Film Courage: So I think aside from writing all of these scripts that you do and rewrites, you
also do speaking engagements and you go to conferences?
Christine Conradt, Screenwriter: I do. I speak a lot at conferences actually. And I do a lot of workshops, which are a lot of fun. I love
teaching and so and then I also do consulting when people hire me to read
their scribes so I do that too which is also great because it's also another
form of teaching when I do consulting usually they obviously give me a feature
that I'm giving notes on but it's really not about notes for that particular
scribe it's about teaching them how to become better writers and so that's a
lot of fun for me too and so they can go to your website which
will have underneath a video and yeah the information is there yeah okay great
let's say I'm a hypothetical person attending one of these conferences and
then I'm one of the people waiting in line to talk to you and you know just
say hey really enjoy the information I was wondering dot dot dot and that is
how can I become a working writer so I don't have to work a part-time job I
just want to go right into it I think that everybody's journey is so different
in this business you know if you want to become a doctor you go to med school you
do your residency and you become a doctor and you know you go work at a
hospital that's not the way it works in the film industry the key to success in
the film industry is being opened opportunities and being able to see them
when they come everybody has sort of this type A personality plan right where
we go okay so I want this by this date and then I'm gonna try to do this and we
think of that as being ambitious right that we have a plan we're working toward
something and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that but if you get too
obsessed with that so much so that you don't see opportunities that come to you
that may not fall in that plan you can miss out on a lot of opportunities and
so like I tell this story I've told it before when I was in film school a
friend of mine does Amba movies and there's only five girls in my class and
so I was always a zombie and one of his movies because he had no one else to
choose from Anna years later we were graduated and he's a real
producer and he calls me up he's like hey Christine I'm doing a real zombie
movie do you want to come down and be a zombie just for old times sake and I was
like sure I'll come down for one day and so I go down and I'm sitting there and
I'm in full zombie makeup like my hair is he's out I'm green and I'm sitting
there with the background and if you've ever been on a film set you know that
you know background it's pretty boring you're sitting around most the time and
but it's fun and it's a great day off and as I was sitting there I meet this
guy also a zombie who had just arrived from from Boston and he had gotten a
part on an HBO series called Carnivale this is actually several years ago and
we started talking and he tells me that he has the rights to the soft Broadway
play and he's looking for someone to adapt it so at the end of the day he was
a cool guy really nice I tell him well you know if you need someone to adapt
that into a screenplay for you let me know and then the very next day the
director calls me it was like I heard you're adapting our off-broadway play
and just was like oh yeah I did commit to that yesterday but sure so well let's
meet and talk about it so I go to meet with him and the
director and this guy and I realized when I get to the coffee shop we're
gonna meet I don't know what they look like because we were all dressed as
zombies and so I have no clue what they even look like so we finally find each
other and we end up doing a short and that short premiere at the LA Latino
Film Festival and that was great it was a great experience I got to walk the red
carpet wonderful I just did it to be nice right after just doing something to
be nice for my friend from college a year later I get a call from them and
they're like you know what Christine we have some good news based on the short
that we did we've got financing to make the feature
do you want to write the screenplay for $25,000 and I mean yeah of course no I'm
gonna say no to 25 grand so especially when I was still in debt and all and
this was during that that period of five years where you know I was just doing
things to be on film sets and to network and so yeah I did that and again that
was an opportunity very still very proud of a film that
film became Hotel California starring Tatyana Ali had a great cast it
premiered the following year so 2 years later as a feature at the LA Latino Film
Festival and did very well so again you have to be open to opportunities I never
went in to playing a zombie thinking I'm gonna meet somebody who's going to have
me write a short that we're gonna then turn into a future it doesn't work out
that way just make yourself available and try to meet the right people and
create situations where people owe you favors and they want to work with you
again and when you can do that then those opportunities will start to come
but you've got to be able to recognize them when they happen that's a great
story I feel like we're in this sort of like hacking bubble where everybody's
got it wants to try to like make this quicker and make that quicker and if I
follow this person on social media they might they might just put me in the
project which it all happens I know that it does but I feel like we were in this
new era of everything's got to be quicker and it sounds like you although
I'm sure you wanted certain things to go faster you did things a little bit of a
different way but I think a lot of it was I never went into all of that
thinking that there was gonna be some payoff
I just loved being on film sets I loved meeting other filmmakers I loved taking
an off-broadway play and adapting I'd never done that before and so for me it
was more about the love of doing those things rather than the payoff of somehow
I can I can turn this into a moneymaker for me or somehow I can make this turn
this into a rung in my career it was never ever like that so you know the
Deepak Chopra says you know we make every decision based on love or fear
right so all of those decisions when I look back now I know we're based on the
love of writing and the love of becoming a screenwriter not the fear of am I
wasting my time helping this person when I should be helping that person because
they're gonna pay me quicker they're gonna get me into
their movie or they're gonna do this it was never like that for me right I like
this your intention was different it wasn't about what were you gonna get
right and when you're not looking at what the pay when you're not trying to
see what the payoff is down the line there's no there's a disappointment in
it when the payoff doesn't come because you're open to whatever that's gonna
lead you to next right and so your since you're quoting Deepak Chopra I'm gonna
quote Louise hey since we're going there and her thing that I love that she would
say was well that's not a million dollars and people stop on it and walk
away from it because again we're so we're looking for you know I mean I'm
sure everybody would love to walk the red carpet but it took these little
steps it took you going to the set it took you talking to this guy it you know
it forming a relationship a business relationship and then then that happened
but people just see that result of oh she's on the right carpet a that I want
to be there exactly and they don't really know what it takes to get there
and and that's why again you have to be so careful about letting yourself become
resentful like looking at other people and where they are and saying why can't
I get there why can I get there that energy is not well spent so focus
on why are you writing if your goal and just honestly be honest with yourself if
your goal is to make money if your goal is to be famous if your goal is to be
recognizable and have a name then this may not be the career for you because
there there are easier ways to get those things than by being a screenwriter so I
think if you just can say I love writing I want to see what today brings and
enjoy every moment that you get to be on set you get to be talking to directors
whatever you're doing you know these writing conferences are a great example
when you go to these writing conferences people are there because they just love
to write they're just soaking it in and it's such a creative inspiring
environment spend your time doing those things right and take every piece of
information that you can and and learn and become better at what you do because
the gratification that you from becoming really good and writing
something and saying wow this is pretty amazing that I mean nothing compares to
that not walking a red carpet not seeing your name on television nothing compares
to that feeling
you