We recently connected with Jane Petrov and have shared our conversation below.

Jane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I am co-owner of SkyTown Entertainment, a bi-coastal video production company. We started in NY in 2006, 2 years before the economic crash of 2008. That meant we had to go back to steady support jobs, i.e. restaurant work to maintain our business. We continued to grow our actor audition taping service that became known as “self-taping” a few years ago. It’s very rewarding to work with actors every day and have a pulse on the industry. Even though we were busy over the years, we had to pay for part-time help and office space (expensive in NYC). Our business really didn’t sustain the owners until Covid hit and we had to lay off our part-time help. And then with the SAG strike, we got rid of our NY office space. Now my business partner tapes actors in his apartment (where we started the business 19 years ago). Saving on that overhead, allowed us to pay ourselves a small, mom & pop business livable wage. We are hoping to grow the LA business to equal the business in NY. But what is great is having a bi-coastal family of actors that we coach, read with and help book jobs as well as being self-employed and taking off on trips whenever we want. Sometimes the month is tight and we can’t pay ourselves as much, but we love the freedom and stress-free environment.

Knowing what we know now, we would spend less on overhead and just handle the amount of business that makes us live a more relaxed lifestyle.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a trained actor, I moved to NYC from DC. Eventually, I became an artistic director of a non-profit theater company and produced original works for the stage. After about 5 years, I went to Sundance with my business partner because we wanted to get into the movie business. I met someone at Sundance that needed a corporate inspirational sales video and we were hired to shoot it. They loved the video and that launched our production company.

At SkyTown, we understand actors, auditions and what the industry is looking for, so providing quality self-tapes in a relaxed environment and coaching included, has been successful from the start. We are mostly a word-of-mouth business. So many of our clients book major TV, Film, Theater and Commercial roles. We are still taping actor clients from 15 years ago. We have strong friendships and continue to support and champion their successes.

We are also proud of our original short film work and film festival awards. We seek to work with folks with diverse backgrounds and hope to branch into features one of these days!

SkyTown is a brand you can trust. Many times actors are told by their reps that their audition tape is not good enough- sound quality, lighting, acting, etc. The reps suggest they try SkyTown. That makes us feel good.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As a show business owner, we have survived economic downturns, a pandemic, a strike, and now, who knows? We learned to adapt to Covid protocols, and we pivoted to do more Zoom/Remote taping sessions with actors and train them on doing a good tech set-up at home. Our actor client-base has been loyal to us over the years. We provide a punch card to give regular clients a free 10th session. So there is a lot of give and take. We only raised our prices once in 15 years. We also live lean during the tough econonomic times to stay above water. We will be paying off our small business loan over the next 10 years.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I don’t know if I have a particular goal or mission driving my creative journey. One thing I do know – I must be creative. That means auditioning, writing, acting, producing, singing – whatever…I must create! I am lucky that an aspect of our video production work took off and highlighted our skills for self-tapes and that we were able to handle the blows to the economy and our industry. We acknowledge the gifts of Covid and the strike (SBA Loan for our business & getting rid of overhead). We didn’t go to business school so it’s almost like we had to be hit over the head with circumstance to realize how to best run our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.skytownentertainment.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skytownla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skytownselftapes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3w–XMsFb-04sqaIBbNaNQ
• Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/skytown-entertainment-los-angeles
• Other: Google Reviews:
  https://www.google.com/search?q=skytown+entertainment&sxsrf=APwXEddCBU4dyqGuwEbu6LjmMu2Snpo2og%3A1680816723366&source=hp&ei=UzovZKPRFP6Pur8Pkei6wAM&iflsig=AOEireoAAAAAZC9IYw8CVedvOKTeNLwoZVI6wknpoox2&gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TEmpzIg3M7E0YLRSNaiwMEg2SrJITDFKszRJS0s2tzKoMDRKM0hMSjROMU01TzVNtfASLc6uLMkvz1NIzStJLSpJzMzLBbIAcTMYow&oq=skytown&gs_lcp=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&sclient=gws-wiz