We were lucky to catch up with Mikey Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mikey, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I began learning filmmaking at the age of 13. I had always enjoyed participating in the performing arts, but it wasn’t until the 7th grade when I got my first camcorder. Once I got that camera, it was game over. I immediately became obsessed with learning all there was to learn about camera work, editing, and even visual effects. I spent my entire summer not by the pool, but by watching Adobe After Effects tutorials on YouTube of how to make someone fly or shoot lasers from their eyes. It started off just as a fun, cool thing to show off to people. But soon after, it became my passion. I started not through a school or program, but by doing. I gathered my friends, wrote a short five episode web-series about two government assassins who live in a Sci-Fi world, and fight crime and I learned a ton. It propelled me into my high school video program that I was accepted into, which taught me the basics and fundamentals. Then launched me into applying and being accepted into film school, at Montclair State University. There I was able to experiment with different genres, network, learn as much as I could, as well as making films in my own free time. I am quite frankly never NOT learning, even still to this day. It’s a constant life long process of figuring out how to make the best film possible.

Mikey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in the small town of Howell, NJ and now live in Los Angeles, CA. Being the youngest of four, I always followed the path that my older siblings created, which all surrounded the arts. Musical theater, concert band, and chorus. In middle school I did everything exactly how they did it, and loved performing. But something was missing, something I had to do differently then my siblings. Filmmaking. I first discovered it at the age of 13 and fell in love with it. Since receiving my first camera, I’ve attended a selective video program at my high school, attended and graduated from film school, and live in LA full time creating short and feature films. I primarily have shifted my focus towards comedic films, largely due to my love and passion for sketch comedy that I learned in college. Most recently, I completed my first feature film “Crossing Duty” which is set to premiere in Toronto on March 1st. I am also currently in production for a golf workplace comedy series I created with my two best friends and collaborators, James Lynch and Pat Farley. I try to constantly write and perfect my craft, whether that be making self-produced short or feature films, submitting to film festivals to network and get my name out there, or develop stories. I would say I am most proud of the golf comedy series that is set to release this year. I think has great outward appeal, even to non-golfers (trust me, I don’t golf either). It’s absurd, ridiculous, and hopefully an escape for people to enjoy as they watch a rag tag group of workers almost destroy the fancy country club they work at.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that if you want to make a feature film, you need to wait for the right budget. It’s just simply not true and I feel really holds back so many filmmakers from experiencing the triumphs and hard lessons that feature filmmaking brings, unlike short filmmaking. The backstory revolves around my time in film school and even first moving out to Los Angeles. I had just written my first feature script, that I felt very confident in. It was set in a beach town not far from where I grew up in New Jersey and was funny, weird, and dramatic. I felt that I could really begin marketing this script and package it to try and get a budget that was fair and reasonable. As I had always been taught, in order to make a feature and really make an impact with said film, you need a big budget. The term “big” is obviously subjective (For me $100k seems like a lot). But I was told that I would minimum need somewhere in the range of $1 to $2 million to make it, and in order to make it I would need a big named actor to be attached. So basically, I was dead in the water, but I was still hungry to make a feature. So instead of waiting around and “developing the idea” for years and years, waiting for my chance, I made a feature. Actually make that two features. The first film was shot for $400 in my apartment over a week, and is still in post production. The second one, “Crossing Duty” we shot for $2,000 over 8 days. It was chaotic, exhausting, and so enlightening. It now is premiering at the Pendance Film Festival on March 1st in Toronto. So moral of the story, go make a feature you can do NOW and develop the ones you can’t make just yet.

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

The most rewarding part of being a creative is the entire process. As a filmmaker, you have to love the process. You can have favorites, mine personal one is post-production, but you have to enjoy everything. If you’re just focused on the end result and the rewards, you won’t last very long in this field. It’s incredibly heart breaking, frustrating, and can be very difficult sometimes to continue to push through. There are literally 1,000 obstacles trying to stop you from writing that script, or getting that budget approved, or filming at that location, etc. You need to embrace the challenges, the hardships and just smile. And trust me, it’s easier said than done. I myself, always ebb and flow between motivation and desperation. After finishing shooting a film, I need a 2 week break from anything related to film. My brain is fried, my energy is low and I just want to play video games and shut my brain off. But, then, it happens. The fire in me gets excited to edit that film, then write the next one, then plan the next shoot, and so on. So for me, just getting to make a film from start to finish is so special, due to the insane miracle it takes every time to see it to completion.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.michaeldsmith.pro
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeydeesmith/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-smith-73002919b?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Mikeydeesmith

Image Credits

Emily Benz