Desk of Amy Suto

TV writer who eats danger for breakfast

Working in Hollywood and the Cost of Ambition

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37th College Television Emmys at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)
37th College Television Emmys at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

In a whirlwind two months, I graduated from USC with a degree in screenwriting, won some shiny things from USC and from the Television Academy for the series I wrote and created, started full-time as an assistant to an awesome TV lit agent at Verve, and made some incredible new friends.

college television emmys television foundationYet not everything survived the transition into the real world, and I ended yet another relationship that crumbled in the face of my long hours and steadfast dedication to my career. It’s no secret that the path to becoming a TV writer is a long road that requires both the fortitude and portfolio to succeed in a sea of overqualified candidates, and while I’m in it for the long haul, sometimes the people I date see my love for my work as a limitation instead of a key part of who I am. [Read more…]

Inside the USC Writing for Screen and Television BFA Program

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USC undergraduate symposium CON nomination
Nominated for CON in the Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and creative work. Left: Jen Enfield-Kane, Audrey Emerson, Amy Suto

Because I’m graduating soon, it’s about time that the nostalgia hit full force. Tonight is my last USC class, ever, and it’s all beginning to sink in.

I’ve been doing a few panels for admitted screenwriters and have been answering a lot of questions about the program, so I thought I’d write about what it’s been like going to school here for the Writing for Screen and Television program. The program itself is harder to get into than Harvard Law, and I’m part of a class of something like 25 other screenwriters. Not everyone can handle the pressure of the program, and not everyone will leave still wanting to be a writer.

Coming out of USC, I’ve written four original pilots, two TV spec episodes (one comedy, one drama), three features, 50 pages of a novel, and over two hours of original series that were also produced.

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in a writer’s room with Jack Hackett and Maggie Admire for a short film

That’s roughly 860 script pages and 50 novel pages, and that’s not counting the dozens of short films, short stories, and writing exercises required for my classes.

I’ve won a few awards, am nominated for a College Television Emmy, and am slowly beginning to enter the professional marketplace with two of my low-budget features I hope to get made, so the program has been a success —  but abandon sleep all ye who enter here! The program is intense, your professors will push you to your limits, your classmates will tell you that you can do better, and you get out of the USC WST program what you put into it.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the classes I took and what my experience has been like:  [Read more…]

A Week in the Life: Showrunning, Writing, and Sleeping (Sometimes?)

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Since January, I’ve been inhaling coffee and painting my calendar red, as this semester has been the most insane yet: by May, I will have written 210 screenplay pages, produced over 120 minutes of the dramatic scripted TV miniseries CON, and will have met several career milestones, such as getting my first feature assignment, being nominated for a college television Emmy, and graduating from USC’s Writing for Screen and Television program (also known as the Writing on Zero Hours of Sleep program) and to top it all off still maintain some semblance of a social life.

On top of this I work two jobs — one at Verve (the Literary and Talent Agency that reps Meg Lefauvre, Colin Treverrow, and other amazing writers and directors) and the other as a Resident Assistant in Webb.

So if you see me on campus and I’m running to one thing or the next or typing furiously it’s because I’ve got to hit deadlines so maybe, just maybe, I can get some sleep — but it’s all worth it as I get to work with some of the greatest filmmakers at USC and do what I love.

amy suto con trenchcoat

which is wearing trenchcoats in 80 degree weather

A Snapshot of My Week

Saturdays and Sundays. On a typical weekend when I’m not on duty as an RA, I spend 20+ hours on set, helping keep things moving on schedule and make sure all the logistics I put into place with the help of our amazing producers and AD’s throughout the week (location contacts, crafty orders, shooting schedule, etc.) happens smoothly. On our show, we have a 1st AD who is in charge of the crew, a line producer help take care of the nitty gritty details, and us executive producers take care of all the paperwork on and off-set and deal directly with the Trojan Vision and film school administrators (and drive the golf cart!) [Read more…]

Miami Short Film: “Never Say Neverland”

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Screen Shot 2015-09-05 at 4.02.55 PMIMG_6411image1  IMG_6413

So some really amazing filmmakers in Miami are producing a short I wrote called “Never Say Neverland.” It’s a take on Peter Pan where Peter is a patient in an insane asylum under Dr. Hook’s care, and Wendy is a psychiatrist who tries to talk him out of his delusions of a place called Neverland.

Alexandra Mazza is producing and you can check out the project details here! 

This script is dear to my heart and I’m so excited to see it come to life. It never would have been made had Alexandra not contacted me, so this is one of those circumstances where it would have stayed in my drawer of scripts forever had Alexandra not reached out.

Looking forward to share with you the final product!

-Amy

Trailers and Time Management

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The past 8 months have been filled with the creation of this television miniseries, which is airing September 10th on Trojan Vision 8.1. The series will also be available online at ConTVShow.com. If you want to know more about the series, you can read interviews on that website so I don’t sound like a broken record every time I blog about this series. Anyways, I’m incredibly proud of how the trailer came out, and can’t wait to share the series! It was a challenge to get the show made and on the air, and every hurdle was worth it.

Secrets to Time Management

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My schedule on any given week is a pretty good visual representation of a high-pitched scream: filled with meetings and mandatory events and classes and work. My to-do list isn’t a list, more of a set of grids organized by category and day of the week and urgency.

So on the occasion where I’m asked how I find the time to do X or Y, the answer is that I know how to prioritize. This entanglement of commitments can be brushed aside for the right task or person.

Prioritizing can be challenging because no one wants to sacrifice on one aspect of their life. But if you can’t figure out what you’re willing to set aside for something else, everything on your plate will suffer.Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 7.38.38 PM

Here’s how I divide my priorities: [Read more…]

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