I’d spent an entire year procrastinating on turning my short film Total Awesome Viking Power into a feature film concept. I had four days until the deadline to submit a pitch and potentially win a $5,000 grant.

I had nothing.

Before we dive into the process of making my first feature Wild Boys, I want to start with why we ended up choosing this project in the first place. And I want to give you a framework for choosing the right project for your first film:

• You have to be a little obsessed
• You have to find the right opportunity
• You have to find a way to create momentum

Many budding filmmakers thing the right story alone is enough to get a feature off the ground. That’s rarely the case. But once you understand how to pick the right project for you, the path to becoming a feature film director opens up.

Let’s roll.

You don’t need to make this harder than it needs to be

To make your first feature, you first need to make sure you don’t make a few of the most common mistakes:

• Not enough passion: Looking back I didn’t have the passion to make my viking film when I was developing the pitch. That stopped me from getting anywhere with it.
• Picking a film you can’t make: Scale and producibility is key when making your first film. If you get stuck with a story that’s too big and too expensive, chances are it’ll never get made.
• No plan for how to get it made: A figure-it-out-attitude can only get you so far. The right project brings a way for it to get made.

The reason people tend to make these mistakes is because they fall in love with the wrong project. And as a result, they keep themselves stuck in aspiring to direct, rather than get out and shoot their film.

So, here’s how to fix it:

You have to be a little obsessed

The very first step to picking the right project is a serious dose of obsession.

Making any film is hard. Making your first feature is playing the filmmaking game on insane level difficulty. There’s no way to spearhead a first feature without coming at the process with an iron will to make it happen.

No matter the project you will run into challenges, road blocks and rejection. If you can’t rely on yourself to find ways around these, your film will never see the silver screen.

When a project comes to you, whether as an idea or a more fully fledged film, ask yourself: Am I willing to spend the next 1-3 years obsessing over this story?

There’s a concept called the “whole body yes.” Which refers to a decision feeling right in every way possible. If a project gets a whole body yes from you, you’re on the right path.

For me I notice a few things;

• a rush of adrenaline that gets me excited about the project
• a constant stream of ideas
• a determination to get it done no matter what

When Vincent Catalina told me his idea for a film about two feral guys living in the wilderness, all three happened. We only had a spark of an idea, but I got that good old obsessive feeling, and I knew this project was worth pursuing.

You have to find the right opportunity

The next step to picking the right project is finding the right opportunity.

There are millions of un-produced screenplays in the world. (It might actually be the most obscure literary medium out there.) So how do we make sure we pick a project we can actually make?

There’s a tendency in the film industry to glorify the “impossible journey” to make a film. We celebrate projects just because they were very hard to make. As much as I love a great “making of” story, choosing impossible for bragging rights, is a terrible philosophy for your first feature.

I prefer the easy way.

Mind you, the easy way is still friggin hard! So why make it harder than it needs to be?

You need a great story (yes, always!). A great story is a magnet for opportunities. Having a great story can bring in money, talented cast and crew, and open all kinds of doors. Films are made by people, and people want to work on films they believe in. But it’s not enough on it’s own.

If you can’t turn words on a page into images and sound you’re not going anywhere. Choosing a project you can actually make is obvious, but often overlooked. This doesn’t mean two actors, one location, blah blah blah. It means selecting a project uniquely suited to your skills and resources.

With Wild Boys we had a great combo. I had filmmaking skills, access to free equipment and potentially $5,000. Vincent had his hometown community and a core group of actors hungry to make a film. We developed a story perfectly suited for the scope of resources we had available.

Be clear about the resources and skills you can bring to a project and let the limitations it imposes be a strength, not a road block. When you pick a project you can make, you are way ahead of 90% of filmmakers.

Momentum is key

And finally, the last step to picking the right project is the ability to create momentum.

When a film stalls it takes a monumental effort to get it going again. The initial excitement of a new project is hard to replicate. When a film doesn’t go on the first try it’s like a weight is added to it.

The biggest mistake filmmakers make once they have a project picked is letting its momentum die. So why not select a project that already has a way to create momentum?

The looming grant application deadline was the initial momentum builder for ​Wild Boys​. We had to come with a pitch deck in 4 days. It was a short, intense sprint and we knew if we did a great job, we’d have a $5,000 for the film, and proof someone believed in it.

I don’t believe we would have made Wild Boys without that first boost to kick off the project. So look for that something, which will help you get started when you pick your first feature.

Momentum helps you knock over the next domino, and once you get going you become unstoppable.

And cut!

Today we’ve talked all about picking the right project for your first feature.

If you skimmed your way down here, here’s the essence:

• You have to be a little obsessed
• You have to find the right opportunity
• You have to find a way to create momentum

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