Courtney Miller, Filmmaker/Producer/Author/Editor: So when I have my meeting with them they say “Okay
Courtney this is how we're going to do it. We're going to have a three-year program with you.”
I said “Okay.” He said “Your number one
is the year of Yes. You say Yes to every single job that comes your way.”
Film Courage: Starting your film career later in life as you did,
how do you think your mindset is different?
Courtney: Starting later with my film career my mindset is I'm very focused
and I know what I want and I feel a lot more confident and how to go about getting it and
I’m not afraid to ask for it, to ask for the order so to speak. I think probably in the
past I would have been nervous I would have been afraid to hit up IMDB, find the producer and hit
them up. I would probably have been afraid to do that but now I'm not afraid at all so I think
I just have this confidence in me because I've lived life and yeah I'm not afraid.
Film Courage: So since 2018 is this correct that you've directed over 20 episodes of television?
Then three made for tv movies and you've also written scripts that have been produced
since 2018? What's your secret?
Courtney: Going back to the Will Smith adage of “There'll be other screenwriters,
other directors that are more talented than me but I won't be outworked,”
and it comes down to the work it literally just comes down to the work and taking advantage and
leveraging the relationships that I do have though they're not a lot it's afforded me the opportunity
to be a part of all these different projects and so being a good person being a person that
people can count on being on time being courteous the basics that your mother and father taught you
that does carry a long way in this business because there's so many jerks
and when you are that way people want to continue to work with you and so that's
what allowed that's what allowed me to kind of do that some of it is right place right time
but it doesn't matter if you're not prepared to do the work so there's a little bit of
luck involved with that of course but no I put the work in and even today like so for example
there's a so the show that I that I write on and I've directed a lot of episodes of tv on
it's called saints and centers so they're going to their sixth season right now I've directed I've
written on season four season five and I wrote on season six I directed season four four episodes
season five eight episodes and season six I thought I was going to direct but then in the
last minute they said I wasn't going to direct they're going to have someone else direct but
I wrote two of the episodes two two of the eight episodes it's it's a situation where
even though I didn't get the job to direct it I'm always hitting him up say okay guys
what's next what can we work on next so I i I keep that communication going
because nobody's going to just give you anything it's that whole out of sight out of mind situation
you don't want to you don't want to be a nuisance but what you want to do is you want
to remind people that what hey you're available and the company that I've worked with in the past
they do a lot of work so it's like don't forget I'm around so let's go shoot something together
okay so let's suppose a new filmmaker whether they're new
age-wise or just career-wise it's polite it's not that they're difficult to work
with but they're just too picky do you see that where new new talent is just too picky
and maybe they need to take jobs that they may not necessarily want to take in the beginning that's a
good question have I seen people that were too picky I have not seen that personally however
for those of you that are out there that are that way so I just joined an agency they're called The
Gersh Agency they're they're a pretty big boutique agency really great actors are attached to them
but they do literary directing like JK Simmons is there like I love JK Simmons he's a great actor
right so he's he's with a girls agency so when I have my meeting with them they say okay Courtney
this is how we're going to do it we're going to have a three-year program with you I said okay he
said you're number one is the year of yes you say yes to every single job that comes your way the
idea behind that is that because you are trying to expand your network you're trying to expand
your resume you take every single job no matter what it is and then from there you'll know what
you like what kind of work you like and what kind of work you don't like so that a year number two
you could say the year of no and the year of no is where you now you can be picky because
you've done everything that you wanted to do you said yes to everything in the year number
one but year number two is the year of no and what that means is that now you can be picky
when you're new you can't afford to be picky it's the point I'm trying to make
you can't afford to be picky you need to say yes to everything because you are still trying
to expand your network no you may not want to do a Christmas movie no you may not do you may not want
to do a woman in peril movie but by doing that you're getting to meet producers cinematographers
and other people who are on the crew who may recommend you for something else in the
future that is more to your liking whether it's horror or some other genre project so
that's what that's about so then in the year three my agent was like in the year three now
you've established and by the way Hollywood is very intrigued with anybody that says no
you say no they're like okay who's this person like what's going on here
like I want to know more tell me more and so that's why they said year the
year two now year three I will be in a better situation to pitch in my own original projects
because I've established my own relationships people know who I am I'm not all over the place
doing a whole bunch of stuff and so when I come with these original ideas that I have that I'm
i'm developing right now they'll be more apt and ready to listen to me interesting so that I love
that so year one is yes your two is no and then year three it sounds like it's more self-driven
yeah these are my projects yes I'm saying yes to my process yes oh interesting I like that
I'm like wow that's kind of cool that is great and so they they train you at the I mean they're
they're kind of like coaching you along with sending you out yeah exactly right so they've
sent me out a lot of general meetings I met with a lot of great people and the great thing about
it is that I am currently working on developing projects that are mine that are very personal
let me take a little sure sure no they don't mind that are very personal
and they want to see these projects which is great now I'm not expecting these projects to be made
but they'll be very good work samples in case they want to staff me as a writer on
one of their projects so yeah you're getting you're going to get a lot of opportunities by
saying yes your first year and is one of those projects the one that's about your life story
that's the one that they want to see they want to read that because they I told them about it and
they're like oh my god I want to read it so I just finished my first draft I got my notes back and
I'm going to go back and over the next two weeks work on that do you mind sharing some of the notes
sure I don't mind so again it's loosely based upon my life when I was going to
this performing arts high school and some of the notes from my managers have to do with
so when you write for television typically you're going to have for like a one hour show you'll have
five acts sometimes you'll have 5x and like a teaser in the very beginning I have 5x and
I think it's in act 4. we're spending a lot of time at this party so the idea is that it's
a character based upon me and then I come in contact with these other people at this school
and we become friends so I needed an event to bring them all together because when Courtney goes
to this school my character goes to the school he's the new guy they've already been going to
the school for halfway into the semester so I'm coming in at the halfway point of the semester
right around the winter the winter break so they already know each other and so he becomes friends
with one person who who introduces him to all these other people so I needed an event so I bring
him all together at a party and that's how he kind of becomes friends with all these other people
so the note that I got from my managers was we like that let's shorten it a little bit and
I want to spend more time with Courtney at home what is his home situation like what is his what
is relation with his parents like his sisters his brother what's that like and what's going on there
and so I'm like yeah that's a that's really a good point because what I
wanted to do was I'm taking each of these characters there's five main characters
you're introducing in the pilot is is is the character based upon me but the other four
characters we're going to spend time with them as well and I want to see what their dynamic at home
is is that is as well so that's why they wanted to have that go on they wanted me to kind of
spend time with this Courtney kind of character at home to see what his home life was like
so did you just want to show more of the fun side going to parties and and engaging with
people from school and they wanted to see kind of what shaped you correct you're 100 right and so
because of the fact that we're going to spend time with these kids at fun things seeing them do fun
things seeing them in in the school as they try to really strive at this performing arts school
we were going to get that at some point in other episodes but definitely wanted to kind of like
really understand where these people were coming from and what drove them to to this
point now there is some funny game stuff in there there's a little there's a little bit of magical
realism when they perform it's it's it's a very fun show but I mean I had the whole fourth act
was the party which is like 12 pages where I can make that into six pages at the party and then
another the other six pages I can devote that to Courtney's relationship with with his family
so that was some of the notes the shorten the party scene and show us more backstory sure of
the home has anyone said what it's too hard to write a a a realistic narrative about yourself
you're too close to it no one's ever told me that it's too hard to write a narrative about
myself because I'm too close to it no and in fact I was encouraged to do this this actually so funny
because when I when I got my managers in 2018 the first thing I told them was that I don't want to I
do not want to direct a dance movie and I said because typically the dance movies that I that
are done I don't like they're typically about the dance but not the story
I said the kind of stuff that I like is like all that jazz a choreographer who does bad stuff and
sleeps with his with his with his dancers like that's the kind of stuff that I like I like
a little more darker stuff and the other stuff was a little bit too pop corny for me
so initially I said no and so they've always wanted me to write this story but I said no
because number one it was very close to me I was afraid and I didn't think I was I
i didn't know a way into the story that's that was going to be unique
so initially the story was just going to be about a bunch of kids who go to performing arts school
I'm like okay we've seen fame we we've seen this done like what's so different what's
so special and I couldn't find a way to break it and then I said why don't I just base it upon me
and people that I know we'll change the names and everything but that's what we'll do because those
stories are unique and so I said okay that's the way to break in so then I started breaking down
how to make that happen and I did my beat sheet my outline and I just turned in my first draft.
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