Fox Movie Channel

Greenlight Yourself by Jessica Mollo

Working on Life After Film School has been a phenomenal experience and I have learned a great deal, but one of the most invaluable things I have taken from the show so far is this: You have to sell yourself--as a person, a filmmaker, and a colleague.  What a lot of film students, especially screenwriters, tend to overlook is the fact that although we wish we could live like Thoreau and escape to the woods and write in a bubble of our own creative intentions, we have to face the big, bad world of Hollywood.  No one comes knocking on our doors if we do not proactively represent our work and ourselves. 

What that means: we have to interact with producers and studio execs, other writers, and sometimes directors and actors as well.  And most importantly, we have to know how to pitch.  For those unfamiliar with the word pitch, it is a term which signifies that a writer convince another party on the merit, marketability, and badass-ness of a particular project such as an original screenplay.  We not only have to be writers, we have to be actors and businessmen.  Each pitch meeting is like an audition, except you're the only one who knows the lines. 

Life After Film School has aided in preparing me for such auditions.  The numerous call-back auditions for a spot on the show forced me to become comfortable with a camera and, in a sense, market myself as a worthy participant.  The episodes themselves helped me forge a professional persona and made me feel at ease with professionals in this industry, even those who I totally admire (and may still get a little star struck for - like Mr. Rainn Wilson).   

Participating on the show has provided me with the courage to let my inner confidence emerge and has shed some light on the fact that big name actors, writers, directors, and producers are people too, like me.  And what's more - they have been through the very trials and tribulations that I, as a recent film school grad, find myself in: pitching to producers, trying to find that next job, and essentially dealing with the reality of this business.  They are me.  And that is a huge relief.  It makes me think that we are all in this together.  Hollywood may be a scary, cruel, mercurial place, but we have all had or will have a round in Dante's Inferno.  And hopefully, in the course of our careers, we will all have a round in Shangri-La.

During my time on LAFS, I have learned that Hollywood is a business of cogency.  It is in our best interest to convince others that our projects need to get made, that the industry will benefit, that viewers will benefit.  This cogency all starts with attitude.  

I may have a great team of agents and a fabulous manager behind me, cheering for me in the stands, but they won't be in the room with me when it comes time to pitch.  Moreover, they would not be as zealous about helping me land work if I didn't believe in myself first and foremost. 

 

On a recent episode, Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant (the masterminds behind Reno 911!: Miami and the Night at the Museum films) put it this way: Anytime you can greenlight yourself, or do as much as you can yourself, you should do it...You should think of it not as 'I gotta get my script in there.'  You should think 'I gotta get myself in there.'