Luke Barnett On The Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Successful Filmmaker

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Credit: Sela Shiloni

…it’s a long game, not a short one. Most of the people I know who’ve had real success in this industry didn’t hit their stride until 15 years in. That’s not an exaggeration. Of course, some people strike gold early, but most writers, directors, or actors I know didn’t see the success they hoped for until after 15 years of hard work. And that’s a long time. For some, it takes even longer. It’s a lot of struggle — working as a server or doing whatever you need to get by. But the people who don’t quit and keep pushing, if they’re good, eventually see it happen…

I had the pleasure of talking with Luke Barnett. Luke is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, writer, and actor whose latest project, Crossing Over Express, has garnered significant attention and struck a chord with audiences worldwide. The short film, co-directed with long-time collaborator Tanner Thomason, explores the emotional terrain of loss, grief, and missed connections — resonating with viewers across social media platforms. In just two weeks, the film amassed over one million views, drawing messages from people reflecting on their relationships and grieving experiences. For Barnett, the film’s unexpected reach has been a deeply personal and gratifying experience, reflecting not only the universality of grief but also his own ongoing process of loss.

Barnett’s journey into filmmaking began with a childhood far removed from Hollywood. He grew up in Clinton, Maryland, a suburban town near Washington, D.C., where his mother was a kindergarten teacher and his father juggled jobs as a delivery truck driver and part-time pastor. It was during high school, in a performance of Arsenic and Old Lace, that Barnett first experienced the thrill of audience reaction. That initial exposure to storytelling left a lasting impression, inspiring him to pursue acting and filmmaking despite the challenges that would follow.

At the age of 21, Barnett relocated to Los Angeles with hopes of breaking into the entertainment industry as an actor. However, his first years in the city were marked by the typical struggles of aspiring actors: bit parts in student films, auditions that led nowhere, and minor commercial roles. It wasn’t until he pivoted toward writing and producing that he began to make meaningful progress in his career. One early breakthrough came through the now-defunct comedy platform Funny or Die, where his sketch Growing Up with Gosling found an enthusiastic audience, doing more for his career than nearly a decade of acting efforts.

Barnett spent the next several years focusing on screenwriting and production. In 2020, he co-wrote and starred in Faith Based, an irreverent indie comedy featuring a cast that included Lance Reddick, Margaret Cho, and Jason Alexander. The film garnered positive reviews and opened new doors for Barnett, including a return to acting after a long hiatus. An agent encouraged him to build on his performance in Faith Based, a move that has since reignited his acting career.

The inspiration for Crossing Over Express emerged from a profoundly personal moment. A few years ago, Barnett received an unexpected text message on his birthday from an unknown number. The message included a YouTube link, which led to a video clip of his late mother — who had passed away when he was 17 — sharing a message of pride and love. Barnett discovered that the video was part of a high school event in which parents recorded messages for their children, and a family friend had stumbled upon the footage while converting old VHS tapes. The experience of seeing and hearing his mother again, years after her passing, left a lasting emotional impact.

The short film was born from this encounter. With Hollywood productions on pause due to the industry strikes, Barnett decided to channel his experience into a story about what it would be like to have one final conversation with someone you’ve lost. Crossing Over Express features Barnett in a lead role alongside Dot Marie Jones, an Emmy-nominated actor known for her work on Glee, and Ron Song, recognized from the popular mockumentary series Jury Duty. Released independently on social media, the film quickly gained momentum, resonating with audiences on a deeply emotional level.

Beyond the impressive view count, Crossing Over Express has inspired a flood of personal responses from viewers. One man shared that the film motivated him to reconnect with his estranged mother, while another person described how it provided a measure of comfort after the recent loss of a sibling. For Barnett, the project has not only allowed him to process his own grief but also highlighted the power of storytelling to offer healing and connection to others navigating loss.

Barnett’s shift from larger, traditional projects to more personal storytelling seems to have unlocked a new phase in his career. He believes that making content rooted in personal experience can resonate more powerfully than work aimed solely at commercial success. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned,” he explained, “is that the things you make from your own experiences are the ones that connect the most.”

Looking ahead, Barnett and Thomason are actively pitching Crossing Over Express as a potential feature or extended project, hoping to build on the short film’s success. Barnett is also involved in several other projects, including a recurring role on the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind and the upcoming film Teacher’s Pet.

Yitzi: It’s a delight and an honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share the story of your childhood and how you grew up?

Luke: Yeah, I grew up in Clinton, Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C. My mom was a kindergarten teacher. My dad was kind of a part-time pastor and also drove a delivery truck. It was probably in high school when I really got into the idea of movies and TV, and I just fell in love with all of it.

I did my first play in high school, Arsenic and Old Lace, and I immediately got hooked on the high of hearing an audience react. If anyone’s ever seen Arsenic and Old Lace — I think almost every high school in America does it at some point — you know what I mean. I got to play Dr. Einstein, whose first line in the play always gets a big laugh, and I’ve been chasing that high ever since.

So yeah, that’s where I grew up — in a super-conservative, 1990s church youth group kind of environment.

Yitzi: So can you share the next part of the story? How did you break into the world of filmmaking?

Luke: I moved to LA when I was about 21. At the time, I wasn’t sure exactly how I wanted to be involved in the entertainment industry, but I had been acting in high school, so I moved out here to pursue acting. I did all the terrible things you do when you first move to LA to try and make it — every bad student film, every terrible commercial, all of it.

I probably pursued acting unsuccessfully for about eight years. I had two roommates who were much more successful than me. One was a comedic actress named Carly Craig, and the other was a successful composer named Matteo Messina. Around that time, about 10 years ago, Will Ferrell’s website, Funny or Die, was really popular with its short-form comedy. One of my roommates said, “You should be writing. You should make things yourself and put them out there.”

So I made a comedy sketch with Funny or Die called Growing Up with Gosling. My roommate was in it, and she helped me get it to them. That little two-minute video ended up doing more for me than eight years of chasing acting the traditional way. That’s when a light bulb clicked: “This is the move.” I left acting altogether and focused on writing and producing for about eight years.

In 2020, we made a movie called Faith Based. It was this no-budget film, but we got this crazy cast with Lance Reddick, Margaret Cho, and Jason Alexander. The movie got good reviews, and an agent — who repped one of the other actors — reached out to me and asked, “Do you want to get back into acting?” I told her, “No, I don’t want to go back to what I was doing before.” But she said, “No, we’re going to use this movie, where you’re the lead, and start fresh.”

She’s been the best thing to happen to me as an actor.

Recently, I directed something for the first time. I’d never directed before, but I had this crazy story happen, and it ended up turning into a viral short that we made.

Yitzi: Can you tell us about that? Tell us about the viral short.

Luke: Well, my mom passed away when I was 17, and I don’t have many pictures of her. I have zero videos of her. On my birthday a few years ago, I was driving, and I pulled up to a red light. I got a text message from a number I didn’t recognize. I looked at it, and it just said, “Happy birthday,” with a YouTube link.

I clicked the link, and I was just in shock — it was my mom. I pulled over into a 7-Eleven parking lot and watched the video. It was her, talking about how she wondered what I’d become and how proud she was of me. I just kept thinking, “What is going on right now?”

Later, I found out that my friend John’s dad had been moving and found a bunch of old VHS tapes. One of them was from a high school event where a parent recorded video messages to their kids. John’s dad cut out my mom’s part, digitized it, and sent it to me on YouTube.

That whole experience really got me thinking — what if we could have one last conversation with someone we lost, someone we didn’t expect to hear from again? So when the strikes happened for actors and writers, and we were allowed to make shorts, I decided to take that idea and write an original story.

We made a short called The Crossing Over Express. I did it with one of my best friends, Tanner Thomason, who co-wrote and co-directed it with me. I put it out on Twitter on a Friday, and by the next day, it had 300,000 views. It really affected a lot of people. I started getting messages from people sharing their stories, and it’s honestly been overwhelming — in the best way.

Yitzi: Unbelievable. So what does it feel like to get such a kind reception?

Luke: Yeah, I mean, it’s incredible. Whenever you make anything — whether it’s a silly comedy, a horror movie, or a serious drama — you hope it affects people. And for me, that doesn’t always happen. You make something, hope it resonates, and sometimes nobody sees it, or the people who do see it are just like, “That was pretty good.”

This was maybe the first time I’ve made something that really touched a good number of people, and there’s nothing like it. You know what I mean? I’ll show my wife some of the messages I get — people telling me their stories. Like, someone said they lost their brother two weeks ago, and they’ve watched the short 10 times since. It’s become this cathartic experience for them.

It’s amazing to hear those stories because it feels good to know that what we made is resonating with people. But it’s also a lot to take in, because you realize that the reason it resonates is something you wish didn’t exist. You know? Like, I think everyone has someone they’d love to have one more conversation with. But for a lot of people, it’s like, “I wish we weren’t all part of this shared club.”

Yitzi: So, do you find that the way the film helped others process their grief, it also helped you process your own closure with your mother?

Luke: Yeah, it’s weird. I should probably go to therapy instead of just making movies, but it’s been a very therapeutic experience. Getting to have that conversation — even though it’s fictional — on film was really cathartic.

Putting the short out there and having these kinds of conversations — like the one we’re having right now — has been really therapeutic for me too. I’ve learned a lot from this experience, especially about how infusing personal things into your work, for better or worse, often becomes the thing that resonates most with others.

Credit: Sela Shiloni

Yitzi: That’s great. Do you think this experience will influence your trajectory moving forward? Do you feel drawn to work on filmmaking projects that have a similar effect?

Luke: Yeah, I think so. But it’s a fine line to ride, because if everything you made was just therapy — just a way to get your sadness out into the world — you’d probably end up creating a lot of really depressing stuff. But if you can find a way to infuse those relatable, universal emotions into something that’s also funny, or scary, or dramatic — whatever fits your artistic voice — that’s when you make something truly interesting. I hate the word “content,” but that’s how you make something original, something that feels like a real piece of art. The word “content” is awful. I saw James Cameron use it the other day, and I practically died inside.

Yitzi (Laughs) Yeah, funny enough, we did an interview with a film festival director once, and she called a filmmaker a “content creator.” The filmmaker sent me this angry email, like, “How dare you? I would never call myself a content creator — I’m a filmmaker, I’m an auteur”

Luke: (Laughs) You’ll never hear me call myself an auteur, though.

Yitzi: Very good. So, it’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a humorous mistake you made early in your filmmaking journey, and the lesson you learned from it?

Luke: Honestly, I think the biggest mistake I made early on — and one that a lot of people make — was trying to create things based on what I was told would be successful. If you’re lucky, and the thing you’re most passionate about happens to be a $100 million action movie with broad appeal, that’s great. But for most people, that’s not the case.

A lot of my early mistakes were writing and creating things I thought I had to make to be successful. But the work that’s been most successful for me — whether as a writer, director, or actor — came from moments where I focused on what I was genuinely passionate about. When I infused my own voice and experiences into a project, that’s when it resonated the most.

So yeah, it’s not a particularly funny story, but it’s an important lesson.

Yitzi: We love hearing stories about people opening doors for others — when someone further along in their career creates an opportunity that changes the trajectory for someone else. Do you have a story like that? Either about someone helping you, or a time when you helped someone and it changed their career?

Luke: This whole experience with the short has been really interesting in that way. We made it for no money, shot it in one day, and then suddenly I had directors and actors I’ve admired my whole life reposting it and sending me kind messages.

So, I think the takeaway from this experience is: put out the thing that’s most personal to you. Use your unique voice to tell a story that only you can tell, and put it out there. It will find an audience, and it will resonate with people. That’s a much better approach than trying to force yourself to make something just because you think you should.

In terms of helping someone else, I recently produced a movie called Your Lucky Day that came out on Netflix. It was one of the last films Angus Cloud worked on. The director, Dan Brown, is incredibly talented — smart, kind, and truly an original voice. Watching him make that movie was inspiring, because you could just see how much effort and heart he poured into it. I really hope it does huge things for him.

And I won’t name names, but when the movie came out, Dan started getting phone calls from some of the biggest names in the industry. They had watched it — either rented it for $3.99 or stumbled across it on Netflix — and reached out to him.

He got one call from someone who said, “I’m calling from my yacht in the West Indies. I just watched your movie.” And Dan’s first thought was, “There’s no way this is really that person.”

It’s been amazing to see how this thing he made reached the kind of people who can change your life. And some of them have already started helping him with his next steps. It’s such a rare experience, but I hope more artists get to have that kind of moment.

Yitzi: Do you think your experience with creating shorts and having one gain massive exposure could be a good paradigm for other actors or filmmakers? Like, instead of trying to break in with big roles, should they focus on shorts?

Luke: Yeah, I think it’s a great way to show people what you’re capable of. I’ve been really lucky. Right now, I have a recurring role on an Apple show called For All Mankind, which I loved even before I got cast on it. I loved it before I got to work on it. And getting to do things like that — smaller roles — is amazing. But when you make something yourself, it allows you to show others — whether you’re a writer, director, or actor — what you can really do. Nobody in Hollywood trusts anyone; they just want to see that you’ve already done it successfully.

Making your own content gives people who might cast you the proof they need. It lets them say, “Oh, this person can do this.” If all they’ve seen are smaller roles or minor work, they might not believe you can carry a heavy drama or lead a big project. So making your own stuff can really change the way people see your capabilities.

Yitzi: I’ve been talking to filmmakers about the future of cinema and how to fund it. In the past, theaters were the primary source of revenue, but with theater attendance dropping, what do you think the future looks like? Should we try to bring people back to theaters, or do we need to rethink the whole model to make blockbusters profitable?

Luke: I think filmmakers need to lean into a niche and really excel at it. I mean, I hope Hollywood brings back the mid-level movie — those films with $40 to $50 million budgets. Like, I hope we return to movies like Heat or Collateral — and yeah, now I’m just naming Michael Mann movies (laughs). But seriously, those mid-budget films that people love and that are original — I’d love to see more of that. Right now, though, we’re not seeing much of it.

Instead, we’re seeing two things doing well: niche projects like The Substance or Long Legs, and then the Marvel juggernauts. If you’re not making Marvel-level blockbusters, you have to ask yourself, “How do I find an audience for my work?” And that audience might have to be smaller. If your project isn’t going to play in 3,000 theaters because it’s not a Marvel film, you have to think more strategically.

Honestly, I think it’s better to say, “I’m incredibly passionate about hockey, so I’m going to make a small hockey movie.” If you target that niche, everyone who loves hockey is going to want to see your film. That’s probably a smarter move — to go smaller but really cater to a specific audience and knock it out of the park for them.

Yitzi: Such a great insight. Do you think that’s a strategy used by series like The Chosen, which has seen crazy success?

Luke: Yeah, exactly. My dad, for example — he’ll watch any Christian movie or TV show that comes out for the rest of his life. And there are a lot of people like him. If you can connect with an audience like that, one that will always support you, it’s a really smart move.

Yitzi: So this is our signature question that we ask in all our interviews. You’ve been blessed with a lot of success now. Can you share five things an aspiring filmmaker needs to create a successful career in filmmaking, based on your experience?

Luke:

  1. I think you need to surround yourself with people who are more talented than you. So much of what makes a project great is choosing the right people. If you have a cast and crew that’s incredibly talented, and hopefully a good script, your main job as a filmmaker is just not to mess it up. That’s probably number one.
  2. Number two, I would say make things you want to see, rather than what other people say you should make. If there’s something you wish existed, go make that. Because if it’s something you want to watch, odds are other people want to see it too.
  3. Number three, it’s a long game, not a short one. Most of the people I know who’ve had real success in this industry didn’t hit their stride until 15 years in. That’s not an exaggeration. Of course, some people strike gold early, but most writers, directors, or actors I know didn’t see the success they hoped for until after 15 years of hard work. And that’s a long time. For some, it takes even longer. It’s a lot of struggle — working as a server or doing whatever you need to get by. But the people who don’t quit and keep pushing, if they’re good, eventually see it happen.
  4. Number four, find things that make you happy outside of your career. If your happiness is entirely tied to acting, directing, or writing — and only when you’re paid for it — you’re not going to live a happy life. You need things outside of the industry that genuinely bring you joy. That way, whether you’re directing a big project or haven’t worked in two years, you can still be happy. That’s what matters most.
  5. And number five — I’d say have rich parents. And not just a little bit of money — I mean insanely rich, so you never even have to think about working. Just, you know, have extremely wealthy parents.

Yitzi: So tell us, any projects coming up soon? Do you have any plans to expand the universe of The Crossing Over Express?

Luke: We’re pitching The Crossing Over Express as we speak. So yeah, we’re working on how we could expand it into something bigger. I also shot a movie a few months ago called Teacher’s Pet that I’m really excited about. And, of course, I have a small recurring role on For All Mankind.

Yitzi: This is our final aspirational question. Because of your great work and the platform you’ve built, you have enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would it be?

Luke: Oh man. I know it’s cheesy, but I think it would be kindness. Just everyday kindness. The amount of times I see people being rude to cashiers or waitstaff — it’s crazy. If people could just be kind to one another, it would go a long way. It would make a difference, not only with the big problems we see on the news, but also with the small problems we encounter at the store.

Yitzi: That’s a good point. How can our readers watch The Crossing Over Express? How can they watch your other work or support you in any way?

Luke: The Crossing Over Express is on X, YouTube, and Vimeo. And I’m on Twitter and Instagram, so feel free to follow along the journey.

Yitzi: Wonderful. Well, Luke, it’s been a delight and an honor to meet you. This has been such a thoughtful and inspiring conversation.

Luke: Yeah, thanks for the time. It’s been a pleasure.


Luke Barnett On The Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Successful Filmmaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.