Courtney Miller, Filmmaker/Producer/Author/Editor: I'll throw it back at the writer I said let me
ask you a question where do you see this playing? Where is this going to be shown
and they said I don't know. I'm like that's a problem
and it's obvious because what you wrote can be shown anywhere.
Film Courage: Courtney, you have a quote on your website that reads
“It's not how many ideas you have, it's how many you make happen.”
Courtney: Yes, I heard that a long time ago. I was a kid. It was a quote from a financial company
and I swear I was probably maybe 13 when I heard that. I'm like that's true because
a lot of folks have ideas but they don't do anything about them. I have a lot of friends
who Ah, I wish I could write. I'm like just go write, there's a lot of content on Youtube.
You can go to Film Courage and go like learn how to write you can learn the process of how to do
that and so that's been a mantra of mine it's like it's I'm not going to sit down I don't I never
want to be the person that that says you know I'm like 70 years old oh I wish I could have done this
I wish I could have done that it's like no just go do it go do it and so yeah it's not how many
ideas you have we all have a lot of ideas it's how many you make happen and so that is something
that I use to push me and you do what you got to do to kind of push yourself and I know who I am
I'm a competitive guy I need those kind of quotes to kind of push me sometimes because
sometimes it is difficult to sit down and write and look at a at a computer and write something
and so I know what I need to kind of push me through and that's the kind of quote
that that helps me push through and get the projects that I want to get done
it sounds like when you have a goal though there's nothing stopping you I mean I think back to the
story you told me earlier that you're taking the bus to sometimes two buses places you you
going to this audition you don't know that it's Michael Jackson and then you get it that was
your goal to to work with him since you were a teenager that once you get that seed that it's
not it's not going to be where it's going to be a coulda woulda shoulda you're gonna really do it
yeah and I think that's a really good point and I think that's the reason why I quit my job
my nine to five it's like I did not want to have I should have or I could have done this
because I know that okay if oh whatever the situation is if I do this
so let's let's go back to to 2016. I just know 2015. and I decided I want to go
to college to learn how to write how to direct let's say I go to the schooling in 2016 I'm done
I have my short film and I don't get a manager okay so now with a year two years three years in
yeah maybe I would have again because in between that time period I was writing and then look and
sending my resume out to maybe get back a nine to five job because money was getting tight
I probably would have gone back to that that situation there but I would not feel bad
because I tried I never want to get to the point where I don't try and then regret that
I'm always going to try and then if I fail after the trying then that's different but to not try
at all I think that's that's a travesty and I think that's what a lot of people that when they
grow older and they they sit down and they talk about I should have talked to that girl or I mean
I have those moments like oh this one girl that was just cute i've never talked to her but then
you find out that she liked you it's like ah man I should have said something yeah I don't wanna
go through that I wanna I wanna say okay I tried I may not have succeeded but at least I tried I know
right now we're in this sort of term of the great resignation and people are quitting their jobs to
start their own business or whatever and it'll be interesting to see in like three to four years how
many people stuck with that and not everybody can do that and that's that's the sad part not
everybody has family that will help them out monetarily or a place to stay and I can see how
that would frustrate a lot of people and i've read comments one guy said like he regrets doing that
and then he got stuck being a temp in a certain industry and he never got out of that I thought
that was interesting because yeah it is a scary leap especially when you're a little bit older
oh my god it's terrifying it is terrifying like if I was to sit here and tell you that everything
worked out the way I wanted it to work out i'd be lying to you it was terrifying and like I said I
know i've submitted at least 15 to 20 resumes out there for jobs while I was trying to hopefully
break break into the into the system in regards to making and directing projects yeah it's terrifying
you're right it's a situation now where people are at a point where they're
they are taking some chances with their careers and they're not necessarily settling for what they
would have settled in the past and yeah some people are going to get hurt because of that
it's a tough one it's not for everybody but I mean they have to kind of search themselves and
figure out are they going to be happy with not trying or be happy with trying and failing and
I'm okay with the latter I'm okay with trying and failing i've tried things and I failed at them
i've tried some businesses that I failed at them you always learn but the one cool thing about this
industry is that it doesn't care if you have a degree it cares it cares if you
are bringing something to them that they can sell
and so going back to what you were saying earlier regarding I want to do the Christmas movie my way
that's fine but you're not bringing something to me that I want to that that I can sell I am
the customer the customer is always right give me what I want and I'll pay you for
it and that's how I look at it I look at what's out there right now what are networks looking for
and then I write to that in a way that allows me to use my creative juices but I write
to what they're looking for and that's kind of the way I do it and I know off camera we had talked
about what I call women in peril and then you said now it's women in power and that was news to me I
hadn't heard that so thank you for for letting me know that but so they're also looking for stories
like that where where someone's escaping an ex-boyfriend or whatever and and then things again
it in the end it's always a good resolution yes okay yeah so speaking of those women in
peril women in power which somebody told me that that's what it's called now so I'll use that now
movies lifetime was built on that there's networks that are built on that Mar Vista Entertainment is
Christmas and thrillers that's how they make their money in fact they just got bought out by fox
and so we'll see what the mandate's gonna be on a go forward basis but there used to be Christmas
and thrillers that's what made Mar Vista Entertainment and it's a company
valued at 100 million dollars on those pretty much on those two genres so
yeah again what do they want so yes if you were to make either a thriller with a female lead
that again watch the thrillers on lifetime and do something like that but put a little spin on it
you'll sell those or a Christmas movie you'll sell those that's what they want that's that's
what you're gonna go for now things like HBO Max or abc nbc those are different situations
and it's a whole different ballgame with that like those you're going to need to have
a manager or an agent pushing for your for your project at that point and those
those are a lot of those are lottery tickets to be able to to sell your your tv show your
tv series to one of those places I I still write for those in the sense of I haven't sold one yet
but I am writing projects that are specifically for those areas and I think that's another thing
to think about is before you write anything to ask yourself where is this going to sell a lot
of writers don't think about that business wise to think about oh I'm a writer let me just write
no no baby go ahead and figure out where you want to send this who's going to look at it where will
it play and everything is not a Netflix thing you know the yes Netflix has a lot of content and they
need a lot more content but unless you have an in already at Netflix you it won't sell to Netflix so
write when you write something think about where you want it to sell and that will help you in
reference to how you write something as well that's great advice and even with the Christmas
and the women in peril slash women in power movies you still have to have someone walk you in oh yeah
yeah you can't just mail it in cold so yeah and I would say the same thing with if you want to
go to Netflix like I do want to go to Netflix like I have a a social thriller that's a that's
it's like the shining meets the skeleton key and it's a it's a really fun script I would
love for that to go to Netflix because I want to be the director of that and and I know that
they give you a little more leeway creatively as a director when you take projects to them
how I'm going to get that into Netflix is probably going to be by looking at
other similar types of genres that are on Netflix and then getting in contact with those producers
to say hey look I got something for you guys so I'm gonna use I like to try to walk the talk
and if I say that that's what a person should do I'm gonna try to do the same
techniques to track down a good producer to walk something in right so when when I sit down with
an idea think about if I really am serious about this where will this sell yes oh yeah otherwise
what are you writing it for it's seems like yeah I don't know I don't understand why
you would write something if you don't think about where it's going to sell
I mean you can write something hoping that it sells but then the question is where
you got to think thing like that and I think that helps dictate how how how you write something when
where it's going to go where you would like for it to go now it may not sell there but if you
if you if you at least are writing with that mandate already in your mind you're already
ahead of the game because sometimes people will just write something and it's just like okay
so I have a production company and for a while I was looking at scripts because I was hoping
to leverage my relationships to take these scripts other places to hopefully get them
made and with me attached as a director and so I had some people send me some Christmas scripts and
it was very interesting because I was like okay who who was the audience for this the idea was
interesting but I'm like okay who was this for and so I so I would I'll throw it back at the writer
I said let me ask you a question where do you see this playing like where is this going to be shown
and they said I don't know I'm like that's a problem and it's obvious because what you wrote
can be shown anywhere and that's an issue and I'm sorry that you spent so much time writing
120 pages but this won't play anywhere so then I'm giving them advice regarding look at look
at look at who buys these these projects in bulk look at what type of situation it is look at the
story the narrative the characters the arcs and go back and write something that's more like that
and usually i've never had one person go back and actually rewrite something
that was more like that and then resend it back to me now I don't want to do any more Christmas
movies I'm out of that business now but I'm saying back at the time when I was interested
in in producing and directing those yeah a lot of folks don't think about where it's going to play
so an art film some kind of like beautiful sort of mumble core piece
is there really a network I can sell that to you tell me
what I'm not sure what's it I don't know except for the Sundance channel or which would be great
that's fine that sounds wonderful that's fantastic okay so if if I know that's my audience which is
sort of other filmmakers right there here's your audience so please go make it just but
don't expect to make it thinking that it's going to get anywhere else anywhere else maybe maybe IFC
maybe but yeah you're not going to there's not a big a big audience there so I like to
write for something that I know is has maybe four or five different locations where it can land
it's already hard enough to sell anything why would you want to shoot yourself in the foot
by limiting the place that that it can go sure and then do your research find out what were their top
films and and watch them and dissect them watch them with the sound off the whole all that all
the above okay and that will make again we forget about the business piece of this
they need butts in the seat they need eyeballs to look at this stuff and so we want to make sure
that we're giving them what they want because they already have millions of people that are watching
their stuff but what made squid games huge was it was unique it was different and they got it on
Netflix through through the south Korea situation but you can go back to bird box unique stories
with interesting twists so there's a world where that can exist on a Netflix because that that
doesn't play anywhere else Netflix is bird box Netflix is Squid Games it doesn't play anywhere
else so yes it is this but those those those producers at that level they already have the in
into these into Netflix about somebody already have the over there and so if you're able to
convince a a producer that already has it in and you have the next whatever that is really
catchy cool pro product then great have at it but like you said earlier if it's
gonna be something that's like very art house mobile core it's gonna be it's gonna be tough
do you think the Blair Witch Project would have sold today if there weren't
all these found footage I realized there were different incarnations of it that followed but
would would that have been too edgy to sell to a network today are we going with
the mindset that that all these other found footages do not exist or they couldn't exist
the the the all the other found footages have not followed have not trailed it yet yeah yeah I think
I think it would have it would have found a home someplace still okay because again it's different
different yeah I think so so you can write something different original I guess I get
now that it's already been done but yeah yeah but I think the point I'm trying to make is that
it's gonna it's feel free to write something different and original
it's still going to be difficult to sell as opposed to I know I need 70 Christmas movies
it's going to be easier to sell a Christmas movie it's going to be harder to sell you you
may you may sell the next Blair Witch Project or whatever the situation is the conjuring whatever
but and even the condragus you can look at that I mean the beats are similar to a lot of other
a lot of other movies as well it was just the execution was was pretty cool yeah it's
you can sell your stuff but it's just gonna be harder that's all
for sure yeah what if I say I want to write the next tree of life ooh and so I don't want to do
a women in peril movie or power do it I see I say write whatever you want but just understand
that it may be difficult to sell because it's so specific it's so not commercial that's all I'm
trying to say is just understand that there's a commercial piece then there's an art piece
and sometimes the two don't always coincide and so there's there's fewer buyers for this please
write it make it amazing make it brilliant it may sell it just may not sell immediately you know.