Film Courage: Your film A Stone Cold Christmas [2018], was this a business
decision or was this something you felt compelled to write?
Courtney Miller, Filmmaker/Producer/Author/Editor: It was completely a business decision. At that
point I hadn't written or directed anything on a professional level quite yet and initially because
of my hip-hop musical short film I was hired by the network to write a Christmas musical but they
wanted to get it done in a short amount of time. We didn't have enough time to do all that because
with the musical you have all these other things. You have to worry about rehearsals for dancers,
sessions for the singers, actors, music you’ve got to make, It's a longer, laborious situation. They
wanted something a little bit quicker so they came up with the idea of the Devil Wears Prada
meets the Christmas Carol and that's basically what that was. We actually already had a script
done that was at Christmas music. It was a finished script that we done and then we're like
what we can't do this so can we do this. So we went ahead and took their information, took their
notes and then we created our outline we created a beat sheet first, then our outlined and then from
there went ahead and started writing and the first in about two or three weeks we had our first draft
got some notes back kept getting it better and tighter and what have you and that's what happened
but yeah that was completely a that was a money grab. I mean that was my first opportunity for
a job and you kind of do what you need to do so Christmas movies are a great way to kind of get
into the business if you don't if you never sold a script before hey were you aware because I'm
just now seeing the the impact of Christmas films I mean I keep hearing about them for years but it
really is that there's so many different takes on sort of the Christmas love story yeah and and
it's fascinating yeah were you were you so tuned in or dis this dialed you in this this situation
this this opportunity dialed me into the fact that there's a lot of opportunity for Christmas
movies and so no I had no idea about them I never really even watched the Christmas movie
before honestly because we all know that it's all pretty much the same beats the same tropes
and so it was nothing that I would ever watch however after writing one selling it directing it
and then running another one which ended up on Lifetime I think a year later okay
there is a business here and so when I looked and I reached back and I think
there's something like 60 to 70 new Christmas movies made every single year that are that's
shown on Lifetime and Hallmark and ion and bounce and all these other networks
even Netflix is now getting into it so there is every single year there is a rich opportunity of
selling these movies and so I keep telling all my friends I've never sold a script before you
want to sell a script write one of these like go watch a few learn the Beats it's all the
same stuff I mean I could literally give you the point my portal that's all the same stuff
learn it and then go write it but put your little twist on it so that way you won't like
get bored or go crazy with it because they they can be boring to write
what if someone says I I'm not going to do that I want to be Paul Thomas Anderson I want to be John
Singleton I want to have a certain take and I don't want to do the same Trope of a woman
discovers love through in the holiday season and sees whatever her life is and changes it so what
do you tell someone like that yeah that's a very good question if somebody wants to switch it up
and do something that's quite different than what the typical tropes are okay this is I'll
give you the business piece and then I'll give you the artistic piece the business piece is
the customer is always right if the customer wants a woman two goes back to her old hometown
finds hooks up with her an old fling Falls in loves discovers love loses the guy wins him
back kisses and the snow falls in the end with the dog by her feet they're paying for it give
them what they want that's the business side of me and you can make a killing doing that because
there's so many of these every single year the artistic side says if you want to do something
different you want to go ahead and mix it up a little bit be something that typically is not
done go write it but don't expect to sell it go write it I wouldn't expect it to sell that because
that's not what they're asking for the customer is always right they're the ones flipping the bill
and they know what they want they know their audience they've done this for a lot a long time
longer than you now if you want to go make it and then go financing yourself or raise the money and
go shoot yourself and then try to sell it or or put it on a a pvod situation then great go do
it but if you like if you're trying to get it to Lifetime and Hallmark and ion and all the other
ones they know what they want in fact there's mandates they literally give you this 12-page
document regarding what they're looking for what has to happen and if you don't give them that
they're not going to buy it so you kind of have to look at it from the business standpoint they know
their audience could I get that from their website no okay they don't give the Mandate of the Mandate
on the website you get it through people that have worked with them in the past that know it that
have given it like I have one because somebody give it to me or if you get hired for a job
then they'll give it to you this is what we want it to be so let's say okay I'm gonna I'm gonna
write a Christmas movie let me I want to try it and and I'm not gonna just my heart's gonna be in
it as much as it can be knowing that it might be a money grab but I have a few cute stories
what what's the route to getting it to someone there so I spend time I've had people review
it I think it's in good shape easy the easiest route to do it is to is to work with somebody
a producer that has worked with them in the past and they'll go ahead and get it to them oh because
because typically the way it works is so Avid is I'm an executive producer friend of mine who has
a deal with different Networks and the deals typically are more than one movie they're
like a three-picture deal so in these three picture deals that may include a Christmas
movie a thriller a woman in power woman in Peril as they said used to say a movie
they they typically is not or not just one-offs so if unless they have something already in their
pipeline which also happens a lot where they've already are developing this this executive
producers already developing something with somebody else if if you are able to connect with
them and say hey look I have some Christmas movie scripts done like here's the craziest thing I've
never seen this before and again I'm I'm new in this business three years in but once covet began
and she the the the system shut down and nobody was shooting anything
I got hit up so many times by people saying hey do you have any scripts do you have any scripts
do you have any completed projects any completed projects because they were looking for content
so we know that that there's a need for this kind of content so yeah I would just say hey
go look go look at a few movies on some of these networks see who the producers were hit them up
this is what I this is what I do all the time hit them up and be like hey look I know you
did this I love the movie like give them some love I love the movie you guys were amazing
I have a script that's already completed and I won't tell you what it's about because I know
you probably don't have you probably have a no solicitation situation there but I want to be
able to get this to you what's the best way to do that and I would do it that way now I mean it's
harder if you don't have a a manager already but if you do you can have the manager get in contact
and do that same work for you so make sure these are finished scripts it's not just a treatment
it's not just an idea these are finished people have reviewed them you've checked them for errors
okay and and if you don't have a manager and or an agent are you finding them through IMDb Pro IMDb
Pro literally is that so look at look at again you want to go with a person that has already
put the work in that already has a relationship with these networks yeah and I would totally do
that I'll go through I may be Pro find the producer because a lot of them were like I
mean they working but they're not like famous so it's like they'll take a phone call or an email
and then don't send them the product because they because they don't want to have unsolicited stuff
you want to communicate first what's going on here and say hey look this is what I have
I have one or two scripts definitely in line with what you've done in the past with this network
and then go back and forth and try to work it out and as an independent filmmaker artist do
we tend to make some of those too edgy like how do we how do we make them more mainstream
because I can imagine if I wrote something I'd probably that the notes would be it's it's not
it's not gonna work it's to whatever and I have to make it more corporate so to speak yeah how
can I as someone who's more quirky make it more corporate so that it's more salable that's a
very good question how to make it more corporate number one that's probably my number one reason
why I don't like to write them because I am an edgy guy when it comes to my writing not
in real life I'm very just quiet in real life but writing wise I like I like craziness so
yeah the best way to do it honestly is to go look and see what was been what's been done before and
look at and look at those beats I'm really I'm really big into looking at the Beats understanding
what's going on this is the point when they meet this is the meet cute moment this is the point
when and look at how they're talking to each other I mean of course you'll have your own words your
own dialogue but they're never going to meet at a strip club like that's not what lifetime does it's
Christmas time she's wearing a she's wearing a Santa hat I would write that but that's not
what's going to sell to them so you have to have some situations so they're going to meet someplace
in town puppies or a bakery or they're they're doing the the Christmas decorations at a hotel
but then finally a little twist to it you got to find your your twists are going to come
are going to come in in maybe taking some of the tropes that we've seen before and doing something
like going left when people typically go right we think that the first guy that she meets is
going to be her lover or the person that she's going to fall in love with but maybe maybe it's
not him maybe it's another person maybe I mean I'm even these days I'm starting to see it seem
see see more same-sex ones maybe it's a girl so it depends on what they're looking for of course
but yeah so I mean you want to study what's already being done and then understand that
and then you can play in the sandbox character Arc is the protagonist in a Christmas film having
yeah there's different ones typically the most typical one is a person who
liked Christmas at one time doesn't like Christmas anymore and now falls in love with Christmas again
that's one typical one another one could be a person who once was in love had her heart
hurt fell out of love and now she's falling in love again those are the typical ones
that someone's like I I'm not kidding when I say it's pretty much the same Beats
the question is where do you put it whether you put it in a castle with a prince and a princess or
a Layman and a princess or a Layman and a prince it's still the same beats this fish out of water
goes into this area that they meet somebody and they fall in love but in the very beginning they
kind of butt heads a little bit and then but through that process they begin to to respect
each other and fall in love with each other oh but then there's some some X that comes in to town and
now this ex-boyfriend ex-girlfriend situation is gonna threaten to mess it up the situation but
then and then as a result of that they lose this newfound love but then they they do everything
they can to win them back and they by the end they win them back so the ending always has to
be a happy ending always a happy always always happy you will not sell non a non-happy eating
so and it can't be something that's a little bit where this it's a vague ending it has to be very
clear-cut very clear-cut interesting yeah I know it's crazy but that's what they want and do do you
study the demographic of the average Christmas viewer Christmas movie viewer yeah in regards
to the demographic of the average Christmas viewer I mean it's think of the networks that they're on
they're usually on a lifetime or Hallmark who's watching those those movies female probably late
20s between 29 and 45. that's that's who it's for so the guy you want the guys to be hot you want
the girls to be flawed but lovable what does that mean what is flawed but lovable they make
mistakes they do things they they're a little bit too caring they're a little bit too into Christmas
or or or they've given up on life I'm not life but love if they're giving up on Christmas
but then through the process they learn to fall in love with that again right right and they always
have the perfect house and the perfect hair I'd love to see one with messy hair hair don't know
if they'll do that but yeah I guess it depends on where a person with messy hair where would you
place that out a hair salon if you did a Christmas movie at a hair salon you see it has to be organic
still so you it could probably actually that might I've never seen that before that might
actually work there you go a Christmas movie at a hair salon this hair salon is is maybe it's I
don't know they're losing his Christmas spirit or they're about to lose it because they can't make
enough money or there's there's a lot of ways that you could take that right an evil developer comes
and wants and they're they're out on their lease and and then it turns out the evil developer's son
and and he makes her believe in Christmas again there you go or love
again I mean all that literally that that literally is how it works right like you
you look okay I know what I need to do I know these beats I need to have I know
the exciting internet I know the midpoint I know that All Is Lost I know the beginning
and I know the end like to me that's how I do my scripts I like I start from the
end like when I want them to end up and then I make them the exact opposite in the
beginning and that's how I know I'll have an arc interesting okay and she's about to
lose release on December 26th yes and so right there you go there you go add water and stir.