Film Courage: You were doing re-writes for several years. When did you first sell a
script?
Christine Conradt: Gosh…I don’t think I sold a spec until years into my career?
Most of my early work was doing rewrites and then talking to the producers saying “You
are basically paying other people the bulk of the money to do this original draft and
I’m fixing it. Why don’t you just hire me to start?”
Then they said “Yes, we will do that.” But those were still work for hire projects,
but they were still coming to me with the concepts and the ideas or whatever and then
I was just writing them.
It took a long time before I sold a spec that I had just written on my own and taken to
market.
Film Courage: It sounds like the traditional way one thinks of a screenwriter going to
pitch and they [a studio] are going to say yes and write you a check, you already had
inroads and were already doing work, but were fixing others work and then you essentially
created your own job?
Christine Conradt: Yes, basically. Most people, when they think of screenwriting,
they think of the pitch and going into the room and pitching and someone saying “Yes!
Write this for us. We love it.” And then you sell it. And that certainly exists. It
didn’t for me. There’s a ton of work in rewriting other people’s stuff. And most
writers just don’t know how to rewrite. They take it to the level that they can, maybe
they don’t want to change it. They really fall in love with their stuff and they don’t
want to make any changes and (ultimately) that makes them get fired off of a project
and then they bring on another writer that will make the changes. Or they have just taken
it to as much as they are able to take it and they want to bring in a fresh sense, so
sometimes producers will do that.
That for me was where most of my early work was from.
Film Courage: I think that’s great, too because you know the style of the person you
are going to be writing for…I think that’s an excellent way…do a lot of people get
in [land writing jobs] this way? Or is this an interesting way to create your own job?
Christine Conradt: I don’t know if a lot of people get in that way. I know other writers
especially in TV when you are doing features for television, a lot of writers get in that
way. Just being able to write other people’s rewrites. You know that’s key. If you can
do that, you are pretty much going to get hired again and again because there aren’t
a lot of people who know how to do that (being able to really listen to what the producer
wants). And the more you do this (obviously), the more you understand budgets, what they
want, and sometimes when you get cryptic notes you can sometimes navigate through those notes
a little bit better.
But that is one way in that a lot of people don’t think of.
Film Courage: And I’m sure the writer who does the rewrites is much easier to deal with
because they are not as precious, in terms of it’s not their work, it’s not their
baby that is being criticized.
Christine Conradt: That’s very true. Writers have to be very careful about being precious
because even with my original stuff, I have to take a step back and make sure that I am
not being that way. Because I don’t want to suddenly become the writer that they want
to fire and hire someone else. But it’s difficult you know, especially the more time
you invest in a project, I feel like the more precious it becomes to you. Which is why I
think it’s important to finish projects. Some writers will work on something for three
or four years, like one script. And you’ve got to end it and move onto the next thing.
Because every time you move onto that next thing, you become a better writer. So get
those first seven under your belt and click them off and then keep moving and you can
always revisit them. But you’ve got to keep going through it.
Film Courage: So even though the way you sold your first script through, the fact that you
were already doing rewrites and people already knew your writing and loved what you did,
do you then go in cold and is that a way that you’ve pitched?
Christine Conradt: I’ve never sold anything that way, ever. And I’ve done it. Just like
every writer, I’ve gone into the room and pitched. But typically those projects don’t
pan out, at least they haven’t for me. Most of the projects I get are because you’ve
met a director, you’ve met an actor, you’ve met a producer, you’ve talked about it for
awhile “Yeah, we want to work together.” You come up with an idea, is this the right
time? Eventually everything aligns and they say “Hey, we’ve got the money. Do you
want to do this script? Let’s go for it now.” And that’s how it works.