H.O.P.—Hands-On Producing

Do you want to make it in film or television? Here’s your path to becoming a useful, successful Hollywood director, screenwriter, even actor — you name it. Fact of the matter is, your Hollywood career will leap forward if you start to think like a producer.

What does a producer do?

Do you know what a producer actually does? Does anyone?
There are many definitions of the job. Ask 10 people in Hollywood and you’ll get 10 different answers.

Our definition of producing:

When we decided to chase our Hollywood dreams, we chose to put our money where our mouth was (which wasn’t much). The two of us, Joke and Biagio, would build our careers on a simple definition. Here it is:

Producers make stuff.

Where there is nothing, producers make something. So by our definition, if we wanted to produce film and television, we had to start with nothing, and make film and television from scratch.

Yes, we’d do it all: write, budget, cast, direct, shoot, capture the sound, edit, sound-mix, create graphics, online and output. That is the simple idea at the heart of H.O.P.—Hands On Producing.

How to get the edge on every wannabe producer in Hollywood…

Wannabe’s are a dime a dozen. Get-to-be’s get to be because they take their career into their own hands.

Do it all: write…shoot…edit…

That’s what you’re going to do. You are going to define your own Hollywood career path by teaching yourself the skills of H.O.P.—Hands on Producing. Ever heard of the book Rebel without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez? If not, get it and read it right now. With today’s technology, duplicating his success is easier than ever…if you work hard enough, that is. That book inspired us to put everything we had on the line. Every dime we made went into chasing our dream of producing in Hollywood. So far, so good.

One day, you’ll hire people on your productions.

Sure, when you get big and successful, you’ll hire experts to fill every position on set. In the mean time, you don’t have the money, resources, or most importantly, know-how to run a full production.

Get the know-how by learning to do everything yourself. Later, the people you hire will respect you, because you’ll speak their language.

Producers make stuff

You’ll have the air of someone who’s earned their way to the top by getting their hands dirty.

That’s the way to lead a production. That’s the way to earn the respect of a crew.

Avoid our mistakes. Learn from our successes. Become a producer yourself.

In the coming months and years, we’re going to arm you with real-world advice, our own tutorials, and links to even more tutorials. We’ll share the books that made us who we are, post interviews with working professionals in every area of the business, reveal the software we use behind the scenes, and spotlight other rebels who’ve made their own way into Hollywood.
Anecdotes and real-time updates from pre-production, production, and post will appear here and on our Twitter account.

How hard is this?

Freaking hard! Using the principles of H.O.P to break into Hollywood is not the easiest path to take, but we do think it’s the most rewarding.

When you develop the ability to take an idea from conception to completion—a rare talent in any business—you guarantee yourself the best shot at Hollywood success and career satisfaction.

Lots of tutorials on the way.

We are working producers. Blog posts will come in waves during the non-existent downtime we have ;-) Be sure to subscribe here for the latest tales, tips, and tutorials coming to you straight from the trenches of real-world Hollywood producing! H.O.P. To it!