FT 071: The RAW Truth of Indie Filmmaking with Darious Britt

Indie Film Hustle Podcast: Filmmaking | Film School | Screenwriting | Film Marketing | Independent Film | Cinematography | Film Festival | Filmmaking Podcasts I Moviemaker

Our guest today is a youtube sensation and many of you might already be fans of his. Darious Britt is a filmmaker, youtuber actor, and director. Following his graduation from the University of Arizona in 2012, he launched his Youtube channel where he shares educational filmmaking gems with his 350,000 subscribers since 2013 - sharing his journey and addressing the issues filmmakers are facing today. His channel D4darious a variety channel where he curates and releases features short films behind the scenes, videos, tips, tricks, and vlogs about filmmaking. I discovered Darious’s channel a long time ago. He was spewing out some amazing content and great knowledge bombs. I am captivated by the way he does it - an extremely entertaining and stylish presentation of his contents. We ran into each other at the 2020 Mammoth Film Festival, and we hit it off instantly. Darious is the winner of the 2015 Pan African Festival best Director award for his feature-length comedy-drama film, Unsound. He compacted all the advice he shares on his channel into this project. A captivating story that pulls at your heart and its low-budget quality adds essence to the dialogues, making them seem even more real. You get a sense of connection to the characters dealing with real mental issues and the struggles of navigating them. The film, written and directed by Darious is about an aspiring filmmaker who attempts to jump-start his career by creating a documentary about classic Volkswagen beetles. But when his mother - whom he cares for at home - suffers another schizophrenic episode, she places everything he’s worked for in jeopardy. You can even find his 2018 documentary, The Making of Unsound: the 7-year journey, on his youtube channel, D4darious. He’s truly the gift that keeps on giving. Since his directorial debut in 2012 for his first short film, Seafood tester, Darious has directed, produced, and written about fifteen other short films and documentaries. Seafood Tester is a dramatic short film about a son who is tired of bailing his mother out of trouble. In order to save her from herself, he must resort to extreme measures to confront her with the truth. At the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, Darious had a lot of time like the rest of us and wrote and directed his latest short film, Pandemic - An atmospheric take on what it's like to experience the Covid-19 pandemic. This conversation went deep into the psychology of independent filmmaking, the truth of what it is to be an independent filmmaker in today's world, and how to build value in the business. Enjoy my epic conversation with Darious Britt.