# Independent

It’s funny the power of saying it out loud had: “We’re going to make a feature film.” And the more we said it, the more we dared to take the next baby step. And the next.

“'Just try not to die' is my standard advice for anyone helming a first feature. I nearly did, and I wouldn't recommend it."

Festival directors and programmers are just as passionate and dedicated to films as the filmmakers themselves. But filmmakers primarily regard them as key gatekeepers in the journey of seeking and building an audience.

Remember that your reel isn’t the full conversation—it’s the start of one.

It felt selfish and tone deaf to be scratching out a screenplay of all things while the world was falling apart.

I didn’t talk about that because I was terrified that any artistic input that I might say … would end up diverting the course of this script one or two degrees from its true North and then it ends up in a deal that doesn’t get done.

We need stories, and we need stories like yours. And you must believe and trust in that to get people to donate.

Despite myself being an anxious asexual woman, I wasn’t a known entity in either of my other two segment communities yet. So, I started to do research.

Do I have key art chock-full of laurels? Sure. Do any of those laurels actually mean anything to anyone? Um … let’s move on.

Let’s find a strategy that works for you so you can go into the world confident and ready to share your story in the way most authentic to you.

I didn’t become a full-time writer because it would support me financially—I did it so I could finally feel alive.

I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want to be the next ‘so-and-so’ anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still on my grind—I still bleed this shit. But I’m just ... enjoying the ride.

When I was nine years old, I handed my parents the synopsis of a then-unwritten book scrawled in my chaotic handwriting. I announced that I was going to write a novel and get it published. My parents believed me. I got to work.

We all have the same $25, so why is my film not receiving accolades? It must be because I’m a failure as an artist and not because I didn’t get $20,000 worth of in-kind loans or volunteer labor offered by a cast and crew with expensive training and access to equipment.

Mark broke down creative struggles into three main stages—the creatively crashed, the creatively frustrated, and the creatively excited (albeit a bit directionless)—before providing ideas on how to push through each stage.