Film Courage: What's the hardest part about the screenwriting process for you? Chad Meisenheimer, Actor/Comic/Writer/Director: On
good days like I always try to get routine yeah always on the writer always
get a routine like mine I hit a low expectation I write two pages a day like
it's doable cuz can't make excuse like oh I was too busy just like two pages a
day you could do it like I was recently because usually when I write scripts I
know the gun to my head where it's like I could write an actual feature like
I've written features like a lot of them in two to four days like I could write a
90 to 120 page script in two or four days
like I have no prompt reading content and then it's been a week in two weeks
to editing recently I was I start writing a horror feature for a horror
company where I was not motivated but like it was work I was like actually
like oh my god they want something they're expecting this this business and
this and I'm like and it took me five weeks just to write a 77 page first
draft like I don't I try to keep my stuff between like when I correct stuff
75 to 85 pages because I just want short simple be like okay we could do this low
budget easy no problem but it was so hard to
write this one script and I'm like and horror is my genre so I'm sitting I'm
like why why is this taking so long and it was but yeah it's like I literally
have to send in tomorrow which is it's done to God but but five weeks like it
died like I was killer I'm sinner I'm like the semi senpai's like oh my god
like it keep at it because I wanted to quit so many times like my self-doubt
was less like you're you're a hack you're a fraud quit cool we're gonna be
working at Pizza Hut or McDonald's for the rest your life you leave it to real
writers but um yeah but you just have to kind of like overcome that obstacle so
it's like whatever you do is just like don't listen to the nascent a saying
like specially you're your own worst critic like I always have to remind
myself like okay you know like I watched the movie the other day and it was just
like oh okay it goes very similar style and I was like okay I'm not that
far off on what I want to do because they want it this certain style movie
and I'm like oh okay very specific and writing it now it's like oh how can I do
this this is starting to look a garbage I'm horrible dinner I'm burning burning
the script but I kept at it and I was like okay kind of a mind you're like oh
okay I'm hitting the right direction but just keep on right even if it's just
crap like go to like the Starbucks I know I'm one of those cliche writers
writing in Starbucks everyone working on a screenplay write about something just
totally random like your coffee cup or whatever that's in front of you just use
it as a exercise free right don't don't let formats
don't let structure and rules block you just right then if you feel like you got
something then structure it like everyone always puts like Oh act when
ice to do this act to have to do this I'm like just know the rules for
breaking like cuz your own person like you're your own artist everyone has
their own path what's been the hardest lesson about the industry for you to
learn artists um I guess expectations sometimes where like you get like
rejection I don't mind like projection like when people say no like dammit it's
like whatever okay it's like girlfriend saying you know our chicks and I don't
to teach you it okay that's cool like for example the TV pilot I correct it
everyone had like high expectations of it and it was like big we got like like
oh this is really good like oh we're gonna do this and like always didn't go
places because we had a production company and it was a TV pilot
presentation for them and we have some issues with the whole certain aspects of
it for production in normal but they went back and that showrunners rieta
Devery thing like I wasn't even in editing room they went and shot certain
segments but different DP without telling me an original DP
my original VP is like an Emmy winner so he was like already like alrighty shoot
dis crap and it was like you could tell they use
a different camera or oat bag and I just remember like them showing it and then
people at the company were like who directed this crap and I still kept my
name as a director Alice it's like sitting like hiding like Oh like I
directed this pride in a bright and I didn't edit and know the site Wow like
that looks like my directing career is over the main person in this company so
this is crap Oh like so expectation where you do start projects thinking
it's gonna go one way and then the end result doesn't match what happens you're
like like uh I guess happened a lot of my time in my career where it's just
like specially my 20s where I had a lot of opportunities but then you're like
think you know everything so you're like I'm 20 I know how everything works and
you said you're like oh it didn't work that way okay so that's the biggest
thing I think I think what else I have no problem working with name people like
directing and stuff like that's never been a problem always been funding
funding in budgets are always also big thing because when I started out like
I've funded a cell phone a lot of my stuff but the more I do it bigger in my
products get bigger to budget so we had to do crowdfunding one time and we'd
never do that again because that's a waste of a lot people talk about
crowdfunding saying that's important to do it's very difficult to do and a lot
of times it's their cousin and her mom donating money and not someone who it's
like in Wichita Kansas who don't know like why am I gonna donate to this it's
usually family and friends so it's like why not just go to your family of res
like hey create an LLC or a corporation is okay you want to do this you'll get
you a couple kickbacks and stuff like that people don't think that and now I'm
like now looking at for investors because it's just I could have getting
bigger scope and that's what happened with one of my short films is that I was
like five five grand we were looking for and people were like but it's a short
film and we had like one investor came in and
then they left like two weeks before shooting and your scenario looks like
it's like oh we really needed that 2500 box type thing so yeah
you