Making Movies with Your Friends (AKA, Actors Deciding Their Own Destiny)

If you’re like me and you’ve gone from the world of stage-acting (how I was trained in school, classes outside of school at professional theatres in Philly, etc.) to film-acting (because you LOVE it, and they really aren’t all that different), you may be discouraged at the “dry spells” that occur between film shoots. A great way to combat this? Write your own stuff and film it.

A screenshot from our film ‘Adrian,’ available to stream now on Vimeo.

A director once told me that’s (in his opinion) the best way for an actor to decide their own destiny, and after trying it for myself I couldn’t agree more. After writing, directing and acting in my own short film (‘Adrian’, which you can watch here) I booked twice the amount of film, TV and commercial auditions I’d been booking before (thanks, new demo reel!) and learned so much about being on the other side of the camera; an invaluable lesson, especially during the COVID-era, when work-from-home and self-tape style acting has become more popular.

Want to know more about how I wrote, directed and acted in my own film and the direct benefits I gained? Then read on, fellow thespians.

Writing, directing, and acting in my own film (with awesome industry friends!)

First of all, screenwriting is something I’ve studied for years. Somewhat for fun, then more seriously in college + on my own time, screenwriting is a field I’m extremely passionate about. That said, I took the spark of an idea I got in 2018 and turned it into my first short-film script (yay, ‘Adrian’!) using the super-helpful screenwriting tool CeltX. CeltX allows you to write screenplays in the correct format via their free template (since formatting can be especially hard for beginners!), organize up to three projects at a time (and more if you pay for premium), and so on. It’s a ridiculously valuable tool and I use it for all of my screenwriting needs now.

However, having a script alone does not a movie make! The next step is networking, hiring other artists (like videographers, editors, etc), or getting professional film equipment for yourself. In my case, I have awesome, creative friends who helped me network with local, Louisville, KY-based videographer and editor Jonah Dyer (DyerVisuals) to get the thing filmed, and that helped me so much with setting up scenes, general filmography needs (boom mics and other audio tips, etc), acting as extras, etc. Other than that? I booked who I needed via a typical self-tape audition process after putting out a casting call online (social media works for something informal, but I’d submit to Backstage or Actors Access for something more professional/paid work) and we were all set.

The actual filming process was so much fun when it came down to it; choosing and working with other creatives you’ve hand-picked to be a part of your process makes it so enjoyable. I’ve been on film-sets with giants and legends (Brian Kirk, Jason Segel, and the like) and though I learned a lot in those situations, having full creative freedom when working on my own film with friends and associates in a tight-knit circle was so liberating. I was allowed to fail, learn what doesn’t work, do better, learn what does work, and that process taught me more than I could ever explain. The difference between your first and second film is astronomical just from what you learn along the way (and if you don’t believe, watch an early Hitchcock film vs. a later one— yeah, it’s a big learning curve, y’all.)

Sometimes making your own short horror film requires you to lay on the cold, wet forest ground and “play dead,” right?

What did making my own movie do for me as an actor, professionally?

Good question, reader. More than anything, creating my own work allowed me to film during a dry-spell and add to my demo reel, which everyone knows is the actors’ key to booking any kind of professional film or TV work. Before having sufficient material for a demo-reel I booked maybe 1/5 of the auditions I applied for (and then, as all actors know, you book like 15-25% of the auditions you go out for, if that sometimes lol), but now? With a more sufficient demo-reel (using clips from a comedy sketch, some drama/monologue clips from ‘Adrian’, and some simple movement/modeling-style clips from a couple music videos I’ve been in) I actually book about 4/5 of every audition I apply for. That’s a big difference, and even my husband (who helps me make all my self-tape auditions) has noticed.

Sorry I didn’t get super technical here with the actual art and process of filmmaking (one, I’m still learning that myself and two, I’ll save that for another time because there’s so much I could say,) but the moral of the story is this— if you have a great idea, don’t wait on others to get it done. Go for it. Try it. CrowdFund for it. OpenSource it. Just DO IT. It’s worth it, and in acting it’s a great way to try out new types of roles you’ve not typically booked and, as a result, carve your own niche in a sometimes quite limiting industry.

Until next time,

Xoxo, MM.