#325 Tonya Todd on Writing, Filmmaking and Inclusion

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, good. Sandra, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 225 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be the most creatively inspiring vampire ish episode of all time with me is the amazing Tonya Todd, author, actress, podcaster director. We're diving deep into the world of independent creative movie making book writing. If you want to be inspired, you've come to the right place. That's coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds. Last week, Darcy Monae join me the hidden rows of Napoleon Dynamite. That's right. She was the voice that sang the rose in Napoleon Dynamite uncredited, we share the whole story that was part of our Napoleon Dynamite 20th anniversary celebration. But speaking of celebrations, Tonya Todd is here. She's now becoming a regular on our live show. She's a podcaster. actress, director, author, you're gonna love my conversation with Tonya Todd. Enjoy. All right, everyone. I'm excited to introduce my next guest, author, actress, director, teacher. Welcome to the show. Tonya Todd, what's up now

Tonya Todd 2:06

and thank you for that and your audience. I understand the hesitation was the way you're talking about name pronunciation, right.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:14

It's tiny. Now I got it. Now. Now again, it will just roll off my tongue. Now, Tonya, it's like how else would you say Tonya?

Tonya Todd 2:22

There are so many ways people pronounce my name is the

Jeff Dwoskin 2:25

hardest name I've ever had to pronounce. Probably not to add to stand up comedy. I did once introduce the stocky ICANN INNOPOLIS. Yeah, far more fun. And you can imagine how wrong I got it. And like here it is probably 15 years later. And I can just go because Dalkia con Annapolis. Right?

Tonya Todd 2:43

Once you get it wrong, publicly, you have to ingrain it into your memory the correct way to say it when you'll never need to say it again.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:51

Right, exactly. So Tonya, you do everything. You're an author, an actress, a director, a teacher, anything else did I leave anything else? Or cast podcasts or Olympic swimmer? I want I just threw in. I've heard about why not everything else? If you were to put those in order what was in your elevator pitch? I would

Tonya Todd 3:13

probably just encompass it under storyteller because so many of those elements touch that. But if I had to choose one as my main it would be writer. So

Jeff Dwoskin 3:22

now when we say writer, do you prefer books or screenwriting?

Tonya Todd 3:26

I do? Both?

Jeff Dwoskin 3:27

I know you do both. But like, which do you prefer?

Tonya Todd 3:30

I prefer writing books. Because you get to put more of the world into a book where you know, screenplays are so stark. You can you can say some things. But really, it's a collaboration when you're doing your screenplay and you're just suggesting the things that you think would create this world. Once it's in the director's hands. It's not really your baby anymore.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:50

So books is the ultimate kind of control for a writer. Yes.

Tonya Todd 3:55

If you have to pin me down for Why yes, it's the control factor. I like that control

Jeff Dwoskin 4:01

is not bad. It's an artistic thing. I think anyone who's artistic in any way understands like, well, if I go and I do my thing, I want to do my thing. If I got to do my thing, and then be told well, few notes for you, Tonya. Yeah, it makes sense. I totally get it. You know, I was doing stint as verified as doing stand up comedy wise and I'm walking on stage and they're like, maybe be a little peppier than normal. Not much tip. As you're walking on stage like that would be the equivalent of like a screenwriter notes when I was like, because it really just screwed in my head. No time in the last hour. We could have brought this off.

Tonya Todd 4:38

You could be prepared and not just going into it. I don't think you're good enough.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:43

So you live in in Las Vegas? Yes, Philly, born right. You're not Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sorry, by Pennsylvania. I don't know why. Right here born in Pennsylvania. But Pennsylvania born I'm going to edit it and it'll just sound like I knew the hell I was talking about Pennsylvania. Born When you're in Pennsylvania, what what was sort of the early sparks that allowed you to follow this creative path? When did you know like, this is what I got to do. This is who I am.

Tonya Todd 5:10

I was here already, by the time I started considering myself an artist. So it wasn't in Pennsylvania that I learned any of that. It's just where my family is, and where I really developed more love of cats and animals in Pennsylvania. And when I realized that I didn't have what it took to be a veterinarian, because I can't handle emotionally being around sick or dead animals, you have to power through that if you want to help them and I couldn't, I'm too sensitive. But I like telling stories. And I liked, I liked acting out stories. And it's funny because I would act like animals. Like that's really how I got my start. Storytelling is behaving like different animals. So as a child, I would pride myself on being able to do the sounds for each of them. And no, I will not do them. Right.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:58

Tonya, what I say is to do that with my dog, moo.

Tonya Todd 6:08

But that is really how it started is I didn't think I was performing. I was I just enjoyed animals, you know. But ultimately, I started writing stories about animals, I started writing stories about girls who would overcome their obstacles and outdo the boys and their situations, I wrote wrote a story about a Chevelle who took over the whole pack to overthrow the patriarchy.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:32

This is years before Barbie. So

Tonya Todd 6:35

this is many, many years before Barbie, this is as a child, when

Jeff Dwoskin 6:39

you're writing all these stories, supportive parents teachers are they're like, Hey, we got someone here with creative spark, we gotta keep this, Colin, I

Tonya Todd 6:48

have a mother who says I'm the best at everything, no matter how terrible I am. So she absolutely encouraged whatever I wanted to do. But because she's so positive and supportive, I couldn't really trust her praise, if that makes sense. And I did have one teacher who encouraged me, and I will forever adore her for this. But at the time, I didn't really think that anyone who looked like me would be successful in this industry, I didn't have a lot of visible role models of anyone who looked like me. And then even once we started seeing more diversity in to the entertainment field, they still didn't look like me, because I'm biracial. So it's like, all right, you know, we're going to put you in a family, but you don't really fit in any family, because we need this family to all be dark, or we need this family to all be light. And you're neither one of those. So there's no room for you, which is funny, because that's how my family is me with dark and light people.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:46

And now you teach diversity. So that's if we fight for it for a second, right?

Tonya Todd 7:50

I teach it in writing, and I am right now I'm teaching diversity and inclusion as a literary citizen within the women's fiction writing association. So what they want is to have just a more inclusive environment so that people feel more comfortable. So it's not really about teaching them how to write with it in mind, it's just being mindful of people's differences and making sure that everyone feels like they belong.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:14

When was the first time you were watching something and felt represented?

Tonya Todd 8:18

It wouldn't have been based on my race, it would have been based on the character. It's more my gender, I think reading things like Jane Austen, where there are women with agency, not necessarily who looked like me, but that's where I remember first really seeing a character like me and above was reading Jane Austen, because her characters have sharp tongues. They didn't just sit quietly and keep their opinions to themselves, like a good little girl should have

Jeff Dwoskin 8:47

a guide to girls. I teach him to speak up. Never Never hold back.

Tonya Todd 8:51

Right? Don't make yourself smaller to make other people feel more comfortable. Exactly.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:55

Who now would you look at and say Jane Austen is kind of the the early you're starting to feel a little represented. Is there? Is there any time where we were looking like you're like, Okay, here's there

Tonya Todd 9:07

are more people now like Rosario Dawson like zali Ashton, like Gina Torres. People with blended backgrounds who play characters that I would love to play, especially Gina Torres. When she's she plays strong powerful women.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:23

Oh, Gina Torres. Oh, suits. Yes.

Tonya Todd 9:27

She's about as thick and more like Firefly but yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:32

Oh, yeah. No, I just finished suits. And I, you know, I never I have to go back and watch Firefly. It's funny. It's like one of those great shows, but i i Never. I tried Chase and that I've been she is a badass. And it's I it was never the same after she left. I

Tonya Todd 9:47

will say that. I'd say I haven't seen that yet. I haven't seen suits.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:51

It's like, it was one of those shows that like years later, kind of the pandemic.

Tonya Todd 9:55

There's a resurgence. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:58

Yeah, she's awesome and Now they're all in the commercials because it became famous again because you know, the resurgence. So now they're commercials together. Alright, so that's awesome. So you're writing love and animals, you're acting like an animal they like animals in a loving way as a kid would. And so when did you decide like, okay, but writing writing is for me like when when you move to Vegas, or it's like,

Tonya Todd 10:24

I'm really into comics and comic characters. And so when the Marvel Cinematic Universe started happening, I was very excited about that in the early days, and I used to put on these themed Halloween parties. So it's like the first year was the Addams Family. The second year was DC, but really like, my entire family was the bat family. And I was Catwoman Of course. And then there is a vampire and werewolf here. And then I was doing it was a marvel party and I was going to be storm and my guy at the time was Loki, and I had this dream about Loki kidnapping storm, and brainwashing her into falling in love with him. But they really did fall in love. And I woke up and it was like this. The whole story was so vivid in my head. It wouldn't leave me alone, so I just started writing it. And I didn't really know about fanfiction that's not a world I had ever entered. And when I told some friends when I was this thing won't leave me alone. Yeah, you're writing fanfiction? Everybody knows about fanfiction? Well, I didn't add it. I kept writing it. And eventually I started writing pieces of it on the side because it's like, you know, this doesn't really feel like them. I like it, but it's not them. And I kept putting these little elements on the side. And eventually that took over. I just abandoned the fanfiction entirely and started writing this entire novel based on characters who are very similar to Loki and storm. They looked like them. They had many of their characteristics, but it was not that type of universe. And I just 200,000 words later. It's like, oh, I think I love this. I think I want to write I love writing. And, you know, I started joining writing groups and polishing my prose and learning structure. And it just took over. I have not looked back since that's pretty cool.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:13

So what happened to that story?

Tonya Todd 12:14

So I worked for years polishing, it ended up getting an agent when it went on submission people kept the publishers the editors kept coming back with is this guy a vampire? And they have asked my agent is he a vampire? And in fact, one of the editors, I want to say two chapters in his his first chapter, from his point of view, called her and she's like, is this a vampire? Because you didn't say anything about that, then I'm definitely getting vampire vibes from the sky. I love vampires like Dracula is one of my my fictional crushes. And it's come on this, this character talks to me all the time. If he were a vampire, you would have let me know. But all right, I'll take a look at it. You know, you have to you have to listen to the feedback. Let's see what would happen if I just leaned into it. And I did this I spent a December just revamping the novel haha. And it was there like all of the elements were there. And I'm going through St. How do I have mentioned of a blood contract? And I didn't realize this guy was a vampire. So, you know, I'm really annoyed like, Dude, you talk to me all the time, because my characters do talk to me. You talk to me all the time? How could you have not told me this? Well, why would I think that the character based on the God of lies was telling me the truth.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:25

Maybe they were just afraid that you were anti vampire. And in no way I didn't know how to tell you.

Tonya Todd 13:32

So I ended up switching agents, because the agents that I had did not represent that kind of fiction. And I ended up switching agents. And now it's on submission, again, as a vampire novel.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:43

All right. When you write something like that, and it's maybe getting heat on the verge of heat, you started thinking, Okay, what would the next chapter, what would the next book B, because that's what they're going to ask you right? If like, here's the thing,

Tonya Todd 13:57

you know, I wrote 200,000 words. That's way too long per first book. So I already have what happens next, like, I have plenty of material for a series and once I realized the vampire element, it opened it up beyond what I even originally thought was the ending and adds so many more complicated layers that I can't wait to write them. But I have another book that is with my agent right now she's reviewing it. It's in the same universe, but the characters are not vampires. And then right now I am working on a Dracula retelling for meanness point of view.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:29

Okay, well, we're not sure yet that that second books not about vampires. We got to wait for the feedback. You didn't know the first time we didn't we can't be 100% Sure. There's

Tonya Todd 14:39

no mentions of a heartbeat, a pulse or warmth in this from the sky scan. In fact, everything was pulled whereas this other character, the male lead in this he's Apollo, he is the son guide. So he's definitely not hiding from the sun. He is the Son. All right,

Jeff Dwoskin 14:56

very cool. The only fanfiction I'm ever aware of is like 50 Shades of Grey was supposed to be fanfiction from Twilight or something. Right? Which I never understood. I never understood. I never why I never really watched Twilight by.

Tonya Todd 15:07

But did you read either series? If you read them you would get it. Okay? No, really just controlling I with so much money, he doesn't know what to do with it and he is obsessed with one woman.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:19

Well, that just that it ends 10 years of wandering, and

Tonya Todd 15:23

there's a niche for that, okay? Like women want a man obsessed with them because it means he won't spray.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:29

Hey, we don't want stray and I'm gonna I'm gonna write my fanfiction right after this.

Tonya Todd 15:35

The financial element is, you know, probably security. Really both of them are based in security. Well,

Jeff Dwoskin 15:41

none of us want people to stray. So that means I guess that makes sense.

Tonya Todd 15:45

That's not true. Some people are in relationships where they're open.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:50

I should say I shouldn't put it I never I thought I wouldn't stray everyone else's can do whatever they want. We're not here to judge. We're not here to judge we're just talking about writing and movies

Tonya Todd 16:03

unpacking what it is that makes those books so popular with the female audience. And it's they want to be the center of someone's universe like that. I want to write a book.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:14

Question one vampire.

Tonya Todd 16:17

And then your vampire might say Do I know you well enough to tell you that? Exactly where this has to do with my secret we're

Jeff Dwoskin 16:25

finding here we're live in Arizona. Alright, so we're just we're right now we're kind of waiting for books to be pulled? Yes. Okay. Yes.

Tonya Todd 16:34

The hell that is submission being on submission is that you just sit around and wait for someone to say yea or nay about your baby.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:42

That's gotta kind of suck. I mean, unless it right. I mean, just the waiting part. I mean, it's like, right, because you put your heart and soul into this. And now you're just kind of waiting. It may just like, you're just waiting for them to you there. Right? Yeah, this is great. This is exactly what you want.

Tonya Todd 16:59

Either times, thumbs up, or thumbs down.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:03

I will hope hope for the best because we all want to I want to read the whole vengeful trilogy that comes from the 200,000

Tonya Todd 17:10

words. Until then I'll just keep writing, keep

Jeff Dwoskin 17:12

writing, keep writing, acting, balanced acting and directing and screenwriting in with all

Tonya Todd 17:21

your directing. I've only directed a short film, and that was just as of autumn of last year.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:27

This is mourning sacrifice. Yes.

Tonya Todd 17:30

I know. You'll find this shocking. It's a vampire story.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:35

Yeah, there's definitely a theme with all your it's funny because it was like I was I knew it was mourning sacrifice. But I didn't realize it was mourning like Oh, someone died. So searching MLR and find it and then like I eventually backed into it, but like okay, so talk to me about deciding to direct wrote this also. Right? Yeah,

Tonya Todd 17:59

started off as a short story. It was the first short story that I ever had published. So it was like that moment of, Oh, someone actually liked something that I wrote like the first moment of they liked it enough to put it in one of their books. And it was a short stories. It was a curated series here in Las Vegas, where you had to have the theme of redemption, and it had to take place in Nevada. So all I knew is that this character needed redemption. And so I sat down and started writing it, knowing what the ending was, like I knew I knew why the character needed redemption. And I started telling it third person because that third person passed is my preference. I started writing it. And it was just a struggle, like it just wasn't flowing naturally. And I had a mentor who said just play around with the point of view. It's like, I don't like first person point of view. That's usually some person who's looking in a mirror describing themselves as pretty, but I don't know, I'm pretty you know, like, just it's so annoying to read things like by like, all right, let me just try it. It's an exercise, right? You learn something through exercises. And as I switched over to the character's point of view, and started just going through first person, so he just started telling me the story. And I was just taking dictation. It flowed almost entirely in one sitting, all of it came out. And he was dropping clues here and there that he was a vampire. And it's like, well, I was really trying not to write a vampire story, because my brother has always teased that I might have a thing for them. And that's not you know, I wonder do serious writing. So let me write it write something serious about redemption. It's like, oh, but it just flowed. This was the story. This was the story that came out. And it worked in first person. So I allowed it because it felt more real that way. Fast forward. Years later, I was doing something for NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month, and writing fifth 1000 words in one month was too much for me, because as you noted, I'm involved with many different projects. So I didn't have the time to devote to just sit and write for an entire month. But I wanted to be productive, more productive with my writing in November. So what I did is I, I converted it, I adapted it to a short film. And then I also wrote an original short film. So that's what I did for my NaNoWriMo. And then once I wrote it, I realized I want to be the one to direct this. Sorry

Jeff Dwoskin 20:34

to interrupt, just as we were starting to understand, will Tani become the director of her short film or not, we will not know until we take this quick break. I do want to thank everyone for their support of their sponsors. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now we're back and Nick question will finally be answered. Will Tonya Todd follow her dreams of becoming direct? Okay, I'm being way too dramatic. Alright, let's get back to it.

Tonya Todd 21:04

And how can I direct this, I've never directed anything, I didn't go to film school. So I kind of sat on it for a little bit. But as I was working on different sets, as an actor, you know, you start observing what's happening with the crew members, and you're saying, This person knows what they're doing, this person is an excellent producer, this person is professional. And then you also meet the people that I absolutely don't ever want to work with this person on one of my sets. So I kind of began collecting names in the back of my brain of people I wanted to work with once I was ready to take that step. And I started taking classes, reading books, compiling my arsenal, basically. And once I was ready, I wrote a grant proposal and received money from the Nevada Arts Council, and National Endowment of the Arts to direct this project, which locked me into dates, which was last year, you have to give pose dates. And once they awarded me the money, it's like, Alright, time to assemble my team. And it's go time.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:01

That's pretty cool, though. How much time did you have to once they say go Anistar? Or how much time was there? From the time they said, start to getting the team and finding the right actors or actresses and then loading the camera with film did they do that?

Tonya Todd 22:22

I want to say it was July is when they awarded me the money. And I filmed November, October and November of last year. So not a ton of time. But because I had already been talking to people about this is what I hope to do, I just need to start gathering the money for it. It wasn't like I was starting from zero. It wasn't Oh, great. Now I need to start working on pre production, I was already sort of working on that in the background, how

Jeff Dwoskin 22:48

difficult or enjoyable or combination of all the above was the process of taking the characters and finding the right person to bring that person or bring that character to life.

Tonya Todd 23:01

So I had been involved with casting for other people's projects, helping them with their things, and you know, working as a co producer on things, but producing your own work. Your heart and soul is and it's so much more and you care so much about having the right casting, there was an actress that I came across years ago, I just happened to see her reel and she caught my eye like she was just really good. And I saw her dancing reel, her acting reel and her fighting reel. And it's like, Man, she's amazing. But she was in LA. So I figured she's a long shot. She's a SAG actress can't hurt to ask, right? Like I just emailed her and told her. I'm not ready to do this yet. But you seem very talented. And I would love for you to at least read for this role. Once I am ready to start casting. And she responded we you know, we had a bit of back and forth conversation. And I left it at that she was interested but you know, let me know when you're ready, ready to do this? Then we get the grant. And it's like, oh, I have to start casting. So I use I used a few different places, Facebook backstage.com. And I reached out to her again, this was right before we started doing that. We started the strikes too. So the timing was really really precarious. And she's like, this is a short film. You know, there's there's a little bit of grace these things. Let me see what this is about. And she she nailed her audition like she was so good. There was only one other person we even considered because she was so good. We compiled our list to bring back for callbacks. We had it narrowed down to three dark canyons, which is the lead male and he's the vampire and to salines we did our callbacks. Let me make sure that she is someone I can actually work with let me talk to her in person. It was over zoom but it was still Is she someone I can instruct because you might get this extremely talented Dr. And find out they're not willing to take direction. Or they're one note, they can only do it one way. So yes, they've blown away the room for their one interpretation. But if you ask, can you shift it this way they can't, they can only do it the way they originally interpreted it. And now she was very teachable. And the three darts unions gave us such a hard time because they were all so good and so different. None of them had the same qualities. And in the end, we ended up awarding it to the person who, who felt the heart of the piece the most, he is not how I pictured the character, but he was in love with Celine, and that at its core, it's a love story. It's not a romance, but it is a love story. And because he delivered his lines in a way that made me feel like his heart was so into this situation. It's like, yeah, that's not something that the other two had, like, they had ferocity or they had presence or, you know, they, they just nailed their lines. This guy didn't get all the lines, right. But he got the heart, right. And that was far more important. And then once we were on set, you know, his lines, like he had more time to prepare. And I will tell you, that was one of the best parts of directing this film is, it was days into it until I realized we haven't had a single moment where the characters didn't know their lines. And that was true for the supporting characters as well. It was just wow, they've been so great. It didn't even occur to me to be worried about it.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:28

That's great. That's awesome.

Tonya Todd 26:30

It really was, it was a blur, because I have been on sets where you're just you're sitting there and the person who is supposed to be the lead is the person who knows their lines the least. And you're just like, oh my gosh, we're going to be here for hours because you didn't do you're like this is your job. This is part of your job is to know what you're supposed to be saying here.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:47

You got one job? No, you

Tonya Todd 26:49

have multiple jobs. That's a pretty big part of it, you know?

Jeff Dwoskin 26:56

Okay, so where is it? We watch it yet? Or when can we watch it or

Tonya Todd 27:00

no, it's still in editing, it's been through a few passes of editing, we're nearly done with the editing we there are a few pickup shots, and then some green screen plates that need to be filmed. Then we tackle sound and color correction and composing has begun as well. But until we get picture lock, none of that stuff can be finalized.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:20

Wow, that's a lot of process. It really is, like

Tonya Todd 27:24

so many steps. And if I didn't have such an amazing team, I wouldn't be this far is

Jeff Dwoskin 27:29

it so far, matching your expectations, like you saw your vision, you're getting a kick out of seeing your vision come to life like

Tonya Todd 27:36

this, there are moments sometimes it's better actually, like there. There are moments where this was not planned. This was not in the script. But the way the lighting fell, or the way a shadow fell. It's telling part of the story. It's like it's showing part of the story just in the way the lighting worked. And that that wasn't me that's having people who know how to set up lights that's having a cinematographer with an artistic I, it's only me in the sense that I picked spectacular people to be a part of my team. And they are proving themselves to be just beautiful artists, I feel privileged to get to work with them.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:13

It's amazing. It really is.

Tonya Todd 28:15

It's like how did I get here? You know?

Jeff Dwoskin 28:19

When it is done, do you do the circuit? Or do you

Tonya Todd 28:24

plan definitely didn't do this to make any money. It's to run the festival circuit, make new contacts, learn more about the business and take it to the next step. So that I can start writing and directing feature films, and possibly making it a little easier to find the money to back these projects. Because for this, I had to do a Crowdfunder. In addition to that, like I had the the initial chunk was that grant from the Nevada Arts Council, but then I also needed more we needed I wanted to be able to pay the actors we needed fees for locations we needed costuming, there are so many things that you need to pay for good sound you don't want to just let your friend here I'm just gonna I'll do sound for you. No, no, I am going to pay for sound I

Jeff Dwoskin 29:11

found is very important.

Tonya Todd 29:13

It can ruin a film if it if the sound is terrible. Yes.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:17

In terms of we say it's short film versus feature film. How long is it the short film?

Tonya Todd 29:22

It's a long short film definitely. Because you know, short film can be like two minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes 20. But mine is running closer to the 40 to 50 minute mark right now at this edit. We'll see you know, there are places where we just have a placeholder. And that's holding several seconds. So we'll see once we actually get the shot, how much of it we need. Okay,

Jeff Dwoskin 29:44

so it's a extended short film.

Tonya Todd 29:48

It's nowhere near long enough to be a feature film, but it's very much on the long side for a short film. Probably not the best choice for a first short film but you know, it's a learning process. This this is what happened. Can't take that back now,

Jeff Dwoskin 30:00

right? It's just it's all the next steps just take longer because you're not editing a 15 minute film you're editing, right? So everything's exponentially takes longer at each step. I'm interested like with the music, like, did you just have to like go? Did you have an idea with that? Or you just have to kind of trust someone to watch it, and then they interpret it for you.

Tonya Todd 30:24

It's the same person who's the cinematographer? Yeah, he's actually doing the editing too. So he, he's invested. Like he's doing the editing. He is He was the, my DP. And he is already thinking about the composition and shared a few things with me. And because he knows the story, you know, he was there for it. He knows what these moments are supposed to be like, he knows where the upsweep needs to happen, or where we need to bring it down or where it needs to feel tense. Sounds

Jeff Dwoskin 30:52

like an amazing creative process. Can't wait to see it. Hopefully, I ended up somewhere where it's easy for everyone to see it after you do the

Tonya Todd 31:00

that's always the challenge. Isn't it? Like getting some sort of distribution that the rest of the world can see it?

Jeff Dwoskin 31:06

Right? What is it easier now to do that, though, with all the streaming services, like you can get like Amazon to do it, or Netflix, just just out of put it somewhere at least,

Tonya Todd 31:16

I wouldn't say that. Netflix makes it easy. It is much easier to get things on Amazon than it used to be. And you know, worst case, there's always YouTube, but I couldn't possibly do something like that until after it runs to the festival circuit, because it can't be readily available while you're doing that.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:33

And so then this in essence, the love and the labor that for directly money at this time, but it sort of becomes your business, it's more opportunity, right? Sort of like your resume, this is a live resume, a live working resume, kind of show your good

Tonya Todd 31:48

this mascara is the right way to say it's like this, this is what I have. This is what I've done. This is my mark.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:54

That is awesome. Also awesome. We talked about diversity earlier. You mentioned to me you teach diversity.

Tonya Todd 32:00

Yes. So a few years ago, I was the education chair for Henderson Writers Group. Essentially, my job was to bring in speakers once a month to educate the membership. You know, I took that seriously. They're all different genres that we're writing, they're all different age groups are all different skill levels. So I wanted to make sure that we we had something for everyone. Well, because I was one of the few writers of color in this group. I was the person that people came to for questions about how do I write this character? It's like, that's not my identity at all. But here I am having to represent all of color Domina like

Jeff Dwoskin 32:38

I don't speak for every biracial vampire. That's

Tonya Todd 32:42

right. I think you're on to me, sir. Where do you live. But I was the education chair. So it is my job to help them. And so between those two things, it became very clear that we needed some sort of class on this. And so I ended up partnering with different groups around town, the LGBTQ center, there was a coffee shop called grouchy John's that donated the refreshments for this, which you know, we're going to have people there, you need them to be fed and alert. There are different teachers in town that I brought in. So I had a panel of four people who have written with diversity and inclusion in mind successfully, I brought in a dei instructor who happens to be one of the most amazing poets I've ever met. And we did a five hour workshop, free to the public, because of all the support that we received in town. And this was another thing where we received a grant from National Endowment of the Arts and Nevada humanities, so that we could pay the speakers because I think that if you are being asked to give your expertise on something, you should be paid for that it shouldn't be something that you have to give away for free. So all of the money went to the speakers, and everything else was donated, which was amazing. And so we had this huge workshop. And because of the success of this workshop, I kept getting asked to go to conferences, and this was in 2020. Like it was February 29 of 2020 when we did our in person workshop, but people were still interested in the topic. So then it's like, well, can you do something like this online, couldn't do another five hour workshop like that. But I could put together another panel. And so I started doing panels at different conferences. And eventually, I started getting asked to just do it myself. And after so much investment in so much. You know, I'm sitting there taking these classes repeatedly. I was doing my own research and study on the side. It got to a point where I do know this stuff now I can teach it. And so I've started teaching in different forums like lounge writers and different conferences. And then last year, I did a big workshop on this at the Atlanta At a Writers Conference, and as a result of doing that someone attended that class and spoke to women's fiction writing Association and recommended me to do something like that there. And that's where they said, well, we don't really need someone to teach writing with diversity and inclusion in mind. We've already done that, you know, you want to make sure that you're not using stereotypes and tropes or just checking boxes to have different characters there. But you also want to represent the real world. But they said they already have someone who taught that what they need is to make the environment feel more inclusive, so that all of their writers feel like their voices matter. That started this year. It's an all year series. And pretty much every other month, I'm going there to either discuss the topic or deal with the q&a, and then assessment period for what we've been doing. We've done two of those so far. And the information that's coming out of there. It's just amazing. We actually had to problem solve in session at the last one, which was kind of interesting. It's like someone brought up an issue. And in bringing up the issue, it created another issue. And it's like, oh, well, let's use the skills that we've been practicing to sort this, and we did it.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:09

That's cool. I love that you're teaching people how to make the world better if things are better, when like you said, people do mix and match. And everyone loves seeing themselves. Like you said earlier. It's like people love seeing pieces themselves. And one

Tonya Todd 36:26

of the things that we're learning through this series, though, is that someone doesn't have to look like you to be like you. They're connecting beyond skin or sexuality or their body's ability. It's like they're finding what their common connections are, that have nothing to do with what other people would label them. That

Jeff Dwoskin 36:44

makes sense. I look nothing like George Clooney. But yet here I am thinking, Oh, we're wondering this. No, no, I guess

Tonya Todd 36:52

what I was thinking is that no, I do and I look nothing alike. But clearly, we're both cinephiles. Yes,

Jeff Dwoskin 36:58

that's you better example. That's why you're the teacher. Right? It's like it can be interest. It can be things just there's a lot of things that make us who we are, that aren't just who we are. Right. It's the

Tonya Todd 37:13

right and aren't superficially things that other people can recognize. All right, so

Jeff Dwoskin 37:17

and you're a podcaster I mean, on top of everything. You also podcast, you have one an older podcast that I don't think you do anymore. 52 love podcast, yes, the FEM on show, that one's active. Everyone, everyone can find both of these. There's many, many hours of Tawnya out there. So tell me about your current podcast

Tonya Todd 37:39

52 Love series that was based on a blog series that I did, because I wanted to make, I wanted to make myself write more frequently, I was doing all of this stuff, volunteering for all of these different writing programs and writing groups. And I realized I'm not writing anymore. I'm not really working on my own stuff. So I will dedicate one blog post a week that no one's going to read. I'm just doing it to make myself productive. But it turns out people were reading it. I wouldn't say a ton of people but enough that they were like, hey, you know, they're responding. And they suggested that I turn it into a book, like, Okay, I ended up getting my first agent because of that. And, in talking to her came up with the idea to create a podcast. And on that podcast, I would bring in different creatives, whether they were other podcasters or writers, directors, artists, dancers, singers, actors, they would come on, I would assign them one of these tips. So it's 52 Lovers one intimacy tip per week, I would assign them an intimacy to they would try it with their partner, and then they would come on and talk about how it went. And then get to, you know, plug whatever it was that they did creatively. So I spent a year doing that. And it was fun doing a podcast with the production side is so hefty, which I'm sure you know, it's like there's so much to do. There's the editing, you have to make sure everything sounds good. Mine was also a video podcast, because my publicist was like, Yeah, you're an actor, you need to put your face out there to you. You can't just do an audio podcast. Okay. And you know, so I had a t shirt May, but I had to hire a producer because I did not have the time to learn all of that extra behind the scenes stuff. I learned that I don't enjoy editing. I enjoy editing words. I do not enjoy editing audio, and I really dislike editing videos like it's just not my thing. Something I can do. I choose not to do it. So when my friend Rhea, her name is Rhea Kerrigan. She's in the UK she had a podcast called femme on film, where she just wanted to talk about film made for or by women or that was unfairly maligned in the media because it was for or by women. And she realized this is a lot and having to come out with content every We was just too much for her. So she asked me and three other ladies to join forces with her. And this way, we're taking some of the burden off coming up with content, if we're each recording on our own, but she'll handle the production because she loves doing that stuff. And she's really good at it. And now between the five of us, we come up with two episodes a

Jeff Dwoskin 40:21

week. Oh, that's a great, that's a great approach. It's a cool approach. Actually,

Tonya Todd 40:25

I love it. This collective is wonderful. And we have lit for life, we have fine cut, where someone talks about just one scene that they enjoy for 20 minutes, like just 20 minutes talking about one scene. It's great. There's theater, and there's poetry, there still femme on film, we bring on creatives that we support, and listen to their journeys, whether it's books, graphic novels, whatever it is that they do. And then I do active activism, which is helping people to be more active in their activism and helping people recognize you don't have to march on the frontlines to be an advocate for something. There are many different ways that you can be supportive of things that matter to whether it's donating money, donating time creating a whole fundraiser for something or just simply sharing these things. Wherever you are in life, there are ways that you can help.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:20

You're like what is what are you up to a quadruple threat? Is there like I don't even know is there one, one higher there. It's amazing. Everything you do and everything you do is purpose. It's your inspiration. Tawnya Todd, thank you. Thanks for hanging out with me. Where can people hang out with you on socials

Tonya Todd 41:39

across social media at Ms. Tonya Todd? That's m s. T o n ya to add? My website is www Miss Tonya todd.com. You can find me on the FEM on podcast. And you can join my newsletter. So

Jeff Dwoskin 41:55

much Tonya, you can you can dive into after the show. Oh, great. Thank you. So I'll put all those links in the show notes as well. So if you didn't write it down, I got you covered.

Tonya Todd 42:06

I appreciate it.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:07

Thank you so much.

Tonya Todd 42:09

Thanks for having me.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:10

All right. How amazing is Tonya Todd? Can't wait to see her short film. I encourage everyone to head on over to her website. Check out her podcast well, but the interview over it can only be one thing I know the the episode is over. They just go so quickly week after week. Can't believe it. One more huge thank you to tiny a tide. And of course a huge thank you to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

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