The way the filmmaker as well as artist Dan Covert built his creative career

"Nothing's going to happen by itself by itself," Dan says. Dan. "The fastest way to establish your reputation is to keep producing things. If it's just doing a bunch of favors to friends who make things to keep in the game as a filmmaker."

This ethos has led Dan to a remarkable career that has seen him win awards from AFI, SXSW, and obviously Staff Picks. " has shaped our careers,"" Dan tells Dan. "That sounds like a lot of fun, but the truth is that it's so. We never would've had an audience for any of the things we've made. We simply bought cameras and learned how to create things."

Just a few days after the publication of his feature film " Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life," which won the Audience Award at this year's SXSW and we got a opportunity to speak with Dan about his process as well as his most creative north-facing stars. Check out highlights from the chat above and read the full conversation below.

 Your first job was as a graphic designer. How did you get from there to feature filmmaker?

Dan Dan: We founded the company in 1996 that was a graphic design firm that later transformed into a motion graphics business that then became an production company. It's been a long process. And all along the way we made shorts, as well as a few of these were staff Picked to be worn .

It was just an experiment and trying to figure out what our sound was as a company and as directors. Then I was turning 40 and always thought, "I'm going to make movies someday." And I was thinking, "Maybe I'm not going to start making movies until I start." That's why I was looking for stories and the film came up.

 16 years is a lengthy time for making products in this field. What keeps you going?

Dan The truth is that it's genuinely enjoyable to work on this. Even until recently, I wasn't like, "Oh, there's going to be a big blow-up time when my career shifts and I'm at the Oscars." I do not think about it. It's just like, "Am I having fun now? Are I having fun on the road?"

Once a plan gets out into the world You can't predict how people respond to it. The same goes for "Did I make the best possible thing I could? Do I spend time with working alongside people whom I respect and admire? Are we trying to be genuine and real?" I'm always the many irons in the fire kind of guy. I own a company. I am a commercial director. I've been producing this feature film for a while. I have a pretty successful art practice. However, it's really about slowly doing the things that I enjoy and after that I say, "We'll see where they lead."

However, I'm not so interested in the ' where they go' aspect because it could cause you to die. Because ultimately in the end, do you really care if you're famous or successful? This isn't what you'll remember when you're 80.

 Which is your unique north star?

Dan Dan: We are constantly refining this, but it's actually storytelling. This is craft and visual artistry. And those are kind of obscure terms but it does have a lot of significance. It's like, "Can you tell a tale?" A lot of times people come with a half-baked concept and as storytellers are in the process of pulling out the story.

The concept of commercials and art is that they're contradictory forces - but not at the highest levels. It's more about emotion and expressing that emotion by using beautiful cinematography. We all have our own voices. The thing that most excites me is character and story.

 How do you work to create a brand that doesn't compromise your goals?

Dan In the beginning I was always as if "Oh, they're hiring me to perform the tasks they require." Then, in time, I realized "No They're actually hiring me for help and I'm confident in that I'm capable of doing." It was a big shift of looking into what their needs were as well as what their vision was. This is still a crucial aspect, but then the more and more I've grown as an executive, I've realized that people are coming to you for your personal voice. They want you to think through the complexities and be like, "What you guys need to be doing will be this."

 Do you have any brands you're hoping to work with?

Dan: I think that's tricky because I don't really take interest in that kind of stuff. It's like, "Is it a fun, interesting project?" Some of the tasks that have been the most boring I've been given have become the most interesting work. I made a short film that revolved around a type researcher at Syracuse and it's a Staff Pick video we did. The story was about a guy living at a basement and found this font and then Pentagram redesigned it to become the logo for Syracuse University. This guy is amazing. I want to talk to individuals like him.

Everybody wants to work for Nike and the other amazing companies. It's a lot of fun however, I like discovering these unique stories and kind of giving them a platform.

I never learned how to be a director. It was an enormous validation as a creator for me to see 300,000 viewers within the span of a few days to see this movie that we made. And it's like, "Oh, my God." You know what I mean? It wasn't made in the form of a short film. The film was created for a client project and just slightly re-edited it, and then I noticed this crowd.

 Dress Code has been on for a very long time. What keeps you from leaving the platform?

Dan The HTML0 platform is to be the place where every creator is who view our work. A lot of this stuff is short-film related is self-funded, sort of popping these tiny trials balloons. Then other creatives see them. This is always a shock. Somebody from an ad agency might call you and be saying, "Hey, we saw the thing. Do you have the ability to do this commercial project for us?" It's like a one to one. When we're working such a way, then the appropriate people will be seeing it, they're elevating it and giving us an opportunity.

 Where do you find inspiration?

Dan The source of greatest motivation for my work via artwork. Actually, I don't go through the same amount of video. It's sort exhausting, and I want to mimic the things I see, and so I take the time to look up things that are very outside of what we do or even look at commercial feature documents or look at frames and visual methods.

 What's the best advice you've ever gotten?

Dan: There's a quote of Steve Martin where he says, "Be so good that they can't be able to ignore you." It's always loved this. This is similar to how many people are looking for to be able to make something and then one and done. Where for me it's more simply about gradually putting the time into building up a body of work, and being successful that others will notice you.