Meet Davy McCall | Filmmaker and Professor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Davy McCall and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Davy, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I had what I call an “early life crisis.” When I was 18, I studied psychology as an undergraduate at Chico State. Despite my love for Psychology, I found myself getting exhausted by the reading, research, papers, and science. I remember sitting in my dorm room at my computer, in my pajamas, alone in the dark, with a cup of cold half-drunk chamomile tea, and one of the most important epiphanies of my life… I’m going to spend the rest of my life “working”…

Somehow I’m going to have to make money doing something I may or may not want to do. I imagined dozens of futures for myself doing different careers: real estate, police work, pro “gamer”, lawyer, you name it, and nothing really added up… nothing fit. I got really scared because my realization was that if I’m not careful, I could wind up with a life I deeply do not want and won’t be able to escape! A “normal” life and career were not really in the cards for me if I’m going to be a provider, create a family, or even just be a productive member of society. I was so full of despair I couldn’t even finish my chamomile tea.

Then… everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked… This is a joke, but also not. You see, M. Night Shyamalan released a film called Avatar the Last Airbender. I saw that film, and I thought to myself, “Wow… I could have made a better movie than this.”… But I really meant it. In the deepest part of my soul, I knew and believed that I could not only make a better film than M. Night Shyamalan, but that I could, in fact, make a WAY BETTER film…

I was not known for being a very confident person in high school or before, in fact I was known for the opposite, so it was very strange to feel total and complete confidence for the first time aside from playing Halo 3 or World of Warcraft. I thought, “Wow, there are people who get paid millions of dollars to make movies, and I genuinely think I could do better than at least one of them.” When I searched my conscience, it felt right.

What I ultimately realized was, even though film is one of the hardest industries on planet Earth to succeed in, I genuinely liked my chances better than by trying to do a “safe” or “traditional” career.

I dropped out of psychology, I moved home, I got two jobs, I bought a camera, a computer, Final Cut Pro, and immediately began making films. With the help of my friends and my brother Tim, I made two crappy films, that I shared with audiences, and not only did they not boo me out of the theater, they encouraged me to keep going, some even said they genuinely liked them!

For the first time in my life, a career actually felt achievable, which is hilarious when thinking about how hard and brutal the last 14 years have been haha! But I do not regret my decision to pursue this path at all.
While I love most genres, and have created shorts in nearly every genre: western, action, comedy, adventure, horror, psychological thriller, war films, experimental, etc… My biggest goal was to one day redeem Avatar the last Airbender haha!
Funny how that’s come full circle with the new series that just released, I just barely missed that boat. Maybe they’ll need a new writer for the next seasons haha!

My love for animation does not stop with Airbender; I’m an avid anime fan, and it’s been my goal to become a key person in successfully adapting that art form into live action. Not dissimilar to what Kevin Feige did with the MCU, bringing the superhero genre center stage of global storytelling.

I actually have a short film coming out very very soon that is specifically designed to adapt cinematic ideas and techniques of anime seamlessly into live-action form. It’s a volleyball film about a simple spiking drill. I want to see if I can make the audience care about the simplicity of how a player hits a ball, you’ll have to be the judge if I succeeded when you see the film, so keep an eye out!

It’s a lofty idea to want to champion anime into the live-action world, especially when there are so many bad examples preceding the path, but I’m taking a page out of the book of my favorite Shonen heroes, who wanted to be the King of the Pirates, the Hokage, and a Pokémon master, and just moving forward anyway. It’s worked so far!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets me apart professionally is that in direct partnership with my filmmaking, I am also a professor. Which is weird because I hated school growing up with a burning passion.

You see, I used to think that I was stupid, because school made me feel that way. Learning felt strenuous and difficult in the “traditional” education system. I didn’t even break a 3.0 in high school, even though I worked hard, and often teachers would antagonize me when I didn’t “get it”.

And yet, in the back of my mind, there was always a sense that “education” didn’t HAVE to suck. It wasn’t until college when I discovered that I actually love learning, but it was only under unique circumstances. It didn’t matter what the topic was; it could be the geology of the Grand Canyon, or the immune system, or the psychological power of the human voice, or whatever! The difference between learning these things vs. stuff I was taught in school was never the content, or even the subject; it was purely the WAY the teacher expressed themselves. It was like a story, or performance art, with metaphor, plants and payoffs, themes, and philosophy. Sometimes even characters and dialogue were present, in a class about geography!

I dislike calling everything “Storytelling,” but it’s often true, and especially true of education in my opinion. I’d often find myself enamored on deep rabbit holes about random complex topics, like the chemical makeup of Jupiter’s atmosphere, or the way mice form social groups, or the way currency and inflation worked in Egypt, all things I never dreamed I’d care about as a child, all because someone found a way to capture inside a classroom. In the same way I wanted to become a great filmmaker, I gained a passion to emulate the great teachers I’ve learned from.
Over 14 years of making films and attending various film programs, I realized I had a unique gift I hoped I could give to others: time.

I spent over a decade making painful, costly, brutal mistakes, placing value on the wrong things, and often just wasting time, wondering why I wasn’t successful yet, why I wasn’t progressing as fast as I wanted.

As a professor, I have one most important goal: to save my students years of their lives struggling with realizations they could have right now, IF I’m a good enough teacher to cram it into their heads!

I started teaching at Biola University film school in 2021, and by 2022 I had become one of the youngest professors to teach graduate school at USC, a milestone I would have never dreamed of achieving.

I’ve become a mentor to hundreds of students, and it’s one of the greatest joys because I believe I am saving many of them that most precious commodity of time and hopefully spurring them to do greater and better things than they may have thought possible.

I never thought I’d be a “mentor” figure, but gosh it’s so fun! Now I even work with many of them on my creative projects. Many of my peers in grad school thought it was a bit unambitious to want to teach, but I feel it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made so far, and I’m so grateful to get to do it while I continue to make my own films.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh man… My wife and I have explored a ton of this city over the years, so everything will be viewed through “our” lens. I bet, if we’re really dedicated, we could fit most of these in one week.

One of our all-time favorite spots must be Perch LA. It’s this restaurant perched on top of a building smack dab in the middle of downtown. The views during sunset and at night are just sublime. The food—phenomenal; steak frites and gnocchi pesto are a good place to start. We’ve tried pretty much every cocktail as well and haven’t gone wrong yet. 9/10

But then, there’s Taqueria Los Anaya, our go-to Mexican joint. Their sampler platter is customizable and pretty much the perfect meal for two. But then… there’s also the tacos… Which are literally the best I’ve ever had on earth. It’s this hidden gem tucked away in the middle of West Adams Boulevard, not where you’d expect to find some of the best food in the city, but man, it’s incredible. 10/10

And there’s Korea town, kind of as a whole haha. You throw a rock and you’ll hit somewhere with great food, the Korean BBQ is great in at least 3 places I’ve visited. Seriously, I’ve yet to find a spot there that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.

Now, when it comes to activities, hitting up the Hollywood sign is like a rite of passage. Playing volleyball at the beach is really fun, and exhausting.

Fun hidden gem thing I only stumbled upon since moving to Culver City— There are bike paths along all the Los Angeles creeks and drain systems! They run under the streets and freeways, so you can just keep going without any interruptions, or traffic. It’s like embarking on a hidden adventure right within the city’s framework, biking straight from the heart of different parts of LA all the way to the coast. It’s fantastic and feels like a secret hidden in plain sight.

It’s hard not also to mention the theme parks here, Magic Mountain, Universal, Disneyland, and Knott’s Berry Farm.
Surfing—though it’s been ages since I last hit the wave, it’s definitely on my dream week agenda. In San Diego, you can even swim with reef sharks in the wild with a snorkel (harmless to humans). A day trip to hike around Big Bear sounds equally amazing.

IF, this trip is in the winter, attempting the “California Double,” where you surf and ski in the same day, that’d be on the list. It’d probably necessitate In-in-Out for thematic and nourishment purposes, in-between shenanigans.

And last but certainly not least, catching a movie in IMAX somewhere is a must. Honestly, I’d happily watch Dune 2 for the third time, or watch some classic film that’s running at the academy museum.

Yeah, I think all of this is doable in a week with enough stamina.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to dedicate this shoutout to my brother Tim McCall.

Tim is 8 years older than me, and despite having more important things to do in life at the time, Tim chose to dedicate his time and energy to be my first director of photography. Neither of us knew what we were doing, but what I really needed was someone to help me and let me fail without judgment.

The funny thing is, the more mature of a filmmaker I become, the more I look back and realize that when he and I were goofing around with a camera in the woods and in the backyard, we were already living the dream.

I couldn’t have done any of this without you, love you, brother.

Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6648242/

Instagram: @doggoeswoof

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davy-mccall-5635b0a6

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davy.mccall/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doggoeswoof

Image Credits
The one with the canon is my brother and I (Who i dedicated the shout out to) The low angle one where I’m wearing armor also has my brother in it. 2 choices for him. the photo at baby driver premiere is me with my longtime friend Chris Haggerty. He was my cinematographer for a couple years Me and Batman are me and my friend Brian Ulrich (dressed at batman), we’ve made films together of various kinds for over a decade. The wedding photo is my wife and I (even thought I didn’t manage to include much about her, she’s integral to my story) The rest are just of me on various sets of my own and beyond, I own all the photos