Conrad Craven

I am Conrad M. Craven, a writer, director and cinematographer from Houston Texas. My journey in film began over 15 years ago when I started shooting music videos for local artists. On my first music video shoot I was approached by a childhood friend, who had recently written a children's book, to help shoot and direct a feature film he had written. With very little budget, my friend would have to pay me plus rent all the cameras, lenses, lights and sound gear we needed. I came up with a solution...I agreed to shoot, direct and edit the film if he would purchase the gear and allow me to keep everything as payment. It was a way of killing two birds with one stone. He agreed and we began filming. Having that gear allowed me to book more jobs on bigger projects, and each time I would invest 100 percent of the profits in upgrading and expanding my equipment. Around this time I had taken several creative writing courses and I decided that I wanted to teach film at the University level. I received a B.S. in Digital media from The University of Houston and began creating content as the Creative Director of Phusion Platforms, an academic co-op program designed to help media students gain practical experience working in film and television. At this point of my career I was working full-time and making independent movies on the side. Most of my initial work was an editor and music supervisor, but when I wrote my first short the response to it was overwhelming and that shaped the second part of my career. I began writing short stories and I attempted several novels that quickly turned into novellas due to my short attention span. Writing screenplays became a cathartic practice that allowed me to explore topics I had a strong opinions about in a creative way. It was the perfect marriage between my insatiable need to create and my curiosity about the human psyche. TJ Boyce of ABDU Entertainment contracted me to write and direct is music video Ghetto America. After hearing the song I dove into the treatment creating visuals the reflected the current state of the country but with my personal unique twist. The video received over a million views in under a month. My goal is to one day have my name mentioned in the same sentence as one of my many film idols: Tarantino, Scorsese, Spielberg, Fincher, Kubrick, Cameron, Stone, Spike Lee and Tyler Perry just to name a few.