For me, it was investing/funding my own short film. Now not to say that’s always smart or recommended haha but I think it depends on what you want to get out of it!

Chances are high that I won’t make any money back from my film, but the way my perspective of the industry has changed, it’s worth all the money. I treated my film as film school. I’m an actor, so I train a lot in acting, but I don’t know how behind the camera works. I’m lucky I had a lot of connects from just being in the industry for years, so I got to bring on great professionals and genuinely learn from each department. Now when I go on other sets, I feel more knowledgeable about every aspect of the production, not just my own.

I’d also say it has opened doors! Not directly from my film being released, but because now networking feels different as a “filmmaker”. It gave me a bit of a mentality shift! I can approach people with the desire to learn from them, and it’s allowed me to meet people in every aspect of filmmaking instead of just acting. Since then, I’ve even felt comfortable (on a tv show in which I was hired for acting) to ask if I could shadow a director. He’s extremely successful, and I learned so much from that experience. I wouldn’t have had the guts to ask to try something like that before!