CUT TO: Your career in Hollywood
Hollywood isn't just who you know. It's whether you're worth knowing.
A one-of-a-kind course for early-career film and television professionals. Follow a 17-step career path and learn the human skills that make you consistently hirable. All with a community of peers so you aren’t figuring this out alone.
The Problems of Hollywood
You can't get your foot in the door if you don't know where the door is.
You're good at your craft. But so is everybody else.
You could have every number in Hollywood. That doesn't mean they'll answer.
The Course
The Skills to stand out.The Path to get in.
The 10 Seed Skills that build a reputation that travels. The 17 steps that turn conversations into interviews, jobs, and a career that lasts.
The Seed Skills ™
- 01 Just notice Seeing the unspoken dynamics of a room gives you an edge that others miss.
- 02 Sit in discomfort You can’t solve a problem you run away from.
- 03 Think it through If you’ve accounted for every variable, the right decision will present itself.
- 04 Own your impact Accountability is what turns your actions into your reputation.
- 05 Fail frequently The people who improve fastest are the ones willing to fail most often.
- 06 Shape the space How you show up changes what others are willing to say and do.
- 07 Uncover the truth Curiosity earns you information that judgment never will.
- 08 Tell better stories The stories you choose to tell demonstrate your value to others.
- 09 Protect what matters If you don’t decide how to spend your time and attention, someone else will.
- 10 Stay a student The moment you stop learning, your experience becomes outdated.
The Path
- 01 Decide That Hollywood Is Actually Your Dream The people who make it are the ones who don’t lie to themselves about the odds.
- 02 Become a Barista and Write a Feature A high-leverage day job funds your life, protects your craft, and puts you closer to the room.
- 03 Save $5,000 Planning allows you to make decisions from strategy instead of fear.
- 04 Rehearse Your Authentic Story How others value you is shaped by the stories you tell. Select them intentionally, and tell them with style.
- 05 Practice Sending Your Resume Having a resume matters. How you send it matters more.
- 06 Do a Mock Interview A radical interview preparation and rehearsal strategy.
- 07 Find an Apartment in North Hollywood Because some places are luckier than others.
- 08 Move in February Timing matters more than most people realize.
- 09 Open a Retirement Account Learn how compounding works in money and then apply it to everything else.
- 10 Take an Improv Class Join communities that build presence, courage, and unexpected relationships.
- 11 Host a Dinner Party Don’t wait for a network to appear. Learn to create one.
- 12 Find Someone One Step Ahead of You The most useful guide isn’t in the distance. They’re just ahead of you.
- 13 Ask One Person to Coffee Every Day Thirty days. Thirty emails. This is how you expand the surface area for luck.
- 14 Get on the Bottom of 100 People’s Lists Your first break comes because someone else was unavailable.
- 15 Go to the Beach Learn when to push, when to wait, and which parts of the outcome were never yours to control.
- 16 Answer the Call Opportunity rarely arrives when you feel ready. Learn how to be ready anyway.
- 17 Pay It Forward When you create opportunities for others, you create them for yourself.
The Community
You don't have to do this alone. Nobody can.
A private community of creatives trading feedback, sharing insights, and building relationships that lead to real opportunities.
Challenges and discussions designed to put ideas into motion. Share what worked, where you got stuck, and learn from how others approached it.
Virtual office hours with Jesse, Yoni, and rotating industry guests. Bring an interview, resume, outreach email, career decision, or whatever else you’re working through.
In-person gatherings in L.A. such as dinners, drinks, hikes, and screenings that turn online familiarity into real professional relationships.
A community you can reach between scheduled events. Ask for perspective, offer help, and keep the conversation going as relationships grow.
The Founders
Meet your mentors.
Built from nearly three decades of experience at some of Hollywood’s biggest studios, CUT TO: Hollywood is taught by filmmakers who followed this exact path, learned the skills producers and directors look for when hiring, and have spent years helping new professionals launch their careers.
Yoni Rusnak
“Luck isn’t a static, fixed object, but a controllable surface area that expands or contracts based on a person's actions.”
14 years·Film & television·Editor
Jesse Chapman
“By the time people are worth asking their advice, they’ve forgotten the specifics. Move to L.A.! Network! Be prepared! Okay… but how? As simple as it sounds, we just wrote it all down and constantly update it. We really love doing this.”
18 years·Film & television·Editor
“We created this course because we just couldn’t keep taking so many coffee meetings each week. Kidding. Kind of. The truth is, we realized we could help a lot more people succeed if we just wrote down everything we’ve ever learned, and created a space for them to work through it together.”
Yoni + Jesse, Founders
Selected credits
Daredevil: Born Again
Yoni Rusnak
Godzilla x Kong: Supernova
Jesse Chapman
Ironheart
Yoni Rusnak
Star Trek Beyond
Jesse Chapman
The King of Staten Island
Yoni Rusnak
Molly’s Game
Jesse Chapman
Lisey’s Story
Yoni Rusnak
Entourage
Jesse Chapman
Mufasa
Yoni Rusnak
Fast & Furious 7
Jesse Chapman
The Testimonials
Hear from the
community.
Real experiences from members already on the Path.
This is a fast-track. You’re learning everything in one place.
The skills in this course are just good things to know as a person, not only in the industry but just in life. I loved that the course didn’t stop at principles; it gave you the philosophy, evidence, and concrete ways to actually practice them.
The videos felt less like taking an online course and more like sitting down for coffee with a mentor. They felt conversational and authentic, like listening to a real person, not someone performing at you.
The clear language and concrete examples turned familiar advice into something I could actually use. None of it was brand new, but the way they worded it made things click.
Take this seriously and it gets you closer to your first Hollywood job than someone who went to film school would probably be willing to admit.
I’m in the middle of my first Hollywood gig now, and I’m really glad I had this material heading into it. It helps you feel genuinely prepared for the next interview, the next conversation, the literal next step.
The ‘Tell Better Stories’ lesson changed how I think about presenting myself.
One concept changed how I network completely. I stopped hunting for the one contact who’d change my career and started just talking to people like people.
Talking with other real people who are also struggling with the same things I am (and watching Jesse and Yoni actually respond) made certain concepts click.
The course makes these simple-sounding concepts immediately usable, both in the film industry and in everyday life.
The Offer
Become the person Hollywood wants to know.
commitment
We broke into Hollywood using these principles.
Do the work, complete the exercises, and if it's not delivering, email us within 90 days for a full refund.
- Lifetime course access + updatesThe Proven Path, Seed Skills, and future course updates—yours for life.
- One year of the communityPeers, feedback, career conversations, and shared opportunities. After one year, you decide whether to continue.
- Monthly Virtual Office HoursWith industry professionals answering questions on resumes, cold emails, interviews, and whatever else the community is navigating.
- In-person meetups in L.A.Monthly meetups designed to turn online familiarity into real professional relationships. Not in L.A. yet? You'll have people to meet when you get here.