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Screenwriter’s Workshop: Table Reading Our Work

04/14/2021
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Every 2nd Wednesday of the month,  BTFC screenwriters come together for online table read sessions and to workshop our screenplays. If you are working on a piece and would like to participate by having your pages read aloud, RSVP.  Active writers, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to share your work, listen to the work of other writers and receive valuable feedback from BTFC members!

During this workshop, we’ll have read-athons, where can usually read about 4-6 works. Writers should submit up to 6 pages to be read aloud. The scripts are read in order of attendance on the zoom.

If you are a writer an actor, a producer, DP or other looking for upcoming productions, come and meet the writer/directors getting their work ready for primetime. This workshop is a great networking opportunity and for you to continue fine tuning your craft! Moderated by Laura Fielder.

About Laura Fielder

LAURA FIELDER is an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker.  She made her directing debut with Milan’s First Day (2015).

Her recent short, The Company You Keep (2019), is currently making the film festival rounds.

Laura’s films have been screened at festivals like The Hip Hop Film Festival, The Toronto Black Film Festival, The Katra Film Series, and The Baltimore International Film Festival.  Laura is a graduate of the UCLA TFT Professional Program in Screenwriting.

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Sound of Metal: Discussion Circle

Let’s talk about the highly acclaimed film, Sound of Metal. 

On Thursday, May 27th; we’re discussing the highly praised film,  the Sound of Metal. Come ready to dive into what makes this film that won the BAFTA Award for Best Editing, the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, the Academy Award for Best Sound…the Critic’s Choice Movie Award for Best Editing – to name a few – resonate with audiences across the globe.

We’ll be discussing:

  • The Protagonist
  • Characters
  • Themes
  • Three Act Structure

The Sound of Metal has reinspired filmmakers to take a creative leap in storytelling and owning diverse narratives. Please watch the film and read the script prior to our discussion.

Download the Script | Watch the Film on Amazon Prime

About Sound of Metal :

The life of an itinerant punk-metal drummer (Riz Ahmed) begins to unravel when he suddenly loses his hearing, and with it, his identity. Directed by Darius Marder with an original screenplay by Darius and Abraham Marder; story by Darius Marder and Derek Cianfrance.

Genre: Drama

Watch the trailer:

 

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Filmmakers Pop-Up Legal Clinic

**This opportunity is available to Members only. Please Email your BTFC Username or Associated email address for a link to the application. All applications must be received by Thursday, May 13th at 4 PM.***

 

The Black TV & Film Collective and The Filmmakers Legal Clinic at Cardozo Law partnered on a monthly series of legal empowerment for Filmmakers.  This month, we offer a Pop-Up Legal Clinic.

Are you interested in getting free legal advice to get your project off to the right start? The Filmmakers Legal Clinic at Cardozo  School of Law will run a pop-up legal clinic for BTFC  filmmakers.  The Filmmakers Legal Clinic is a not-for-profit clinical program that provides free legal services to filmmakers producing narrative and documentary films and artists providing services in film. This is a unique opportunity to meet with a student legal team in a brief, intimate setting.  Bring your legal questions on fair use, entity formation, distribution, licensing, work-for-hire agreements, and other issues.  If you’re interested in participating in this event, please fill out this application by Thursday, May 13th at 4 pm. There are a limited number of meeting times available. 

The Clinic will be held on Wednesday, May 19th at 7pm.

Please Email your BTFC Username or Associated email address for a link to the application.

About the Black TV & Film Collective

The Black TV & Film Collective is a 501c3 development and production hub with a simple mission: to create career-advancing opportunities for Black and African Descent artists to achieve financial sustainability within the entertainment industry.

We provide critical production support enabling members to build a strong body of work, supplemented by workshops and labs focused on craft development and networking events to foster relationship building.

There is power in numbers and together there is unlimited potential in what we can achieve.

Check out the Black TV & Film Collective event calendar!


Our Event Calendar

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Speakers Series feat. Cameron Squires | Writer “WandaVision”

On Thursday, June 10th at 7 PM ET, join us in a conversation with Cameron Squires. He’s an accomplished writer who was most recently a part of the writing staff of the acclaimed Disney+/Marvel Studios series WANDAVISION. 

Cameron is currently developing an animated pilot with HBO Max entitled FENCE and is also the Executive Story Editor for a new untitled STAR WARS series for Disney+. Screenwriters – we know that it breaking into the writer’s room is not easy! This is a chance for you to hear from a writer who is doing amazing things in the industry and telling stories that he believes in!

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Cameron Squires is currently developing an animated pilot with HBO Max entitled FENCE, which is based on the BOOM! Studios graphic novel, and is also serving as Executive Story Editor for an untitled STAR WARS series for Disney+. He recently served as Staff Writer on the critically acclaimed Disney+ / Marvel TV series WANDAVISION and Story Editor on Netflix’s upcoming animated series AGENT KING. Prior to that, he served as Staff Writer on Season 2 of TBS’s animated series FINAL SPACE, which Conan O’Brien produces. He was the show’s Writers Assistant in Season 1 and got an episode that season. An Indiana native who played collegiate baseball at Yale, Cam moved to LA to pursue writing. He got his start in the ICM mailroom before getting a crash course in comedy working with Ed Helms.

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BTFC Online Work Dates

**Non-BTFC Members are also welcome! RSVP through Eventbrite here.**

BTFC ONLINE WORK DATES: Every Monday night starting June 14th – August 2nd!

7:00pm – 9:00pm

Join us for our BTFC Online Work Dates. What exactly does this mean, you ask? It means you bring your scripts, your program apps, your to-do lists– really, anything you have that needs to get done…because it’s a WORK date.  Also, should attendees wish to spend some timetable reading pages, that can happen too!

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

― Jodi Picoult

Sometimes as artists, we make procrastination our best friend and easily become professional self-sabotagers. Working and writing don’t have to be solitary task. Join other writers,  scribes, and scribblers from the Black TV & Film Collective and create more pages on your web series, narrative films, or short screenplays.

Open your laptop, bring your pen, pencil, paper, or whatever writing tool suits you. Make sure your batteries are charged, literally and figuratively!

We feel you, writing / working on our projects can be a lonely and arduous endeavor. So help ease the difficulty of bringing ideas to life by committing to a person, date, and time and most importantly pen to paper. Making an online work date to work with other artists will help you stay on task with your projects.

**Non-BTFC Members are welcome – reserve your ticket here.

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This event is moderated by BTFC Board Member, Letitia Guillory.

About Letitia

 

LETITIA GUILLORY is a multi-hyphenate creative whose works span, theatre, film, and episodic content.

Her work has been presented at PS 122, Lincoln Center, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, BRIC Media Arts among others.

She produced the award-winning short comedy, Pas Honteux (REVOLT TV) and the powerful LGBTQ short Winston. Letitia’s writing credits include the plays: The Further Adventures of Gussie Mae in America, MAE and THE (beginning of the End), Crawfish Tales, RED and 8:42 (Austin Film Festival Second Rounder); screenplays: Hound Dog (Oaxaca Film Festival Global Script Competition Finalist), Grace, The Last Time, Lights Out and Shanghai ’37; and the teleplays: Parish, gATES (Second Rounder Austin Film Festival, Semifinalist Screencraft TV Pilot Launch) and Salvation.

A proud alum of the University of Texas (BFA, Drama) and New York University (MA, Performance Studies), Letitia remains inspired and grateful. Learn more about Letitia here. 

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Breaking Into Directing

On Thursday, Aug. 5th at 7 PM ET; join us for an interactive conversation on breaking into directing whether it be film, television, digital – or commercial.

 

Did you start out as a Writer? An Actor? Maybe you were on a tight budget so you directed your own short or series. No matter what your journey may look like, many of us find ourselves in the lauded Director’s chair.

This panel will be moderated by Daytime Emmy nominated Filmmaker, Dui Jarrod (“King Ester,” Issa Rae Productions) featuring Okema T. Moore (Creative Director/Producer, OWN; Netflix, Fox, BET),  Stacey Muhammad (Director, “Queen Sugar,” “First Wives Club,” “Being Mary Jane”), and Quincy G. Ledbetter (Director, 2021 Webby Award Winner “Alieu the Dreamer”).

Our discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A – see you there! 

 

ABOUT DUI JARROD

Dui Jarrod is a Daytime Emmy nominated & award-winning screenwriter, director, and playwright residing in Brooklyn, NY best known for BROOKLYN. BLUE. SKY. It is the first acquired web series for BET Networks after winning the Xfinity Best Web Series Award at the American Black Film Festival. His new series, “King Ester” has been nominated for 4 Day-time Emmy Awards. Jarrod’s work focuses on the power of human connection in the landscape of America. duijarrod.com 

 

ABOUT OKEMA T. MOORE

Okema T. Moore is a passionate multi-genre producer turned director who never thought she’d be here! Starting as an actor/singer, she found the roles for Black women stereotypical and monolithic and vowed to figure out ways to change that. Leaving a cushy finance job at 36 to start all over, she worked her a** off to become a PGA Producer and Creative Director working with the likes of OWN, Netflix, FOX, BET, TLC, and more. Okema is committed to proving that good stories come from all corners of life and deserve to be told by the most unlikely people! And as development becomes more and more her calling, she presently revels in bringing the ideas of these unlikely people to the masses. moorethanenuff.com 

 

ABOUT STACEY MUHAMMAD

New Orleans native Stacey Muhammad is a multi-hyphenate artist who has received rave reviews for her cinematic approach and distinctive style to storytelling and for creating emotionally charged character-driven stories. Since directing her first episode of TV on the groundbreaking series, Queen Sugar for OWN, she’s gone on to direct the season premiere and 2nd episode of Tracy Oliver’s First Wives Club for BET+ as well as episodes of the forthcoming Amazon series, HARLEM, starring Meagan Good and Whoopi Goldberg. She recently wrapped episodes of the forthcoming CBS / Paramount+ series, Guilty Party (starring Kate Beckinsale), and is currently directing two episodes of the second season of Love Life for HBO Max. 

Stacey is an alumnus of the esteemed Warner Brothers Directing workshop and was one of thirteen directors chosen by the Directors Guild of America and the Association of Independent Commercial Producers for the inaugural Commercial Director’s Diversity Program. She’s since gone on to direct three commercials for AARP. 

Stacey is currently in development with Malcolm D. Lee’s Blackmaled Productions on her first feature film titled, THE RETURN. staceymfilms.com

 

ABOUT QUINCY G. LEDBETTER

Quincy G. Ledbetter is a filmmaker, musician, photographer, and artist from Brooklyn, New York by way of Woodbridge, Virginia. As a self-taught jack of all trades, Quincy excels in writing, directing, editing, cinematography, and music composition. His work in digital media has won an Edward Murrow Award and an ASME Ellie Award for News Documentary (2018), an Emmy Nomination for Short Format Daytime Program (2017), and a Webby Award (2016 and 2021). Quincy has worked with notable organizations such as BET Networks, Paramount Players, NPR, Color of Change, Mashable, Mic.com, HuffPost, Vox, and The New York Times. qledbetter.com

 

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