"Excuse me if I sound funny, I'm on the treadmill," says FM Rocks' Bryan Barber after picking up the phone in LA. "I'm trying to get everything done at once."

Multi-tasking is the norm these days for the 30-year-old director of multi Grammy-winning artist OutKast's ubiquitous "Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move" videos. After seven years directing music videos (for artists including Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado and Queen Latifah), Barber recently broke into commercials through The Richards Group, Dallas, with a three-minute Snoop Dogg opus for Nokia that aired during January's Rose Bowl.

Barber sees commercials as the next rung on the ladder toward feature stardom. Growing up in east Palo Alto - the murder capital of America in the second half of the 1980s - gave an edge to his desire for success. In 1990 Barber moved to Atlanta to attend university, where he put pressure on himself to do well. "I knew what was waiting for me if I didn't graduate."

It seems Barber - currently shooting OutKast's newest video for "Roses" and in talks with HBO to make "an OutKast musical" - is fit for the hustle of the big time. After all, despite 54 minutes on the treadmill, this guy is barely out of breath.

My interest in film came from an early age. I was always interested in arts and crafts, and would [perform in] and write plays. That came from watching Disney movies like Escape from Witch Mountain and Pippi Longstocking. Later, films like American Graffiti, The Breakfast Club and Amelie influenced me.

I decided to become a film major in college. I did a short film called First Day that got placed at an international film festival in Tel Aviv. Seeing my film play along with those of other filmmakers from across the world solidified my [intention] to be a filmmaker.

It got tough after I graduated. Just because you graduate from film school doesn't mean you're going to get a job in film, which I didn't know. By default I ended up working in different areas, like a telecine lab or as an editor's assistant. Then I worked in a film lab in Atlanta. But I got fired because I would read film books and try to rally everyone into making a film instead of paying attention to what was going on the vault. My boss gave me two weeks to find a job with pay. He wasn't mean-spirited or anything, I just wasn't doing the job he wanted.

I ended up working as a PA on Black Dog. I stuck really close to the DP, Buzz Feitshans IV, and bugged the shit out of him. It got to the point that he'd give me quizzes every day about filmmaking, different stocks, frame rates and lenses.

I saved every penny I made from PA'ing and borrowed $2,500 from my grandmother so I could buy my own camera. I bought a 16mm and started shooting my own stuff, which was helpful because I didn't have to beg to use someone else's equipment.

At that time in Atlanta no one wanted to be a filmmaker. I was the only one running around town with this camera. I could go to a party and people would know me by my camera - it's not the coolest look, you know? I started shooting a lot of stuff with OutKast, who I'd met when I was in college and Andre [3000] was dating my neighbor. At one point he agreed to star in a film I'd written. We never shot it, but over time we just started working together more.