Meet Amy Sullivan of Little Mischief Productions in Burbank

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Sullivan.

Amy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I told my parents at age seven, I’d be moving to Los Angeles after it was very apparent that that’s where all the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movies were filmed. After graduating from Boston University for Film/Television, I moved to LA and started immediately telling people I’d like to be the next Tina Fey.

When that (shockingly) fell on deaf ears, I took a job in the film industry, starting off my career-path at the infamous Weinstein Company as an Acquisitions intern. An internship really did not pay the bills so I also worked in publicity, then became a cocktail waitress at a country club, then a nanny, then an event planner, a brief stint as a wedding dress saleswoman, and then finally landed the coveted role that would inspire my first play and many mental breakdowns: an “Assistant in Hollywood”.

I had held so many jobs before the age of 24 that I entered Assistant-hood as a pretty well-rounded and savvy kid; I knew a little bit (emphasis on “little”) about a lot of stuff and had creative solutions to problems and a different approach to basic tasks. I like to think my fear of commitment helped me be a great assistant in those early days because my inability to hold down a job elsewhere gave me a wide knowledge of the world and the people in it.

Pretty early on in my time as a support staff member, I got to observe an official writer’s room. I’ll never forget it: we were delivering lunch, a writer spilled something, someone cracked a joke about it, the whole room laughed and they wrote it into the script. That little embarrassing blunder was made into a situation that would be said in a movie for the entire world to hear. I started thinking of all the times I had said a joke in my life and how most of them were ill-received because they were, of course, during inappropriate times like a break-up or a funeral. But then I started thinking: “…What if I could get paid to tell jokes at the RIGHT time?”. And that one question started me on the path to become a writer.

I worked for a few very notable film producers who were amazing influences on me and my work ethic but it wasn’t until I landed a job as a Showrunner’s Assistant at ABC that I felt I was really on the right track. As soon as I saw how a TV show worked, something just clicked inside and I realized this was it. The free food on set didn’t hurt either; none of my pants fit anymore but I was happy!

Over the years since that day in the writer’s room, I have refined what I want to do and how I want to approach being a writer: I still dream of being the next Tina Fey, I still enjoy acting, I’ve added doing stand-up comedy to the mix, and I’m now also a playwright. I often write roles for myself in projects and while I once feared that was narcissistic, I’ve been so recently inspired by the long-list of multi-hyphenate creators out there that I realized it’s okay to write content for yourself, as long as you’re a generous and kind collaborator with the team you bring on to execute your vision. I read Mindy Kaling’s book “Why Not Me?” and since then, I’ve decided to get more comfortable in asking for what I want and being bold in the way I go about it. I have picked & chosen what areas of this industry I enjoy and plan on building a career as someone who is flexible, dynamic and multi-faceted.

Has it been a smooth road?
Oh hell no, it has not always been a smooth road. I have been fired, I have been embarrassed, I have messed up massively. I struggled with a lack of focus early on in my LA career and got way too wrapped up in my social life. Because of that, I didn’t practice any of my “crafts” and I just assumed I would be talented enough once someone gave me a shot at it. But after seeing that everyone else but me seemed to be getting a shot, I realized that this industry doesn’t give turns to people who don’t work hard. I had to accept that this industry is not a 9-5 gig and that the weekends are just as important as Monday through Friday. Once I started eagerly wanting to learn more about writing, meet fellow playwrights, take more acting classes, organize a standup show, collaborate with fellow comedians, and just generally accept the learning curve that comes, that was the moment things got smoother for me. Now I am on a good roll, I have lots of projects in the works, lots of people to call when I feel unmotivated, and a much more productive work/life balance.

Please tell us about Little Mischief Productions.
Little Mischief Productions is my small production company that is the masthead for all projects I am apart of. I formed it mostly so I can’t get sued but it’s become a very fun, irreverent production company that specializes in dark comedy, coming-of-age stories, and of course not getting sued. I am proud of the diverse group of people I’ve brought in to collaborate with and the different life experiences they bring to the table. For instance, for an upcoming short film I wrote called Not That Kind of Love Story which is about a millennial who’s starting to question if the way she drinks isn’t normal, I’m working with a director named Jordan Maranto (she was also interviewed by Voyage!) who has such a fresh, quirky take on the world. She brought on her friend Homero Salinas to DP whose creative vision will be such a breath of fresh air to this project that is very personal to me. Also with Little Mischief Productions is my one-act comedy The Canary that will premiere at the Hollywood Fringe Theater Festival this summer; I am collaborating with director Matt Soson (ALSO interviewed by Voyage! The world is tiny) as well as an all-new cast who I’ve never worked with before either. The play is a love letter to working in Hollywood as an assistant and is just a comedic explosion of witty jokes, feather explosions and the Pocahantas soundtrack. Little Mischief Productions also has done proof of concept shorts as well as product sizzles for start-ups and we even did a CATS parody video for Rob Gronkowski leaving the Patriots, effectively calling the music video: PATS. I am proud of the diverse slate of projects we have as well as the diverse line-up of collaborators we work with.

By the way! Quick plug! Come see The Canary this year at Hollywood Fringe Festival, premiering on The Broadwater Main Stage. Check out the site for all updated info (performances may change due to the coronavirus outbreak and the theater’s need to push: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6472)

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Very tough to say. Obviously, with the rise of short-form content, these new companies like Quibi and FictoTV are becoming an easy way to digest content quicker than ever. It begs the question of if you can effectively tell a full story within 6 minutes instead of 30, 60 or 120 minutes. And while that’s scary because it challenges all these other “accepted ways”, it’s also very creatively-stimulating. Even in Instagram comedy videos, you’re restricted to just one minute of content most of the time and while some argue that that doesn’t always lend to incredible filmmaking (my personal Instagram videos are a testament to that), people who never went to film school are finding more and more ways to heighten and enhance their videos. It just shows that this industry is becoming more accessible and that we are all actively seeking new stories and new formats to tell them in. More and more often, I see development deals happening at studios with standup comedians and Instagram personalities which just shows that everyone has a story to tell and everyone tells their story differently: through vlogging, comedy videos, pranks, jokes, storytelling or how-to videos. It’s really cool to watch how it’s all unfolding and this industry, which used to be so hard to crack into, is becoming a little less cliquey for those who have something to say.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.littlemischiefproductions.com
• Phone: 203-216-4150
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/amsullz
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/amsullz
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/amsullz
• Other: http://hff20.co/6472

Image Credit:
Andrew Max Levy

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