Film Courage: How have you found your voice as an artist?
Sujata Day, Actor, Writer/Director: I've just written stories that I want to write I've never
tried to write something that I don't want to write and I'll explain that in a way that I've
been pitched certain books or IP and at first it'll be exciting but then I'm not I don't care
about this I don't care about this subject I don't care about this world so then I don't
do it so I don't do anything that I don't want to do and most of the time I'm excited about my
original stories and I'll get an idea whether I'm inspired by a moment in my life or I'm inspired by
a song or I'm inspired by a hike that I went on those are the things that excite me and keep me
going from from the seat of the idea to writing the outline to writing the entire script if I'm
not excited about that seed of the idea then I can't keep moving forward in order to finish that
script which is what I always want to do like I said I always want to have a finished product I
have a ton of friends who start scripts and then never finish them or like I said they start short
films and never finish them but I think the most important thing to do especially with the first
draft of writing a script is just finishing it the first draft is what I always call a vomit draft
and it's never any good but guess what it's 90 pages long great I've reached my goal of 90 Pages
now the hard work is rewrite getting the first draft so then I rewrite it and I get it to a place
where I think it's okay to be seen by the four or five people that I trust to give me good critical
notes on my scripts and then and then I get those notes and then I continue to rewrite continue to
rewrite but for me it's always about getting that page count to 90 Pages especially with the first
draft and then proceeding with the rewrites from there that's interesting do you think the
math science part of your brain has really trained you to make sure that you finish things that that
there's a that it all works out yeah yeah I really do and it's so strange because that because that
didn't click until a few years ago where where I'm really structured about writing scripts and okay
I'm gonna write 10 pages this week and then 10 pages next week and I write it down in my planner
and I cross it off once I'm done and I get to 20 40 60 80. and and that really excites me and so
I remember one thing from all of my engineering years I walked into my first class in college
and the teacher wrote out engineer equals problem solver and I said huh I said I am
a problem solver and I use that in all of my work I use that in my screenwriting okay well how do I
get this character out of this situation okay how do I how do I finish this script how do I
what's if I've already written the end how do I get there what are these middle scenes in between
even with being on set of Definition Please movie I kept thinking about engineer equals
Problem Solver and I was like okay we've lost this location how am I gonna problem solve
getting a location without freaking out my cast and crew in the meantime and so I do believe uh
my training as an engineer and in math and science has truly helped my artwork because even in
I mentioned that I also write poems and I write songs and I had written poems and then I got
together with my friend Will Collier who composes our music and he taught me the basic structure of
a song and I could take that structure and oh great I can definitely follow this formula to
write this song So once again that was my math mind writing an artistic song I love that if you
were to be the teacher at a screenwriting course or filmmaking and you wrote screenwriter equals
we actually have a chalkboard here but screenwriting equals and what would be
the other word on the end of the equal sign I'm gonna say Problem Solver okay
screenwriter equals problems okay because you're always solving problems you're you're coming up
with the premise and you're always putting your characters into problematic situations that
they have to get out of and only you can take them out of those situations and that's part
of what's exciting you let the characters guide you into their own stories and you
are now solving their problems okay and then actor equals
entertainer okay and last but not least filmmaker equals visionary I like it how
do what you're creating is coming from your unique voice what I'm excited about it so
something that was really fun for me on Definition Please movie is that when we started shooting
I the day before we started day one of shooting it felt like the way you feel before the first day
of school and I was really excited and I couldn't really get to sleep but I knew that I had to sleep
and that's when that's when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and you're telling a
story that's unique to you and your point of view when you're in that moment and he just can't wait
to wake up in the morning and get to work and tell the story that you've been living with for
a few years and that that's what's exciting to me when I can be excited about rewriting a script
that that I had poured my unique voice into and and be able to change that or adjust it and make
it a better story and I just get excited like I said during the during the pandemic when I was
pushing out all these scripts it was just a joy to sit at my laptop and get back into these lives
of the characters that I had created and in each one of those characters had their own
unique voice which wasn't necessarily mine so it was exciting to take on those roles as well
you say you don't take something on unless it excites you so you already know once you've
taken something on that you're committed to it you're not going to because some people
might be persuaded oh yeah all right I'll do it I'll do it but it sounds like you already
know you have a real definition inside of you that this is something I'm going to stick with
I have no problem saying no to things so I have walked away from a lot of big projects and ideas
that may have made me a lot of money but that I wasn't necessarily excited about so that that's
number one I listen to my voice I listen to how I feel when I'm reading something or being pitched
something and so I suppose I have the Marie condo philosophy of oh is this going to bring me joy and
generally if it's my original idea yes and then I continue on with that but if it's someone else's
idea then I really have to think about it and say okay is this going to bring me joy or am I going
to get stressed out and I'm not someone who gets stressed out ever so so those are my two questions
that I ask myself in terms of taking on a role or taking on someone else's work in terms of
writing or directing it so have you ever rethought something that you turned down and thought no oh
no you were very clear on it yeah very clear very clear on it I don't regret anything in my life and
a lot of people would say oh well don't you regret going to engineering school instead of going to
acting school or and getting an Arts education and like you mentioned I use my engineering and my
math and science background to create my scripts to create my stories and they have gone hand in
hand which is really exciting so I've I've never regretted anything any decisions that I've made
in the past what compels you to write different things different ideas I'm always inspired by
experiences so I think it's really important for writers to go out and experience life and not just
be sitting in their room all day and writing so something that I really loved from my upright
citizen Brigade improv and sketch classes one of the assignments that a teacher had given us was
go out and do something new this week something that you wouldn't necessarily do try something
new so I think during that class I ate insects for the first time which I didn't really love I
think I watched like an old action movie I'm not really into action movie so I just kind of watched
that and it was great because you have to expand your mind you have to learn about different things
and those things will inspire you so whether it's a character who's really into action movies
whether it's it's a scene at a restaurant where they're only serving insects whether it's so I
those different experiences will inspire something and strike a match in your brain for maybe not a
project that you're currently working on but maybe something in the future and so so I continue to
do that even after taking the class I continue to read something that I wouldn't normally read or or
try a new food that I that I wouldn't normally try and that's that's what's exciting to me just new
experiences I believe inspire me all the time how do you create a meaningful story think as
long as you're telling the story from your heart then other people will gravitate towards it so
I wanted to tell a story about a specific type of family that went through Universal problems and
I wasn't sure what an audience was gonna think about it and I really made it for myself and I
made it for my friends and family because I knew that they would enjoy it and then all
of a sudden different audiences were pulled towards it and really enjoying the film and
that was that was kind of a surprise to me but it's exciting to to find out that your story
that you put a lot of heart into is also emotionally affecting other people as well
did people come up to you after screenings I mean we didn't have a lot of screenings because of
covid oh so these stuff so so it was more through tweeting at me or direct messaging me or through
emails where I was learning that these these people these audience members who had watched
the movie really enjoyed it and really felt connected to it and felt something they felt seen
we talked about making sure you only do projects that you feel compelled to do
that you don't want to do something you don't want to go to something you don't want to be at
what's your thought on creating a story that's emotional versus one that's more commercial
I like them both I'm trying to create both stores I think it's possible to create
a commercial story with emotion and heart and I think that's that's the beauty of
making a big budget film and you can sneak heart in there
but show it to a wider audience and that's exciting to me I think I love comedy so I'm gonna
stick to comedic stories but even within that comedy I believe there's gotta be hard no matter
what budget you're making the project for and yeah I have ideas that are very commercial and I'm
looking at it for my own specific unique point of view and I haven't seen necessarily those stories
commercially out there yet so it's exciting to also create for a bigger budget
so you don't think there's commercial stories that have some type of a meaning maybe just a few out
there I think there are definitely commercial stories that have that have heart and meaning
and I think even more so today since studios are only making five or six movies a year they have
to find a way to make sure that these audiences coming in relate to these characters on a certain
level and are rooting for them and so that I mean for example I just watched a film and I don't know
if you would call it big budget but Barb and star go to Vista Del Mar and I thought it was so funny
so absurdly comedic but there is a story there about female friendships and and I just love that
and it it is a bigger budget film with with stars and so that that's the kind of work that I'd love
to make at some point sure was that an A24 movie that was a Lionsgate oh okay all right I thought
I've seen trailers for it and I looked cute I was like okay I would watch it it's great I loved it.