Film Courage: Should a writer aim for a certain amount of rejections per year and if they’re
not getting those rejections then [maybe] that means they’re probably not getting
out there enough?
Is that an interesting way to look at it or maybe I am being too negative here?
That is entirely possible.
Kathie Fong Yoneda: You know, I don’t know if there is such a thing as a certain number
of rejections.
Whether you are setting the bar for something for failure or not.
Instead I would turn it around and say Okay, I think once a week set a goal for doing at
least one piece of marketing or two pieces of marketing.
I think that’s a better way of looking at it than saying “Okay I’ve had ten, I’ve
reached the threshold of ten rejections this month so I’m not going to do anything now.”
That to me is more negative.
So I would say “Okay let’s do this in a week.
Why don’t I look up five different places that I can send out letters or that I can
send emails to or why don’t I look up ten different resources for screenwriting competitions
or something.
Doing something like that I think is much more productive because you never know when
one of those are going to come.
But to just say “Well, okay if I did this many rejections then that means I quit.”
Because who knows if you didn’t do that next one.
Film Courage: Define pieces of marketing?
Kathie Fong Yoneda: Marketing just means making the effort to get out there whether it’s
posting something…there are places that there are places that you can post your story
ideas and your synopses and then if someone is interested they will then contact you and
then you can let them look at your script and you can get your script read.
So you can post your projects, to me it’s not just posting a project it’s also like
making plans to enter a competition, making plans to go to a conference or something.
Those are positive things that are moving in the direction and you have to invest in
yourself.
I understand that people go “Yeah but it costs money to enter a competition.”
Or “Yeah it costs money to go to a conference.”
Well if you’re really serious about it you have to make the investment in yourself somehow
and so maybe you have to be a little bit more frugal about things.
Okay maybe I can only spend ten dollars or something or twenty dollars or whatever it
is a week that I’m going to sock that away for it but whatever it is to you make those
plans.
I have clients who did it for years before something happened for them but now things
are working for them or they really feel like they can’t stop and they’re really doing
some good work.
And it takes a lot of time.
You can’t just expect it to happen overnight because it doesn’t and certainly that survey
I took of all those professional writers proves that it doesn’t work overnight.
It took that one writer who did twelve scripts before he got an agent.
I think he said he wrote those twelve scripts over fifteen years?
Film Courage: Oh, wow!
And it sounds like you were very surprised to hear that number as well?
Kathie Fong Yoneda: I was.
This is a guy who was a top writer.
You would think that something must have happened and that right away it would continue and
continue.
And also like the one gal who on her first script got somebody to read it and buy it
but it took her five years and four more scripts before she got somebody to option her second
one and it never got made unfortunately they optioned it at a studio and then a new set
of people came in and they didn’t want to continue with that particular script but you
never know I mean that’s how this business is.
Film Courage: You know, I am hearing this a lot “a regime change.”
And how should someone stay current because it is difficult when a new group of people
who don’t know you and maybe they had sort of a relationship with you [previously with
the old group] come in.
How do you ingratiate yourself to a new regime?
Kathie Fong Yoneda: Well, it’s hard to personally do that.
But to be aware of it what you need to do is and especially if you have a writer’s
group if you guys together get a subscription to The [Hollywood] Reporter or Variety or
whatever one you choose and you guys share that subscription and in fact there are people’s
who have writers groups where people take turns doing it so that once a month they rattle
off “Okay, here’s what I read and here’s the latest news that I’ve gotten.”
Then the next person next month another person does it.
So that everybody is well-read but reports everything back to everyone and I think that’s
a nice way of being able to do it.
It’s networking but it’s also getting out really good solid information.
Hey, so-and-so is no longer at the head of this.
This production company hired a new story editor.
It’s information that is valuable to the whole group and that’s how you keep current.
Naturally if you have an agent or a manager they should already know these things but
don’t count and this is another (I think) mistake that a lot of writers make.
They feel that if they have an agent or a manager they don’t need to do anything.
And one of my friends, one of my best friends actually has won an Oscar.
And she tells me that a lot her, a lot of the things that happen, it’s not because
she has an agent or a manager.
It’s because she made the effort to go out and talk to people and find out what was going
on and even though she lives out of town (she doesn’t live in Los Angeles) but she keeps
up with email and phone calls and she is in touch with a lot of the producers and production
people that she used to do business with when she was living down here and she says it’s
been the most valuable lesson that she’s learned to keep those contacts and send Christmas
cards.
Or give them a call every once in a while.
And you’d be surprised.
One of the things is that she happened to write a movie for somebody who was a star
of a television show.
And I’m not going to mention the name of it or anything but that actress her star really
rose and what happened is my friend happened to see her at a Writer’s Guild event and
went up to her and talked to her and the woman looked at her and she goes “Oh my gosh.
You’re the one who wrote the script for that movie of the week that helped my career
shoot up!”
And it was like she remembered her name because of that I think.
And so she says “If you get a chance, if you’re writing something and you think I
might be good for it, please let me take a look at it.”
And sure enough a year later my friend sent it to her and they took a look at it.
They don’t know if anything has come of it yet.
But I do know that it’s something that is on their mind so it’s on their radar and
they might be doing it.
There’s other material that she’s doing (other commitments she has) so you never know.