Milo having his film accepted into the NIFF. However, I'm not surprised! His editing skills, along with his wit and out-of-the-box original thinking has brought visual and conceptual appeal to a variety of our student-created digital news show’s segments,” said Angela Langston, Visual and Media Arts Department Chair at Sleepy Hollow High School.
Students in Film Club meet once a week and are free to work on different film exercises and are able to teach their peers different techniques. The knowledge he acquired through the club helped Milo in creating his film.
“We went over dialogue, camera angles, storyboarding,” said Milo. “Ms. Langston, who was my film teacher, was helpful with my editing as well as helping me to learn the basics of film. She was very supportive of my skills and gave me opportunities to edit. Ms. Lopez, my 11th grade AP English Composition teacher inspired my comedy writing and my sense of humor. I feel lucky to have had them both.”
Milo admitted that he was nervous about watching his film in a public setting. “Seeing my film with others is not something I thought I would enjoy, but when it happened, I was actually very proud and excited. My film played really well, and people truly laughed! That was amazing to experience,” said Milo. “It feels validating to have been the President of the club the same year my first film was accepted into its first festival.”
When asked about his future goals, Milo stated that he plans to attend Emerson College in the fall and will be focusing on film. “I just know I want to learn all about it, and I enjoy the process of being hands-on. I like comedy films and TV, and I am a huge fan of animated content,” said Milo.
“He has a bright and exciting future in the world of filmmaking,” added Ms. Langston.
