THE HOLLYWOOD SLOWDOWN

july 2nd, 2025

Anyone who works here in Hollywood is well aware by now that work here has significantly slowed down.  Many people have been out of work for well over a year (or two!), and some have even made the brutally difficult decision to leave Los Angeles and switch careers.  This nightmare began specifically in January 2023.  In years past, Januarys were typically a very busy month when new shows would start up after the new year.  It was usually a time of great excitement with calls about new projects.  But not so in 2023.  It was dead silent.  You could hear the crickets chirping.  The many phone calls I received in the busiest year of my career (2022) were nowhere to be found - all gone.  And I was left in silence, wondering what the hell was going on.

It didn't take more than a few weeks for my colleagues to agree with my initial assessment at the time that "something wasn't right".  Many people were acknowledging that the job market had suddenly dried up, for no apparent reason.  It felt very abrupt, and somewhat random, initially.  But after a sober assessment, it ultimately became clear: the Streaming Wars were over, the Studios had lost money (big time), and budgets were being slashed left and right.  Suddenly, many of the new shows that arrived post-covid were getting cancelled, and the only remaining shows were the "safe-shooters" of long running, safe franchises that were nearly guaranteed to make the studios money (think The Simpsons, etc.).  Jobs became scarce, even more so than when covid hit, and the industry ultimately contracted. 

Then, the Strikes happened.  Only half a year later, in mid-2023.  At this point, I was extremely fortunate to be one of the few still working on a show during the strikes that was finished with production and in early post-production.  But many people weren't so lucky.  Hollywood came to a near screeching halt, for a few months.  The entire industry was really hurting.

Finally, a few months later, the Strikes ended, and everyone had thought the big job holdup was over.  But the floodgates (to new jobs) still did not open.  Little changed.  Months went by.  Years went by.  Other than a small little trickle of new gigs coming in, it remained very slow.  "Survive 'till '25" proved to be false hope. The jobs did not come back.

Some people left Hollywood and switched careers, but surprisingly, a clear majority stayed, and waited.  Some got lucky, and many did not.  But what's clear is the Industry Contraction did not scare off enough people to make an even ratio of work for the remaining people who stayed.  There are still far more people trying to hang on than there are jobs.  Those with the best connections get the gigs, and others will struggle.  That's just how it goes.

Ultimately, I survived.  But it wasn't without a struggle.  I got very lucky in 2023, having worked through the strikes and for most of that year.  But my luck finally ran dry in 2024, and I was off work for half of the year.  2025 was even worse, but I ended the year strong with some new opportunities and hope.  I don't yet know what 2026 holds, but I remain optimistic and will continue to follow my dreams wherever they take me.  I will hang on, and endure - this is the story of my career, and my life.

THIS IS THE NEW NORMAL.

it won’t go back to the way it was

(at least, not any time soon).

“survive ‘till ‘25” was a fiction.

this is it. sink or swim -

good luck!

MIDDLE C

In Front of a crowd of hundreds of people with my good friend and creative collaborator, johnny cannizzaro!

June 27th, 2025

In May 2025, I returned to the Director's Chair, after a 7 year hiatus.  I was approached by my good friend and creative collaborator, Johnny Cannizzaro, with an idea for a short film for CFC 2025 (Collaboration Filmmakers Challenge).  At first, all he knew is he wanted to play the piano, and he had exclusive access to a historical location in Hollywood with an old piano he could play.  With a tight two week deadline for the competition, we quickly got to work on the project.  In a matter of just a few days, Johnny wrote a stellar script, which was both emotional and uplifting.  I quickly brought on my long time trusted friend and creative partner Chris Courtner, to Line Produce the project and help up us crew up.  We quickly put together a casting call for our lead actress for the role of Ruby, and we were overwhelmed with many actresses interested.  I allowed Johnny to make the casting decision, but thankfully we agreed on our choice.  At the same time, we were furiously making crew calls for any and all positions on set.  It was a mad rush, but we pulled it off.

In less than a week, we were on set, cameras rolling, shooting the film with a full crew.  It was a one day shoot in the heart of Hollywood, and it went very smoothly.  It was unbelievable how many people we were able to get who were interested on very short notice!  The next thing we knew, we were deep into post-production.  My specialty - editing, and I was off cutting the film with Johnny by my side every step of the way.  The first cut was 10 minutes, and my producer Chris told me it was way too long and needs to be cut down.  Johnny and I took two more days to cut it down to 6 minutes 30 seconds to meet the CFC time limit - it was not easy, and we sacrificed MANY lines Johnny truly missed, but ultimately it made the film better, tighter, and stronger.  I don't think Middle C would have made it as far as it did had we not cut it down so aggressively.

By the time we had reached picture lock, we had only 3 days to color, score and sound mix the film.  The was no time for delays, and every second counted.  We brought on our insanely talented composer Pietro to score the ending of the film, and we had a stellar colorist and sound mixer that elevated the entire narrative.  Finally, it was pencils down, and time to submit.

The competition for CFC 2025 was fierce - there were 126 films submitted to the competition, a record, and only 16 were selected to screen.  Middle C was the judge's 16th choice.  We got in, but just barely.

Middle C screened at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills at 7pm on June 27th, 2025, in front of hundreds of people.  The crowd was cheering us on as the film started playing, and Johnny was very recognizable to many in the crowd.  We ended up winning BEST MUSIC award, which we were certainly not expecting.  It was a night for the history books, and Johnny and I left the night feeling very inspired to make more films soon.  More to come!

holding the BEST MUSIC Award.

our award of the night.

Johnny and I getting a selfie in with our poster on display in the lobby behind us.

Our Stellar full cast and crew on the day of production - Sunday, may 25, 2025 in hollywood.

Shooting Middle C on production day.

Directing Middle C

Directing Middle C

Middle C in production.

Holding our BEST MUSIC award with our insanely talented composer, pietro!

A very rare moment for me, being in front of the camera, speaking about middle c in front of hundreds of people inside the samuel goldwyn theater.

The audience.

on stage, inside the samuel goldwyn theater in beverly hills.

Middle c on the big screen, inside the samuel goldwyn theater.

The theater entrance.

getting a selfie in with the iconic statue.

Our poster on display in the main lobby.

Shooting Middle C.

A moment with our Lead Actor Johnny and Actress Jaclyn during production day.

Middle C in production.

Our official Poster.

Designed by Johnny Otto

SHALLOW

Glendale International Film Festival 2019

Enjoying a moment in the spotlight with chris.

December 2nd, 2019

In 2018 I wrote and directed a short film, for the first time in 6  years, since my days in college.  I had been writing the script on an  off for over 2 years (2015  – 2017), and it evolved over 10 different  drafts.

While it was always my intention to make this film, it didn’t ever  get off the ground during this time, and it was starting to seem like it  would never happen.  Finally… with a much needed big push from my  producer, Chris, the project entered Pre-Production in January 2018, and  we built a team of talent that would bring this idea to life.

Originally, the film was called Alia, and it took place on an alien  world, with a hideous alien creature having a lucid dream, where it  experienced what life was like as a beautiful human woman on earth.   Despite the woman’s beauty on the outside, her personal life was a mess  and very lonely, and she ended up committing suicide.  Ultimately, this  concept of a hideous creature discovering what it means to be beautiful remained, while the more physical aspects of the film were changed.

It was clear to me that I did not have resources to create an entire  alien world, as depicted in the early Alia drafts.  In addition, the  early drafts weren’t quiet working as a script.  So, we simplified the  film significantly so it took place entirely on earth, in a normal  every-day apartment, while also rewriting much of the story so it became  a lot more relevant and personal to me and my life.  The alien  character was re-written into a creature (no longer an alien, yet still  not quite human) lurking around inside the beautiful woman’s trashed  apartment.  The woman’s name was changed from Alia (a non-human name,  hinting at an alien) to Sophia, as we kept the “ia” at the end of her  name, while also naming her partly after someone in my personal  life, who caused me an intense amount of emotional pain (the earlier  Alia drafts had nothing to do with my life whatsoever; it was all made  up).  After all these changes were made to the script, it became clear  that the name of the film should also change from Alia to something more  fitting to the narrative, and hence the film ended up being called  Shallow.

Chris and I hired a Director of Photography, Special Effects Makeup  Artist, Production Designer, Camera Crew, Composer, Sound Mixer, and a  Colorist to make this movie.  In April 2018, after the crew was set, we  held formal auditions at CAZT in West Hollywood for the 3 main roles  (The Dark Creature, Sophia and her boyfriend Joseph).  We struggled to  find the right male actor for Joseph, but we got extremely lucky with  John who nailed his audition and ended up being the perfect fit.  We  found the actress, Ruby, for the creature off of craigslist, and also  got extremely lucky with her, as very few other actresses were  interested in getting into full body black creature makeup.  As for  Sophia, we had nearly 30 different actresses interested… as EVERYONE  wanted to play the beautiful girlfriend!  Casting Sophia was by far the  most difficult part of casting.  I had no idea who we’d end up  choosing.  In the end, after several tough decisions, we ended up with  Marie, who was so perfect for the role and did an amazing job.

Shallow entered production in May of 2018, over the course of 2  weekends (4 full days of filming).  I self-funded the film, and paid the  entire crew out of my own pocket (I did not use kickstarter, or any  other fundraising resources), using the money I saved up from my current  gig at the time while working in post-production on Godzilla: King of  the Monsters.  I poured so much of my savings from that job into this  film, having spent about $6,000 to get the film finished.  It was so  worth it.

Post-Production lasted the second half of 2018, and the film was  completely finished by the end of December of that year.  We entered the  film festival circuit in 2019, and won several small online film  festival awards, and got screened at Glendale International Film  Festival in October 2019, which was the highlight.  Here’s a picture of  the movie theater that screened Shallow, and a picture of Chris and I on  the red carpet (on screen left).

Finally, I’m ready to release Shallow online to the public.  Without further ado, here is the final, finished film – please enjoy (on screen left).

After the film was finished, I ended up putting together an additional short 5 minute Behind The Scenes video, which gives you a special exclusive look into the making of Shallow.  We had such a large amount of unused footage and outtakes, that I knew this featurette was begging to be made – please enjoy (on screen left).

Shallow was intended to be the first of more narrative short films I plan on making in the future.  While I am not yet ready to officially announce any future projects, I can say that I have a handful in development, in collaboration with several different creative friends I’m working with.  More to come!

WHERE ARE THE CUTTING ROOMS FOR BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES?

AUGUST 4TH, 2019

You’ve seen the movies on the big screen.  You start to ask yourself questions about how it got made.  After all, you’re watching the end result of years worth of work and thousands of creative conversations and meetings that have taken place during that time.  But… have you ever wondered, WHERE these big movies get made?  Specifically, where they get EDITED during Post-Production?

Well, having working on multiple huge blockbuster feature films, I am in a rare position to shed a bit of light on this question.   While I can’t list EVERY single location these big movies get edited, because every movie is different, I can list many of the COMMON locations that many of the huge blockbuster movies use as their cutting rooms.

First off, who makes the decision to where the cutting room ends up being?  It’s definitely a political process, that is ultimately decided by the high ups, either the Director, the Studio, the Producers, and/or sometimes even the Editor/s.  It’s never a decision that is given to the crew to make; all of us lower-level workerbees just have to deal with whatever the result of that decision is.  So, what are the common locations used for blockbuster movie cutting rooms?

Once a movie reaches post-production, they almost always “come home”,  in the sense that there is no longer any point in the crew staying out in the field whether the movie was shot (usually OUTSIDE of LA),  so, we can start off by basically narrowing it down to the city to Los Angeles – that’s where the big movies do get edited during post-production (2 notable exceptions are New York City and London, which also do have some big movies being edited there during post-production – but NOT nearly as many as LA).  So, where in Los Angeles?  Well, LA is a huge city, but, I have observed that there are 2 main “hot spots” as I like to call them.  One of those areas is Burbank / The Valley (particularly the East Valley).  The other area is The West Side (Santa Monica, Culver City, and West Los Angeles).  There are some spots inbetween that have cutting rooms, such as the actual city of Hollywood (where Paramount and Netflix are located, which do have feature film cutting rooms), but overall it’s not as common for the big blockbusters -  I commonly notice smaller / lower budget movies and productions generally making Hollywood their home for post-production.

I would argue that Burbank really is the biggest overall spot – you’ve got Disney, Warner Bros, and Universal Pictures nearly next door to each other – that’s 3 of the Big 6 major studios.  Beyond that, you’ve got Marvel (on the Disney lot) and Legendary (who both usually host their own feature film’s cutting rooms inside their headquarters in Burbank), Burbank Studios (which hosts multiple big TV show cutting rooms), Warner Bros Ranch, and CBS Radford Studios nearby in Studio City.  Beyond that, there’s TONS of office buildings with various other production companies in that area, fully equipped with cutting rooms -  most notably, one of which is located across the street from Burbank Studios, and home to Pivotal Post, which has hosted numerous blockbuster movie cutting rooms over the years.  So Burbank / The Valley (the east side) really is the #1 spot for big budget feature film editorial cutting rooms in all of Los Angeles.

On the other side of the city, where it’s far more dense, congested, and difficult to get to because of hellish traffic, you’ve got The West Side.  First off, you’ve got Sony Pictures and Fox Studios near each other, which both have multiple big movie cutting rooms on their lots (just like all other major studios I’ve already listed earlier).  Then, in Santa Monica, you’ve got 2 different major office complexes which I keep hearing about over and over again as the years go by, which each host multiple big blockbuster movie cutting rooms: Tribeca West and Lantana – both are near each other off Olympic Blvd.  And both of those locations are major hubs for post-production editorial office locations.  Nearby in Santa Monica, there’s also Bad Robot, and Bruckheimer Films – both home to the editing rooms of some very huge blockbuster movies.  Beyond that, just like the Burbank area, you’ve got many additional office buildings, fully capable of hosting editorial cutting rooms.  Not to mention, if you go further south on the West Side, you’ll eventually hit Manhattan Beach Studios, which is a more isolated and lesser known hot spot for some pretty huge productions, including Avatar, and it used to be the home of Marvel Studios, just to name a select few.

I will also say, there is one office building way out in Pasadena that I also keep hearing about, which gets used for some major blockbuster cutting rooms as well – I know it’s been used for Batman v Superman and Star Trek Beyond, among others.  I’ve never been there, and don’t know where it is specifically, but I do know it’s in South Pasadena.  This mysterious isolated building (which I keep hearing about over the years) fascinates me and I hope to work there one day – it’s the ONLY spot in all of Pasadena that I know of that gets used for the big blockbuster cutting rooms  – so far away from all the other spots I’ve already mentioned.

There’s SO many more spots that get used beyond what I’ve listed, and it’s impossible to list them all, but this post really does give you a solid overall sense of where these cutting rooms are.  They do like their privacy, and there aren’t really many ways to find out publicly where these cutting rooms are – you really have to have some inside knowledge; knowing people working on these movies, to find out where they are being edited.   So there you go – I’ve just given you the inside scoop.

THE DREAM VS. STABILITY

October 11th, 2017

You want a job in the film industry.  You, like so many others around you, moved to LA to find your way in on a feature film or scripted television show.  You also want a stable, full time job so you can pay your bills.  Did you know that most people who work on the big movies and television shows don’t have stable, long term jobs?

The vast majority of movies and television you watch, are made by an army of (a majority) of freelancers.  There are exceptions, which I’ll get to, but for now let this fact sink in.  Freelance.  There is nothing “secure” or “stable” about the type of work we do here in Hollywood.

If you’re looking for a stable, full time, high paying, long term, permanent job, I’ll tell you right now, you’re probably looking in the wrong place.   Not letting that stop you?  Ok, read on…

Each production (a movie or television show, etc.) is a job.  The making of that production is the duration of the job.  Eventually, after maybe a year or two (depends on the production, budget and deadlines, etc.), the show gets finished, and released, hence the job ends.  The movie’s release date is your guaranteed Unemployment date.

If you’re working in live action, in production, or post-production, odds are you are a freelancer, in the Union (I’ll cover the Union in another post, but just FYI, the Union is how freelancers get benefits and a fair, live-able rate of pay, etc.).

If you’re working in animation, odds are, you might be full time at the animation company (not always, but it is common).  For example, Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney Animation, Lucasfilm Animation, etc., all make their productions from a Full Time Team of permanent Employees.  Animation is a different beast than live action, so consider that (it generally doesn’t pay as well as Union rates though).  But the live action feature films and television shows, those are basically all freelancers, but they are the real deal (name any famous director, actor, producer, etc.).

There are exceptions to freelance in the bigger live action productions.  For example, the visual effects and 3D vendors, who are responsible for making most or all the visual effects and 3D conversion, are made up on full time, permanent employees of various vendors (a vendor is a smaller company, not always located in LA, many times Canada or somewhere else in the world, who is hired by the freelance production team to produce some aspect of the movie for them, whether it’s a bunch of visual effect shots, or even the Title / Credits sequence).  You can also be full time at the DI / Online facility that handles the film.  In addition, you can be full time on the Studio side, though that’s not really where the “filmmaking” aspect takes place, it’s more of an office environment (full time / permanent work though) where you communicate with the actual freelancer filmmakers who are actually touching the movie, an provide support to the production with various needs, expenses and deadlines.

But, again, the freelancers are the real Creatives behind the success or failure of any production – think the actors, director, producer, writer, editor, etc.  If you can line up stable work in freelance and keep that momentum going, good for you!  Somehow I’ve been doing it for 6 years now, and I keep telling myself I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.  Finding work is an art form in and of itself, which you need to get good at, and that’s a whole another post for anther time.

So, back to the question, of The Dream vs. Stability – you generally can’t have both (a few small exceptions listed above).  So take your pick.

CHASING THE HOLLYWOOD DREAM

December 12th, 2016

Hi.  My name is Josh.  I Make Movies.  And I’ve been working in the Film Industry for the last 5 Years.

My area of expertise is in post-production, specifically Editing.  I  spent four years studying it in film school before moving to Los  Angeles.  I chose editing because I knew that’s where the jobs were, and  because I was good at it.  Sure enough, I found work here, in my area  of study (editing), and have been busy ever since.

My goal, and my dream, over the last 5 years has always been the  same: Work On Movies.  The Big Ones.  Star Wars.  Star Trek.  I could go  on, but you get the idea.  That is my dream, and my patience was  tested.  Over the years, I accepted many different types of editing /  post-production jobs at many different companies, most notably Reality  Television.  That’s the secret to how I paid my bills as I continued to  search for the jobs I really wanted but could never find.  I hated  Reality, and I was loosing hope.  I was starting to doubt whether I  would ever find the job of my dreams.  Then, finally, Destiny came  knocking in my greatest time of need…

Through a connection from my old film school, I was offered my very  first opportunity on a big budget feature film, called The Great Wall,  at the major film company, Legendary.  If only I had found this job all  those years ago when I first moved to LA, but it took me all this time  to build the strong network of contacts needed to get here.

The secret to finding these jobs is WHO you know, not WHAT you know.   That’s it.  It’s that simple.  If you don’t KNOW someone who works on  these types of movies, you’ll very likely NEVER find a way in.  I spent  years looking for jobs on online job websites (Entertainment Careers,  StaffMeUp, etc.), only to discover I was looking in the wrong places,  and going about it completely wrong.  What I learned is I needed to  reach out to specific PEOPLE, via their direct email addresses, in order  to start finding these types of opportunities.  Once I started doing  that, and changing my approach to how I found work, the opportunities  started coming.

I have learned so much on my path to getting here, and I’ll share  more of that in many blog posts to come, but for now I’ll leave it at  that.

Want to work in the film industry?  Making the move to LA?  Don’t  know anyone?  Learn from my 5 years of trial and errors, and save  yourself the time: DON’T apply to online job ads (unless you are ok with  getting trapped in the never ending circle of Reality Television and /  or Trailer House and / or Internet Video jobs), and start REACHING OUT  to as many people who work on the types of big Movies and / or TV Shows  as you possibly can.  How do you find their emails, you might ask?  Good  question.  The answer is IMDB Pro.  No, it’s not free, but for $20 per  month, it’s worth it, to start opening doors to your career.

A NEW BEGINNING.

DECEMBER 11th, 2016

Today marks the launch of my new blog site.  I am very excited to  share some of my thoughts and experiences with the world, as the early  years of my professional career unfold.  Please join me in my journey as  a filmmaker, and come back to visit every now and then for updates!

Though this post is called “A New Beginning”, it is really a new  chapter of an older beginning that started just about five years ago,  when I graduated film school and moved to LA to join the film industry.   Since then I have already come a long way, working in post-production  at over a dozen different film and television production companies,  meeting awesome people, learning new tricks in my craft, joining the  lingo of LA lifestyle, and more.  But the journey has only just begun,  and the best is yet to come.

Here’s to the future!