Tag: producing

BACK TO NEWS & EVENTS

Office Hours: Get Help On Your Project

WRITERS, this one’s for YOU! Need some extra support to help you #MakeYourWork? Let ‘s go!

On Tuesday, February 28th from 5:00 to 7:00 PM ET, chat with BTFC Member, Netflix ‘Created By’ Fellow and writer and director Elisee Junior St Preux during BTFC Office Hours! He’ll do his best to support you and help you move your project forward!

 

During BTFC Office Hours we’ll answer general production questions and provide an environment where you can get advice and feedback on your projects from industry professionals.

How can we better describe them? It’s an open door for any member who would like to just come in and ask a question. Get a second pair of eyes on a rough cut, get some help on budgets, have your script reviewed…

Remember back in the day when our professors had office hours and you would just go in to ask a question or get some help? That is what these office hours are like.

Join us to talk about your project and ideas, so that you’re better equipped to move them forward. It’s all-time well spent.

Meet Elisee

Elisee Junior St Preux is a Haitian Filmmaker born in North Miami Beach, FL. A self-taught artist and cinephile, Elisee is the owner of the film blog “The Movie Butter Playbook”, and the screenwriting label, “À La MODE Films”. Elisee is a recipient of Indeed’s Rising Voices partnered with Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Productions, a 53rd NAACP Image Awards nominee, an HBO Short Film Award Finalist at the American Black Film Festival, and a Netflix Created By Fellow. With a distinct style of vintage storytelling combined with modern cinema, Elisee’s solemn goal is to bear witness and share stories that reflect today, honor the past, and reimagine the future.

NOTE: 40-minute slots will be assigned on a first RSVP basis. A Zoom link and information form will be sent to you 48 hours before your session. Please block out 5:00 – 7:00 PM ET on your calendar until your slot is received.

This event is for BTFC Members Only.

Members, please use your access code to RSVP.

Need help? Contact [email protected]!

Want access to this event? Sign up for our BTFC Membership!

BACK TO NEWS & EVENTS

Office Hours: Get Help On Your Project

WRITERS & PRODUCERS, this one’s for YOU! Need some extra support to help you #MakeYourWork? Let ‘s go!

On Monday, March 13th from 4:00 to 6:00 PM ET, chat with BTFC Black Producers Fellow and award-winning writer, producer and director Craig T. Williams during BTFC Office Hours! He’ll do his best to support you and help you move your project forward!

 

During BTFC Office Hours we’ll answer general production questions and provide an environment where you can get advice and feedback on your projects from industry professionals.

How can we better describe them? It’s an open door for any member who would like to just come in and ask a question. Get a second pair of eyes on a rough cut, get some help on budgets, have your script reviewed…

Remember back in the day when our professors had office hours and you would just go in to ask a question or get some help? That is what these office hours are like.

Join us to talk about your project and ideas, so that you’re better equipped to move them forward. It’s all-time well spent.

Meet Craig

Craig T. Williams is a Film/TV writer and producer. Having just completed production of Game Nite, a feature film he wrote and produced, directed by Tonya Pinkins and starring Shamika Cotton and Jamie Lincoln Smith, Craig is on the writing staff for a TV show on the ALLBLK network.

Craig was part of the prestigious 2022 WarnerMedia Discovery Access Writers Program (formerly the HBO All Access Writers Program.) As one of only 20 writers chosen from over four thousand applicants, he created an original 30-minute TV Pilot.

Craig has many scripts in various stages of development including the award winning one-hour TV pilot How Ya Like Me Now, about the ‘80s rap rivalry between Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J, a Christmas Movie Musical and a 30-minute dramedy inspired by his mother finding her long lost sister when they were both in their 60’s.

In 2021, he won a $25,000 Producers grant from the Black TV and Film Collective with fiscal support from Wavelength and Cinereach to produce the short film Mechanics Rose, which is now playing the festival circuit. Craig is a writing mentor for Start with 8, The Craft Institute, and for teen filmmakers at Reel Works Mentorship Program in Brooklyn. A native New Yorker, Craig honed his skills creating a string of quirky, comedic, romantic short films with his wife of 21 years. Together they’ve made more than fifty film projects. They have an 18-year-old son and make their life in the heart of midtown Manhattan.

NOTE: 40-minute slots will be assigned on a first RSVP basis. A Zoom link and information form will be sent to you 48 hours before your session. Please block out 4:00 – 6:00 PM ET on your calendar until your slot is received.

This event is for BTFC Members Only.

Members, please use your access code to RSVP.

Need help? Contact [email protected]!

Want access to this event? Sign up for our BTFC Membership!

BACK TO NEWS & EVENTS

Office Hours: Get Help On Your Project

WRITERS & PRODUCERS, this one’s for YOU! Need some extra support to help you #MakeYourWork? Let ‘s go!

On Thursday, March 23rd from 4:00 to 6:00 PM ET, chat with BTFC Black Producers Fellow and award-winning writer, producer and director Gem Little during BTFC Office Hours! She’ll do his best to support you and help you move your project forward!

 

During BTFC Office Hours we’ll answer general production questions and provide an environment where you can get advice and feedback on your projects from industry professionals.

How can we better describe them? It’s an open door for any member who would like to just come in and ask a question. Get a second pair of eyes on a rough cut, get some help on budgets, have your script reviewed…

Remember back in the day when our professors had office hours and you would just go in to ask a question or get some help? That is what these office hours are like.

Join us to talk about your project and ideas, so that you’re better equipped to move them forward. It’s all-time well spent.

Meet Gem

Gem Little, a Chicago native, is an award-winning writer/director/producer based in Los Angeles. Gem found her love of filmmaking when she was a professional dancer and choreographer, picking up a camera for the first time to capture dance films and studio performances.

In 2018, Gem moved to Los Angeles to work for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority after graduating with an MA in urban planning. Her passion for building a better world as an urban planner lingers in her style of storytelling. Gem tends to write off-kilter genre stories that make us think differently about the dark-sides of human nature.

Gem is an MFA graduate of the American Film Institute where she honed her craft as a storyteller. While there, she held internships with Charles King’s MACRO and Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Filmworks. Gem is currently a showrunner’s assistant to Patrick Somerville (STATION ELEVEN, MANIAC).

Gem’s more than a decade of experience has earned her recognition from TRIBECA, AMERICAN BLACK FILM FESTIVAL’S HBO SHORT AWARD, TORONTO BLACK FILM FESTIVAL, BRONZELENS, HARLEM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, and many others.

Most recently, she received a $25,000 grant from the BLACK TV & FILM COLLECTIVE to write and produce her short film, PENS & PENCILS. The film has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award (2023) and has been acquired by HBO MAX (now streaming). Gem also produced WARNERMEDIA ONEFIFTY pilot, REMEMBER, alongside creator, Bernard David Jones. The series has been picked up by Berlanti Productions.

Gem is also an activist, known for her work in community development, including starting Indiana’s state-wide program that helps justice-involved people start small businesses.

While building community through filmmaking in LA, Gem is currently developing a slate of projects under her production company banner, NATURE VS NURTURE, alongside her partner, Nagee Brown.

NOTE: 40-minute slots will be assigned on a first RSVP basis. A Zoom link and information form will be sent to you 48 hours before your session. Please block out 4:00 – 6:00 PM ET on your calendar until your slot is received.

This event is for BTFC Members Only.

Members, please use your access code to RSVP.

Need help? Contact [email protected]!

Want access to this event? Sign up for our BTFC Membership!

BACK TO NEWS & EVENTS

Office Hours: Get Help On Your Project

WRITERS & PRODUCERS, this one’s for YOU! Need some extra support to help you #MakeYourWork? Let ‘s go!

On Tuesday, April 18th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM ET, chat with BTFC Black Producers Fellow, producer, and writer Bethel Dixon during BTFC Office Hours! She’ll do her best to support you and help you move your project forward!

 

During BTFC Office Hours we’ll answer general production questions and provide an environment where you can get advice and feedback on your projects from industry professionals.

How can we better describe them? It’s an open door for any member who would like to just come in and ask a question. Get a second pair of eyes on a rough cut, get some help on budgets, have your script reviewed…

Remember back in the day when our professors had office hours and you would just go in to ask a question or get some help? That is what these office hours are like.

Join us to talk about your project and ideas, so that you’re better equipped to move them forward. It’s all-time well spent.

Meet Bethel

Bethel Dixon is a writer/producer focused on creating a body of work that tells authentic and moving stories centered upon the lives of people of color around the globe. Bethel is a first-generation Ethiopian-Eritrean American filmmaker, who brings a distinct voice and vision to her work drawn towards the exploration of humanity, family dynamics, women, immigrant life, and film as a vessel for social impact.

In 2021, Bethel was selected as a Black Producers Fellow by the Black TV & Film Collective and Wavelength Productions. As part of the inaugural class of fellows, her short film HERE, will tackle the subject of the black experience of education in America told from an immigrant lens. Bethel co-wrote and produced the short film CROSSROADS, which premiered at BronzeLens in 2020 and screened at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival. A former screenwriting mentee of the 2012 Women In Film Mentoring Program, Bethel studied feature film writing with the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

Prior to shifting her career towards independent filmmaking, Bethel served as Development Manager for Investigation Discovery developing content for the leading true crime network on television and the #1 network for women in all of cable. During her time with ID, Bethel co-developed seven series and specials, including the documentaries SUGAR TOWN, BLACK AND BLUE, and THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS. Under the ID Films banner, she championed six issue-based documentaries challenging timely narratives spanning hate crimes, wrongful convictions, juvenile sentencing and more. Prior to her time with ID, Bethel spent one year in programming with Discovery Channel, preceded by four years with Sony Pictures Television.

NOTE: 40-minute slots will be assigned on a first RSVP basis. A Zoom link and information form will be sent to you 48 hours before your session. Please block out 6:00 – 8:00 PM ET on your calendar until your slot is received.

This event is for BTFC Members Only.

Members, please use your access code to RSVP.

Need help? Contact [email protected]!

Want access to this event? Sign up for our BTFC Membership!

BACK TO NEWS & EVENTS

Office Hours: Get Help On Your Project

WRITERS, this one’s for YOU! Need some extra support to help you #MakeYourWork? Let ‘s go!

On Thursday, February 23rd from 6:00 to 8:00 PM ET, chat virtually with BTFC Co-Founder and award-winning writer, producer and director Laura Fielder during BTFC Office Hours! She’ll do her best to support you and help you move your project forward!

 

During BTFC Office Hours we’ll answer general production questions and provide an environment where you can get advice and feedback on your projects from industry professionals.

How can we better describe them? It’s an open door for any member who would like to just come in and ask a question. Get a second pair of eyes on a rough cut, get some help on budgets, have your script reviewed…

Remember back in the day when our professors had office hours and you would just go in to ask a question or get some help? That is what these office hours are like.

Join us to talk about your project and ideas, so that you’re better equipped to move them forward. It’s all-time well spent.

Meet Laura

Laura Fielder

Laura Fielder is a writer, director and producer. Her award-winning projects have screened at the Hip Hop Film Festival, the Toronto Black Film Festival, The Katra Film Series, and the American Black Film Festival. Laura’s screenplays have placed in numerous competitions including the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Laura is a working member of The Gotham’s Expanding Communities Summit – a cohort of diverse independent film professionals. She is also a member of NYWIFT. Laura is a graduate of UCLA TFT Professional Screenwriting Program. A classically trained violinist, Laura is an alum of The CUNY Graduate Center (MA, Ethnomusicology).

NOTE: 40-minute slots will be assigned on a first RSVP basis. A Zoom link and information form will be sent to you 48 hours before your session. Please block out 6:00 – 8:00 PM ET on your calendar until your slot is received.

This event is for BTFC Members Only.

Members, please use your access code to RSVP.

Need help? Contact [email protected]!

Want access to this event? Sign up for our BTFC Membership!

BACK TO NEWS & EVENTS

Deep Focus: The Greenlight on Development | 3-Part Series

This January, join us for a three-part workshop series DEEP FOCUS! This edition, facilitated by Producer/Executive ProducerHeidi Reinberg is a three-part masterclass!

Schedule

  • DEVELOPMENT – Wednesday, January 4th
  • GRANTS – Wednesday, January 11th
  • PITCHES – Wednesday, January 18th

Can’t make a session? RSVP for all three sessions to receive the recordings.

This three-part workshop will cover:

  • What elements do you need to put together to approach a broadcaster/streamer? A film funder? Someone who wants to invest in your film?
  • What does a well-developed project look like?
  • What exactly are grant-makers looking for — or at? — when they review your proposal?
  • How does a written proposal differ from a verbal pitch?

Heidi Reinberg

With nearly two decades of hands-on experience as a documentary producer (and now as a consulting producer and grants-panel reviewer), Heidi Reinberg learned pretty much everything she knows about “the business of the business” on the job — including developing compelling nonfiction projects and turning them into award-winning pitches and effective grant proposals. Now she is on a mission to impart this “real talk” (and at least a soupçon of wisdom) to as many aspiring/emerging producers as possible with a goal toward getting to “Count us in!” instead of the dreaded “Come back when you have a rough cut.”

Deep Focus

Deep Focus is a workshop series centered on filmmaking from acting to cinematography and distribution. In these exclusive workshops, experts teach hands-on techniques coupled with a segment for Q & A and workbooks as takeaways. Those who are unable to attend can take advantage of a replay accessed from our Black TV & Film Collective library.

#MakeYourWork

Join us for Deep Focus and get the information and inspiration you need to #MakeYourWork! RSVP today!

Questions? Contact [email protected].

Members, use your code to access your discounted ticket.

Interested in becoming a member? Sign up for our BTFC Membership!