While shooting my first feature, Backwards Faces (2023), someone jokingly remarked on set that our entire budget may be equivalent to that of one take on a large studio film. While I think one take of a Marvel movie would actually dwarf the entirety of Backwards Faces’ budget, the sentiment was interesting. As micro budget independent filmmakers, we can sometimes get caught up worrying about all the things we don’t have. Money, equipment, locations, time. It’s easy to get envious of the movies that do have these things, and when you are pulling triple duty as director, caterer, and your own AD, you start to wonder what could be achieved with even a moderate budget. But, I think that might not be the point of filmmaking. I think if you are dreaming of what you’d do with a few extra dollars, you might not be working on the right project. I think the backbone of independent film is the embrace of limitations. In Robert Rodriguez’s Rebel Without a Crew, he encourages filmmakers to take stock of what they have and shape their narratives around that. Now, I didn’t have an entire town like Robert did, but I did have a fantastic crew willing to work on something a little out of the ordinary, the best voice talent you could ask for, and the best actor in the world. With the funds for only one take, I knew I had to tell a story that necessitated no cuts, no alternate angles, and no second for the audience to breathe. When I got to the end of it, I could confidently say that if I had been able to scrape together a few extra dollars, I don’t think it would have elevated the story at all. I think it would have just fundamentally changed it.