We recently connected with Danielle Gibson and have shared our conversation below.
Danielle, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
Burning out comes easy to me; it’s engrained all the way down to my bones. It would be easy to say that my entire academic career made me this way, but I’m lucky to have even had it. It’s all on me, I did this to myself and it’s not a good thing. Recently I’ve learned my neurodivergence is a huge cause of me taking on many projects. It creates a sorta chaos that I’m somehow productive in. I’ve honestly embraced the chaos of working on many projects at once but I’ve had to learn to set boundaries for myself so I don’t over do it, by prioritizing rest and restoration after working on a project. I have a natural tendency to push myself and I think it’s usually out of eagerness and curiosity, which is okay.
When I hit a low point in 2020, compounded by a new health diagnosis, I realized I couldn’t operate on old assumptions that I have unlimited energy. I have quite a finite amount and can now crash very easily if I don’t save my spoons. I used to associate sleeping in with being lazy despite always knowing that I’m a ‘sleeper.’ I’m a night owl who will very easily sleep the day away if I’m not careful. Growing up, I felt a lot of guilt sleeping in every day during the summer between school years. The summer months were when I’d usually ‘catch up on sleep,’ after a school year of being the last to get to bed and the first to wake up. It only got worse when I started film school. There’s a lot of pressure to constantly keep working, and I’ve met people who wear their sleeplessness as a badge of honor, literally saying “sleeping is a waste of time.” Thankfully it showed me how unsustainable that mindset is. It changed me for the better.
When it came time to shoot my MFA thesis film, I had a million setbacks including the pandemic, health issues, and decreased resources (budget cuts and crew size limits). Because my health forced me to be more intentional with my time, I was able to finish the film and not completely burn out. I was still exhausted of course but finishing it at my own pace gave me a lot of reassurance that I could still be a filmmaker with my low energy levels.
I’ve since shifted my mind sight of viewing rest as a reward to viewing it as a critical part of my daily productivity cycle. If I had to give advice to myself or other young filmmakers I’d encourage them to enjoy their lives outside of their careers and artistic pursuits. If you follow your natural curiosity you can live an enriching life where you enjoy hobbies, friends and family, and more. I think that’s what’s given me the creative energy to make the art I have. Crucially, my hobbies and rest have to be an end in themselves—not a means to ‘better content.’ It’s a daily struggle not to optimize my entire life, but removing the shame associated with needing rest has been the only way forward, especially in a busy city like LA.
I still struggle with balancing it all, but despite all of these difficulties, I’m grateful to have the space and time to work on myself and build a more sustainable lifestyle.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
As a day job, I have the privilege of working at a non-profit art institute as an administrator. There, I’m grateful to be surrounded by so many creative artists and teachers. I studied and received my MFA in Film Directing from Chapman University, graduating in 2021. Since then, I’ve toured around with my thesis short, “Red Velvet,’ wrote a feature version of it, taken on various freelance music videos, taken pet portrait commissions (@daniellegibsonsart), and have been developing a web series called Pet Sitter.
Pet sitter follows a woman named Angie who immigrated to New York with her family from Finland. She soon after moves by herself to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of working in the film industry. When she arrives, she supports herself by pet sitting. Each episode is told in the perspective of the dog and has a different genre that matches the cultural background of the dog’s household: we have a telenovela, an Indian horror, a K-pop star drama, a superhero film, and a Nordic noir. What makes Pet Sitter so much fun to work on (outside of my own obsession and love of dogs) is that it explores different cultural houses you might find across Los Angeles, and can connect with people from all around the world. I’ve been working on this with our co creator, Lisa Spaethen, our head writer Ray Selinidis, our Producers Amanda Dyer and Puja Nigam, and our lead actress and Nordic Noir expert writer, Saana Laigren Campana, all of whom I admire very much. We all bring our own passion and experiences to the table when we work together. Although we’re still in the early stages, I can’t wait to share it with the world. You can follow our progress on instagram @petsittertheseries.
I hope to soon produce a collection of shorts to showcase my growth as a director. I am honored to be a member of the Alliance of Women Directors and a part of the Mentor Latina Directors Fellowship 2025 Cohort.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three words that form an important mantra of mine is ‘live your life.’ It is too easy to get sucked into the industry grind, but following my curiosities outside of my craft has made me a better director, writer, painter, chef, overall artist, friend, and family member. Humans don’t function well under constant stress; fun deserves to be had.
My advice for those starting out is to treat fun as research, not a reward. Actively schedule time for non-work hobbies, whether it’s cooking, painting, or hiking. When you live a rich, multidimensional life, your creative work will inevitably be richer, deeper, and more sustainable.
The biggest part of being a filmmaker is simply doing it. It doesn’t matter if you’re bad at first; you only get better through repetition. I’ll echo Rebecca Sugar and say you have to “love the way it feels, even if it isn’t easy.”
To develop this, I encourage early-career folks to embrace writing poorly. Make a film with your phone and see what you can put together. The learning curve happens when you move from concept to completion, not when you wait for the perfect idea.
Take advice from trusted folks, and be open to developing and changing, but do not let someone stop you from doing your craft if it brings you joy. It is vital to protect the core reason you started.
I also suggest finding/building a safe space and trusted group of people whose experiences and perspectives you genuinely respect. Learn to distinguish what type of criticism is helpful to you. If there comes a time where your craft no longer brings you joy, it’s totally okay to stop and follow whatever else you’re craving. Just make sure that decision comes from you, not from external discouragement.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The number one obstacle we are facing with Pet Sitter in general is finding funding. I think that’s a common problem for many indie filmmakers at the moment. Rather than wait for traditional studio funding, we’ve adopted a strategic, DIY approach. We chose to make it a web series because that format allows us to retain creative control and easily distribute the content ourselves. We are focused on self-funding and crowd funding the initial episodes to build proof-of-concept and a dedicated audience, which will make us a much more attractive prospect for larger grants or investors down the line. We plan to make this series by whatever means we can.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://daniellegibsonfilm.com
- Instagram: @daniellestories , @daniellegibsonsart , @petsittertheseries
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellegibsonfilmmaker/
Image Credits
Photo 1 (Holding Microphone): Dilara Senbilgin, Photo 2: Kaid Lavo, A Little Gay Studio, Photo 3+5 (Dog portraits) painted by Danielle Gibson, Photo 4 (Red Velvet Poster): Designed by Kiki Wu
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
