Do I Need to Move to Hollywood?
Posted on October 13, 2009 by T.R. Locke

With a book entitled “What I Wish I Knew Before I Moved to Hollywood,” it is inevitable that I would get asked that question. After all, is it really necessary to move to Hollywood to be involved in the entertainment business? Johnny Depp lives in France. Morgan Freeman lives in Mississippi. Robert DeNiro lives in New York along with many other actors, directors, and writers.

It’s pretty common knowledge that the entertainment business has two homes—one on each coast. Both New York and Los Angeles are home to nearly every national television show (except Oprah) and both also are home to the majority of Film, Music, and Dance productions. So perhaps the question is more fairly worded to include both cities. Of course, my book is named as it is because I moved to Hollywood, but the truths in it apply to both places. So…

“Do I need to move to either Hollywood or New York if I want to be in the entertainment business?”

The answer depends on which aspect of the entertainment business you wish to enter. What I want to do with this topic is break down the answers into separate blogs. So over the next few days, I will address this question and share insights from successful Hollywood players for each of the following fields: acting, writing, directing, film producing (including crew), and music production (including singing/rapping, etc).

If you or anyone you know is considering whether to move to Hollywood or New York or wondering if you’re ready to take that next step, please check out the blog over the next few days for some insights that might help make that decision a little clearer for you. My goal is to save you a lot of pain and time by helping you to be sure that, if you do come to Hollywood or New York, you’ll be ready and you’ll know more of what to expect. Please bookmark, subscribe to the RSS feed above, or share on your networks to let others know about this series. Thanks.
First up tomorrow… Writers.

TRL

T.R. Locke

T.R. Locke is a critically acclaimed, bestselling author, screenwriter, humorist, and former stage and commercial actor. He has ghostwritten over a dozen books. He writes an authoritative blog for artists about the entertainment business at TRLocke.com.

His work has been featured on TV, in national magazines, and across the web. He has lectured at Northwestern University’s Graduate School of Journalism and other colleges and universities.

He ghostwrites at YourGhostwriterOnline.com for clients including professors, pastors, politicians, motivational speakers, foreign authors, celebrities, and business professionals.

He divides his time between writing, his wife, Lisa, daughters Aja and Rachel, and their dog, Lala. He lives in Burbank, CA.

Background

T.R.’s first foray into entertainment came in seventh grade when a lie he told, claiming to be the son of a Hollywood director filming a movie in Cleveland, got out of hand and resulted in the school holding formal auditions for the imaginary film. His writing talent came to light in a ninth-grade essay contest, which asked students to write on “Who Is Whitney Young?” (the school’s namesake). T.R.’s essay titled “I Don’t Know Whitney and Apparently No One Cares” made “the shit hit the fan at the Cleveland School Board,” according to his English teacher. That essay prompted the school board to mandate a black history curriculum and earned T.R. an honorary membership in the student council.

In tenth grade, T.R. got talked into auditioning for Dracula and won his first of many lead acting roles. That summer, he won a scholarship to the College of Wooster Summer Writing Program. The following fall he began writing the comedy column in the school newspaper. In his senior year, he won a scholarship with the Cleveland Playhouse Curtain Pullers acting ensemble and became editor-in-chief of his high-school rag, helming it to a citywide excellence award. Although T.R. loved writing and acting and has kept a journal since that summer program, he did not pursue them professionally but did manage to pay for his college education through writing.

In college in Chicago T.R. began working with street gangs. Later, with the official job title of “Superfriend,” he often spoke at conferences, led seminars, and wrote magazine articles on social/political issues. He advised the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan during the Bush Sr. administration and lectured at the Northwestern Graduate School of Journalism. Though T.R. did not actively seek writing opportunities, they seemed to pursue him. He wrote a chapter on gang work in an Anthology on Urban Issues and outreach called “A Heart For The City” and he was offered a book deal to write about his work with Chicago street gangs.

At 27, T.R. realized he was ignoring his dreams, which started him on an ambitious plan to become financially independent so that he could pursue writing full-time. At age 33, he achieved that goal through real estate investing and promptly enrolled at Columbia College in Chicago to study screenwriting. Soon after, he placed in the semi-finals of the prestigious Chesterfield Film Co Writer’s Film Project started by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and later run by Paramount Pictures. While still at Columbia in Chicago, he had Hollywood producers vying to buy his first script and a highly respected entertainment attorney in Century City referring him to lit agents. His script, “Disciples of K-Town” received the coveted (nearly extinct), “recommend” coverage from both William Morris Agency and CAA.

Writing led to great things for T.R. so after flying out for a meeting with producers in Burbank, he moved to Hollywood to follow his bliss as a screenwriter. Within two years T.R. had a manager and an agent. Soon he was in meetings at major studios pitching, rewriting draft after draft, reading screenplays, writing coverage, being interviewed for writing jobs and signing contracts relating to fees, percentages, buyouts, backend money, and rights. At parties, he hobnobbed with TV, movie, and music stars. To top it all off, an acting agent noticed T.R. in the hot tub at his apartment building and offered to rep him for acting jobs even though she knew nothing of T.R.’s acting background. He first refused the offer, due to his focus on writing, but later decided to give it a try and ended up booking numerous acting jobs.