We were lucky to catch up with John Alan H. recently and have shared our conversation below.

John Alan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

As an Actor, you spend a lot of your time working towards the next role. Given the state of the industry in the past couple of years, I didn’t see that dream role coming my way any time soon. So, I stepped away from auditioning, and decided to dive deeper into learning how to make movies myself. If anyone was going to cast me in my dream role, it was more than likely going to be me.

I’m somewhat of an idea hoarder. I write a lot of scripts and stories that I end up tucking away for later because I didn’t know the next steps to bring them to life. When I took a break from auditioning in 2023, I started studying how to make movies online. Most advice was technical and really helpful, but the best advice I found was simple, “just start making things.”

I decided to create my own personal productions that I called, “Panophobium! Haunted Home Movies” where I experimented with story ideas, cinematography, lights, sound, and everything that goes into making movie magic. Sometimes I made magic, sometimes I made… something. However, I found a lot of my voice in making movies by simply experimenting with ideas. Whether they were good ideas or bad ideas, I could see growth in simply just making things.

In 2024, a filmmaker that I admire and look up to named Joel Haver announced a challenge as a protest against the Oscars. The challenge was to film a movie in 3 hours during the Oscars. You only get 3 hours, so what you get is what you get. You get a week to edit your movie, and then send it to Haver to compile into a playlist of movies all made during the Oscars. The challenge is daunting and kind of scary, but I believe sometimes the best stuff is created when you’re scared, as the fear can lead you somewhere special. So, I decided to lean into the challenge and make a movie I had been wanting to make for forever, but held back on out of fear of failing with the story.

I ended up making a movie called “Mr. Stixon Bones: The Movie” in just 3 hours while covered head to toe in a full skeleton suit and costume with little to no vision from the mask and cats that were determined to ruin my shots in every possible way, but I did it! It’s about a haunted Halloween animatronic that creates home movies to keep himself entertained as he rots in a closet with the other holiday decorations until the next spooky season. I wanted to play with the idea of searching for purpose, especially since as an Actor, I feel full of purpose when I’m acting and get pretty down when I’m still searching for that next opportunity. Much like my character Mr. Stixon Bones, I just want to feel useful. It’s a very silly story, but brought me an immense amount of pleasure and purpose as it’s one of my favorite movies I’ve gotten to make so far in my career, both as a Filmmaker and as an Actor.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into acting because I was always changing my mind about what it is I wanted to be when I grew up. Acting allows you to be so many different things. While I’ve noticed over the years that my character type has been a lot of monsters and creatures, I’ve been fortunate to also get cast in various other roles as a regular human being. My career has made me feel limitless thus far, and I’m sure my younger self would be very proud of the decision I made to become an Actor.

Filmmaking oftentimes feels like an extension to acting for me as I’ve realized that I’m playing with a lot of the same techniques I would use for acting that I now try to use for the movies I make. I recently created and captured a documentary called “Shaniko Haunted Hotel” about the ghosts that reside in the historic Shaniko Hotel in Shaniko, Oregon. I got to provide narration for the movie, trying to put on a spooky but soft performance as a host for the ghost stories told by folks in Shaniko. It was a project I was incredibly nervous to tackle as most movies I’ve made in the past year have only involved me, myself, and I. Now I had more folks involved that I was scared to fail, but in the end, it turned out to be a movie that the folks of Shaniko were really excited about and happy with. If you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend you stay in the hotel. I promise, the ghosts aren’t out to get you, they just might playfully mess with you a bit.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Burnout is very real for creatives, especially when it’s your livelihood, so it’s hard to say no due to the fear of missing out. When I first started pursuing my professional career, I felt like I had to say yes to absolutely everything that came my way. Whether it was for my dream role, or a role I wasn’t really all that excited about, I said yes, yes, yes, no matter what. I found myself getting pretty sick at times because of how much I was over doing it. I thought it was normal, but that’s far from normal. I’ve since learned to take the chance to rest. Don’t overbook yourself. Say no if you must. No job is worth hurting yourself over. Take time to heal so you can jump back in with all of the energy you’ve recharged.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Actor’s employment sometimes have spaces in between one job and the next. You never know how big that space is going to be. The size of that space has fluctuated with me as sometimes I’m feeling booked and blessed, while other times I can’t remember when the last time I booked a gig. During the dry seasons, I’ve had to work other jobs. Sometimes it feels like a failure, but it’s so common and doesn’t mean you’re no longer an Actor because you need to make coffee to pay the bills. I’ve worked every odd job under the sun in order to stay afloat. I’ve been a barista, ballroom instructor, server, teacher, canvasser, social media coordinator, mascot, etc. There’s nothing wrong with working other jobs so that you can pursue what it is you really want to do with your life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.johnalanhulbert.com
• Instagram: @hellojohnalan
• Youtube: @johnalanh.mp4
• Other: TikTok:
  @panophobium1

Image Credits

Josh Nile