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MSU film grad says perseverance is key to career in Hollywood
October 22, 2008 -- Carol Schmidt, MSU News
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| MSU film graduate T.J. Lynch said perseverance is essential for anyone seeking a sustained career in Hollywood. Lynch has been working in the film industry for two decades and has found his greatest successes in small stories from his big home state of Montana. Photo courtesy of T.J. Lynch and the MSU Collegian. |
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It's been more than two decades since TJ Lynch, who graduated from MSU in 1986, answered the siren's song and left MSU with a student Emmy and a coveted internship in Hollywood. He has been in Los Angeles for 22 years, but he has found his stars in small stories from his big home state.
Lynch is a screenwriter whose script about an incident from his Billings childhood was made into "A Plumm Summer." The feature film starring Henry Winkler of "Happy Days" debuted last spring to critical praise, if modest audiences.
Next summer, Lynch hopes to direct another of his Montana-based scripts, "The Beginning of Wisdom." That script won Lynch two prestigious awards and a great deal of credibility in Hollywood. In 1999 he won the Nicholl Fellowship, one of industry's most prestigious awards for aspiring screenwriters, as well as the Carl Sautter Memorial Screenwriting Award in 1998.
Still, Lynch jokes that sustained work in Hollywood is an exercise in perseverance.
"I encourage (students interested in a career in Hollywood) to take a very honest look at themselves and their abilities and their determination," Lynch said.
"Certainly, if you want to be a filmmaker it's a difficult road."
Lynch's road to Hollywood actually began as an aspiring director. Lynch grew up in Billings to a family that operated a flying service and aircraft distributorship. Lynch said recently that his family never really did understand what he was trying to accomplish or why. And while he's sure they would have preferred he go into the family business, they always encouraged him to do what he wanted to do.
"That's a gift many people aren't given by their families," Lynch said.
After he arrived in Los Angeles, Lynch got work as a lighting designer and gaffer in television and movies. It is work he continues to do on commercials and industrial films to support his screenwriting. He said he had already been in Hollywood for a few years when he began dabbling in screenwriting. He found he had both the aptitude and interest for writing and taught himself the craft by attending workshops and working in his off hours. Her was so successful that he was one of five winners of Nicholl Fellowships in 1999, a year that there were more than 4,600 entries for the fellowship awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to beginning screenwriters. He wrote "A Plumm Summer" after receiving a $30,000 cash stipend from the Nicholl Fellowship. Nearly a decade later, Lynch calls the award "A great stroke of luck."
"Plumm" attracted a great cast, as well as director Caroline Zelder, who also produced the film with Frank Antonelli. Former major league pitcher Scott Erickson served as executive producer, as did his wife Lisa Guerrero, who also starred as the character 'Roxie' in the film. The film was shot in Montana two years ago and included Gov. Brian Schweitzer in a small role as the sheriff. Lynch said the principals of the film expect that it will do well in DVD distribution.
"(The film) should find its audience now," Lynch said, adding that family films have a hard time currently succeeding financially. "It's hard to get all the kids in minivan and go see a movie when you can watch DVD or film on our televisions."
Lynch said profitable movies today cater to the 16-24 year-old demographic that flocks to action and horror movies. Lynch admits that one day soon, he, too may cater to that audience. He has recently finished a script for a horror feature that he really likes.
"It turned out quite well," Lynch said of his first horror script, joking that he's adapted the attitude of "if you can't beat them join them." "I enjoyed writing it immensely ... The potential is there to make a good, innovative movie." He said he is also working on a second horror script with a writing partner.
Lynch said he has no plans to abandon the Montana stories, the jewels for which he is known.
"I'm finishing another small, intimate Montana story, although I expect that it will be another hard sell," Lynch said. "We'll see where that goes."
Lynch also has a novel in the works. But he remains as devoted to filmmaking as he is to his native state.
"I've made a commitment to this career," Lynch said. "So, I have to follow it through."
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| [View or Download] | 1. | MSU film graduate T.J. Lynch said perseverance is essential for anyone seeking a sustained career in Hollywood. Lynch has been working in the film industry for two decades and has found his greatest successes in small stories from his big home state of Montana. Photo courtesy of T.J. Lynch and the MSU Collegian. |
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