Christian Elder, Screenwriter: That isn't uncommon that isn't a fantasy
because it happens, it happens pretty much every day…
Film Courage:
Do you think when a writer reaches a certain level they no longer need to work on craft?
Christian: No…no. That you got to remain teachable as a writer it's I think it's
extraordinarily important you know you always have to be willing to learn and I think that
writers tend to give off this air that they're like poor man intellectuals
I don't think they really are I think that they I think that they they
have to continually be a process in which they are allowing themselves to be vulnerable and open
to to new things I think they do a good act at at seeming to be having a wide array of knowledge
there's the writers actually do talk about this there's a lecture that incidentally Tony Gilroy
gives where he basically talks about how how writers have this amazing capacity to
know a little bit about so many various subject matters but nothing never an extensive amount
about one thing you know we are I think in a sense you know dilettante by nature
you know in other words yes we we have to be open you know we can't
you know there's there's no so you gotta you always gotta be practicing you always have to be
honing your work you're always willing to learn from somebody else
there's I learned so much from from other writers I love to listen to to other writers talk about
how they do things and and certain techniques and ideas that they imply apply I think any
true writer is is a curiosity junkie that they're it's just it's just that they're
they're you just need to keep getting more information you know about whatever you know
whatever is how's this work or how does that you know that's interesting you know you know even
if it just flies in one ear and then out the other later you know we are curiosity junkies
so that's fascinating what is a poor man or poor woman's intellectual what is that I like that
I might come under that game what I mean by that is is like is is that I think that
writers do a good job of sounding good of sounding like they know what they're talking about I think
there is a there's a kind of sometimes the kind of intellectual arrogance some writers can have
but I don't think by nature being a writer is a prerequisite or or
any any kind of standard for your intellectual capacity whatsoever
I i you know just because you you have a large vocabulary doesn't make you a professor
and often I do believe others get that confused including the writers themselves
so we believe our own hype oh yeah jack of all trades there you go there you go you just
explained it in such and in in terms that are far more simpler than I just did hence hence
hence you know you know explaining what I was you know there you have it well I'm further down on
the scale I haven't I haven't mastered total total intellectual but what I'm curious is of
how can we tell if we're not teachable you talked about become being teachable
and that's something that we never stop you know getting to that point
where you've never mastered the craft but how do we know how can we check ourselves
that's easy you just gotta listen that's it that's it you know if you aren't if you
aren't spending enough time listening it's pretty easy you know that's that that's how I think that
basically you have to check yourself if you're if you're teachable you gotta listen to people
you you you have to you have to listen to what others are doing if it jibes with you
that's cool if it doesn't that's fine you can you can go and do your own thing but it doesn't mean
that you you need to block it out or you have to discount it because obviously it works for them
and you don't have to hold any judgment over it either you think there are times when we become
unteachable and then we kind of vastly back to being teachable and it's like this battle
I think that I think that that's a larger life question and that that that
that comes with a bit of wisdom as a writer if you're if you're a young writer you may and you
you achieve a modicum of success you may start to believe that you are you're beyond any kind of
growth that you can't develop any further and at your craft
and then you you might turn around and go no I was absolutely wrong you know it's like
you know I do have more to learn so I don't think that I don't think that that's just a straight
writer inquiry I think that's a larger it's a larger question it goes towards life
and one last life question and that is do you think having early success is a curse
these are deep philosophical areas you're getting into that's my own believing my own hype
but I am curious I don't know because I wouldn't I wouldn't know the experience of
I think that maybe I've heard some writers suggest that they feel that they were
stifled because they received early success I have experience I'm with writers and I've known writers
and in in intimate ways that I know that they've had issues with success because it's a seismic
thing to occur and often you might get confused and attribute it to to something that is beyond
beyond even your even the product that you that you put out there and if you do that then you
you can you can lose your way you know and you know at the thing that you love to do the most
if that is writing then you could maybe you know
lose them lose a little time you know writing the kind of things that you want to write
and developing the kind of projects you want to work on but yeah yeah I've heard of such a thing
yeah it reminds me of one of one of the scenes I love in the movie end of the tour I believe
about David Foster Wallace and the Rolling Stone journalist that comes to his house in Illinois and
interviews him for a week no I've never seen that oh it's so good and I know it got a lot
of criticism I loved it I know there were people that had their criticisms of it but that the David
Foster Wallace character says I cherish my regular guidance that's something I really cherish and I
am just assuming that he meant sort of like not believing the hype you know he was young writers
24 I believe when infinite just came out and just making sure that he cherished that regular part of
himself again I'm i'm projecting on to that but I just love that scene because you know here's
this young journalist [based on David Lipsky's best-selling memoir Although of Course You End
Up Becoming Yourself], played by Jesse Eisenberg that's coming to interview them and pick them
apart and find out what makes them sick and just you know the two bond as friends and it's anyway
it's reminding me of that when you talked about that I have to see that now yeah I loved it
there's a lot of sad parts to it but it's based on a real interview that a journalist did with him
keeping with this subject the writer who lands success with the first screenplay is a fantasy
why do we still think this is different for us individually what do you mean well so many people
think it's going to be different for me oh yeah I'm going to I'm going to this is different I
know other people took them 15 years to get this one film made but they haven't seen my work yet
yeah it's I don't know it's it's really weird it's a funny thing when people approach it that way
to this day I find it not only cautionary but
I kind of find it tragic that a lot of people come to Hollywood or just in general
come here with this hope this this this dream that they can they can do this one thing and I think
that the trend has been for the last 30 years about then you can write this knockout one-time
screenplay get it to the right person and somehow magically you will become a star screenwriter
I think that a part of that has to do with the the the celebrity that has been attached to the
to the screenwriting profession recently well when I say recently I mean their last 30 years
it it wasn't like that always it was a it was a very behind the scenes profession and now it has a
a it has this uh this this heightened patina of notoriety that people aspire to it's like you
know people wanted to come to to to or go go to go to Hollywood in the 60s so they could become
you know lead guitarist for some band you know it's the same it's the same elusive
objective you know this is so gruesome but you just triggered this memory of
when I first came to Los Angeles one of the first things I saw was a girl that had jumped
from her balcony and we did we may cut this but her body was covered and the neighbors
were all watching this was in Hollywood and it was like a four-story balcony and I never forgot
that image because I always wondered who was she why did she jump what I mean she was living
in this nice apartment much nicer than the place I lived in but what would prompt her
and I guess just a reminder of that and being so young coming here and seeing like this
you can fall I guess is the analogy yeah you know I'm going on a gruesome take here but it
never left me you know and no no I yeah who wha wha what was her background I mean like it's like
my circumstances here are are well they're they're actually quite convenient I’m from Los Angeles
I had no ever desire to to get into writing or writing screenplays
it just was something that I was compelled to do I think and it and furthermore I wasn't compelled
necessarily just to write screenplays I started out writing poetry and I just wanted to write
you know I think that that's pretty much the healthiest mode in which anyone starts writing
anything you know they're writers they they wanna write and then it then when they identify oh I
wanna do a screenplay I want to write a screenplay and it's like oh great go ahead write a screenplay
you knowI don't think your first screenplay will is likely to probably get you anywhere
but if you keep writing screenplays you will learn and once you start to learn you will you will hit
a screenplay that'll you know will turn some heads you know it's that's that isn't uncommon
that isn't a fantasy because it happens it happens pretty much every day
that is not a fantasy what is a fantasy is if you come out here with one screenplay and you're gonna
knock it out the part and you think that that's all you need to do because that ain't happening.
Question
For The Viewers:
What is the nature of a writer?