In 2011, my short film, "Solo" won Best Short Film at the World's Largest Action Sports Film Festival, X-Dance. It was a huge honor, especially since I was still in film school at the time, but I was especially stoked that my film beat out two branded short films that were funded by and made about the founders of the surf clothing brand Quicksilver.

The Quicksilver films were shot using multiple RED One cameras, in water housings, operated by experienced underwater camera operators. They also shot from helicopters using stabilized mounts................in Tahiti. I estimated each film cost AT LEAST $75,000 to make.

I made my film with a $500 budget, trade-out work from my AC, key grip and gaffer, and a free location. I even had to borrow gas money from my gaffer to make it out to the location on the Gila River reservation for one of my shoot days.

The Quicksilver films were very well made and impressive, but my film brought something new to action sports filmmaking. I combined cinematic bmx footage shot on a combination of 16mm double perf film, HD with a 35mm lens adaptor and Nikon lenses, and a DSLR. Everything was shot either in time lapse or overcranked. And I told a story. "Solo" combined elements of music video, core action sports video, experimental filmmaking and narrative filmmaking to produce something that had never been seen before. Not only did it win Best Short Film at X-Dance, it was picked up for distribution in the Australia/New Zealand region by a distributor that was attending the festival.

I see the current phenomenon of indie films generating humongous ROI as similar to my "Solo" experience:

- Obsession $750K budget: grossed over $340M

- Undertone $500K budget: grossed over $21M

- Iron Lung $2.9M budget: grossed over $51M

- Backrooms $10M budget: grossed over $118M

Hollywood can make incredible imagery with their funding and systems but audiences will respond to original films.