This Director Borrowed a Friend's Black List Login and Ended Up at SXSW

Will Ropp spent most of the start of his career on the other side of the camera. As an actor, his credits include The Way Back , The Fallout , and Love, Victor. These projects put him in rooms with directors like Gavin O'Connor and Megan Park.

But with new and different aspirations in mind, he was definitely paying attention.

Now he's on the other side of the camera. Brian , his feature directorial debut, just premiered in the narrative competition section at SXSW, and it's already in the Narrative Feature Competition and getting audience buzz.

The coming-of-age comedy follows an anxiety-prone high schooler who runs for class president, partly as a self-improvement project and partly to get closer to the teacher he has a crush on. Didn't we all do something cringe-worthy for a crush once? The film stars Ben Wang, William H. Macy, Randall Park, Edi Patterson, and Natalie Morales.

The path to getting it made is itself a lesson in indie resourcefulness. We spoke with Ropp about the project, and here's what we learned.

Find the Script, Not the Idea

In indie film, it's often inevitable that you hit roadblocks. In Ropp's case, a previous project fell apart with financing already in place. But Ropp didn't go back to square one. He borrowed a friend's Black List login (he'd been denied his own account for never having made a feature) and read around 100 scripts until he found the right one.

It was Brian , by Mike Scollins.

"I was looking for something that I could see on screen and really connect with," Ropp told us via email. "I knew I wanted to do some sort of coming-of-age story that had comedy and heart. Once I started reading Brian , it was pretty obvious in the first 15 pages that I’d found the one. Scollins is such an amazing writer and so hilarious; he did a really amazing job of finding the right line between humor and heart. I think that’s what stood out to me the most.

While it might not be the traditional way for an indie filmmaker to find a project, it's exactly what The Black List was made for. It's a useful tip for first-time directors lucky enough to be sitting on financing or momentum without a project. You don't have to write it yourself or start over. Use a resource like The Black List.

Ropp knew he had a project he liked in 15 pages because the material felt like something he could inhabit. That means the voice, the world, the characters, and the premise were all firing from the top and alive in his head.

And writers, that's a good reminder for you, too. You have a very limited amount of time to hook a reader, and someone on a site like The Black List might be going through dozens of scripts in search of something. Use your opening pages wisely.

'Brian'Courtesy of SXSW

Embrace the Chaos of Prep

Things fell into place quickly. From script to camera was a matter of months. The production landed in Oklahoma (taking advantage of the state's tax rebate and a largely local crew) for an 18-day shoot, with three weeks of on-the-ground prep before filming began, he said.

"For me, it actually didn't feel that fast because it was my first time doing a feature, so I had nothing to compare it to," Ropp said. "But it was slightly stressful sending out offers to actors when you're two weeks out from filming."

First-timers might catastrophize the compressed timeline. I know I'd probably be panicking with that kind of deadline looming. But maybe Ropp's experience means that not having a baseline could actually work in your favor. You don't know what "normal" looks like, so you just work with what you have.

Most states have some form of film tax rebate or credit, and shooting outside major markets often means lower crew rates and more cooperative locations. If your story isn't location-specific, it's worth asking where it could be set.

Something similar happened with Vince Gilligan, who originally set Breaking Bad in the Inland Empire. A producer suggested New Mexico, where his limited budget would stretch further. The rest is history.

Our guide to production resources in all 50 states is a good place to start.

Protect Your Crew

We asked Ropp, a first-time feature director, what he's taking into his next project. His answer wasn't about cameras or a specific lesson.

"Try and bring along as much of the same team as possible," he said. "I feel like it's important to find your crew, and I was lucky enough to find it on my first movie. I definitely want to keep working with people I'm inspired by and love."

Indie filmmakers spend enormous energy on gear, locations, crew, and more, and then sometimes assemble a new crew from scratch on every project. Instead, Ropp's instinct is to treat your collaborators like a long-term investment.

The best place to find that crew is before your feature. Short films, YouTube sketches, micro-budget projects, even passion projects that go nowhere, where you're just having fun with friends... those are like auditions, for you and for them. You learn how to work with people, so you're ready to execute by the time you get to a feature. You're probably doing some form of this already wherever you're based. If not, get engaged in your local filmmaking community.

Keep pushing

The through-line to how Ropp talks about making Brian is all about __persistence.

"Making a movie is like pushing a 300-pound boulder up a mountain," he said. "The odds are stacked against you, but if you keep pushing a little bit each and every day, you'll get it there eventually. Making Brian was definitely difficult, and we had all sorts of setbacks and slip-ups along the way, but we just kept pushing day by day and finally got it there."

Not a bad thing to hear from someone whose first film just landed at SXSW.

Be sure to check out the rest of our SXSW 2026 coverage!