You Only Need One Yes

Conversations from the Archive
April 2015
BinderCon Los Angeles

Love and Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees, Beyond the Lights, Gina Prince-Bythewood
Keri Putnam, Executive Director, Sundance Institute

Excerpts:

Gina Prince-Bythewood: When I was twelve, our TV broke, and my parents didn’t buy another one until I was in high school. We were shocked and horrified.

In high school, I became obsessed with soap operas. I read an article about how much soap opera writers made and thought, “I want to do that.”

[However], I’m sitting here because my parents put us in sports at age four. I played soccer. The boys didn’t want us there, but my parents said, “Keep playing.”

[As a result,] I was good or even better than the boys.

Sports is everything. Sports taught me to trust myself, [and sports taught me] swagger. Talent has no gender. Put your daughters in sports. Ninety percent of female CEOs played sports.

I applied to UCLA film school. Back then, there were seven-hundred applicants for twelve spots. I got rejected. I had my little freakout. Then, the next day I asked to appeal. I wrote a letter to the head of the film school about why she made a mistake.

She called me and said, “You’re in.” This set the tone for my career. Film school is a safe space to fail.

Keri Putnam: It’s about clarity of where you want to head, clarity of what you want.

Prince-Bythewood: That was definitely the heyday (referring to The Cosby Show).

Putnam: That’s the power of the media to shape the culture and how generations of people feel about themselves.

Prince-Bythewood: Nine times out of ten, if you walk into a room to pitch your script, you’ll walk into a room of men.

[When I pitched Love and Basketball, I told myself,] “Pretend you’re walking out onto the basketball court.”

You’ll hear a thousand noes. You just need one yes. I write to direct. Writing is extremely painful. My husband writes very fast. It’s frustrating. Tears. Weight gain. Self-loathing. I write to direct to protect what I cried over.

[With TV writing,] you pour over something and hand it over to the director. I would sneak around and whisper notes to the actors, which you’re not supposed to do.

[When I first tackled a screenplay,] I tried to write something that sells. I struggled. This other story I cared about was in the back of my head. I was lying to myself and listening to other voices.

Putnam: We read scripts from writers who are second-guessing what someone else wants. That never works.

Prince-Bythewood: We all have a story only we can tell. I implore you to write what you’re passionate about, a story you have to tell.

Love and Basketball took me many, many drafts for a year and a half. It got turned down by every studio. They thought it was too soft, but I don’t have a pile of rejected scripts because I stick with it. It’s about the ability to have perseverance to fight and fight and fight until you get that one yes.

Surround yourself with people who are brutally honest. Don’t go out with something that’s not ready yet.

Sony optioned [Beyond the Lights]. We disagreed for a year about casting. [I lost Sony and my producers simultaneously.] I shot an eight-and-a-half-minute presentation [with the actors I wanted] and paid everyone $100. Then I went back to the studios.

Then I decided to raise the money and do it myself. After two years of struggling and BET giving me funding, I found a studio.

I wrote fifty-five drafts of Beyond the Lights.

Putnam: It’s important to have a clear idea of what kind of storyteller you are.

Prince-Bythewood: I had drive and vision early. I actually drive my agents crazy. I tell them, “I need to get this story made.”

I balance having an ego with writing about what other people care about. [I ask myself,] “Are people going to care?”

Putnam: Cultivate a writing community, a sounding board. [You need] honest feedback to push you.

Prince-Bythewood: It starts with a story. Cast it very well. Always be clear of your vision—what you want to put into the world—because people will have opinions about it. Don’t compromise vision. Compromise if it makes the story better. Be open.