How To Take Back More Control Of Your Acting Career By Producing
One of the greatest aspirations of many people around the world is to have an acting role in a movie. Influenced by the Hollywood films we have watched on the big screen, we all love to see ourselves playing even a minor role in a film.
Although there are a wide variety of roles in the film industry, being an actor is the most known role and probably the most coveted. However, being an actor is both an exciting and challenging profession. You can portray different characters, which is the exciting part. The challenge is to give life to your character with your acting.
Acting is not only a profession but a craft that you need to hone continuously. But you must admit that as an actor, most of the time, you do not have control over the roles you will play. And like any profession, you will also go through ups and downs in your career.
Controlling Your Acting Career By Producing
When you were a young child, your aspiration to be an actor and to be a producer might not have crossed your mind. However, if you want greater control in your acting career, you should strive to be a producer.
If you are booking other acting gigs through your own production, people will feel comfortable booking you for their projects. It can boost your credibility. You can also act in your production and get the footage so you can use it for your reel.
As a producer, you have more control over your acting career because you can try putting yourself in every film you produce. Whereas if you are only acting and not producing, it is a waiting game because you are waiting for people to tell you they have an acting job for you. Sometimes, it takes forever before someone tells you yes to an acting role. It would not happen if you tried to learn and produce your own content. When you make your own content, you can ensure that there are roles wherein you can put yourself in. Therefore, you start building your acting credits, which is far better than waiting around for acting roles.
It is one way of building your filmography. Production companies do check your acting portfolio. When they see you have played several roles, you have a better chance of getting an acting role in their projects.
Putting yourself in the film you are producing and promoting would help show people you have experience. And if they see that you have experience, people will hire you. Self-promotion is an opportunity to show the industry that you have the knowledge and are professional.
As actors, you are basically hired employees, and, most of the time, you are waiting for someone to hire you. If you are producing, you can employ yourself for an acting role. It is one of the hacks if you want to grow in the film industry. You can regain control over your acting career because when you are only an actor, you feel you have no control over your career. But if you produce, you have your hand on the wheel of your acting career. There is a big difference between being an actor only and an actor-producer.
My Production Company
One conversation took my acting career to another level when someone persuaded me to become a producer. Now, I have more control over my acting career because I have learned how to produce films. It’s the best decision that I have taken in my life. It opened many opportunities for me in the film industry.
In 2018, I established my own production company, Ohlsen Productions. In the last four years, we have already earned 14 producer credits in short films, feature films, and TV movie pilots. We are currently in the production stage for a project they hope to qualify for the Oscars and another project in the pre-production phase that has a chance of being aired on Netflix.
If you are interested in working with Ohlsen Productions on a film project, you can drop me a message on my Instagram account at @JamieOhlsen.
