Meet Corrina Crade
Corrina was born in New Delhi, India but was quickly sent to an orphanage where she lived for 7 months. Corrina was lucky enough to be adopted by a wonderful Jewish family in Madison, WI. Starting at an early age, Corrina would make home videos with friends in her basement. They would re-enact music videos, popular TV shows and newscasts, complete with commercials. She’d take the white sheets off her bed and drape them over her mother’s lamps to soften the lighting, handwrite scripts and direct cuts with her Magnavox camcorder. To most of her friends, this was just a phase, but to Corrina, these home videos were just the beginning of her life’s passion.
I early 2011, after getting dumped via email from a guy she dated for over 6 years, she packed her bags (and her cat) and left everything behind to pursue a life in the entertainment industry. She moved to Chicago during one of the biggest snowstorms in 80 years. After being stuck in a house with no furniture, no cable, no Internet and no shower curtain-with only a blow-up mattress, a few suitcases, her cat and a bottle of Jewish red wine, she decided it was time to be a filmmaker, writer, and actor. Since that snowy night, she has been doing all three professional.
Corrina started her own company, CRADEmade Entertainment to empower stronger roles for women in film and to develop creative projects for her film colleagues. She has produced an indie film and writing a book about the process, currently writing a musical, starring in a local TV show that brings awareness of Chicago culture, and the co-creator of a campaign launching this summer that brings awareness to diverse and same-sex couples.
Corrina’s latest project and most important to her is Mogamind, a meditation program she co-founded with her boyfriend. Mogamind is a tool to bring gratitude, love, and visualization to people by guided mediation that is accessible anywhere.
Q+A
What do you know for sure? I know for a fact that gratitude is the most important trait anyone can have. I practice gratitude everyday and found it’s made a huge difference in my life, relationships, and work.
What don’t people know about you? I am a crazy writer –when I do writing projects like feature films or projects such as commercials, shorts, creative stories or even initial creative development, I use songs to inspire me. Sometimes the songs just come to me and spark an idea OR I can easily seek one out after the idea is brought to me. Once I get that song, I lock myself in my room and write the story for hours while listening to the song on repeat until it’s done. When I wrote my first feature film, I listened to one song over 100 times and would listen to it again until all drafts were done. I have a song per project and have a hard time listening to the songs again after the projects are finish.
Who is your favorite character? Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. Anne and I relate on so many levels. First, we were both adopted into great families and both went into a career as a teacher and writer. She was also described a girl with too much imagination that needed to spend less time talking and more time doing, which is something I’ve always been- a dreamer and a talker. I usually watch the PBS movie and read the book once a year.
Favorite quote? “Don’t sweat the small stuff” – my mom
What’s your craziest idea? To run and own an Entertainment company here in Chicago using all local talent and actors. Have a live recording TV studio running three shows per season with good content and comedy. I’d like to see a bit of Tinsel town in Chicago. I don’t know if I’ll pull this off, but I sure am going to try!
Want more? Follow MogaMind on Facebook. Try out one of the MogaMind meditations here. Follow Crademade Entertainment on twitter.