SO many creatives have launched their careers by creating their own projects for themselves to star in, Issa Rae, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and our webinar's instructor John Lehr, all found success by taking the reigns and making their own starring roles.
Don't miss this webinar led by actor/writer/producer John Lehr Star, Creator and Writer at 10 Items or Less (TBS), JailBait (Sony/Crackle) and Quickdraw (Hulu). John will lead you through the steps of how you can create, pitch, sell and star in your own project, plus what it's like to juggle all those roles!
https://www.stage32.com/webinars/Creating-A-TV-Show-For-Yourself-To-Star-In
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good to know about the length of a sizzle reel - around 3 min!
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Thank you so much John! This was really motivating. I had produced a proof of concept pilot for my show idea and it was great to hear that you had suggested doing a short film for festivals. I'll keep persevering with it, I had been ready to give up.
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Hey John. Great webinar!
I have a finished pilot script which I was going to send to producers who I've worked with. Do you think I should shoot a sizzle first or send to them so they could be involved with a sizzle if they love the script.
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Thank you so much for having me!
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Hi Sonia! Is the pilot already shot?
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June I would send the script to get their take. If they like it, tell them you would like to shoot something and see what they think. Is this a comedy?
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This was a great webinar. I learned a lot.
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Thanks again John! I had thought about recording a table read of the pilot and using part of it in the pitch to get the feel for the sound and dialogue of the characters since I have actor friends with certain accents in mind that enhance the dialogue - I will rethink this as a sizzle to shoot though ( I have a mix of human characters with fantasy ones though)
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Hi again! It's historic drama a la Downton Abbey / Bridgerton. I've had a writing deal with him at HBO so I want to go to my producer but I was considering how much I needed to go with. He's an insider there but not a buyer.
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And I want to star in it!!!
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John Lehr yes! It's a 15 min proof of concept
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John so glad you could join us. You rocked it and shared so much awesome info!
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You too Rosemond! Thank you for everything
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Thank you Dianne!
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Sonia -- if it were me I would trim the video down to under 5 mins.
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June -- yes I think you should go to the HBO connection!
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John Lehr I was just able to watch the replay of the webinar. Great stuff! I shot a full pilot last year (wrote, produced, and starred in), and have been on the festival circuit. At a crossroads as to whether cut a sizzle and go the pitch route or to just keep self-producing more episodes...
Either way, your webinar was very informative. Thanks for your time and wisdom!
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@matthewCornwall - you are one of the hardest workers I see in this community! I'm glad that you found such support and encouragement from John's webinar. I met him as we were planning for the webinar and he is such a wealth of knowledge! We're glad to have him in the community.
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Matthew if you got some traction at festivals then I would use that along with the sizzle to build a team. Thanks for the kind words!
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Amanda thank you for having me!!!