Just Do It. Just Make Your Movie.

Everyone wants to make movies. Everyone has ideas. They might even have a script or two lying around. They might have even shot some short films or made some web videos. But you know what they haven’t done? Just made a movie.

Yeah, it’s kind of a big statement to make. But sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet. You just got to grit your teeth, find some money, take out a loan, or just make the film by hook or by crook (what Ti West has to say about film school and making movies).

So many people have gone to film school, they’ve loved films, they’ve even started to make films and then, when the going got tough, they gave it up. They stopped because they couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. They faltered for a myriad of reasons.

You’ve got to grit your teeth and simply finish the film. Sure, you’ll have to call in favors. You’ll have to work crazy long nights. You’ll even have put some of your money into the project but at the end of the day it’s going to be worth it. You’ll have invested in yourself. You’ll have made a film.

Think about all the people that have gone on to massive careers because they’ve just refused to quit and believed in themselves. Would you even know the name Kevin Smith if he hadn’t taken on $30,000 in debt to make Clerks? What about Darren Aronofsky? He went and made Pi with the money that he would have spent on his final year of film school. Or how about Lena Dunham? She spent $27,000 dollars making Tiny Furniture. That film literally put her on the map, giving her access to a world of people and possibilities that she didn’t even know were there. She was able to have a career because she believed in herself and put it all on the line.

Filmmaking isn’t easy, of course. But if you learn the basics, get the right people around you, and you get enough money scraped together, you can make a movie. It might not be the best movie ever made but it’ll be a movie. Then, you can make another one and another one. And eventually you will make a great movie. But wouldn’t you rather say that you’ve made a movie than not having done so? Wouldn’t you rather go to a cocktail party and say, “I’m a director. I made my first feature film this year”? Of course you would.

That’s why it’s so important to just do it. Buckle down and make that film. Learn in a hands-on, commonsense way with Film Connection. Then, make the movie you’ve got bobbing around in your head. No one else is going to make that movie, so you might as well do it yourself. There’s no reason not to do it.