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. 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 A 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’ve 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 outline and then from there went ahead and started writing. 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 money grab. That was my first opportunity for a job and you kind of do what you need to do. Christmas movies are a great way to get into the business if you’ve never sold a script before.
Film Courage: I’m just now seeing the impact of Christmas films. There’s so many different takes on the Christmas love story and it’s fascinating. Were you so tuned in or this dialed you in?
Courtney: This opportunity dialed me into the fact that there’s a lot of opportunity for Christmas movies and so I had no idea about them. I never really even watched the Christmas…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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BIO:
Courtney Miller is a 5-time award winning director who has worked with the biggest names in entertainment including Michael Jackson, Usher, and Britney Spears. His award winning short film REPAIRations! – The Musical, has garnered him meetings with top studios and networks including Lionsgate, TBS, and Viola Davis’ company, Juvee Productions. He has directed commercials for Nike & Apple, and has written several television and film screenplays in the Drama, Comedy, Musical, and Horror genres’.
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