There are no guarantees that you'll get a job after college or even grad school, but if you work hard, meet the right people and "accidentally be in the right place at the right time," you'll achieve anything.
At least, that's what Christopher Painter insists.
Painter graduated from UNM in 1992 with a degree in English and a minor in film/TV -- now known as Media Arts. He's originally from Alamogordo, N.M., but moved to Albuquerque after high school to attend UNM.
He lives and works in Los Angeles, but Painter said that, "No breakfast burrito can come close to the Frontier's." After working as an assistant for shows like "Frasier," and landing various writing gigs at Modern Humorist and Weekly World News, he's now a member of the Writer's Guild and is working as a freelance writer for the TV show, "She Spies."
In an interview with the Daily Lobo, Painter describes "She Spies," his post-UNM experience and what his plans are for the future.
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Daily Lobo: What is the premise of the show "She Spies"?
Christopher Painter: The show's tagline sums it up nicely -- "Bad Girls Gone Good." It's about three female ex-cons who work as spies for the Feds. I've heard it called a cross between "Charlie's Angels" and the "Austin Powers" movies, which is a pretty fair analysis.
DL: How different is "She Spies" from other shows on TV?
CP: It's a comedy/action hybrid and I can't think of anything else like it. And while it does feature three women, it's not sleazy or demeaning, unless it's intentionally trying to be for humor's sake. The show actually pulls in terrific ratings from female viewers, which is very gratifying.
DL: How does the show develop scripts? What is the collaborative process of the show like? Does the editing process continue into the shoot?
CP: My first episode, "The Girl With The Broken Heart," was from an idea I pitched, where Cassie -- Natasha Henstridge -- meets up with her ex-fiancÇ. Over the course of developing the script, the location changed from a cruise ship to a pirate convention to a hotel and back to a ship then back to a hotel again, but the main story always stayed the same. For my second episode, "Damsels In De-Stress," the producers basically said, "We have a spa we can shoot at very inexpensively, can you come up with a script?" That felt like old-style Hollywood filmmaking.
DL: What has your experience as a screenwriter been like so far? (i.e. How long did it take you to get "your foot in the door"?)
CP: I worked for five years at various assistant jobs, a good part of that on the show "Frasier," before getting my break on "She Spies." Then I got two scripts in a row, paid off all my debts, and became a member of the Writer's Guild. It's like crawling through the desert dying of thirst, then suddenly having one of those firefighting helicopters drop a ton of water on you.
DL: What other credits -- TV shows, films, plays -- do you have under your belt?
CP: In addition to being a contributing editor at Modern Humorist -- www.modernhumorist.com -- my work has appeared online at Salon, McSweeney's, Comedy Central, and Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope All-Story Extra. I've also done stories for The Weekly World News. "Angry Chicken Thwarts Carjacking!" and "Ancient Parking Lot Found On Mars!" were both mine, I'm proud to say.
DL: What advice would you give to up and coming screenwriters and playwrights?
CP: Have a good home life. Success in artistic endeavors ebbs and flows, so have something outside of work that makes you happy. Without the support of my wife, Alysia Gray Painter -- also a writer and UNM grad, I couldn't have done any of it. Also, make yourself lucky. That means always having a good body of work to show, getting out and meeting people who can help you, and planning very hard to accidentally be in the right place at the right time. If you do all that, you will not fail.
Christopher Painter's first "She Spies" episode, "The Girl With The Broken Heart," airs on KOAT Sunday, Feb. 2, at 12:05 a.m. For more info on the show, visit www.shespies.com.
