The 2020 Sundance Film Festival

So, at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival this happened

Dankwa Brooks with the Judges of the competition

From the Press Release:

"Donald Dankwa Brooks was awarded first place for his original script that demonstrated a keen awareness of the complex perspectives surrounding criminal justice. He was one of five finalists — selected from the more than 100 submissions that came from competitors across the country — awarded a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah to pitch their scripts to a panel of esteemed judges. The judges included representatives from Strayer University, The Blackhouse Foundation, the criminal justice system, and the film and television industry."

 (Read the entire article via the link at the bottom of this post.)

It was a SUCH a whirlwind of being there that it took me this long to write about it. LOL

The competition took place at the Sundance Film Festival, the annual film festival, that takes place in Utah, is the largest independent film festival in the United States. 

This is the social media announcement of the competition.

The day after we all arrived at Sundance, we had the Pitch Competition. After I won, everything after that was a blur. LOL. There was a ton of pictures and interviews. Strayer Studios, the internal filmmaking unit of Strayer University, filmed EVERYTHING, and those materials will be available shortly. 

We had another Meet & Greet to attend and then we were free to experience the festival and the insane crowds. LOL. My driver from the airport told me that the crowds that first weekend would be insane and indeed they were.

My family and friends asked me to keep them updated about my time at Sundance and I tried to on social media at hashtag #NBE_Sundance. If you search that hashtag across social media (On Facebook, but mostly Instagram and Twitter), you’ll see my real-time posts. Below are a couple of my tweets.

From our official #PhotoShoot 📸 The Five Finalists of the #ScriptED competition!

I COULD NOT BE PROUDER of being in the same company with these talented women! It was a sure fire whirlwind of attention and press. I can’t wait to see what’s next for all of us #NBE_Sundance pic.twitter.com/UPdcX0s9Fm

— Dankwa Brooks (@DankwaBrooks) January 26, 2020

#AboutLastNight @the_blackhouse Meet the Filmmakers Party presented by WarnerMedia 150 🕺🏾💃🏾🕺🏾💃🏾#NBE_Sundance #BlackHouse2020 #Sundance2020 pic.twitter.com/qAD1Ybp8Ez

— Dankwa Brooks (@DankwaBrooks) January 25, 2020

I’ve been to other film festivals, but Sundance is really “next level” and something to behold. I’m still kind of recuperating, but I can’t wait to go back! LOL

My last full day at Sundance I recorded a Thank You message to the overwhelming response I got from everyone. You can watch that message below.



Here is the official 2020 highlights video  

💡READ the official press release below and stay tuned to this blog for more announcements.

Strayer University and The Blackhouse Foundation Name Donald Dankwa Brooks Winner of Scriptwriter Competition to Bring Real Perspectives on Criminal Justice to the Classroom

Below is a great article describing what I think are a lot of legitimate reasons why screenwriting and novel writing are different skill-sets.  

Novel writing is more detailed to give you visuals and screenwriting is  mostly dialogue and situations. It's up to the film director to create the visuals. 

Why Novelists Don’t Write Films

The book Gone Girl (left) and movie poster for Gone Girl (right)

by Lindsey Bahr | Entertainment Weekly
 October 23 2014 

Novelist Gillian Flynn has made Gone Girl a hit—not once, but twice. The film adaptation of her 2012 best-selling book has earned $77.9 million at the box office as of press time, taking the top spot both weekends since its release. The fact that Flynn wrote the film’s screenplay—which has garnered critical raves and could earn her an Oscar nod—lands her on a tiny list of authors who have successfully brought their books to life on the screen. (Only five have won Oscars for doing it.)

It’s a wonder more authors don’t make the jump to screenwriting, especially when studios are hungrier than ever for popular literary brands such as The Fault in Our Stars and The Silver Linings Playbook (not to mention, you know, The Hunger Games). So why don’t more novelists adapt their own work? Short answer: They’re usually bad at it.

”The two big differences between books and movies are pace and perspective,” says screenwriter and cohost of the popular Scriptnotes podcast John August (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). ”Novels can luxuriate in internal moments of indecision and longing. Movies keep chugging along at 24 frames per second.” Flynn’s adaptation—which August says he ”desperately wanted to write”—soars because she was willing to trim the fat, cutting subplots and even characters.

”You start making the cuts that are really painful,” Flynn says of her kill-your-darlings approach. ”There are certain scenes that I would just hang on to. I knew, ultimately, they were going to go. I just couldn’t quite do it yet.” Through a series of drafts and five-hour phone calls with director David Fincher—”He very much likes to see the beginning, middle, and end of a scene”—the final product came together. ”There was something thrilling about taking this piece of work that I’d spent two years painstakingly putting together, taking a hammer to it, bashing it apart, and reassembling it into a movie,” she says.

Flynn’s agility, however, is uncommon. ”Usually I don’t want my authors to take a pass at writing screenplays because it’s a different skill set,” says literary agent Douglas Stewart, who represents Silver Linings author Matthew Quick. (Director David O. Russell earned an Oscar nomination for writing the adaptation.) ”A lot of authors want to do it, and I think it’s a rare case where an author should do it.”

Creative control aside, screenwriting holds financial appeal for authors. Rights to a novel are pretty cheap—optioning will often earn writers less than their initial book advance—but a screenwriting assignment can pay well into six figures. Yet an author pushing to adapt her or his own novel can backfire; insisting on right of first refusal before the development deal is finalized can put the project in permanent limbo. Studios, agents say, only want authors involved in the screenplay if they’re A-listers. (And even then it’s risky: Jonathan Tropper’s recent adaptation of his novel This Is Where I Leave You elicited lukewarm reviews and failed to impress at the box office. That may not be his fault, but it doesn’t exactly put studios at ease.)

All that said, Gone Girl could be a harbinger of a shift in industry thinking on the matter. Eleanor & Park‘s Rainbow Rowell is writing the film adaptation of her beloved coming-of-age tale for DreamWorks Studios, while Beautiful Ruins author Jess Walter is co-writing a script version of his book with director Todd Field (Little Children). Could one of them be the next Gillian Flynn? ”The smart novelist writes the best book she can and lets the movie be the best movie it can be,” says August. ”There’s no victory in a faithful adaptation if the result is mediocre.”

SYD FIELD, screenwriting guru passes away.

I’m sad to hear about the passing of Syd Field (pictured left) who died yesterday Sunday, November 17th.

Field was one of my first entrees into REAL screenwriting. I was writing “scripts” before, but none lacked the proper screenwriting format.

I first heard about Field while studying screenwriting at Morgan State University. Field wrote eight best selling books on screenwriting and SEVERAL of his books were required text in several of my screenwriting classes.

In fact when anyone asks me about screenwriting I tell them get his book Screenplay, considered the bible of screenwriting.

3rd Edition of Screenplay

Many people think they know how to write a screenplay (for short or feature films) or a teleplay (for television series), but they don’t. It’s kind of a regimented format that should be mastered BEFORE trying to alter it with new storytelling techniques.

Syd Field broke down what it took to make a successful screenplay (in format at least, if not content) and for that I and millions of other screenwriters Thank Him. May he Rest in Peace.

                          DISSOLVE TO:

RELATED

You can read more about Syd Field's life in The Hollywood Reporter here

November 20, 2013
I took this picture of my bookshelf in honor of Syd Field. You can see my copy of Screenplay amongst my other screenwriting texts.

101 Best-Written TV Series Ever

by Kimberly Nordyke, The Hollywood Reporter
June 2, 2013

Tony Soprano is a made man.

The Writer Guild of America East and West on Sunday night revealed its list of 101 best-written TV series ever, and David Chase's The Sopranos, which aired on HBO from 1999-2007, came in at No. 1.

Landing at No. 2 was Seinfeld, created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, which aired on NBC from 1989-98.

Rounding out the top five are the original Twilight Zone, All in the Family and M*A*S*H.

"At their core, all of these wonderful series began with the words of the writers who created them and were sustained by the writers who joined their staffs or worked on individual episodes," WGAW president Chris Keyser and WGAE president Michael Winship said in a joint statement. "This list is not only a tribute to great TV, it is a dedication to all writers who devote their hearts and minds to advancing their craft."

The top 10 shows, as determined through online voting by WGAW and WGAE members, can be found below. .

1. The Sopranos (HBO), created by David Chase

2.  Seinfeld (NBC), created by Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld

3. The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959), season one writers: Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Robert Presnell Jr., Rod Serling

4. All in the Family (CBS), developed for television by Norman Lear, Based on Till Death Do Us Part, Created by Johnny Speight

5. M*A*S*H (CBS), developed for television by Larry Gelbart

6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS), created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns

7. Mad Men (AMC), created by Matthew Weiner

8. Cheers (NBC), created by Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows

9. The Wire (HBO), created by David Simon

10. The West Wing (NBC), created by Aaron Sorkin

The "TV 101" list, a follow-up to the WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays, honors "classic, trailblazing series and miniseries, as well as current and critically acclaimed programs, from comedies and dramas to variety/talk and children’s programming."

On Sunday night, the WGAW hosted a special tribute event, panel discussion and reception to formally unveil the list at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. The event featured a lineup of panelists including iconic TV series creators, showrunners and writers whose shows made the list, including Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues), James L. Brooks (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life), Norman Lear (All in the Family), Steven Levitan (Modern Family), Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), Gail Parent (The Carol Burnett Show), Carl Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show), Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) and host-moderator Merrill Markoe (Late Night With David Letterman).

The WGAW’s “101 TV” committee, which conceived the initiative, includes guild members Aaron Mendelsohn (chair), W. Bruce Cameron, Michael Conley, Diane Driscoll, Gary Goldstein, Katherine Fugate, Margaret Howell, Ken Pisani, Ari Rubin and Susan Walter.

For WGA's entire list, click here

RELATED
[VIDEO] Writers Guild Presents - Writing in Color

What It Was Like To Write For ‘The Cosby Show’

Cast of The Cosby Show

From Written By the Official publication of the "Writers Guild of America" comes a great feature article about what it was like to write for the classic sitcom The Cosby Show.

The Cosby Show was an unequivocal hit, but as the Written By article can attest, with excellence there comes certain caveats.

The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an affluent African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

According to TV Guide, the show "was TV's biggest hit in the 1980s, and almost single-handedly revived the sitcom genre and NBC's ratings fortunes". The Cosby Show is one of three television programs (All in the Family and American Idol being the others) that was #1 in the Nielsen ratings for 5 consecutive seasons (the second season to the fifth season,1985-1990).—Wikipedia

As you will read, Dr. William H. Cosby better known as Bill Cosby insisted upon excellence and what bore from it was not only a classic sitcom, but one of the most successful series in television history.

Read the article here

UPDATE
July 2015

Bill Cosby Producer Breaks Silence: "The Legacy of the Show Is Very Important to Me"

Michael O'Connell, Bryn Elise Sandberg, The Hollywood Reporter
July 31, 2015

"Obviously it’s a challenging time... but I’m hoping that people will still be able to watch the show and identify with the Huxtables."

Bill Cosby's longtime producer has weighed in on the disgraced star and his legacy in light of the dozens of rape allegations levied against Cosby over the last year.

After promoting his Starz series Survivor's Remorse at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Friday, Tom Werner spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, brushing off talk of Cosby specifically but emphasizing that The Cosby Show remains important to him.

"I don’t really want to comment on it," Werner told THR, when asked about Cosby. "The legacy of the show is obviously very important to me because the show was a groundbreaking show and it portrayed a middle-class African-American family in a very positive way. It had a lot of stories that resonated with families because people watched it together. Obviously it’s a challenging time for Bill Cosby and a challenging time for the show, but I’m hoping that people will still be able to watch the show and identify with the Huxtables."

Along with partner Marcy Carsey, Werner worked with Cosby on both The Cosby Show and the shorter-lived Cosby under their independent sitcom factory Carsey-Werner. The duo have remained quiet about the scandal for better part of the last year, though they did release a statement last November. “The Bill we know was a brilliant and wonderful collaborator on a show that changed the landscape of television," they said at the time. "These recent news reports are beyond our knowledge or comprehension."

The case against Cosby has grown considerably since then. And The Cosby Show's legacy, at least at the moment, does not look particularly salvageable. TV Land and BET Centric both yanked repeats in light of the scandal — Bounce TV similarly axed Cosby airings — though the series has yet to be removed from streaming services.

Protecting Your Script and It's Not About Copyrights

John Singleton circa 1991

"In this business you get hired for your vision, and your vision begins with your script. I'm a writer first, and I direct in order to protect my vision." John Singleton, New York Times Magazine, 1991. (cover pictured below)

 That above quote exemplifies why I transferred from Morgan State University , where I studied screenwriting, to Towson University where I studied film and directing…to protect my vision.

Black Screenwriters Roundtable

Graphic courtesy of Shadow & Act

From the great site

Every now and then, we like to pull pertinent material from our archives to share with new readers of S&A. Today, we’re featuring a 2009 black television writers roundtable. Tambay [The site's Chief Editor & Writer] had a chance to speak with Courtney Lilly (The Cleveland Show, Everybody Hates Chris, Arrested Development, I’m Through with White Girls), Kriss Turner (Something New, The Bernie Mac Show), Kenya Barris (Are We There Yet?, Soul Food, Girlfriends, The Game) and Bashir Salahuddin (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Chocolate News) on their experience and outlook of the industry. Hear how they got started and worked through the maze known as Hollywood. If you haven’t heard this before, this is a MUST!

I listened and I wholeheartedly agree. You can listen to the podcast below and click their logo ABOVE^ to check out their site.  

Tyler Perry: Buffoonery or Opportunity? [VIDEO]

Found this clip courtesy of SWAN (Morgan State University Screenwriting and Animation) More information about SWAN at the bottom.






For the record, I generally enjoy all of Tyler Perry’s films. Perry’s movies ARE disarming in order to slide a message in there. People are more likely to watch a Madea flick than ‘Precious’, while an amazing film is horribly depressing, and yes “poverty porn”. I think we can have hamburger and prime rib as long as we know the difference between the two.

In the end, I think people can take things too seriously, it’s all make believe.

Also for the record, I studied screenwriting at Morgan State University's Writing for Television program (Now SWAN -Screenwriting and Animation) and it was an excellent program. Even though I wound up getting my degree (in film) from Towson University, I tell people all the time “Everything I learned about screenwriting, I learned at Morgan State!”

Click Morgan's logo below to read more about their Screenwriting and Animation program.

Related posts at our sista blog Cool Black Media

 Tyler Perry is Highest Paid Man in Hollywood

A message from Spike Lee himself: 
No Fued-Spike Lee & Tyler Perry

You can also CLICK the graphic below to see all of our blog posts about diversity

Writers Guild Presents - Writing in Color [VIDEO]

PRESENTS

WRITING IN COLOR II 

Interviews with-
Alan Young, Producer, Parks and Recreation,
Karen Horne, Vice President (Entertainment Diversity Initiatives, Comedy & Drama Programming). NBC & Universal Media Studios,
Halsted Sullivan, Supervising Producer, The Office.
Alsha Muharrar, Executive Story Editor, Parks and Recreation
Dan Harmon, Executive Producer/Showrunner, Community.

Sponsored by WGAW Committee of Black Writers

Moderated by David Wyatt, Chair, WGAW

Writing in Color, 1 of 4: Getting started in comedy writing In this episode, the panelists discuss how they got started in comedy writing.


Writing in Color, 2 of 4: Stereotypes In this episode, the panelists talk about how "The Office," "Parks & Recreation" and "Community" deal with ethnic stereotypes in different ways.

Writing in Color, 3 of 4: Dan Harmon on why he's obsessed... In this episode, "Community" creator/showrunner Dan Harmon discusses why he's obssesed with race Part 3 of 4

Writing in Color, 4 of 4: Writing "race neutral" characters In this episode, the panelists debate whether it's better to include race when writing TV characters or write them as "race-neutral."

CLICK the graphic below to see all of our blog posts about diversity

External Link-
Found out about this series from the great website Shadow & Act. Click their logo below to check them out.

The Showrunner Transcripts

In last week's issue, New York Magazine surveyed fourteen of the top TV showrunners about their process and craft. All during upfront week, we'll be running longer transcripts of these conversations: some will include extended answers to our questionnaire, some will break free altogether, but all will provide a revealing and insightful look into the minds of the people who make our appointment television.

Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television series — although such persons generally are credited as an executive producer.-Wikipedia

Showrunners are also typically the Head Writer of the series. They don't write every episode, but they shape the direction of the storylines and the direction of the show. They also typically write important episodes, Season Premieres, Season Finales etc., themselves. Whereas film is a director's medium, television is a writer's medium.

 Among the showrunners interviewed are

Grey's Anatomy's Shonda Rhimes

Community’s Dan Harmon

30 Rock's Robert Carlock

Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan

How I Met Your Mother’s Carter Bays and Craig Thomas

The Good Wife’s Robert and Michelle King

Justified’s Graham Yost

Cougar Town’s Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel

Check out all of the interviews here

They also have a cool feature — Fourteen Creators on Influences, Failure, And the Shows They Wish They’d Written here

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UPDATE: October 12, 2011

has announced their

Check it all out right here

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UPDATE: October 3, 2012

has announced their 2012

Check it all out right here