Dave McCary

With filmmaking in general, I have never absorbed the traditional knowledge of film history or filmmaking. It has always been just pick up the camera and go figure it out.

I totally cared - that I didn't have access to the money to get the coolest clothes ate away at me.

I'm just generally lazy.

It's just so fun to share that experience with your best friend when you're finding your voice as an artist.

I got a lot of my film education from sneaking into media labs at USC. I probably owe USC a lot of money.

The path that Lonely Island took got us excited to think we could get somewhere legitimate by making little videos.

I think of our YouTube experience very much like a gym. We were practicing and getting stronger with each rep.

I think we've faced all the typical challenges that young filmmakers go through over the years - time, money, negativity - but it's a lot easier to manage when you can learn from and laugh about all those mistakes and anxieties with your best pal.

And it's just my opinion that I don't think film school is necessary for filmmakers. But I don't want to discourage someone who really wants to learn that way.

We started Good Neighbor in like 2006? Right around the time that Kyle graduated college. And I was doing freelance editing.

Film is a very specific world in which I don't think you really need to go to film school.

I think when you work enough on your doing freelance stuff on other films, you start to feel what it feels like to work with people who are not totally on the same page as you.

Even if I'm not having the best time in a social situation, I'll force a smile.

It's unfortunate that it's not realistic that you can get people to come to a movie theater not knowing anything about the movie.

My dream was never necessarily comedy. I really wanted to make film or television and was interested in darker stuff over comedy, but I knew I liked dark comedies.

My dad was a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor, and from an early age I was put off by being force-fed a belief system.

I don't need to spend money on school when I can just do it myself. I have pretty much everything I need with a camera and some funny friends.

But 'Brigsby Bear' was really important to me, because I wanted to tackle something dramatic.

Once I got into film, I was never like, 'I want to make comedies.'

I think wrestling was the most fantastical thing I was exposed to.

But I really like our experimental, performance and monologue videos, where there's barely jokes in the video, where it's almost a joke in itself that the monologue is even being recorded.

I just don't like filming scenes where it's like, that's not how people talk. People aren't saying a joke every five seconds.

Everybody has their own story or they've been shaped by their upbringing, and we have to love them for what that experience created.

Working on 'SNL,' you can have a really stressful experience or a really bad week, and I could see how much of a nightmare that could be for someone who doesn't have a network of buddies going through that with them.

At 'SNL,' we don't have the luxury to perfect things. However a video turns out, that's what we have to present. There's a number of things that I'm super embarrassed by and wish didn't air.