The Era of the Multi-Hyphenate: An Interview with Filmmaker Brian A. Metcalf [SERIES]

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Everybody has a story to tell. But conveying our experiences and emotions in the right narrative form is a skill. It takes years to learn how to breathe life into a story that reflects (parts of) you—in such a way that it resonates with other people.

And it doesn’t necessarily get easier over time. Turning a range of loose ideas, images, and words into a narrative remains a complex endeavor, no matter how often you’ve done it. Those who decide to be professional storytellers sign up for a lifelong exploration of human connections and emotions—and a lot of soul-searching in between. It requires a tremendous love of the craft and a deep-seated interest in everything that makes us human—from psychological nuances and personal histories to cultural differences and political systems.

And then there’s the practical part. How to make a living doing what you love and feel you were born to do? Writers, directors, actors, and other creatives get less and less space to tell stories worth telling. Many of them struggle to make a decent living, especially if they focus on just one element of storytelling. And with the discussions, conflicts, and ethical concerns around AI heating up, it’s more important than ever that creatives find new ways to tell the stories only humans can tell—those that are rooted in real emotions and contain a little bit of them.

“You have to adjust to the times”

“Everything changes, so you have to adjust to the times,” says award-winning filmmaker Brian A. Metcalf, who is arguably the embodiment of the term ‘multi-hyphenate.’ Currently, Brian is a writer, director, producer, and actor. Previously, he worked as a creative director, photographer, visual effects artist, and supervisor on games, DVDs, web, EPKs, music videos, film, and documentaries.

The decision to take on multiple roles was, at least at first, a practical one. “It’s very difficult to make a living just as a writer in this industry,” Brian explains. “Especially when the strikes happened, many people had difficulty making a living doing one particular thing.”

One way to help you survive, Brian believes, is to wear multiple hats. “In this day and age, I would rather be doing another thing in this industry than working a side job,” he says. “I might still have to take on a side job in the future, if something dries up. But I’ve been very fortunate in the sense that I’ve been able to do multiple things in this industry, because I love it so much.”

Having embraced the multi-hyphenate life, Brian can often work back-to-back jobs while some fellow creatives have to wait a year or two for their next gig. He explains, “If you’re on a project as a writer, director, producer, and actor, you can essentially come on board when you’re writing and pitch it as a producer. Once you option your screenplay, you’ll be able to live off that salary. You can then get it to the directing phase, after which you’re involved in post-production and editing—all the way until the end, when you tackle promotion. This will allow you to survive financially throughout that process.”

“I started noticing a pattern”

Although Brian has made strategic choices to keep working in the industry, his decision to enter it in the first place was rooted in a deep love of the craft. Brian’s film journey started early in life. As a child, he drew his own comic books, writing stories for them and emulating shots he saw in movies he loved. He began to recognize certain directors’ signature shots. “We would go see a new Steven Spielberg movie, and I’d be like, ‘Yes, this feels like Spielberg. He likes to do particular shots over and over because they’re effective.’”

Some flicks fascinated Brian so much that he rewatched them to pick them apart—sometimes to the dismay of his loved ones. “When I learned a thing or two about the storytelling aspect of things—how you have a first, second, and third act—I started to predict the plot and annoy my parents. They weren’t into the film industry as much, so they’d be surprised that I could figure out what was going to happen. But it was just from watching these things repeatedly that I started noticing a pattern.”

Analyzing directors turned into a habit. “I got a lot of complaints from friends. They went, ‘Can you just shut up, watch the movie, and enjoy it?’ And I’m like, ‘But this was weird and the camera just crossed the line.’ They’re like, ‘What does crossing the line even mean?’”

When Brian was old enough, he went to art school, the first stepping stone to get into the world that had captivated him since childhood—that of film and TV. “I worked as a digital artist, an art director, a creative director, and a photographer,” he says. “All these different things I did were geared at the main goal of studying film and TV. But I wanted to learn everything about the industry. I wanted to learn about visual effects, writing, the camera, layout, and design.”

The reasoning behind Brian’s broad exploration of filmmaking is simple yet genuine—he does what he truly wants to do. Or, as he explains, “I was always told, ‘Do what you find interesting. If you’re going to spend a million hours working on something, make sure it’s something you really enjoy doing.’”

“I was working in the trenches with them as an actor”

Determined to succeed in an ever-challenging industry, Brian created his own multi-hyphenate career. But what started out of necessity has made him a better informed, more versatile storyteller. His ability to assume multiple roles has also empowered him when working on projects.

For Underdeveloped, the six-part comedy series Brian recently released, Brian took on a number of responsibilities. “It started off with the writing stage, a process that I was alone for,” he explains. “During the pre-production stage, everyone starts getting involved. The actors get on board and you start talking to your DP. I would speak with my DP about the shots I was looking for, and we’d go over example shots of other shows.” That was especially important for this series, since Brian also signed on as an actor and the budget was tight. “We had to move very fast because we had limited time to work. During production, I’d be acting out my specific scenes and then I’d watch the playback to see how the footage looked. When I wasn’t acting, I would be behind the camera and just focus on being a director.”

The project didn’t come without challenges. Brian explains, “There would be times when I wanted to focus as an actor doing the scene, but I’d have other thoughts in my head. We could lose this location. We’re losing this actor soon. We’re having this problem with scheduling. That was an extra headache.”

At the same time, the multi-hyphenate approach enabled Brian to be flexible when he ran into issues. As with all creative projects, things didn’t always go as planned. In these cases, Brian could quickly put on another hat and adapt to the situation. “As the writer, I would write in scene changes, dialogue changes, or location changes,” he says. “I would just make changes on the spot, as you have to move fast.”

This also narrowed the distance between him and the people he worked with. It made for a more collaborative process. For example, the actors would sometimes ask Brian to change the dialogue because they believed their character would express themselves in a different way. In these cases, Brian wouldn’t just look at their feedback from a director’s lens. “I was working in the trenches with them as an actor, so I could see things from their perspectives and relate to them.”

Incidentally, Brian learned the importance of that long before he went to acting school. When working on his first film, some actors were confused when he tried to explain what he was looking for. So, he took an ‘Acting For Directors’ class where he learned how to properly communicate with actors. “The only way to do that was to study acting myself,” he says.

“You have to look at the story as an overall arc”

Another role Brian assumed when working on Underdeveloped was that of editor. It required him to adopt yet another perspective. When time came to edit, he no longer saw himself as ‘Brian, the director’ or ‘Brian, the actor.’ Instead, he solely considered himself as a character that needs to serve the story. “I had to look at the show and myself differently,” he says. “I probably cut myself from it more than any other actor. I removed dozens of lines or scenes that weren’t necessary. You have to take a step back and not think of yourself as the actor in it. Also, getting my producers’ and other people’s opinions was completely invaluable.”

The ability to remove egos from the equation greatly benefits every creative project. As it turns out, that’s a positive side effect of the multi-hyphenate approach. “Ultimately, it has to be about the story itself—and not one particular person,” Brian says. “You need character development, but you have to look at the story as an overall arc.”

Brian admits that this can be challenging, especially in film and TV. There’s a fine line between letting your ego speak and holding on to your creative vision. “There have been a number of times where I was determined that I was right about something,” Brian says. “Then someone would point something out to me and I’d realize what I had didn’t make sense. There are other people that might know better than you. If you’re willing to learn from them, you can make your project much better. There were times when I wrote in redundant lines and scenes that, as was pointed out to me, I didn’t need. That being said, you will get a ton of ideas thrown your way from people who won’t make the project better. But you have to be willing to consider all of them.”

The dilemma is that many writers and directors reach a point where they’re so close to the project that all feedback feels personal. In these cases, it’s useful if you’re a multi-hyphenate who can switch roles and perspectives. It makes you more adaptable and helps you understand that creatives are never done learning. Despite his experience, Brian still relies on script coverage and advice from other directors. “I would go over my films and shots with them, and they’d explain to me why this or that wasn’t working. It’s a constant learning process. I think film is an art that takes a lot of practice to master. We just have to keep improving ourselves.”

Another way to do that is through travel. Brian’s projects have taken him from Portugal to Korea. The experiences he gained in different places around the world have affected him as a storyteller. Speaking with filmmakers from other countries and getting their perspectives has been invaluable to him. “It opened my eyes to the traditions and customs there,” he says. “Visually, they tell stories differently.”

“I wanted to talk about why the strikes were important”

Underdeveloped was released during the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes. Brian, a supporter of the guilds who showed up at the picket lines, wanted to make sure he went about promotion correctly. He spoke in-depth about what he could and couldn’t do with members of the WGA Enforcement Department. If his hands were tied promotion wise, so be it, he thought. But the nature of the project and his multi-hyphenate approach provided opportunities.

After getting permission from SAG-AFTRA and the WGA to promote Underdeveloped under certain guidelines, Brian realized he had a platform where he could share his thoughts. He decided to use it. “I wanted to promote the WGA and talk about why the strikes were important,” he says. “We were at Comic-Con promoting the project, and the moderator had a ton of writing questions. I said, ‘Listen, I’m not here as a writer, so you’re going to have to cut out all these writing questions.’ He cut 15 minutes from it. What I did talk about was the importance of the writer’s strike—to the people who didn’t understand what it meant exactly.”

“In the end of the day, it’s about the story to me”

Besides taking on multiple roles, Brian has also built a diverse portfolio of projects. Through his own company, Black Jelly Beans, he experiments with mediums, developing projects for film, TV, and multimedia. And he doesn’t stick with one genre. He started out in horror—an intentional move, he explains, as it’s the easiest genre to get into. But he didn’t want to be stuck in it, so he ventured into crime thriller and comedy. Now, he’s working on a young adult fantasy project and a western. “I’ve always had a fascination with different genres,” he says. “In the end of the day, it’s about the story to me. It can be any genre—drama, comedy, romance—as long as it’s a compelling story.”

Storytelling is, in fact, the common denominator in Brian’s work. “It goes across all the roles,” he says. “Whether you’re an actor, writer, or director trying to understand the motivation of a scene, the processes are very similar in a lot of ways.”

“It takes time to work on each of those crafts”

Brian tackles a story in phases, focusing on one role at a time. But even if you complete tasks in a certain order, it can still be challenging to go beyond the surface and develop in-depth skills—whether that’s as a writer, a director, a producer, an editor, or an actor. “It takes time and commitment to work on each of those crafts,” Brian says. “My first scripts were absolutely horrendous. Screenwriting is something I’ve had to learn by studying it. As I wrote screenplays, I read a lot of other scripts. I don’t think there’s a fast, easy way to master it. For acting, I took acting classes for years and studied the trade. For directing, I watched other great directors and studied them on set. And I worked as an editor at several post-production companies, where I learned about editing and visual effects.”

To avoid becoming a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, you’ll need to put in a lot of effort. But Brian believes it’s worth it. “You can control the project from start to finish,” he says. “They say you make a film three times—in the writing phase, in the directing phase, and in the editing phase. If you’re doing all three of them, you can really control it in a proper way, business and creative wise.”

And according to Brian, it’s become easier to share your own stories with the world—in the way you prefer. “When I was a kid, I didn’t have a camera at my disposal,” he says. “When my parents bought a family camera, I just stole it all the time. But nowadays, everyone has a 4K camera on their phones, and editing equipment is easily available. I’ve seen people create entire movies on their phones and upload them on YouTube and Vimeo.”

Of course, that also makes it more difficult to get people’s attention. Brian says, “There is so much content out there. You have to stand out. But it’s an opportunity. Nowadays, kids who want to be filmmakers have no excuses not to get their friends together and shoot a new film every week.”

“Characters have to be rooted in emotions”

With the practical side of filmmaking covered, (aspiring) storytellers are left with the most amazing and challenging part of the craft—telling the story. Most writers make excuses because they fear getting started. For once they do, they’re in for quite the ride, and there’s usually no way back.

Stories are born in the intimacy of the writer’s mind. You create something from nothing—and then, order from chaos. At some point, you’ll likely add your own experiences and feelings to the mix, at least to some degree. Like Brian says, “You don’t have to be the Godfather or a Jedi to create a relatable experience. But characters have to be rooted in emotions and things that people understand. If the visual effects are amazing but you don’t understand any of the characters, you can’t get on board with the story.”

Does that mean there’s a little bit of Brian in each of his projects? “Absolutely,” he says. “There has to be a lot of Brian in what I make—and I believe that’s the same for any other filmmaker. It might not be all in one character. It’s feelings of insecurity, feelings of excitement—it is whatever you’re feeling, given to each different character. When I’m done with my script, I try to read my dialogue out loud and go to each individual character. Who is this character and what do they speak like? Do they have a southern accent? Are they a bully? Are they timid? Then I see if the dialogue fits that specific character. And I try to put myself into every one of the characters to some degree, because nobody wants to make a character black and white. Actors, too, want to have relatable things so their character doesn’t believe they’re a bad guy. Nobody believes they’re the bad guy.”

But there’s another side of the coin. The minute writers put part of themselves into a narrative, they become emotionally attached to it. Once you’ve done some soul-searching and you’re knee-deep in the story, you care. A lot. The characters, settings, and plot twists are all there for very specific reasons. That’s a good thing. But when you care about something a lot, it can be frightening to release it into the world. And you don’t want to be that parent who tries to straightjacket their child and force it to live your dream. Like a kid, a story will increasingly reveal itself to you. True storytellers know that each story has a personality of its own. If you nurture and support it, it will soon become bigger than you. There’s beauty in watching that process unfold.

The question is, to what extent are you involved in co-shaping it as it grows?

A traditional screenwriter creates a story in solitude and then puts it into the hands of a director, a producer, a DP, actors, and other creatives. But multi-hyphenates like Brian go all the way from first story seed to final product. They develop the narrative, visualize it, breathe life into it, and then watch it materialize in front of their eyes. There’s something undeniably special—perhaps even magical—about that. For isn’t that what the kid who once dissected Steven Spielberg’s shots truly dreamed of doing one day?

Watch the interview below. This video has been edited for length and clarity.