Anything Goes : Been reading and spectating alot of advice and do/do not's in screenplay writing and curious.... by Alexander Fairfax

I've been on here awhile and started between networking on sites like Stage32 and reading advice on writers in general which if not determined enough can kill it for you. I had started three years ago on a screenplay based on real people/real stories slightly exaggerated (Clerks meets Adventureland in a way) that I was writing back then to be famous and rich, in other words the wrong reasons. Fast forward to last month and eight months after I wrote my last few words on the unfinished screenplay my friend who was a major comedy side of the script had shot himself, in the heart, over an ex girlfriend and that was what made me realize why I had to finish it and for the right reasons. To help his fun loving soul to live on and my own goal of getting it finished no matter the slim odds told to me through internet forums of how few of us writers make it. So I scrapped the original 92 pages I had finished and have begun an entirely new screenplay but still same concept just more mature, focused and properly formatted. I was an extra in a feature film by the name of 50 to 1 and saw just how big even a fairly small set can turn into working in just a day 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Just looking for some honest advice on what to do to get this film made, shot or even sold. Go to college and get a degree of some form in the arts? Take off and just go for broke with my script out west? Network on a site? Message/email production companies? Get an agent? Film it myself and enter a film festival? I know this would make for an awesome film and I promise I'm not just another "tone deaf writer" so to speak. In the past I did message Will Ferrell, Seth Rogan, Brian O'Halleran, and my main motivator in Kevin Smith with no luck which I know was a slim chance but tried. I just need a direction I should start with because way to many people like to just say it's "Too hard" or "Luck". Thanks for any and all advice or tips you gift me. - Alex