#14 | Sean French | The White Papers

Sean French on going from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts to running film production equipment, how a set of white papers got Hollywood back to work during COVID, film tax credits and Burning Man. Sean French grew up in Utah and moved to Los Angeles to follow his passion for acting at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After some twists and turns, Sean moved into production equipment, and our wide-ranging conversation covers COVID, production, tax credits, Burning Man and literally everything in between. Chapters 0:00 Welcome Sean French 1:04 Growing up in Park City, Utah 2:05 Family theatre and first auditions 4:13 Not knowing what to do at 18 7:19 Into the walkie-talkie business 10:28 The American Academy of Dramatic Arts 14:47 How film tax credits move productions 16:56 Hollywood follows the money to Atlanta 21:14 Acting while holding down a job 25:31 Building a production services business 30:48 Opening his own company in Culver City 35:02 How acting informs producing 40:23 Buying and renting camera gear 42:31 His new short film and festivals 45:43 Where were you when COVID hit? 51:02 Shutting down in March 2020 54:06 The white papers that got Hollywood back to work 59:32 What COVID testing added to budgets 1:04:49 Production rolls on 1:06:57 The one-truck rental model 1:10:09 LA, community and solitude 1:17:24 Running a theme camp at Burning Man 1:23:41 Ayahuasca and searching for answers 1:32:07 Tony Robbins, Landmark and therapy 1:34:15 His new show 1:43:54 What psychedelics taught him 1:46:01 Travel, perspective and business 1:51:15 Ownership, land and the East 1:55:31 How should we organise ourselves? The Ryan Pyle Podcast is ad-free by choice. If you enjoy these conversations, you can buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ryanpyle Ryan's TV series are streaming around the world. Follow the Podcast X: https://x.com/RyanPylePodcast Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpylepodcast Follow Ryan Pyle YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ryanjpyle Instagram: https://instagram.com/ryanpyle X: https://x.com/RyanPyle Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanpyle https://www.ryanpyle.com