Some days, you feel like the stuff you’ve produced is utter crap. Maybe it’s a comment someone made, or a bad review, or something unrelated like the weather. So if you’re like me and your genre is action, you owe it to yourself to watch an action classic during these times. You’ll find they made all kinds of mistakes, probably some of the same ones you’re beating yourself up about. But ultimately the drive to finish and release a unique film product turned out to be all these filmmakers needed, and usually they went on to do better things afterward.

Case in point: finish your script, film, or edit, and be timely about it, whether it’s to meet deadlines for film markets, festivals, contract requirements, or release dates. I’ve worked on too many projects over these 11 years, including two feature films, that were never released because the filmmaker wouldn’t settle for less than the original vision.

In low budget filmmaking, less-than-perfection can still mean a release, albeit with some bad reviews. Perfection usually means no release, followed by a change in career.