A budding Co Antrim filmmaker will see her script transformed from page to the big screen this summer after having her work selected by the British Film Institute.
Zoe Magee is currently studying her A-Levels at Glengormley High School and is already getting her name out there in the budding Northern Irish film industry after a script she wrote was selected to be made into a short film.
The 17-year-old senior prefect who is working towards her Media Studies, Business Studies and English Literature A-Levels will have the opportunity to showcase her work in a Belfast cinema later this year.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Zoe said: "I was just looking up film courses to do for university and I saw that the British Film Institute (BFI) was doing a filmmaking course so I applied for that - I had to do an interview and I got in.
"They asked people in the group to write a script and whoever they liked the best would be chosen and mine got picked.
"From there, we went down to Lorne House in Holywood and filmed it and it will be shown in the Oydessey for a day a May."
Zoe was one of ten people selected for the course and was the only student to have their work chosen to be turned into a short film.
"The brief of the script for everyone was based on something personal and the only thing that I knew at that time that was really personal to me was grief.
"My film is based on grief and trying to accept that someone is gone and I think because it was so fitted to the brief and emotionally connected that they picked it," she explained.
Zoe said it was "crazy" to see words she had written from her own experience be transformed from script to screen.
"It feels so weird because I had never even written a script before and when we were asked to do it, I had to watch Youtube videos on how to write one and it was just mad seeing the actors speak lines that I had written - it was just crazy, a good crazy," she laughed.
"There were other people on the course and if they weren't picked for the script, they could apply to be the likes of the director so I got to go down and have my creative input and they allowed me to have a lot of say in if the film was going my direction.
"It was my first time being on a film set so it was a really good experience too so if I do want to go down that route of scriptwriting and film. I had so much fun meeting new people and learning new things from being on a film set and I feel like I've got a lot of new ideas from it as well."
The teen says the whole experience "doesn't feel real" and the thrill of having her work chosen by such a prestigious institution will not sink in until she watches the finished product on the big screen.
She added: "I'm really excited for all my family to come down and see it - I am nervous but I am excited too to see it and after watching it be filmed, see how it is all put together.
"I am going to take a gap year next year and then apply to be a runner for different TV shows or films being done here because the film industry in Northern Ireland is growing so much so there is going to be lots of opportunities for young filmmakers and people who want to get into it.
"Hopefully, after I will maybe go to Ulster University to study Cinematic Arts."
Louise Fox is a senior teacher at Glengormley High School and shared how proud the entire school community is of Zoe and her achievement.
She said: "We are very proud of Zoe at the school. She actually tried to keep it all quiet for a while until I caught wind of it.
"She has always had a flair for writing and I've been her English teacher for four years and she's always been a natural - she had such originality with her ideas and being very emotive so it wasn't a surprise that it transferred over into her scriptwriting.
"She's on track for great results in her Media Studies as well because she has always had that interest in the area so we are very lucky and privileged to have her as a part of Glengormley High School. She's always been a big part of the school community as well."
