Film Courage: How does a screenwriter with no connections break into Hollywood?
Kelly Edwards, Staff Writer, Author, Producer: You’ve got to get some connections so yeah
it's hard you can't do this on your own there's there's no there's no formula for that
Hollywood is a company town and it's a very very small town I think in the book
I even say it's like Mayberry which I think might be an older reference I don't know
but it's everybody knows everybody and we're all maybe two degrees of separation so I feel
like there's not anybody in this town that I can't get to within two phone calls or emails
and I think that's when you've been here long enough that's you just know more people
and because people like to work with people they know
they want to work with people who've been vouched for somebody's a recommendation some sort of
someone who's connected to someone else because they want to make sure that you can deliver so
there's there's that whole factor that that just sort of makes that's let's just set the table with
with that right there when you're trying to get into Hollywood you got to use the people that
you do know and you can meet people everywhere so there's a ton of festivals a lot of people go to
to festivals or panels or whatever gatherings they can and one connection will lead to many
other connections and I think the great thing about a lot of the festivals these days is that
people are there because they want to help they want to connect I was at Austin film festival
and at this I think within a couple weeks I was also a catalyst that's in Duluth and
the feeling is the same so you go to south by you go to any of these these festivals
and there's this feeling of we're all artists here we all are doing the same thing we're all
hoping to pass along our knowledge that's why the people show up the senior people the the seasoned
writers and directors and and cinematographers and everybody who's there making something
they're there to pass along losing that knowledge there's there's a
wealth of opportunities to connect and make connections so start there
we're now in a in a place where now the the universe is connected by the internet and
zoom thankfully and you can even do it from the comfort of your own home if you're not
in Los Angeles but you it does take work and it takes work for even for me I'm constantly reaching
out to people and i've known a lot of these people for I grew up with them since I got out of college
and even before in high school my first job was a hookup from a high school friend and every single
job after that has been a hookup from someone that I know I did not get any of this on my own
not a single position was a blind call so that's how it works for most people even if you are not
I use the pal chose a lot but even if you're not a pal cho you're not sitting around the table
as a kid learning from your father and your mother how to navigate the situation
even if you don't have that you're not connected and there's no nepotism that you can draw on you
can do it I did it my parents were in the dental field my mom was a dental hygienist when I was
growing up she then taught dental hygiene and then she went on to become a dean of
college and my dad was obviously my stepdad was a dentist so I was only connected through the friend
that I had who was working for Delores Robinson at the time that's all I had and it worked so
you have to have you have to rely on those connections they will get you your
first and your last job so then in a sense you would have to be out here
to make those connections or know in today's world you could make them social media
both I think it's at a certain point you do if you really want to supersize your career you sort
of should be in Los Angeles now again that is a pre-pandemic mindset now it's post-pandemic maybe
we're getting there so there may be a factor where we will come back to in person I prefer in person
because there's just a you vibe off of people very differently than you do over zoom where
you just have a i've got a glass in front of me you've got a glass in front of you
and there's just this this weird chasm between us of whatever the internet is fiber microfibers
or whatever so we're we are in this situation where we are forced to create relationships
that that aren't real relationships we're forced to do that but when you're sitting in front of
somebody and you're having a meeting or you're doing breakfast lunch or dinner and you are
really connecting and it's not you don't have a time clock on you you don't have your zoom's not
going to run out in 30 minutes but you really have a chance to get to know someone and hear about
their lives and what do they what kind of what do they like to eat on their spaghetti whatever
it is there's a something that happens when we are creating those relationships and those friendships
and then you have to nurture those you have to keep them up so how you're going to do it you
have to schedule another zoom so is it doable of course it's doable everything's doable and
there's no right and wrong answers at all it all works but it's a little harder it's it's people
have to know you and then people have to be able to connect you with other people that they know
and it's easier to do that when you are in one place and in the book I say look the the trick
of it is is that if you live somewhere outside of Los Angeles and again we're talking about
in-person events you're outside of Los Angeles and you come to la two weeks out of the year
well then everybody who you are relying on to connect you with other people
have to work their schedules around you and they have to try to figure out how to fit everybody
that they want to connect you with into that two-week frame and at time frame and and that's
it's a it's not fair to anybody on on any side and it's and usually those meetings get canceled
it's canceled all the time a friend of mine used to Carry Mccool used to call it cancelicious
she used to say oh your lunch is canceled it's cancellous so
yeah you're going to have to come into a situation where you are available at the drop of a hat and
you might find that there's a party or there's a screening or there's a gathering at the
academy that you want to go to and it's happening tomorrow night and if you have to book a flight
and you can't get in then you're not going to be at the party with the rest of us so
some at some point you have to figure out a way to do it in the meantime though there's
a lot of prep you can do you can create a social media profile you can make relationships that way
you always have to be a value add to whoever you're reaching out to just don't ask them
for hey can I can you read a screenplay of mine then the answer is always going to be no
but you have to figure out a way to to create a a relationship long distance what if someone's like
this hot young writer let's say on the east coast and they have an IMDB pro account and they've
gone through the top 30 and then they've filtered out the next top 30 they're sending these queries
out and they're just here for a short time is that really going to work though because in
some ways it's disingenuous because you're just like hey I'm here let's network i.e help me out
help me get to the next level sure and people in Los Angeles that have been here a while or
have grown up here as you have they can smell that a mile away and it's off-putting because
you're like oh they need me for something yeah it's not because they want to hang out with me
right well those are those are the really that's again that's not nurturing relationship that's
that's being very transactional it's I need something from you and I and again you're
talking about somebody who's not offering something except maybe finding the next big
thing but everybody thinks the next big thing so and we've heard that so many times and then we've
been burned by it so many times like you read the scripture you go nah that's not that great
so we we are very cautious about how we're going to spend our time and what we're going to
if you're I'm going to crack open your script and spend an hour reading your script
I want someone to have vouched for you I want somebody who've told me hey this is worth it
so I'm probably not going to take your word for it because you think you're brilliant
and I might not think you're ready yet not that you aren't going to be brilliant eventually but
maybe you aren't brilliant enough for whatever opportunity I might have
so yeah you have got to you have to figure out a better way to do that and I think the good gauges
then enter a competition enter a program get a little vouching for buy somebody who we already
have bought into their level of taste so when you're anointed by Sundance then we know there's
a bar you've just sort of leaped frog over a lot of other steps so you could do it that way
so get noticed get known where you are right and on the flip side and i'd realize I took
a negative slant with that and on a different slant I saw a woman on screenwriting twitter
say I just want to say to all the screenwriters out there who haven't gotten work from
screenwriting twitter to not feel badly because so many people are promoting that hey I just landed
this and I just and it's all looking so rosy and she said a lot of people can then feel bad
because they're not getting that she's like i've gotten two possible job offers and none of them
happened and I just want people to know don't think that it's you because it's it's a small
percentage what do you think about that I love that she did that I think that's that's terrific
again that's why I love screenwriting twitter I love those those threads because people are very
very kind and very supportive and we they all know how hard it is and there are a lot of people who
are on that who are very successful who are saying look it's hard for me too and careers take go ups
and down have ups and downs and not everything's rosy and people do tend to filter all of the
negativity because they don't want to seem like they're complaining or that they're they're not
making it happen when so many other factors go into whether somebody sells something at that
moment or don't or or doesn't sell it so yeah I do think I would say to everybody take heart
if you read Stephen King's On Writing it's he was like he'd gotten so many rejection letters
I think there's so many people out there who have had that experience where it just feels like it's
Sisyphus trying to roll that boulder up a hill and you aren't getting anywhere and
and then eventually you do or you find another way to make your inroads or you find a different
level not a level definition of success and again not everyone's going to write a marvel movie nor
should everyone want to write a marvel movie but if that's your barometer for success and you are
missing all the other opportunities out there then you have to figure out why are you a writer in the
first place what are you trying to do what do you want to accomplish but I do feel as though that's
that was that's I love that she is out there singing the truth because that's
important for people to acknowledge it's not all roses but the the great part about writing is that
it is in itself a reward so regardless of whether or not I ever sell anything again as a writer
the writing itself for me when I write something really good that I think is is that I enjoy that
I want to go back to and read again then I feel as though there's that at least I have that and then
hopefully everything else you want to make money you want to you want to make a living that would
be really awesome but yeah you have to figure it out for yourself well and then to On Writing
with Stephen King there was another part to that book which was he'd established himself but now
he was needing to live a certain lifestyle in order to churn out pages and and changing that as
well so that's something that everyone just thinks if I can just get to this part but what about
sustaining that part so that's something that no we don't want to hear that part because it's all
going to be magical once we get there right that don't worry about me i'll be fine well we see the
challenge in front of us we don't always see and we don't always know what's going to be after that
that's another little thing that you go oh I didn't realize once I stepped
over the cliff I didn't realize oh there's another whole mountain that I have to climb.