Life & Work with Shane Morrisun

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shane Morrisun. 

Hi Shane, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started acting as a child in California and landed my first television guest-starring role when I was 11 on a series from Willie Aames (Buddy from Charles in Charge) called BibleMan. I moved to Provo, Utah a couple years later in 1996. 

I didn’t have much luck with agencies when I came to Utah and got scammed by a couple until I was scammed out of a lot of money from an agent, I never got one call to audition. 

I was about 20 at that time and I had gotten married and had a kid so I decided to give up acting and work corporate jobs to support my family. 

I always missed it though and always hoped to return to acting. 15 years and 2 divorces later, I was a single father with custody of 4 children. My children were getting to an age where they could start taking care of themselves and the older could babysit the younger when needed, so I decided it might be a possibility to return to acting. 

I was very busy with work through and I wasn’t sure how I was going to work it out. I was signed up with an acting email newsletter from Actors.com and every time there were jobs for feature film extra work, they would send out an email looking for people. I had never responded to those emails because I just never had the time and the hassle of arranging people to watch the kids and do pickups and such. 

I decided I was going to just submit myself and if I got it, I would just figure it out. Well, I submitted to the next one for a Steven Legal film called Code of Honor. I got the gig, and figured it out, and discovered that this was actually possible. I ended up working a couple more days on that project in different background roles and started occasionally working as an extra on various projects. I learned through observation a little bit about how everything worked. 

Serendipitously around that time, my mother met and became acquaintances with a local talent agent, Shelia Erickson, with Broadway Talent. I was subsequently introduced to her and boom, I had an agent again. Through this agent, I discovered other local filmmakers and actors and acting classes and I began networking with them. 

One person I met through the agency and become friends was Sila Agavale, A local filmmaker from Samoa. He taught classes at the agency and was also in the process of making his own independent feature film through the agency. He asked if I would be interested in helping him on crew doing sound. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about how filmmaking worked. 

I had no experience doing sound but I was determined to learn, so I watched several videos on what I like to call “YouTube University.” Being an autodactic I am very skilled at teaching myself (I prefer it most of the time) I learned as much as I could on my own and then the rest came from experience. After working on set for a few days, I looked around and had the realization that “I can totally do this myself.” 

I even got the opportunity to have a speaking part in the film because of helping out on the crew. The day that I got to act, another crew member that was helping that day saw my acting and invited me to be in his short film he was making that very next night. So, I got another acting gig and contact from that day on set. 

At the time I wasn’t having very much luck getting in front of the local casting director to audition for roles. If I couldn’t even audition, how was I supposed to get the job? I was getting very frustrated. So having been gaining the experience and confidence from being on crew for other filmmakers, Shytei Corellian (my girlfriend at the time who is now my partner) and I came up with the idea to make our own short film so that I could have an opportunity to be the lead and to get something on the resume and acting reel. 

Shytei is a novelist but she had never written a script before, but I convinced her to write one for me. We decided that since we were in Utah, the best type of film to make would be a western. Shytei has a hard time writing simple stories though so our simple western turned into a reincarnation epic short film spanning 3 time periods involving karma and redemption. 

Well seeing as how this was my first time making a film ever, I decided we would start with just the western portion of the short. This way I could get some experience and it wouldn’t be too difficult and we could get it done in one day. If it was successful, we could finish the other two time periods and put it all together. 

I called in all the favors I did for other filmmakers and had them all come help me with mine. We made the film and it did very well at film festivals. We decided to do a crowdfunding campaign to fund the rest of the short and when that finished it did well itself. 

I discovered that I had a natural ability behind the camera and fell in love with making my own movies. Acting was still my passion and first love but I was beginning to love the creation of a film as well. I started investing in my own filmmaking equipment. I bought a camera and really basic lenses, some decent sound equipment, and went from there. 

At this time, I was invited to join the board of directors of a small local up-and-coming film production company. I used this opportunity to give myself a crash course in all things filmmaking. I watched as many videos and ready as many books as I could, and then used and practiced that knowledge on set for the short films we were making. 

After a year of making short films, we were provided the opportunity to make a feature film. This was the big goal as it is a huge step at having a career producing feature films. We were given a script written by cult filmmaker, James Merendino (SLC Punk!), and so off we go with developing and preproduction for the film. We had a couple names attached to star in the film and cast the rest with the top of the local talent. Unfortunately, we ran into one problem after another (something I found is common in indie filmmaking) and the showrunner made a lot of bad decisions and didn’t budget properly and other shady dealings happening behind people’s backs and they ran the show into the ground. 

It was at this point that I decided it was best for me to leave this company as it was obvious there were lots of dishonest and borderline illegal things going on in secret. So, I with a few other members of the company left and formed our own company Free Reign Films. 

In February of 2020, we shot and released our first short film. A western horror. It was a big hit and we knew we were on the right track. It was at this time that Covid and the lockdowns hit. We were a brand-new company pretty much-treading water until we could work again. 

In the meantime, I continued getting crew work wherever I could, whether it was on feature films or commercials, I was just trying to get any work that I could. Interestingly enough, I discovered that the industry doesn’t like Jack-of-All-Trades people. they prefer people who were specialized in one area/job. It made it difficult to find work, so I continued working on building my production company Free Reign Films. I started recruiting more people and we started making more shorts and I was building quite the resume. 

I have been making a lot of really great contacts and the future is very promising right now. I am waiting for that tipping domino tile to finally fall. I have been building quite a resume and I have finally gained notice of the local casting director and have been getting a bunch of auditions for the big projects coming through Utah right now. I am very excited for where things are headed. 

My goals for the future involve building my own studio to create in-house productions while simultaneously building the Utah industry by building up the local talent and crew and by bringing in Investors to invest in local productions, building the reputation of Utah so that large productions will want to come to Utah to film. Turn Utah into the next Atlanta. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a mostly jagged trail full of potholes. I have been doing the grassroots method of building my career 😆. There are struggles every step of the way. One of the biggest has been dealing with people who only want to take advantage of you. There are so many in this industry, you have to be on constant vigilant watch. They will use you till you are of no use and then drop you and wipe their feet on you as they step over. There are so many that sometimes you can’t avoid them and have to decide how much you are willing to put up with in order to work with them. 

The other biggest struggle is money. It’s always money. Trying to get investors to believe in you is no easy task. especially here in Utah, where there is no foundation built for this type of investment like there is in LA and Atlanta. But I am looking to change that. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an Actor, Producer, Director, Cinematographer, and all the rest. In other words, I am a Filmmaker. I take pride in my knowledge and ability in every area and facet for filmmaking. I prefer Acting, Producing, and Directing (being the one in charge), but am able to fill in any other position on set. 

I am known for being able to keep my cool under pressure and for problem-solving on set in the heat of the moment. I try to treat everyone with fairness and respect. having had experience in every area, I know what is required of every department and can lead and make decisions with confidence. 

My goal is to build up the Utah film industry and make it the next go-to for filmmakers worldwide to want to come to make their films. 

What does success mean to you?
Success is in the eye of the beholder 😆. As long as you are happy doing what you do and can make a living doing it, you are successful. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8231237/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanemorrisun/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeReignStudios
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FreeReignFilms/