Truly, Madly, Greenly

We sat down with filmmaker Dylan Greenly, who let us pick his brain about film school, surfing, art, and why things are worth doing.

Viewfinder: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Dylan Greenly: Well, my name is Dylan. I don't really know what to say about myself. I've never been in this position before. I'm a videographer, I guess. It's a weird title to put on myself, not my job, but it's something. It's my passion. I love to take photos, anything analog. I try to just make physical work and document things around me.

VF: And how did you get into this? I mean, how does one get into videography? Working for Stance, working with companies like Volcom, and just all these really cool brands?
DG: Well, I went to Biola, a small private school in LA. Did a decent film program and out of high school I was like, “Oh, doing film would be pretty cool.” The idea of working in Hollywood was obviously enticing. And then I got to Biola and I was like, “I'm not going to make any money in the film industry.” So I didn't want to change my major, but I contemplated it my freshman year. First couple months I was just like, fuck, I'm not going to make the film program. I took all these business classes and I changed my emphasis to film. There's all these different categories you can put yourself in.

So I did entertainment business, which is basically just a glorified business major that gets to take some creative classes. I had taken my LSAT and I was preparing to go to law school. I had applied for all these schools and it was a lot of work, but I convinced myself that I went to college so that I could get a career job so I could make money. And then it was very late where I was like, “Fuck, I don't like doing this. I only like to make videos and stuff. Dylan begins to talk about his camera and his photography philosophy. I should have brought it with me [my camera]. I'm a big believer in shoot with what you have. I had started taking photos with my mom's old point and shoot and it was just fun. I could throw it in my pocket and it was super easy to just bring with me everywhere. And I was just taking photos like that, but it wasn't posting anything. I wasn't trying to sell. I did it because it was fun. And also during the time of when I had first realized that I wasn't going to make any money going into the film industry, I'd also watched this inspiring video, “Why do you take photos?” And it was talking about how 50% of people on Instagram probably wouldn't be taking photos. You see all these artists or artists and they only take photos for Instagram or social media and for engagement or feedback, they're getting something out of it that's monetary. And to me, I was like, “fuck, am I this person”? And so I challenged myself. I was just like, “Okay, put your camera down for a little bit. Don't post anything on social media. Just find your reason as to why you're doing anything.” So I stopped doing it and I was just like, “Fuck this, I don't want to do it anymore.” I didn't post anything really that was, I don’t know, I just didn't post a lot for a while. I tried keeping it personal or trying to be like, oh, here's something about me. And it would just be random photos of shit I was doing, but I didn't want to make it this glorified shit hole that Instagram tends to be. And then fast forward to when I was like, “Fuck, what am I going to do for work getting to this place?”

It all kind of collapsed on me in a couple of months. My fall semester of my junior year or what was supposed to be my junior year going into the spring semester, my academic advisor, he's like, “You could graduate next semester if you really wanted to.” And Covid had happened. So I was grinding through courses, I was taking a shit ton of units just because I was like, it's cheap now. I might as well get it over with. And I was like, “Holy shit.” I just collapsed my whole college career into three years. I wish I had extended it, but I thought, it's cheaper if I just get it over with. So I was having this kind of identity crisis. What am I going to do for work? My parents are going to kill me kind-of-thing. So I started applying for more internships and I was like, this is my one time to actually be a young adult and fuck around. So I was just looking for creative internships to see if I could figure it out, get something done. During this process I was like, I want to make a video, but I want to make fun of all the kids that are in my film classes and all these pretentious indie fucks that are just annoying. Life isn't built out of an A24 movie every single time. We had gone on this super cheap trip to Hawaii. It was like post-Covid where people are still wearing masks. Traveling's a little bit weird. So a plane ticket was $120. We went, I had all this footage that I had just taken. I didn't think to do much with other than they're nice memories. I was just like, I'm going to throw this in a scrapbook. I want to figure out how I can make some type of virtual scrapbook for myself. Obviously you can't fucking print videos. And so I made this video called Dear Julia. It had a very subtle undertone to it. And if you watch it, and you're a normal person watching it, you don't think about those undertones. But because I know [who the video is about], I knew that they would be fucking angry about it. So it was sick. But then I applied for this internship with Volcom, very randomly for a video job that they had.

They got back to me and they're like, “We want to interview.” I was like holy fuck. And I'm in my interview and he's like, yeah, I really liked the Dear Julia video. And I was like, “You were on my Instagram?” And I realized in that interview that there was a lot of power behind social media. And you think about it [employers looking at social media], but I never actually think about it actually happening. I ended up not getting an internship, which was actually really awesome. I would've hated myself, but I became really good friends with the guy that was interviewing me, my potential boss. Whoever got the internship ended up quitting in two weeks and he's just like, “Do you want a job?” And I was like, “Cool, I'll take a job.” So I started working for him and doing creative direction stuff. A lot of it was just anything that had to do with web design and doing videos for the web and sales team. I was doing that. And then I got bored of that. So I stopped and now I'm here [Stance]. And I don't know, I didn't really mean to be here, but I got here accidentally because I didn't want to work a stupid job, but now I work a stupid job anyways.

VF: Wait, what do you do for Stance?
DG: I help out with social media and web design stuff. I’m basically the glue guy. That’s how I think about it. The glue guy for marketing.
VF: That’s a good way of putting it.
DG: Yeah, I do a lot of random shit. We ask Dylan about moving away from his childhood hometown, a suburb in NorCal.

VF: So how’d you go from Livermore to San Clemente?
DG: Literally the first week that Covid existed, we got kicked out of school. I drove back to Livermore and my parents were like, “Oh, we're moving.” I had three days to say goodbye to all my hometown friends. Then we moved here and Covid fucking sucked. It was like I was all alone with my parents and love them, but I'm a 20 year old, I don't want to be hanging out with my parents all day respectfully. So when things started opening up, we got an e-bike. I would just ride my E-bike down to the beach. I didn't realize it, but the trail that there's a trail right by our house that went right down to the beach. I started going to the beach.

I didn't know how to fucking surf at all, and I didn't want to ask anyone because my one friend that lived down here, he was like, “Yeah, don't ask anyone.”You just have to teach yourself. He was kind of an asshole about it. But it's one of those things where you just have to figure it out on your own. So I bought a board and I bought a shitty Wavestorm and then started going down to the beach and I broke it. Which was the best thing that could have happened. Then I bought an actual board and I just went every single day. I didn't have anything going on. I was like, “I still fucking suck, but there are all these really good people out there.” Then I put my camera in a Ziploc bag and I just went swimming with it. I just was taking photos and I met this guy and he was just like, “What the fuck are you doing?” And I was like, “I wanted to take photos.” We became friends and I started taking photos of him and then of other people. And eventually I befriended this guy who was semi-pro and that helped me a little bit. I guess that helped me with Volcom as well. That was a big part of what I was doing at Volcom. I got involved with their surf team and I don't know, down here, it's weird, it's a very close community. So if you know someone, they also know someone and it's very connected.

So that definitely helped me a little bit. But yeah, I guess I just accidentally forced myself into the circle.

VF: What are your thoughts on film school?
DG: The thing is, if I were to tell senior year me, or even junior year, me in high school and tell myself not to go to film school. It's a very tough thing to hear. Especially now it feels like you need to go to film school. I feel like I have a very uninspiring story. When I got to school I was very bright-eyed, “Oh, it's going to be sick. I am going to make all these things.” But there's so many people that you realize that you don't want to work with. Even now, I really have a hard time working with people. I have a couple of friends where I'm like, “Oh, I'm super stoked to work with you.” But a lot of them I met outside of film school. It was like, “Oh, you just have a passion for art and you have this understanding that it's really hard to make a living and do what you want to do.” Being creative, to me, it's like a muscle in your head. You have to constantly be working on it every day. You have to tell yourself, “Hey, I want to practice this. I want to get better at this.” I don't think anyone's a natural born storyteller. No one's a natural born designer or photographer. These are all things that you have to practice and you have to consume yourself with some type of art or whatever you're passionate about. And so to me, if you really are passionate about it, you'll figure out a way to make it work. Sometimes that means just getting two jobs and then being okay with going to work a nine to five and then a six to nine. I see people doing that and there's so many creators – that feels like a weird word to use, but I see so many people that I love and I'm super passionate about and they're sacrificing so much of their time just so that they can scrape by. I'm like, “Fuck, you can only imagine if you put 40 hours a week into this what you could make.” But I understand that’s not really how it works. I guess that's what film school made me realize. You can be the most passionate person about it, but it doesn't mean it's going to work out for you. A lot of it is connection based, which sucks because you can't teach that. That's something where you got to get lucky based off of internships. And if you have money that obviously helps you. It can be a sad reality, but it doesn't need to be a shitty one.

And I mean, there's still all the greatest directors that we know today, or even greatest artists. They were lucky, but they obviously worked really hard. And they had great skill and that's why they made it work. I mean that's life for you. I really do believe that if you want to make something happen, you'll make it happen. And that's also a very tough belief because then it's like, “Oh, it's on me.” And there's obviously things that don’t work out your way and there's people that are not going to want to work with you and that kind of thing. But we live in such a cool world now because you have all these social media outlets and stuff and you kind of have to get lucky with the algorithm and stuff like that. But I don't know, it's kind of a two-edged sword because you got people that, in my personal belief, they don't really deserve it. It's just people that understand how to work the algorithm. Then there's people that I really do think deserve it and they're smaller creators. You can truly understand that there's a certain love and delicacy that goes into their craft and what they're doing.

VF: Alright, on that note, what's the end goal? What would you want to do if money wasn't an issue? Obviously money will always be a factor, life will always be a factor. If you had it your way, what do you want to do?
DG: Knowing myself, I have a really hard time just sticking with one thing I love. I'm going to forget his fucking name, but the CEO or the founder of Patagonia, went on a podcast and he was talking about how he loves to only do things to 80%. He doesn't need to learn something 100%. When I say that, it sounds fucking weird, “Like, oh, why won't you fully invest in something?” I'm fully investing to learning at 80%.

I don't need to be perfect. I don't need to be the best person, but I want to be better than 80% of everyone else at it. And I think that is something that I've noticed with myself because there's so many different things that I like to do. The past couple of months I was like, “I really want to get into graphic design so then I can start making my own zines.” I got 80% good enough at it to where I could totally do my own little zine of photos of my friends and I just going surfing or my everyday life. Not that it's that interesting, but I can at least convince someone that my life is that interesting just by making a zine, which is the funny part about it. I think for me, at some point, I'd love to incorporate everything that I'm creatively interested in and making it into some type of brand. Being young is great because we get the opportunity to be arrogant. Arrogance is bliss, and being young also allows you to do trial and error. I hate when people tell me, “No, you can't do that because it's going to fail and you don't know that.” Let me figure out that it's going to fail. So I think with the corporate world, I've just realized that sure, history repeats itself and I understand basic things don't work, but when it comes to creative things, I want to see if it works out on its own. So for me, the end goal would be, I think starting my own brand or being creative director in any sense, more than just doing films or photography. We want to make something that's bigger than that. And I know that sounds dumb and cliche, everyone wants to do that, but I think we're getting to a really cool point where you can be bigger than just one avenue.

You can do all these different things. It's just a matter of also finding other people to do it as well and being a team player. So I think that's the end goal of making a brand or some type of name where it's multiple creative outlets. I want to also able to inspire other people that there's multiple different things. Here Dylan talks about some background into his history with photography and creativity. I love scrapbooks. My mom has always been really big into arts and crafts growing up. When my grandpa passed away, he had all this film that he shot and it was all this super cool slide film. When I was younger, a way to celebrate his life was we did a little book and we celebrated him and went through the photos and stuff like that. I think that was really cool there were so many different things I didn't know about him just because there was this age gap between us. There's a lot of emotion that goes into it. I think that's something that gets lost with social media is being able to connect with one another. But there's emotion that came originally with being able to connect with people and being able to share photos, video, and stuff, it's getting lost. There's just so much shit that's coming out and it's impossible to connect with everyone. I think creating a brand that kind of harnesses this idea of intentional connection through all creative outlets would be cool. I don't know how that fucking works yet, but I think that would be my final goal is trying to figure out a brand or some type of way of just being able to just converse that with other people and share that.

VF: I'm on board. I don't know, are there companies out there that are even doing something similar to that? But I think there's a need for that. DG: I think so too. I think we get lost so much, even with the personal connection of being able to see people, it's like, “How much do I know about you?” I think that's something interesting that I've noticed with being out of school now for a year, year and a half, two years, but it was awesome going to a small school and being able to create such intentional relationships. But now that I'm outside of school, it's hard making intentional relationships because what’s my genuine connection to you? I don't go to school with anyone anymore. I think before with anyone in college and making friends, you make friends because of proximity and everyone's in that same area. But now I work with a bunch of older people that have families and stuff.

VF: Saw that Salty Surf Housing sticker on your car. Do you use them for your camera surf housing?
DG: It's funny you say that because my camera just flooded last week. So I'm having a quarter life crisis because I had an FX 3, which awesome camera, loved it, can only say great things about it. A big part of why I even shot with my mom's old point shoot was just because I could throw it in my pocket and the FX 3 too is great. I could throw it in my bag and it's very discreet. It’s like second nature to me of like, “Oh, this composition looks cool and I'm going to whip out my camera.” Or, “This is a funny moment with my friends. I'm going to whip it out.”

DG: I don't want to use my fucking phone either, because it doesn't feel intentional. I think that's the other part of it too. I want to make it feel intentional. I don't want to do this just because it's in front of me. It should have, at least for me, the connection more than just me connecting with someone else. It's me connecting with me as well, which is something that I think also gets lost too. I never had any of my final photos that are edited or anything on my phone just because I'm like, I'm not going to look at it. My phone is for communicating with people and work email, and it's not intentional for me to go through my photos on it. It's intentional for me to go on my computer and actually look at my work. And I've been really trying to make it a habitual thing to every month just make a quick zine of 20 pages and just throw photos together and I can't fucking journal for my life. 'm like, okay, if I want to look back at this past month, I can be like, cool. I did this. A big thing that happened this summer, my best friend from high school passed away, and that was the first kind of big death that I have ever really dealt with.

My grandpa passed away. That was different because he's an old man. Not that it was expected, but it was expected. And I am 12 years old. I am not going to really grieve with it. This was someone that I had really grown with, and I mean, we'd only been friends for eight years maybe, but still those eight years were very developmental of who I am. I didn't go through my phone because I was just like, “Fuck, I don't have anything of him on my phone.” What am I going to do? Look at old text messages? I have all these photos of him. So it was really nice to just go through those photos and for them to have meaning. I didn't take the photo to be like, “Oh, one day when he passed away, I am going to look at this.” Fuck. No, I didn't think about that. I was just like, this is something nice that I can share with whoever I'm around. And it was nice to be able to connect through that and just to be able to process it together and we're all processing differently.

VF: I'd like to know a little more about when you're not creating, when you're not making stuff, what do you like to do? How do you like to spend your free time?
DG: I'm surfing. Usually. I always have my board on my car just in case. After work I can head down or even if I'm not here working, I'm down at the beach just with my computer working. Then when I get bored or I'm like done with a project, I go catch a couple waves and then I come back to my car and I start working.

VF: Not a bad life.
DG: No, not at all. It is pretty good. I'm terrible at surfing, but it's always nice to be in the water. So I'm doing that, scuba diving, anything that I can get into the water. More testosterone side of me is playing soccer. Any sport I can play in a men's league with a bunch of old angry guys twice a week. That's also anything that I can do to be around people. Obviously I have my alone time, which is usually during the workday. I’m honestly just trying to get back and invest in whatever community I can. Whether that be my stupid neighborhood, pick up soccer, or surfing. Just try to stay active.

VF: Why'd you pick up surfing? It seems like something that you don't pick up later on in life, I guess it seems like people grow up here surfing.
DG: Yeah, that's fair. Well, I was bored. Within the surfing community, you got your adult learners, and those are the worst kind of people in the world because it's people that are just really unaware of, the kind of unspoken rules in surfing and etiquette to it. I think it was just at that point where I was like, I'm bored and I don't have anything else going on. I live in California and I don't know how to make friends. I'm a very shy person. It's not my nature just to go up to people and be like, “Do you want to be my friend?” It's not like I'm a kid on the playground anymore. So it's just like, “How do I meet more people during Covid?” So I started surfing, and honestly, it was just because I was bored and I thought it was fun. I don't know. It was a very ethereal process of being like, “Oh, wow, being able to go down a wave is a very odd feeling.” Then I was like, sick, this is fun. Then I was meeting people. It was a weird thing of this awesome sensory feeling that was going on and fulfilling that sense. It was also fulfilling my need of community and meeting people in a new place. I was very thankful of my parents leaving my hometown just because I never want to be that guy that goes back to their hometown. Not that there's anything wrong with that, that was just me personally. That's just who I am as a person. I need change.

It was a really good change, but it was also a very lonely change. I think it was awesome to be able to be alone. Northern California and Southern California, two different places culturally, surfing is big. Even for Southern California, if you don't live in one of the coastal cities, you probably don't surf a ton. Totally respectable, because traffic fucking sucks. But I was just like, “There's a culture that I am really interested in, and I might as well just fuck around and try it.”

VF: Do you watch a lot of TV? Movies?
DG: My favorite movie of all time is Rango. I even have a tattoo of Rango on my ass. I don't regret it at all. It was a very sober choice that I got Rango on my ass, first tattoo ever.
VF: I haven't seen Rango yet, so I should watch it.
DG: Really? You've never seen the movie?
VF: Nope. That’s the one where Johnny Depp is a lizard?
DG: Yeah, exactly. It's sick! I mean, it's a children’s animated movie.

It's also so much more than that, but it's really not. It's just a fun world. It is everything that makes me excited about a movie and it's just fun. There's no life lesson for you to learn. It's just a cool world. Yeah, there's a moral lesson to it, but it's a really shitty one that doesn't really matter. It's just a cool story. So yeah, that's my favorite movie, just because it does exactly what it's supposed to do. I love shows or movies that don't try too hard. They just do what they want to do. For me, a good movie is one that's just fun or not too pretentious. It's just like, here's a cool story. Obviously there's some movies that are going to be really touching, and that's the point. They're not trying hard to be touching. That's usually what I try to go for. But Rango is my favorite movie, and it still is my favorite movie. I love Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri. That one's a little bit more pretentious, so I don't talk about it too much.
VF: That's a far cry from Rango.
DG: Yep. That movie's really just endearing and it's great. It's fun.

It's got some comedic touches to it. I love Her. I love the story even behind Her about how it's Spike Jones's response to what Sophia Coppola’s saying in Lost in Translation, which is also a great movie. I love both of those movies together, so I tend to kind of put them together. I mean, what an awesome idea that such a power couple is so creative that they could direct two and fantastic movies to just talk about their idea of why they’re getting divorced. Obviously Her came out 10 or so years after Lost in Translation, but it was him explaining his perspective. And it wasn't this whole “fuck you” kind of thing. It was very orderly, and they were very responsible in what they were saying. I think that Her and Rango they have dramatic punches, and it's got its comedy, but it's life. It's fun. Those are movies I like. Then TV shows– I don't watch a lot of tv. I try to not watch a lot of tv.

VF: You kind of talked about advice you would give yourself, but I was just wondering what's some really good advice you've been given?
DG: I think the best advice--I was talking to a friend of a friend and I was trying to hook him up with a brand deal or something. I did a quick little, doc on him. It was really bad. It wasn't good at all. He's older than me. He gave me the advice. He was just like, “ Take 10 minutes each day and create something. It doesn't need to be the biggest thing, just do it.” I think I've been doing that. I've been trying to, whether it be small or big, just do something every day. Just do it because you love to do it. And if you don't love to do it, why are you doing it? That's your passion. You have to be very meticulous about what you're choosing. Also you don't need to have one thing for your whole life. I think that's awesome. The thing about being creative is there's so many different avenues to just be curious. Just do it. Do it because you want to do it.

DG: I was dating someone and she was having a really hard time with finding her hobby or finding what she was passionate about, and I was just like, “Just find something, explore it all!” Do it because you want to do it. It is just like, if you want to do it, you'll make it work. Don't complain when it doesn't work, because at the end of the day, you are the one that creates the expectations for yourself. You ultimately decide what you want to do for yourself. That's a very hard lesson to learn, but it's a lesson that everyone has to learn eventually.

VF: Any advice you give to someone who’s thinking about pursuing the arts?
DG: I know a lot of really talented people and understand they also, don't want to make their creativity or their passion, their work. They do it because it's not work. I think if you do want to do it professionally, that's a very hard question to ask yourself. I think that's what the advice I'd give to people.

Obviously try, but if it doesn't work for you– if you don't want to do it professionally, it doesn't mean it's the end of the world. You can still do it and enjoy your work. You should enjoy something in life, but don't force yourself to make it creative if it's not. I think it's the stupid advice. I was just saying earlier of if you like it, do it. That's the whole point. Just make sure you're doing it for yourself too. Don't just make it for other people, which is such a hard thing to learn. I think even now I am trying to figure out that balance of wanting to share things, but at the same time, making it for myself, making it because I want to. I think there's a happy medium to that. I don't share a lot of things just because I don't need to. If you're sharing everything, what relationship do you have with yourself at that point? I don't know how I would tell someone this, but having a relationship with your own creativity and making it as personal as possible is, I think that's the key. Not even just with creativity, but with life as well. You have to create a relationship somehow with everything.

My parents always taught me, if you're going to believe in something, you have to know the pros and the cons of it and you can't blindly believe in something and expect everyone else to agree with you. That's the awesome thing about art is you can defend everything. As much as I don't want to, and obviously not everything has the same pros and cons. There are things where there's going to be more cons than pros to it, and that's just part of making it until you make something great. I think finding out how you can correctly defend your work or just believe in it, I guess.You just have to believe in it. It's almost like a religious act because it's like no one can really prove that God exists or that there is a God or any spiritual thing really exists, but you believe in it. I think if you're being smart, you understand that there are cons to it, but there's also pros to it, and that's why you believe in it because of the pros. That would be my advice is just whatever you're making, understand the pros and the cons of it and be okay with the fact that there are cons to it. VF: Last thing, I guess, is there anything else you want to add? Anything you'd want to say to a reader that's picking this up five years from now or later on in the future?

DG: I think I hate artists and I hate creators and people that label themselves. I don't actually hate the person. I hate the act of doing it. I think I would just say, just do what you like to do because you like to do it. Don't build it up to anything more. Being creative is pretty dang simple. Do it because you like to do it. That's all I'd really have to tell people.

by
Nate Velasco
NOV 2023