When you’re first starting in filmmaking, the veritable plethora of techniques, equipment, skills, and the like you have to have can seem like an impossible bunch to conquer. Being younger is yet another challenge. This video gives some helpful tips and advice to younger up and coming filmmakers.

When I was in high school and wanted to be a musician, I set my sights on the top, because if you’re not headlining festivals, what’s the point? It was some combination of hubris and lack of perspective, but eventually, I learned that mountains are climbed in steps, not leaps (I still haven’t headlined a festival). Nonetheless, I would have greatly appreciated a mentor like Darious Britt to help me focus all that raw energy and learn that lesson more quickly. In this video, he details both some technical and practical considerations, such as how to deal with smaller budgets and disapproving family and of course, the looming question of if that degree is worth four years of your life and six figures of your money. Really though, the main take-home message is to get out there and do it and to learn from experience. Like anything, theory is great, but practice creates true skill.