Interview with Tyler M. Reid 

Thank you Tyler M. Reid for this chance for an interview.

Bio:Tyler M. Reid is a high-agency generalist, filmmaker, and creator business strategist with nearly 20 years in entertainment. As founder of The Movie Revolution and a content strategy mentor, he helps creators pivot, grow audiences, and treat filmmaking like a business while documenting his own journey into storytelling and novel writing.

You describe yourself as a “high agency generalist.” How has that mindset shaped your career across film, content creation, and business strategy?

I didn’t start out thinking, “I’ll be a generalist”. I started out wanting to be a director. This was 25 years ago now though, when I was a teenager and I knew I wanted to work in movies and I knew I wanted to direct. However through undergrad and grad school, I worked a lot in producing. I also brought the 48 Hour Film Project to Savannah, Georgia, which involves different skill set, since it is a live event. I worked in the audio department on a CMT reality TV show called Southern Nights, which allowed me to gain a completely new set of skills in audio. Eventually I worked in casting, development for reality tv, branded content, commercials, music videos, teaching, workshops and other live events. Again, after doing all of this at that point for 10+ years, I still didn’t think in terms of generalist. I was still just pivoting from one opportunity to the next. Within that next opportunity, I would take what I learned from all of those other places and implement those ideas into the work, which helped tremendously and often times allowed me to get promotions or even better opportunities - I could see things a bit differently, I could think a bit differently, I would bring various ideas into troubleshooting problems. Again, I wasn’t doing this proactively, it was just natural because I was just pulling from previous experiences. 

 Once I realized that I was a generalist and not a specialist, I used that to my advantage to find opportunities that needed someone with an aggregate knowledge of the entertainment industry. I was also determined to grow that generalist knowledge, and this is where the high agency part comes in. It’s one thing to just work in different areas and collect new knowledge by proximity, but its something entirely different to push yourself to learn new skills in new areas. It’s not always easy to tackle those new skills. I knew being a content creator would be incredibly beneficial for my career, but also I knew that for it to succeed, I had to practice it, study it, read about it, learn from others. I take all those sample principles and apply it to the my own business strategy. For the last 10 years I would treat everything I do like a business, even if it is something creative I am doing. Coincidentally, when I would have conversations with peers and colleagues about what they were working on and their businesses, I would help pinpoint bottlenecks and friction, this transformed into much of the coaching I do now as well. 

In today’s world, the saying “jack of all trades master of none, but often better than a master of one” is more true than ever. Unless you are following a very specialized path that involves an enormous amount of skill, and something that won’t easily be replicated by AI in the coming years, then you will struggle in the future. Many people are being laid off of jobs every year, jobs they did for many years, and they only know the skillset of that job, now they are struggling to find comparable jobs, but few are there because they are being taken away. The more general your knowledge, the more you practice learning new skills, the greater your chances of succeeding will be
.

After nearly two decades in entertainment, what inspired you to shift your storytelling from film to writing novels?

I have written dozens of short screenplays, and a handful of feature length screenplays. I always wanted to get them made into movies, but I never stayed in one area long enough to do that. When I began developing a project, I would get an offer for a job or film or some other opportunity, and then put those screenplays on hold. A few years ago I realized, the likely hood that I would turn any of those into a film anytime soon is very unlikely. However, I enjoy the stories I wrote, I want to continue to practice my creative muscles, and I also want other people to enjoy the stories. The fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to get your stories in front of people is to write a book. It’s fastest because you just sit down and do it. It’s easiest because it only involves you, whereas a film involves a crew of people. Cheapest, because it can literally cost nothing to write and publish a book. 

The benefit of a published book though, is now there is Intellectual Property around your story, thus giving it a slightly better chance of being turned into a movie. 

What I like about the screenplays already being written is that the story is there, so transforming it into a book is far easier than writing a new story from scratch for a book. Like with anything I do, I have given myself a goal and deadline, I will treat it like a business, I will implement what I have learned from content creation to help get the books written quickly, published, and in front of my audience. 


The Movie Revolution focuses on helping filmmakers treat their work like a business. What’s the biggest mindset shift indie creators must adopt to succeed today?

Indie creators need to look at what filmmakers in the early 90s were doing even into the early 2000s. Just create the film for the lowest budget possible and get it in front of people. Look at El Mariachi, Primer, or The Blair Witch Project. I choose those three films because they are completely different, action, sci-fi thriller, horror. All of them were made on micro budgets, all of them gained cult followings, and none of them had anywhere near the audience reach possible that filmmakers have today. If you study The Blair Witch project’s marketing campaign, it was incredibly clever, low cost high impact. So many of the things The Blair Witch Project did can be done today, in a wider scale. 
 You have to look at your film like a business, which isn’t always easy for filmmakers, sometimes when they hear me say that, they think in the extreme of what “business” means. All I mean is that, you have to think about how your film (the product) will find the audience (the customer) and the strategies you will use to do that. You can make a movie for $25,000 or $250,000, you just need to know the movie you are making. That’s also why El Mariachi, Primer, and The Blair Witch Project work, because they were able to tell the story they wanted to tell with the budgets they had. I see too many films, even short films, want to tell this big stories that just don’t match what they are able to do. Few locations, few actors, great story, that’s what you should be aiming for with your first film. 
 Let’s go a little bigger and look at a film like Reservoir Dogs (which wasn’t his first movie) but here is a bank heist movie, where most of the scenes are just the actors sitting or standing around talking. Literally, its just people in a room talking, about 80% or more of the film, is just characters in contained spaces talking. Treat your first film like a stage play, you have one room, one space to tell your story, how do you do it. 
 That’s what I try to do with the Movie Revolution, it’s almost an homage to what indie filmmakers of the 90’s were doing. Low budgets, revolutionizing what movies could be from the classic 80s decade of blockbusters. 


You openly share your wins, failures, and experiments. How has transparency influenced your connection with your community?

We like to give a high five or congratulations to our peers who do something great, who succeed, who get a win. But, something interesting happens, when we see that person keep “winning”. We think to ourselves, well they aren’t like me, they much have an advantage I don’t because I keep trying and I’m not winning as much as them. It’s sort of like, it takes 10 years for someones’ career to take off overnight. The point is that there is a whole lot of work, struggle, disappointment and set backs to success. Many of us don’t want to show that side because not only do we not want to bruise our egos, but if people see us failing then we worry they will see us as failures and then no longer respect us or take us seriously. I try to change that by showing that it’s a constant process to success, it takes a lot of work and screw ups to get there. 

The irony is, is that since I have been more open about what’s not working, I have had more opportunities come my way. When others see that you are trying, experimenting, and trouble shooting, then they see someone who puts in the effort and they want to work with those people. On the other hand, when they see someone “only succeeding” they are less inclined to reach out and want to work with you, because they assume you are already happy with where you are and aren’t looking for new opportunities. 


How do you balance creative exploration with the strategic, data-driven approach needed for audience growth?

I want my audience to eventually buy my books, to eventually see the films I work on, to continue to follow me no matter what I create. That is the business side, I want to have a sustainable career being a creative. The business is built in creative, even though I do offer coaching and courses, the rest of my long term career will be built on being a creative. In order to do that, I need to share the creative journey, many times, that has nothing to do with the art itself but the process. I used to analyze my data to see what posts were working, what kind of content people connected with, then do more of that. Double down as content creator gurus say. However, I realized, it bored me to just double down on stuff for the sake of the uptick in positive data I would see. I much rather just create and share. I still track data out of curiosity, also that knowledge helps me in my coaching for others who are trying to do the same, but right now, I just want to share and write about what I find interesting to share and write about. 


Having worked in production, virtual production, post-production, and development, which part of the process do you find most creatively energizing?

I find development to be the most interesting, it is a constant mix of business meets art. Something as simple as figuring out the right cast, you can to think in business about, how much that person will cost, how much value do they bring to the production, does their cost match their market value, how much do they add to the budget, not just for their rate, but do they need an assistant, do they have to fly first class, do they prefer a house or hotel while on location. Then on the creative side, do that actor match the role, if you cast that person, who could be the supporting cast, that can change depending on the lead. You have to think creatively and logistically during development. The budget will affect what you can do with the script. Maybe big set pieces will need to be small, maybe something you envisioned as small can become big. These are constant conversations happening during development with producers, writers, directors, casting directors, et cetera. It’s a fun time of creative meets business. 


What role do communities—like The Movie Revolution—play in shaping the future of independent filmmaking?
The Movie Revolution is the name of my newsletter and also a series in my YouTube channel. At one point I had thought to build a specific community in there, but when I came across Storie Society, I found a great home for my audience to be part of the movie making journey. I think communities are so important. Filmmaking is a collaboration. So many art forms, you can do it alone, you can create alone, you can distribute alone, you can grow your audience alone. Filmmaking you can not do that. Sure, for a short film, you can act, write, direct, edit, put it on YouTube or in film festivals, you can do it all alone. That’s something you may do once or twice to practice certain skills. Eventually you need people, you want to work with people you like, you know, that you respect. That’s what a community is great for, it allows you to find people that you want to work with, that you want to collaborate with, or that you want to share ideas with. It’s also better than social media which is just an open void. A community is closed, so it allows you to join with the right people. 

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As a creator business strategist, what are the most common mistakes you see early-stage creators make?

Overthinking their content. First share knowledge. Education is marketing. When you share knowledge, you are educating someone but they are also learning that you are someone to trust or that your company is something they want to work with. Spend 3 months just sharing your knowledge, and getting better at how you share it. If you write, you will get better at writing, if you make videos, you will get better at sharing information in your videos. Just focus on creating and practicing. You need time to figure out what you’re good at, what you’re not good at, what you like writing/talking about, and what you don’t. Too often people get consumed with the data points after just the first 30 days, they are trying to figure out what’s working and what’s not, should they change their approach, should they change what they write or talk about. It’s way too early for that. You first need to learn the skill of just creating and sharing consistently. 

Also, don’t, try to do too much at once. I have seen people start sharing, after a few weeks one of their posts may do really good. They see that as a reflection of a shift of growth and then decide that is the time to launch a weekly newsletter. After a couple of months they kill the newsletter, because that growth never came. They realized they have to work creating content for social media and then for the newsletter. Start in one place and grow from there. You will be losing nothing by waiting 90 days to start your newsletter, but you will be gaining insight and practice of creating routine and skill during that time without spreading yourself too thin. 


What new creative or business pivot are you most excited about pursuing in the coming year?

I am most excited about building the foundation as a published author but for non fiction and fiction. First I will take the self published route, this is purely for audience building, I’m not focusing on revenue or income, it’s just the get in the flow of writing weekly and getting my work out there while growing my audience. I am launching a Patreon, so that I have a single space to share my work in progress for my writing. 
 I am also looking forward to growing my YouTube channel. I enjoy content creation because it allows me to train and flex creative muscles but also think strategically, which is what I love about business. 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3612533/?ref_=ttfc_fcr_9_3  

Interviews: https://endertalon.blogspot.com/2024/12/interviews-with-clinton-r.html