There seems to be this misconception among cinema enjoyers that they could never make a film. They haven’t seen every arthouse film, have never studied media, don’t have a camera, mic, lighting set up, or friends who can act. You need none of that. You need a phone and a vision. Fuck it, you don’t even need a vision, just have a cool dream, [don’t] take some drugs, go on an adventure, or do something cool, interview your grandma, who gives a fuck. 

I don’t really watch films. I have seen 2 of the first 20 “classic movies that everyone should see” on IMDB. I only learnt how to film and edit video thanks to skateboarding, and that’s still where I feel most at home. My use of music, sound design, editing, VFX, even where I point the camera (my phone), all come from the world of skate videos. Find your ‘skate videos’. Whatever audiovisual corner of the internet speaks to you is already more innovative than profit-bound mainstream cinema. Take cues from weird shit, package it as a short film, and now you’re ‘experimental’.  

If you go for something dialogue based or with a handheld and homemade atmosphere, bad editing can work in your favour. Even then, you’ve gotta now the rules before you break them. But fuck ‘the rules’, make your own rules. Download premiere pro and mess around with the timeline and transitions, throw in some music, chop shit up and layer it, get into effects, fuck with opacity and blend mode, scale, etc. Every parameter you see is a paint brush, be van Gogh for a while so you can see what each brush does and more importantly, how they interact with each other. Then get into sound design. Sound and editing are everything. 

I don’t watch films, I learnt how to make videos thanks to a skateboard, and now I’m a ‘screen and media student’, with all the pretention that carries. Once you’ve made a mosaic of dog shit, which by the way, will never be ‘finished’ so just give up and export it at some point, submit it to local film festivals. ‘Film’ might be gatekept, but there is virtually no barrier of entry to making a short film, so just fucking do it.