Python script for Django app to access models without using manage.py shell

I’m writing a script to import some model objects into the database my django application uses. In the past I’ve solved this by running ./manage.py shell and then import myscript. I’m sure there’s a better way. I’d like to be able to call a script from anywhere on my HD using python scriptname.py, and in the first few lines of that script it would do whatever imports / other operations necessary so that it can access model objects and behave as though it was run using manage.py shell.