For Adam Rioux, filmmaking didn’t begin in Hollywood, it began in the swamps, rivers, and fishing towns of Florida. Long before making his debut feature Urchins, Adam was a kid in Port Charlotte running around with friends and a camera, creating short films simply because there wasn’t much else to do. That sense of freedom, and the strange beauty of overlooked Florida towns, became the emotional foundation for Urchins, a deeply personal coming-of-age indie feature rooted in authenticity and community.

What makes Adam’s story inspiring is how unconventional his path was. He didn’t go to film school. He didn’t break into the industry through traditional assistant jobs. Instead, he hustled his way through entrepreneurship, commercial work, camera-car operating on Marvel productions, and years of self-teaching before finally deciding to bet on himself and make a feature.

Here are the biggest lessons from our conversation about how Urchins came together.

Finding a Voice Through Real Life

Adam’s filmmaking style is deeply tied to the environments and people he grew up around. While many Florida-set films focus on Miami nightlife or heightened “Florida Man” chaos, Urchins explores a quieter side of the state, the small towns, isolated springs, and emotionally messy coming-of-age experiences that shaped him growing up.

Ironically, one of the biggest influences on the film came from a job he took in college, shooting sorority promotional videos. Adam spent thousands of dollars on camera gear before even officially landing the gig, learned to use it in a single day, and suddenly found himself traveling around Florida, creating videos for universities.

Spending time around young women navigating identity, friendships, partying, and vulnerability directly informed the emotional core of Urchins. Adam found himself observing deeply personal moments that later shaped the journey of the film’s lead character.

That specificity became one of the project’s greatest strengths. Throughout our conversation, Adam repeatedly emphasized that authenticity, not perfection, is what ultimately attracted collaborators to the project.

Learning the Industry From the Inside

Before directing his feature, Adam spent years working in Atlanta operating Camera Crane Cars. His first day operating on a major set involved driving dangerously close to Jeremy Renner during a Marvel production.

The experience gave him something many first-time filmmakers never get: exposure to large-scale professional filmmaking environments. Watching crews communicate, solve problems, and execute under pressure taught him lessons that would later prove invaluable on Urchins.

At the same time, Adam was saving money and making short films whenever possible. His short Roaming Dawn became an important milestone, premiering at the Atlanta Film Festival and selling out a 350-seat theater.

That screening changed his perspective entirely.

For the first time, he saw a real audience responding emotionally to his work in a theater. It solidified his desire to pursue filmmaking seriously and reinforced the importance of community-driven screenings and grassroots support.

Writing the Feature That Had to Exist

After moving to New York, Adam began writing Urchins out of a growing homesickness for Florida. The first draft came together within two months. Instead of forcing the script into shape immediately, Adam stepped away from it for nearly nine months. During that time, he continued writing other projects while slowly gaining clarity on what Urchins actually needed to be.

Eventually, a close friend asked him a defining question:

“If you could only make one movie in your life, which one would it be?”

The answer was obvious. Urchins became the project he committed everything to.

Adam’s writing process is intentionally loose and instinctive. Rather than obsessing over outlines, he prefers to “dump” ideas onto the page while inspiration is fresh, then reshape the structure later.

While that approach may terrify more rigid screenwriters, it reflects something Adam strongly believes: every filmmaker has to discover the creative process that actually works for them.

Crowdfunding, Community, and Betting on People

Once Adam committed to making the film in late 2024, the project accelerated quickly.

He launched a Seed&Spark crowdfunding campaign, not just to raise money but to build awareness and momentum around the film. At the same time, he began cold emailing producers, reaching out through personal connections, and assembling a team willing to believe in a first-time feature director.

One of the smartest decisions the production made was involving crew members financially through backend points. Inspired partly by conversations around the collaborative model used at Artists Equity, Adam structured the production so crew members had real ownership in the film’s success.

That approach transformed the atmosphere on set.

Instead of feeling like temporary hires, crew members became emotionally invested collaborators. Adam repeatedly described the Urchins crew as one of the most passionate teams he’d ever worked with.

Casting Chaos Two Weeks Before Production

The casting process for Urchins perfectly illustrates how unpredictable independent filmmaking can be.

Lead actress Breanna Yde came onto the project after a recommendation from another actor. After a three-hour coffee meeting, she read the script overnight and immediately committed. Adam felt an instant creative alignment with her and knew she understood the emotional core of the film.

But the male lead role nearly collapsed the entire production.

After months of preparation and a completed table read with another actor, Adam received a phone call less than two weeks before filming began. The actor had landed a massive career opportunity and could no longer participate.

Rather than panic publicly, the team scrambled behind the scenes. Through another cast connection, they found actor Ted Sutherland, who read the script, loved it, and joined the production almost immediately.

Within a week, the role had been completely recast.

Adam now sees the situation as a blessing in disguise because Ted ultimately became exactly who the film needed.

Why Shooting in Real Florida Mattered

Although filming in Georgia for tax incentives would have been easier financially, Adam refused to fake Florida. He believed the story demanded authenticity.

The team ultimately shot in Old Town, Florida, a tiny rural area near where Adam attended college. Many locations were sourced simply by messaging Airbnb owners and asking if they’d be willing to host a film production. To Adam’s surprise, most locals enthusiastically agreed..

Adam described one spring location as a place fewer than 10,000 people had likely ever seen in person. Capturing those environments on camera became part of the artistic mission of the film itself.

Making a Feature Film Means Constant Reinvention

Urchins shot in just 16 principal photography days plus one pickup day.

During production, Adam realized the schedule simply couldn’t support the original script. He began cutting pages every single night while simultaneously editing dailies himself. By the end of filming, he had removed roughly 15 pages from the movie just to make the schedule possible.

That process fundamentally changed how he understands feature filmmaking.

Unlike shorts, features require constant recalibration. Storylines evolve. Emotional arcs shift. Missing scenes suddenly become apparent only once the footage is assembled.

Collaboration Elevated the Film

Although Adam assembled early cuts himself, he eventually brought on editor Macy Atkinson to help reshape the movie. Specifically, he wanted a collaborator with a different lived experience, someone who could help prevent the film from becoming creatively insular.

That collaboration became transformative.

Adam credits Macy with improving the film dramatically and helping refine its emotional rhythm and perspective. He carried that same collaborative philosophy into sound and color as well.

The Future of Indie Film

One of the most interesting parts of our conversation came near the end, when Adam discussed the changing festival landscape.

Like many indie filmmakers, he believes festivals have become increasingly difficult spaces for truly small films to break through, especially as larger productions and celebrity-driven projects dominate programming.

Instead of waiting for validation, the Urchins team decided to create momentum independently through regional premieres, grassroots screenings, and community-building.

That DIY mentality runs through every part of Adam’s story.

From buying camera gear before landing a job… to shooting in isolated Florida springs… to rewriting the film in real time during production… Urchins exists because Adam consistently chose action over permission.

And maybe that’s the most important lesson from his journey:

You don’t wait for the industry to invite you in. You gather your people, tell a story that matters to you, and make the movie anyway.