The LifeStrong Project

If you’ve ever told yourself, “I can’t make a movie because I don’t live in LA, I don’t have money, or I don’t know where to start,” this episode is for you.

Filmmaker Julian Vaughan Hampton (Vaughanworks LLC) has spent the last 15 years proving you can create anyway. From the Midwest to Los Angeles to the Southwest, he’s made action films, crime dramas, thrillers, and family films—often handling nearly every job on set himself.

In this conversation, we cover:

• How he learned filmmaking by doing every job on an indie set
• Being a Black indie filmmaker and what that really looks like day-to-day
• Going from songwriter and author to screenwriter and director
• How to make movies in your hometown, not just LA or New York
• The making of Fighting Olympus and the upcoming thriller The Fear of It
• The story behind his award-winning short Blacked Box
• Practical advice for staying motivated when you want to quit