Before creating your own content was cool to do so, or everyone was talking about it; I was already doing it, not because it was strategic, but because it was necessary for me on my creative journey. I have always considered myself a multi-artist, so being boxed in or having only one title as an artist never felt right to me.

Now, I didn’t call myself a writer back then.

That label felt like I needed to earn it or have gone to school for it or something. But I did know I had stories to tell, and I understood something early on: it is okay for me to explore telling stories in whatever form I felt at that time…writer, actor, director, producer, etc. It’s up to me to decide how I want to live as a creative, and that means making my ideas come to life. So I did, across short films, features, and stage plays using whatever resources were available to me at the time. Being a connector, using my resources is my superpower. Sidenote: I encourage every artist to discover their superpower so you know how you can best contribute to your filmmaking journey.

For me, filmmaking has always been about taking my idea and putting it in motion to make it happen. Not waiting, not questioning, but doing.

How do I take an idea and move to get it done?

What visual medium is this idea for? (My company is called "Now, Go Get it Done" for this very reason) How can I make this happen and not sit on my idea for years? How do I communicate that in my style, my voice, my sensibility as an artist? How do performance, framing, sound, blocking and rhythm work together to tell the story?

Here I was, a new mom, fresh off shooting a new TV series, just moved into a new place, getting ready to fly to NY to star in a theatre show, loving how my creative career was going…and then the pandemic hit.

As we know, everything shut down, and we were living in the unknown of when things would pick back up and what it would look like. This was definitely new territory for everyone, but when you’re a creative, you create no matter what because it’s in us. During that slow time, I applied for a very small grant at the last minute, and it was to make a 1min film.

I picked an idea, pitched it and won one of the grants.

The concept I wanted to explore was originally meant to be a longer short, but I took it as a challenge. What is the essential story beat? What absolutely needs to be seen to tell this story? What can be felt without being said?

Constraints or boundaries can sometimes really help you make clear decisions as a filmmaker.

I didn’t overthink it, I jumped into action, and I called on some trusted collaborators. We filmed for a few hours over a couple of days, and I was intentional with my shots, what I wanted to convey, and my actors and I talked about their motivation. I also gave myself the room to explore and play.

That film became Stopped.

I relied on the fundamentals of filmmaking:

visual storytelling, performance, pacing, and clarity. Film is a visual medium, and I wanted to really make sure I was showing, not telling. If dialogue is doing too much work, something is missing.

When I released the film on social media, it was spontaneous, and I didn’t do any marketing or promo. I just posted it and moved on. Normally, I have some sort of creative marketing plan and ways to reach my audience, which is why I didn’t think much about posting this. Before I knew it, the short was going viral, and people were talking. This was also early Clubhouse days (another social media app that really became popular during the pandemic), and suddenly I was being invited into rooms to talk about the film, the structure, the choices, and how storytelling could land emotionally in just sixty seconds. Those conversations led to podcast invitations, panels and meetings.

The film made its way into rooms I wasn’t in.

Around this same time, I had also decided that I was ready to direct for television, and I set a goal for myself. I didn’t know how it would happen, and as the year went on, I released the timeline and figured I would try for the following year. Not long after, I was on set as an actor recurring on Apple TV’s Lessons in Chemistry when I received a call.

I was being asked to meet with two showrunners about directing. Whaaaat!!!

Those meetings led to my booking my first episodes of television directing for AMC. Double Whaaaat!

When I was on set shooting, one of the heads of the network came to set, and I finally asked how my meeting even came about…they said they had seen some of my work, including Stopped and added me to a list of directors to work with. Wow, and there I was directing multiple episodes of TV, all because I created my own work…

What This Taught Me as a Filmmaker

• Keep creating. Your work speaks when you’re not in the room.
• Scale doesn’t determine impact. One minute can be enough.
• Focus on fundamentals. Story, performance, visuals, rhythm.
• Pull in people you know. Working with friends and supporters is the way to go.
• Not every career-changing project is the one you laboured over the longest.
• You have to share your work for people to see your work.

Sometimes the piece that unlocks the next step isn’t the one you protected the most; it’s the one where you trusted your instincts and let the work exist.

I didn’t make Stopped to become a television director.

I made it to tell a story that I wanted to tell and did so with intention.

That intention carried it farther than I ever could.

Go make your thing. Whatever that is, whatever the idea is, take it and move forward with it. Yes, you…go get it done! It’s time.

I love quotes, and I make up my own all the time as well, so I will leave you with this: “My ideas, my dreams will not die with me.”

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