Christian Elder, Screenwriter: Writers intrinsically are always seeking
even as I speak the right word to use
Film Courage: Why screenwriting?
Christian: That's a great question to start with I think it's just basically two things and one is
when I was young the thing that came before I wanted to tell stories which I think is very
integral to wanting to write screenplays is a love for movies and a love for cinema and so
I think I just became like a movie addict first without any sort of concern
whatsoever for the idea of writing a screenplay just just kind of getting a rush from from movies
and watching movies and talking about movies and wanting to introduce my my friends to movies so
for me I think that was the the the first the the Amuse-bouches on the palette before I launched
into and to storytelling storytelling was something else storytelling was the
the idea that there was a message that I want to convey a statement that I wanted to say and
usually like and and that didn't really sort of progress until I for me I was in my early 20’s and
I had these ideas and I would see these these great films from from people
that were expressing at the time for me these kind of subjects that dealt with things that
that hit me in the heart in in at my core for who I was a young adult as a young black male adult
and one example of course would be well two examples would be John Singleton and Spike Lee
and I thought hey you know I want to tell stories that have like messages that are akin to that
that have that kind of you know that that that relate to you know to to to people like me
so that was the impetus and then I went on a journey of trying to discover how to do that
and and that that entailed mining what I love about the written word and and and and and and
that also involves you know a love of literature a love of storytelling of all types I think that
that screenplays are usually just elaborate short stories just unspooled
and in in a in a slow fashion across 12 beats which would make it 3x
but but yeah I hope that wasn't too long no it was perfect you said something about mining
the written word that's interesting yeah well it it what I mean by that is is that
when it comes to writing screenplays specifically you're telling us a story in pictures
and to tell a story in pictures you have to use these these blunt little tools that are called
words and you have to find new and different ways to use those words juxtapose those words
abuse those words even to to make a picture out of a scene if you if you have a scene in which there
isn't any sort of banter if there you don't have two characters exchanging dialogue you have to
create what amounts to an interpretation or a blueprint that that the director is
going to work from and the and and on all the other attendant people involved
so that is mining the written word you you have to find the right words to do so
you know so I mean so even as I speak right now you'll find this is this affects I think the DNA
of of writers and screenwriters because I think writers intrinsically are always seeking you know
even as I speak the right word to use because when it comes to to writing you're sitting there
you're being still you're being patient if you are if you were born sometime before 1980
you were in front of a blank page if you if you were born somewhere after 1990
you know you were you're in you're in front of a blank screen and you're waiting you're waiting to
get just the right word to string next to another word to get right to be a correct
approximation of what you want the the the director or producer or even the reader to take
away from the experience of that scene how long have you been doing this I've been writing scripts
in you know a scattered fashion for i'll be told like about like 23 years
and yeah that's long and short 23 years and so was there a point when you almost walked
away from screenwriting absolutely or should I ask which time or what what happened absolutely like
I'd say a few times early in the game especially when it seemed really hard but the thing that
kept bringing me back was was pretty easy is it wouldn't let me go you know I think
that's a complex thing to answer because I think if you intrinsically feel
you know called to write you know people say that and it sounds really pretentious it's like
it's like you were called to be a part of the monastery like you're a jesuit somewhere and
since this is not I know it sounds pretentious but it it does actually exist in and if you if
you survey a number of writers they will they will sometimes use that phrase because they they
find that they can't they can't pull themselves or wrestle wrestle themselves away from the computer
that they have to come back and they have to work at something because it's nagging at them
and it won't it won't stop nagging at them until until it's finished and so for me it was like
that and it only was it was only when after a period of time in which it started to become
a little facile it started to become a little easy that I you know I was like okay well i'm
i'm just going to keep going you know so there are other things too there's there's little lessons
that you learn along the way there is there's examples from from other writers that you pick
up that give you a really strong skill set to to to use and to borrow from that make it real
real simple in my mind you know I can I can expound on that for like like oh maybe two hours
and that i'm actually not kidding so if we wanted to get into that but but yeah there's
stuff like that so you found it got easier for you and you were okay with the fact that
there was something sort of pulling you to do this that it was it was it almost felt like
it was beyond your control yeah absolutely it's yeah that's basically what it is if I wanted to
to get a little bit more flowery about it you know you know some people you
know some people believe in a higher power some people believe in a muse you know so
I think that with writing you know there's always something that that is pulling you towards writing
it and the story and what kind of stories were you pulled toward I mean you said there were certain
filmmakers John Singleton, Spike Lee that you wanted to emulate that you wanted to make
movies similar to theirs in the beginning I was very interested in writing stories
that were were kind of carbon copies of of the kind of stories that they were telling
that that soon started to evolve I started becoming interested in telling a little bit more
action-oriented almost elongated well not really elongated but like a sort of cinematic
comic book-esque type stories because I love comic books and I grew up on comic books and
and that started to become incorporated into the kind of writing I was doing
and all the while as I was developing my craft I was you know as usual i'm seeing more movies
more kinds of movies different kinds of movies i'm a big proponent of of writing styles that aren't
exclusive to what happens in Hollywood or in America I think that what happens in Europe
and and Britain I think the hong kong filmmakers and writers are excellent
I think you know for example of course you know John Woo Wong car y the European filmmakers
Michael Hanukkah Christophe Kozlowski Mike Lee these are all they all provide a different
a different set of tools that you can also bring and use and so along the way
I found myself almost kind of coming full circle back to what I wanted to tell in the first place
or the kind of stories I wanted to tell in the first place
but with a more assured voice with my voice as opposed to being more of a carbon copy or a copy
Michael Clayton interesting love that movie why I love that movie is a couple reasons I think
that that one of the finest filmmakers and writers and the business is Tony Gilroy.
His work is indelible the his screenplays are extraordinary if you want to talk about terse
terse action suspense drama and and and and any kind of suspense that feels rooted in reality
as opposed to being too cartoonish that is Tony Gilroy and if you know for anyone who doesn't
you know know his his attach his name to to his phones we're talking the devil's advocate
he wrote he wrote the the the the first three born movies and of course the the the
gorgeous and and beautiful film Michael Clayton which is basically about a character about a man
who is as I was saying a little earlier is he's stuck in a sort of nomads land
because he has he has this this he's burdened by by being able to do certain things that don't do
that that render him anti-social in the world yet he's still a very useful figure he's a commodity
and he's a commodity that is to the detriment of his of his own his own well-being in in many ways
so love that film what's really great about that film though
is what it does and what what it blends is that it it takes all the excitement
that you get all the boys stuff that you like you know if you're a boy
with you know bad guys and and and and and good guys and and and good triumphing over evil and
and all and and the gray areas that exist in between and it marries it with with
with drama that is really really I think socially relevant and gives a message and harkens back to
a lot of those 70s films and those are the films I grew up on and were the were the
films that I became a fan of when I was a kid those were films like Sydney Lumet's films like
Dog Day Afternoon or Serpico or you know any really any of those network network
phenomenal film but yeah right and and where you were talking about the gray area in between
and and sometimes where the gangster in the film is not actually the worst character in the end
we find out that it was the the one that had the appearance of sort of the the the straight
and narrow but actually where where sort of their morals got you know it's interesting I feel like
i'm not even sure where i'm going with that I know we were watching something moral ambiguity
okay moral ambiguous that's the word okay thank you and and and and
discovering that in a character because you it's not always close it's not always obvious to the
the audience and when we find that the one that we suspected was the bad one actually had more of
a code of honor or ethics than one that looked squeaky clean and we thought we could trust so
it's it's those gray areas and yeah in the news and in life yeah absolutely
that's that's what I that's what I enjoy about that kind of work I think that that you know
I personally and I don't think everyone feels the same way
but I feel that work like that that enlightens you about areas of the human condition is edifying
because you have you you grow an insight and then you have the potential to take that insight
whether it is creatively or otherwise you take it and you can potentially evolve yourself.