We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Bright a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I was in college on an engineering scholarship, after turning down a full scholarship in creative writing. In the middle of the degree, I read famous screenwriter William Goldman’s tome, “Adventures in the Screen Trade,” which included the entire script to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
That was it. I was done. I changed majors, to the absolute horror of my dad, and have been on this road since,

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a writer/director at MF Murfy, whose shorts like “Why Come There Ain’t No Black People in Mayberry,” “Finding Mr Right,” and “the Clamshell package” have had premieres at the Gene Siskel Film Theater, and have been cited academically. My scripts have received 8’s on the Black List, have been semifinalist at the Austin Film Festival, and have been moving through pre-production at major Networks.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn is the idea that a film creative can do it all alone. While, no, no one is going to rescue you, it’s also nearly impossible to do every single job in film production well. Take “Mayberry.” While the extensive post/green screen work is ok, the best shots are the effects done by another editor/post effects person. My best cinematography comes with someone else holding the camera.
So, no, no one is coming to save you, careerwise, but you aren’t an island either. The work is a balancing act.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Dorothy Parker said it best, “I hate writing, I love having written.” The filmmaking process , in all its forms, is tough, grinding work. Writing is lonely and exacting. Film production is really a blue collar job. And post production is a deep hole of time and money for increasingly tiny creative return. But at the end, seeing something beautiful from you head come to life; there aren’t a lot of things like it in this world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vimeo.com/mfmurfy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/datoneguydave/
• Other: Highlight reel: https://vimeo.com/69867724

Image Credits
Zohra Hasta and Gabe Marroquin from “Finding Mr Right.”