Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris O’Neill.
Hi Chris, for folks who missed our prior conversation, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My parents loved Film, TV and comedy and I think I got the passion from them. My hometown is Leeds in the North of England, where I started writing and putting on my own plays. That got me into the National Youth Theatre and then to the University of East Anglia in Norwich, who sent me off to San Francisco State University to study Film and Theatre (apparently because of an exchange program, but more likely because I was causing far too much trouble).
After graduating, I sent screenplays out like a madman and kept jumping between Leeds and LA and got as many meetings as I could with production companies. I would get a meeting on a studio lot and afterward walk around and pop into offices to introduce myself. Honestly, most people I met seemed glad to have a bit of company since they’re so isolated in their islands of production offices. Off the back of this, I got a deal writing scripts for a company and spent a few years endlessly rewriting projects for various A-list filmmakers who could never seem to decide if they wanted to make the film (money was invariably the deciding factor and fair enough). This was a great learning curve to see what goes into the (dreaded) “development process”. Many projects don’t make it out of there, but I figured since I had made it out of Leeds, one of my projects should make it out of this pit of indecision, so I put together my first film, ABSOLUTE DEBAUCHERY.
That got into a film festival, which encouraged me to make another film, HEADSHOTS, which got into five film festivals and won several awards. I’m proud to be able to point to them as something that went from an idea to a reality. It just took hard work, application and belief in oneself. The films are streaming now and I can officially call myself “a filmmaker”. I have been called far worse, of course. So that’s my story in a nutshell:)
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
If you get a smooth road in, at some point, that road’s probably going to present some detours or obstacles- or just turn into MAD MAX FURY ROAD and try to destroy you. When I was in Leeds, there was no support or opportunity for independent filmmaking. In fact, my experience was aggressive resistance- and in some cases active preventing- of being able to put projects together. So I turned to LA and my first year was literally running around meeting people and networking until I got into rooms with decision-makers, getting past the gatekeepers who are trained to tell you to piss off. Getting to sit down with the people who actually make the decisions and who have the experience to see who’s a workhorse is, perhaps, the key to it all. It’s getting past those pesky gatekeepers who can’t make decisions that take up all the time.
A big challenge at first was not having a work visa. That was solved when one of the aforementioned trigger-puller decision-makers recognized my passion for the work and ability. So that allowed me to stay in LA and work my arse off collaboratively and I learned a ton about putting projects together from that.
Putting one’s own projects together is a challenge more than a struggle- you need to be on the ball about everything and you should be on that ball because it’s your project, your time and most likely your money. Anticipating everything that might go wrong and having three backup plans for it is the standard operating procedure. I find that a lot of fun and it really does set you up to have a good day filming.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m an actor and filmmaker. My scripts are comedy and feature films. It’s been rather fantastic to have had my scripts be Winners/Finalists in everything from the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship to Scriptapalooza, Shore Scripts, ISA, Filmmatic, Emerging Screenwriters, Creative Screenwriting and more. That’s a great validation that I can write decent stories people respond to and that I have exciting projects worth looking at. I like making people laugh and cheering them up.
You might see me around LA doing stand-up comedy. My two feature films, ABSOLUTE DEBAUCHERY and HEADSHOTS are streaming on TUBI. My first novel THE SKETCHER’S MARK, a thriller about a serial killer in Paris who kidnaps the sister of an LAPD Detective who happens to hunt serial killers for a living, is available on AMAZON.
If it’s an indie project I think I can put together myself, I will. Which means shaping the script to be something that can be shot feasibly. Big action set pieces with enormous space spiders air dropping into downtown Burbank shooting lazers out of their arse- while cool, yes- is probably not something feasible for you to shoot when you’re an indie filmmaker. Or maybe it is if you or someone you know is a whiz on CGI. Point being, use what you have available (and if anyone reading this can actually create alien spiders with arse lazers, let me know). Over the years, technology has come a long way and filmmakers have a great opportunity to learn new skills and create projects.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Taking risks can be fun and sometimes necessary. You learn from failing- but only if you choose to. You would never have learned if you hadn’t taken the risk in the first place. If you risk nothing, you win nothing. But I believe in research. Know everything you can about what you’re doing, what the situation is and the history and the odds. Then you can decide whether it’s a risk or a battle worth taking on. You can fail for years and decades and stay focussed on what it is that you love doing and it will break your heart and eat away at you if you’re not succeeding and at some point, you will want to give up, move away, forget about it and pretend it never happened at all. And that happens to many people for whom success does not come within a couple or three years of working at it. Keep going, keep learning, get better, stay focused and let go of worry. If it’s going to work out and you do everything you can to ensure it will, then it will. Stop worrying- you’re wasting time you could be spending creating something. Or having an adventure. Or far too many drinks at Happy Hour.
Contact Info:
- Website: thatchrisoneill.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatchrisoneill/
