We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christopher Moore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

The first thing I started doing in my journey to become a filmmaker was watching a lot of movies, studying on my own by reading books about screenwriting, and attempting to write screenplays. Growing up, I didn’t have access to cameras or any way to edit anything captured on cameras and the grade schools I attended didn’t have A.V. clubs that might have them. It wasn’t until college that I was able to practically apply what I was able to learn up to that point while expanding my knowledge by learning more about film theory, cinema from around the world, and different applied sciences, such as editing. I could’ve sped up the learning process by moving to Los Angeles and going straight into the film industry by taking whatever job was available, but this wasn’t quite practical for the budget I had coming
out of college. However, the bachelor’s degree was only a start; filmmaking is as much a blend of art and applied science as it is one built on intelligent thought – at least it should be as much as possible. The skills necessary to be a filmmaker have been made easier with time and technology of late – everyone has access to a camera and editing capability – but it will always require as much ingenuity, common sense, and intentional thought as any other profession.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a filmmaker, musician/composer, and screenwriter, and have wanted to be this multi-hyphenate since I was five years old. I hold a Bachelor’s in Radio-TV-Film from the University of North Texas, and earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from National University, graduating with distinction in 2016. Primarily, I produce video for instructional design at a telecommunications company while working on independent film projects. In the instructional design space, I’ve completed over 100 projects in which video is used to train sales representatives in retail stores. The instructional video I’m proudest of was one I directed that examined what to do in an active shooter event based on the FBI’s advised process known as “Run, Hide, Fight”. In the independent film space, I’ve composed music scores for six short films, three pieces of music for one feature, and a music score for the entirety of a feature film. Proudly, I can say I recently sold a screenplay for a short film which was filmed (and yes, I scored that one, too) and is being submitted to film festivals even as I write this text.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The hardest lesson for anyone creative to learn is how to give and receive feedback. Feedback takes all these different forms; taking direction, getting notes on a script, etc. A lot of advice given about this tends to be simple short sentences that never really helped me. I had to unlearn how to react to feedback first without thinking, and it’s a lesson I sometimes have to repeat. What helped me to unlearn defensively reacting to feedback was to write down a series of steps that I would read and re-read before going into a situation where I would get any feedback. The steps include reminding myself that this feedback isn’t a personal attack, breathing, and listening, and they’ve helped me develop a more professional approach to reacting to feedback.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

What has always driven is acceptance and growth. As I accept myself as a professional creative, I try to conduct myself as professional as I can so that others, both clients and colleagues accept me the same way. The big trick to accepting myself as such is avoiding a feeling that I have arrived or completed my journey, which is why growth is equally important to me, I never want to feel that I am absolutely everything I wanted to be and perfect in every way possible. In fact, I like the idea that I’m not done growing because if I am done, there’s nothing more to do, and that’s not a prospect I find appealing. The work will always draw me in and I respect myself enough to want to improve at it.

Contact Info:

• Twitter: @mentallycranked