AW Gryphon - Author - Screenwriter - Producer
A W Gryphon applied to USC Film School, didn't get in, but went to classes until they let her in... graduated with top grades and landed herself a job in the lingerie dept. at Nordstrom's... called every movie in Variety until a low budget film agreed to let her work for free... forced her way in the door and landed a paying job making coffee... then worked her way through the ranks with a smile one step at a time to arrive at this moment.......
Success. I feel like the label of, “success” found me because I know I’ve always had the essence of it, if that makes any sense. Regardless of perceptions about who I am and what I’ve done, I have always felt that I am a successful person and that I’m good at what I do. I know that may sound nauseatingly poetic, but I’m okay with that. It’s true. I’m a working author/screenwriter/songwriter and I couldn’t be happier or more grateful. The way I see it, I’ve always had great success with the artistic endeavors in my life, it’s just that now that I’ve fine tuned the craft, and been graced with a little luck, so people have decided to start writing me checks! “Thank You” to all of those people!
It all started when a barely graduated high school. After a tour through community college in the San Francisco Bay Area, I applied to the renowned USC School of Cinema Television.
I didn’t get in. I was accepted into the University, but not the film school. For me that was no problem. I went anyway. I signed up for all of the basic Cinema classes and took a job at the Cinema Study Center. The University asked me to declare a major, I said, “Cinema. Thank you.” They asked again, and again I declared, “Cinema.” They suggested, “Gerontology” – No shit – and, again, I declared, “Cinema.” The back and forth with this argument went on through the middle of my second semester. Finally, I was able to re-apply with the help of two enthusiastic professors and a wonderful TA. The persistence paid off.
I got in, and I savored every minute of every class. I also aced most of them. High school hadn’t been an issue for me because I didn’t have the smarts; I simply didn’t have the interest. College was a different story all together. If I was independently wealthy, I might still be there.
After graduation, I had no plan, no money, and no connections in Hollywood, but I was ready to take on the world. I landed myself a job in the Nordstrom’s lingerie department and after searching high and low for that Hollywood break, it came! I was an art department intern on an independent film staring David Arquette called “Johns,” which had, Beau Flynn, at the helm trying out his Producing Skills for the first time. Looking back on it, this was six days a week of grueling, filthy work in some of the raunchiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I was making a movie.
Getting your foot in the door is your ticket to everything in the entertainment industry and, wow, am I glad I did it right! From “Johns” I was off to a job on a TV show at Disney called, “Nowhere Man” and from there the Mouse House took very good care of me. I did a number of TV shows, Movies of the Week and Feature Films while coming up through the production ranks and learning how a film is made from start to finish. I couldn’t have been in a better position to learn and grow while finding my place as a creative force. I began writing screenplays, song lyrics, short stories, poems… anything and everything that hit me. I watched, I listened, I learned, and I participated when I was invited to help in the creative process of others.
At a certain point I had the craft, the talent, the confidence and the connections. I had the platform to make my personal and creative success a viable commodity. It took a while, quite a while, but people started to look at my work and return my calls. People were interested, and interested and interested. That went on for a while… and then the greatest thing happened, someone put their money where their mouth was and bought a script! It was great. Shortly after I had a script optioned, then another, and another… and now I’m writing this lovely bit for “Shapes of Success” while I’m celebrating my first novel, “Blood Moon,” hitting store shelves (I visited my book at Barnes & Noble just this morning. I do that sometimes), and a film that I wrote, “La Cucina” has just been accepted into a two more film festivals, (the Fantasporto International Film Festival in Portugal, April 2008 and the Bragacine Film Festival in Portugal, December 2008), making that a total of seven; we’ve taken home “Best Picture” at two festivals already. It’s nice. I’m happy. Life is good. Life is Successful. Cheers to Success!
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