AUSTIN – Many years ago, I had a music teacher who used to tell me that I couldn’t play something fast if I couldn’t play it slow. Maybe David Gordon Green had the same teacher – we both grew up in Richardson.

The Pineapple Express director told a crowd full of film enthusiasts and future filmmakers that they shouldn’t try making a feature film before they’ve made a short film. He said his first feature, George Washington, was a full-length version of a student film he made that he described as a failure. The point is: he got the failing out of the way on the short and had an easier time making the feature.

“I would like to shoot short films as a running start to every movie I make,” he said Saturday afternoon. “It’s cheap, and you don’t have anyone tapping you on the shoulder.”

Up next for Green is Your Highness, his next collaboration with his college buddy Danny McBride. Look for that one in October.