If you’re watching five hours of TV every day, stop. If view every single Instagram story on your feed, stop. If you recently binge-watched a seven-season show in the span of a week, stop.
Too much of our time is spent consuming endless amounts of TV, videos, Snapchat stories, and memes floating around. It’s time to be a creator instead of a consumer. It’s why you decided to become an actor in the first place, right? You wanted to be on stage or set doing the acting. So start doing instead of watching others and I guarantee your acting will be more interesting. You’ll start to play characters based on real-life experiences as opposed to how actor X portrays a character on a show you like.
If you’re tired of not being seen by casting directors, create your own work. If you’re tired of always playing the same roles, create your own work. If you’re tired of just waiting tables and doing little else, create your own work.
I have been a professional actor for over fifteen years, but I’m also way more than that. I’m a producer, an artistic director, a founder, an owner, a photographer, a writer, creator, a director, amongst many other hats. But what I am most proud of are the projects I create myself with limited budgets and creative problem-solving.
In today’s video content-driven world, it’s essential (and easy) for you to create your own work. Start now so that by the time you’re ready to make your short film/pilot/feature, you’ll have the experience and craft. Don’t judge yourself or the quality of the work—just get started. The first thing you create probably won’t be brilliant, but at least you’re creating. Everyone starts somewhere.
I want you to be successful. I want you to achieve your dreams. I want to provide you with as much value as possible. So, here is a rough step-by-step approach to maximizing your time and becoming a “predatorer” (producer-director-actor-writer). Just go with it, it works.
READ: 7 Ways to Create Your Own Work
1. Stop wasting your time. No more aimless video watching and app scrolling. Use that time to create. Start writing and don’t judge what comes of it. Just writer. And write. And write. Then sleep on it, come back, and revise again and again and again.
Don’t have any ideas? Turn off all electronics for 30 minutes. Turn off all the lights, light a candle, and sit in a chair. Do nothing. Just sit there in the dark with your candle and let your mind unwind so it is free to go where it wants. I guarantee a unique idea will pop into your head.
2. So you have an idea, a script, a sketch, a vision. Great. Congratulations. You have begun. Now start immediately. Do not wait until you have the camera, the money, the time, the friends, the resources. These things will find you. If you only have an iPhone, use it.
Ask your friends for help. Post on social media that you’re shooting this idea on this date and you need help. Get together with friends and create. If you have a community of artists from school, the block, that show you did in an attic on Bleeker Street, then you are rich in community. Use it.
3. Now that you have the camera and crew/cast, make the magic happen. Film the scene. Let it be what it is and don’t judge. This is all process and none of it is product. Something I learned from my time at the National Theater Institute is if you see all of your work as malleable, changeable, adaptable then it’s never finished and can always be better.
4. Congrats. Your shoot was a success now post-production begins. Because you have been making little videos for the past three months, your iMovie skills are solid. Soon you’ll graduate to Final Cut and maybe even Premiere. Enjoy the process. The process is essentially what this whole thing is about and when it’s over, you’ll probably be a little depressed because you’re going back to waiting tables wishing you were on to your next film.
5. Your project is complete. Woohoo! Now let’s get it out there. Start with festivals in your city and state so you can attend and meet other filmmakers, judges, festival directors, etc. You’re also expanding your community for the next project.
Distribute the work yourself. The internet makes this a very cheap and easy way to build your audience. Send it to everyone you know who will watch it and ask them to send it to everyone they know. Maybe a friend of a friend of a friend will send it to someone who works in film, an agent, manager, or someone who just appreciates your art.
There is no substitute for hard work and hustle. Hard work is precisely what separates those who did it from those who are still waiting for an idea. The difference between those who say, “I have a great idea for a show, I should make it happen” and the people who actually make the show are because they chose to do the hard work it took to make it happen.
Tyler Hollinger is the writer/producer/creator of many projects and films. His short comedy, “Trust Me, I’m a Lifeguard,” premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. He is in development currently with two projects: “#Cake” and “Man-babies,” both episodic dark comedies. Tyler is also the creative director of HighLife Productions and writes and produces scripted content. In addition to his writing, Tyler is an accomplished actor. Best known for his work on four seasons of the hit ABC hidden camera show "What Would You Do?" and the recent indie release “Old Fashioned.” He currently resides in New york City. You can find him on Instagram and at www.TylerHollinger.com.
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