Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kayla Sun. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

After I graduated from film school, I focused on promoting my short films and writing new scripts. And I was suddenly approached by someone from a talent agency, telling me that there is a narrative sci-fi short film looking for writers to pitch. They have a very good budget to provide for s medium size crew and everyone would be paid decently, and we were getting paid to just put together the pitch. As a new filmmaker it was a super good opportunity and I almost didn’t believe that I was being seriously considered. Still, I put a lot of effort into the writing pitch. And they asked me all of the sudden: you also direct, right? Could you also do a directing pitch? So I also put together a directing deck and did the directing pitch, and they really liked my take. I basically knew that I was hired right in the meeting. Eventually they hired me to direct the film and it was one of the best experiences I’ve had. I felt really validated. It felt like I finally had an outlet to utilize all the knowledge I learned about filmmaking and storytelling.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a writer director repped by Bellevue and CAA.
I grew up loving writing, and telling stories, and debated between writing novels and making films for a while. I went to Vanderbilt University and studied art and economics. I briefly worked in the art world in New York, but my heart was leaning towards storytelling, so I started out learning, filmmaking, and doing projects by myself. With a short film I shot in New York, I was accepted to USC graduate school for film and television production.
I knew that to become a filmmaker I needed to be very proactive, so I wrote stories and scripts on a regular basis, and applied to many grants and fellowships. I was very lucky to receive the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation production grant for my thesis film, “The Code of Family”, a story about an Asian grandma trying to learn computer science behind her family’s back. It was well received and won many awards among film festivals.
Other than the short film, I had scripts place in competitions regularly and my feature script “Boy Girl Fig” won the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, which resulted in me finding my manager and agent.
As a repped writer director in LA, my job is mainly to create new stories, working with production companies to package the projects, as well as pitching on projects that need writers or directors to be attached. I pivot towards grounded stories with high concepts, especially in fantasy and sci-fi genres. I have a good sense of storytelling, and as I also speak Chinese and Japanese, I have an advantage when it comes to stories related to Asian culture.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When you work in the entertainment industry, I suggest you get in contact with entertainment lawyers early on and don’t be shy to use their services. People imagine lawyers to be very expensive and they will cost hundreds if not thousands for just a consultation or for one deal. That is not the case in the entertainment industry. They only take a small percentage of what you earn if the deal goes through, meaning that they don’t get paid any money if you don’t earn any money. Lawyers are really protective of talents. This job exists for a reason and I wish I knew about this earlier.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative?
Working as a storyteller makes me more curious about everything in this world. I used to find a lot of subjects very boring, and I only cared about a small amount of things that I was personally interested in. But the more I write stories and try to craft stories, I realize how much more I need to learn about. So now I pay more attention to different things happening in the world, and I am more willing to delve into areas that I never thought I would have any interest in. I think this helped me grow and opened up a lot of possibilities, and I made a lot more friends interacting with people working in different professions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kayla-sun.com/
• Instagram: @sun_kayla
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kayla.sun.35/

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