Today we’d like to introduce you to David Acuff
Hi David, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a semi-centurion. And no, Dylan, it has nothing to do with CrossFit. It’s just a great word I made up when I recently turned 50 years old because “quinquagenarian” sounded like a horse disease or a Menudo song. Fifty years is a long time to futz around planet earth making up words. In that time I’ve lived, I’ve laughed, I’ve loved and lost, I’ve litigated and lactated and alliterated.
Today I’m a Hollywood insider, a southerner, a military brat, a sit-down comic, a piano recital survivor, a BMW murderer, a dog licker, a divorced TikTok’er, a father of three adult Jedi Princesses and possibly a child prodigy (MENSA won’t return my calls).
For most of my production career I was in North Carolina. As a Producer-Editor my bread-and-butter was corporate videos, wedding videos and dance recital videos of two-year-olds falling gracefully across the stage like weeble wobbles. A lot more plop than plié. In 2014 I traded in tractor videos and bridezillas for Hollywood and hobos. I’ve now been in LA for 10 years this month (August).
My second year out here I was drafted by the House of Mouse and worked at Disney for seven years. Got to see inside the sausage factory as it were. And believe me it’s not all box office hits and bippity boppity boos. And very little sausage. But I did get to attend the Oscars, and sat with the Ms. Maisel crew at the Emmy’s when they won a bunch of awards their first year. I’ve gotten to interview cool people like Kristen Bell and Jessica Biel.
Once I had the full-time job and rent was being paid and I was eating on a regular basis again, Los Angeles got to be a lot more fun. I got to explore more. I got into standup Comedy at Flappers and Comedy Store. Did some voiceover work as The Beaver in the “Family Camp” movie. Edited a Nicolas Cage trailer called “Vengeance: A Love Story.” Went on a date with a verified blue-check mark. Well I called it a date, I think she just thought I was her Uber driver. I’ve had craft beers with Wil Wheaton.
And, yes, I know I called myself a Hollywood Insider but not quite. I’d like to be Showrunning a quirky half-hour dramedy or selling my Christmas Horror Comedy Script to Ryan Reynolds to produce. But I’m not *that* inside yet. I’m more like the gum on the bottom of Blake Lively’s Louboutins. But I consider that “insider-adjacent.”
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Hahaha. Spoiler alert. There are no smooth roads. It’s a grind. Blood, sweat and tears. Hustle and flow. Ben and Jerrys. Part of that is on me. See, Dad was an Air Force Colonel. So if I had wanted to go into the “family business” I could have had some advantages there. Nepotism is a beautiful thing. But I chose the entertainment industry. With no roots. No contacts. No Uncle Scorcese’s. So you start at ground zero like every other muggle and get to work climbing that ladder.
When business slumped, I’d go back to school and take more classes to level up. When business boomed, I took on as much as I could and met as many people and worked hard to make them love me or at least my work ethic. They say it’s about who you know, but I know Spielberg and he does not know me, so I think it’s more about who knows you. And who loves you and who will recommend you to be part of their team. That takes time to establish.
After twenty years of production experience on the East Coast, I’d moved to California and upon advice from friends I signed on with a Temp Agency. Temp Agency’s are the secret sauce out here. They’re placing people inside Disney and Warner Brothers and Dreamworks. So I signed up and my first gig was at AwesomenessTV. And let me tell you, as a 42 year old at the time, having all the bosses and executives be these 20-somethings was a fine treat. Just a dense slice of heaven reporting to Jayd’n. But whatever it took to get a foot in the door. Next gig was at Disney for two months as an Office Production Assistant. I decided if they wanted me to make excel spreadsheets and burn DVD labels these would be the best damned spreadsheets and labels they’d ever seen. And it worked. They invited me back, only the next time it was at triple the rate to edit.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Last year Disney laid 7000 of us off back into the job market while the writer’s strike was going on. Yikes. And here we are a year later and the production jobs haven’t come back yet. So that’s rough. I may have to edit a Wedding Video again, even though I had retired from that. Or maybe if your two-year-old has a recital? Happy to help!
Trust me, trying to be creative and write scripts and novels and comedy when you don’t know where your next month’s rent is coming from is intense. It takes moxy, kid. And all the best stories start that way. Chris Pratt living in a van by the river auditioning for “Parks & Rec.” Matt LeBlanc using his first big paycheck from “Friends” to buy dinner because he was so broke before. Josh Brolin bursting into tears when his agent told him about his “American Gangsters” paycheck because he’d be able to pay his bills finally. Dude! I say it again, there is no smooth road. Sometimes there is no road. Just a driving grit and determination to keep moving forward.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
First and foremost I’m a writer. Years ago I got tired of my screenplays collecting dust on my shelf going nowhere so I decided to turn them into novels. I started my own indie publishing shingle called BravoBay Books and now have six novels and a semi-memoir out on Amazon. Two of the novels, a Christmas Horror Comedy called “Slay Bells Ring” and my latest SciFi epic “Battle Tides” are Amazon Best-sellers.
And I’m working on the next ones. Because you can’t sit still and complain about not getting hired or not having advantages or getting the callbacks. You have to be making your own stuff. Here’s another spoiler alert: people want to come alongside an exciting work in progress. If you’re doing nothing, you have zero momentum. You’re just holding up traffic. You have to get moving and develop and launch your own projects. Greenlight yourself. And if you haven’t got a project idea, find someone who does and help give theirs a push.
I’m an influencer? Well, anyway I’m growing a YouTube channel and Instagram network to put out my own comedy content. I’m helping other new authors bring their novels to life with book trailers and audiobooks and funny vignettes.
Last month I got to write and direct a short film called “Assassin Trainee” with a group of 20-something college students from Abilene, TX. It’s my first time back in the director’s chair in years and it was a blast. I’ve missed it. And now I have a product for the film festival circuit. And it’s also a proof-of-concept for a larger feature film. And it came about because I started running three times a week with a friend who runs a non-profit that takes on these types of projects.
It’s fun because we’ve seen many examples of films like “Napolean Dynamite” and “Bottle Rocket” and “Whiplash” that all began as successful short films.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My first job out of undergrad was with Keith “K” Brown at the Baptist State Convention in Cary, NC. He was my Obi-wan Kenobi. The ever patient mentor of this annoying know-it-all film brat that was like “YoU nEeD mOre DUtcH tiLTs aNd SLap zOoMS!” Haha. I started out as the worst production assistant/grip. They’d take me on shoots and I brought a book. A BOOK! While they were shooting b-roll I was reading. You want a professional tip, kids? Don’t be reading or hanging out on your phone on the set. If you look expendable, you are expendable. I wasn’t invited back to that client’s next shoot. But Obi-Wan “K” nobi worked with me. Taught me more about lighting and cinematography than all my college courses combined. He let me assistant edit for him. Grew me from a young padawan into a full-fledge Production Sith! Haha. I mean Jedi. So I’ll definitely be naming my first Oscar after him.
Pricing:
- “Battle Tides” $19.99 on Amazon
- “Slay Bells Ring” $14.99 on Amazon
- @DavidAcuff YouTube – Free
Contact Info:
- Website: https://davidacuff.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidacuff
- Twitter: https://x.com/DavidAcuff
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@DavidAcuff
- Other: https://tinyurl.com/AuthorDavidAcuff
Image Credits
LA Galaxy BTS Photo (Ninh Bui)
D23 Interview with Kristen Bell (Eric McCandless)
D23 Mickey Mouse (Richard Harbaugh)
