I recently decided to direct my first short thriller called “Hide/Seek,” a SAG-AFTRA film (that I also wrote), which will be filming April 4–8 in my hometown of Guilford, Connecticut. (You can learn more and visit our Indiegogo page here.) Now I have spent lots of time on sets, both as a professional TV and film actor for 15 years, and as an on-set coach for the last three years on the CBS show “Blue Bloods,” but nothing has prepared me for this. It’s a whole different beast. I think it’s important for actors and first-time directors to really know what goes into a small project like this, and so I am documenting the process from casting, through pre-production, and all the way through principle photography so we can all learn about this crazy, behind-the-scenes process.
Here is what you need to know for the first time you direct your own film.
1. Be prepared to get tons of submissions. I received 3500 submissions for four characters, through online casting sites such as Backstage, as well as through agents and managers. I called in 60 actors, called back 25, and chose four to be my leads. It was overwhelming. As an acting coach, I already know a lot of actors, and so I mostly
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