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 Diversity Round

I might be a scholar, but I am by no means a scholar on the subject of diversity. I do bring with me a lifetime of observing trends in the media (Self proclaimed Mediaphile) and always having the black eye. By “black eye” I mean whenever and I mean WHENEVER I see something in the media, television or film, I look for the black person(s). Does it make a difference in the overall enjoyment of the medium? More than likely not, but it is always good to see a vista that is not devoid of diversity.

As I stated before the mission of ‘Nother Brother Entertainment has always been "To further propagate diverse images through development of films." To that end a lot of blog posts on this blog are also devoted to diversity.

I find a lot of stuff on the Internet related to diversity and I will put it here. Starting it off below are two blog entries where I compiled my thoughts on the issue PLUS a lot of information.

June 2015
Recently I started putting more diversity articles on our Facebook Page. Our Twitter Feed is always retweeting diversity in film convos on a daily basis as well. Below is a link to our photo album

Posted by 'Nother Brother Entertainment on Monday, September 29, 2014

January 2016

Sundance Film Festival: How Netflix Is Spending Huge and Annoying Studios http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sundance-how-netflix-is-spending-857104 via The Hollywood Reporter
Posted by 'Nother Brother Entertainment on Thursday, January 21, 2016

Diversity in Hollywood 2011 and Beyond

Diversity in Hollywood 2011 and Addendum


September 21, 2011
From the L.A. Times blog
Will color return to this year's Oscar season?

September 22, 2011
At our sista blog Cool Black Media
Why Taraji Crams to Understand: Black Marketing in Hollywood

October 13, 2011
Tyler Perry: Buffoonery or Opportunity?

October 14, 2011
Black Screenwriters Roundtable

November 1, 2011
The blog Diversity Ink has reposted the article "The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Black TV" from the May 20, 2011 issue of Entertainment Weekly. Read it here

January 2012
Great quote about the state of diversity in film here


March 16, 2012
Pondering The Seemingly Dismal Outlook For Black Filmmakers Working Within The Hollywood Studio System. Read it here



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

September 11th Memories [VIDEO]

On that fateful day, September 11, 2001, I was a student at Towson University. That morning I just got out of Chemistry class and I had like a 60-minute break before my next class. I decided to go to the record store (remember those?) and get that new Jay-Z CD .(The Blueprint [1] pictured below) that was just released that day.

The Blueprint

I don't listen to the radio (too many commercials and the same 7 songs over and over) so I listened to another CD on the way to the store. After picking my CD I tried to pay with my debit card and it took forever to go through. In fact all of the transactions were having problems. The purchase finally went through and I listened to the CD all the way back to school and in the parking lot until it was time for class.

TV Studio classroom

I was going to my TV Studio Operation class in the Media Center (pictured above) and the note on the studio door said class was cancelled. I ran into one of my professors and said, "What's going on?" He said, "We're being attacked! You can watch it in the studio down the hall”. I said to myself "The hell with that. I'm going home". I went home and like everyone else, I watched the rest of the event (history) on television.

I soon found out that ALL the phone lines were screwed up. I couldn’t make any calls on my cell phone on the way home. In retrospect, the phone lines (used to process the transactions in the record store) were tied up because of the tragedy.

I didn’t listen to the radio the whole time so I wouldn’t have heard ANY news. If one of those planes were targeting Towson Maryland I would have never known. I still don’t listen to the radio, but I still think that maybe I’m going to miss something huge one day.

No pictures of what happened, just what was...

UPDATE September 11, 2015

A few weeks ago I took my first trip to the 9/11 Memorial and composed a short film. 

You can watch that film below and learn more about the memorial on Wikipedia here

Attack the Block Updates

Still from Attack the Block

Friday, August 19, 2011 Attack the Block expanded to six more cities - Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Washington D.C., Orlando and Phoenix taking in an additional $83, 478 bringing the U.S. total $604, 420. With a budget of $13 million, the film has grossed $4,275,216 overseas bringing the worldwide total to $4,879,636. -Info courtesy of Box Office Mojo

Read my review here

Update August 29, 2011
Because the film finally opened in Baltimore I wanted to post another box office update so soon.

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $720,002    14.4%
+ Foreign: $4,275,216   85.6%
----------------------------------
= Worldwide: $4,995,218

-Info courtesy of Box Office Mojo

UPDATE September 1, 2011: Attack the Block's John Boyega has been cast in the lead of a HBO boxing drama being helmed by Spike Lee. Read more about it here

Previous updates about the film-

 UPDATE: June 10, 2011

Attack the Block will have a limited platform release on July 29, 2011 starting slow in the cities where it will have the most immediate interest and then build on the buzz for future expansion.-ShockTillYouDrop.com

So it may or may not be in your town on the 29th, but hopefully it will be soon after. This type of release happens to movies like this all the time.


UPDATE: August 1, 2011
Attack the Block opened last weekend July 29-31 and became the HIGHEST GROSSEST FILM...however, according to the great site Shadow & Act-

The film opened in only 8 theaters across the country making a total of $130,000 with an average of $16,250 per screen.

That makes it the highest grossing film per screen, better than The Smurfs which came in second with $10, 660 per screen average, though it opened in 3,395 screens nationwide.

If you know the business of film,  "Per Screen Average" is a huge barometer of a film's success. Hopefully Attack the Block will soon be coming to a screen near you.

Related links-
Read more feedback about the opening weekend at Shadow & Act here

Read a great interview with the Writer/Director of Attack the Block Joe Cornish and star John Boyega at Ebony/Jet.com here

Official website
http://attacktheblock.com/

COOL FAN ART

Sensuous Short Film - If I Leap

Found out about this film through the site Shadow & Act

Anslem Richardson and Adepero Oduye in If I Leap. Photo courtesy of Shadow & Act

Synopsis:

Zipporah (Adepero Oduye), a sister in a religious order, is dealing with a secret about her desire for something she has never experienced—erotic love. When Luca (Anslem Richardson), the nephew of the Mother Superior, seeks refuge at the convent after deserting the army, Zipporah engages in an intimate relationship with him that will change the course of her life.

You can watch the 20-minute short film below:

You can read more comments about this film at Shadow & Act by CLICKING their logo below.

Let's Hear it for the Awkward Black Girls

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl -- ABG for short -- is a web series about a socially handicapped black woman who finds herself in hilarious situations.

The star and creator, Issa Rae (pictured above), sets her series in various Los Angeles locales, and in the main character's office.

This web series reminds me of another awkward black girl, Monie on a great animated show Hey Monie! who also was socially handicapped black woman who finds herself in hilarious situations.

Hey Monie! is an animated American black sitcom produced by Soup2Nuts. Hey Monie! originated as one of 14 animated-short components of X-Chromosone (1999), a series on the Oxygen cable network. Proving popular enough to stand on its own, the cartoon series expanded to 30 minutes and moved to Black Entertainment Television and, afterward, on the Oxygen Network in 2003.

Its main character, Simone ("Monie"), works at a public relations agency in Chicago. She lives in an apartment building with her best friend Yvette. The show chronicles her life living as a single career woman in the big city.

The series' voice talent included the Frangela duo (pictured below); Angela V. Shelton as Monie and Frances Callier as Yvette, Melissa Bardin Galsky and Brendon Small.- Some info from Wikipedia

Frangela - Frances Callier & Angela V. Shelton

You can find a couple episodes of Hey Monie! on YouTube, but they are of low quality.(* See 2016 update below) It really is a funny show and Frangela translate their real life chemistry to their animated counterparts.

Below you can see a video explaining more about how they put the show The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl together


Related link-
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl Official website
www.awkwardblackgirl.com/  

March 2016 Update
Watch the Oprah episode of Hey Monie! below.
 
See more Hey Monie! episodes HERE

September 2016 Update
The "Awkward Black Girl" is coming to HBO!

Reimagined as Insecure the half-hour comedy series starring Issa Rae, Yvonne Orji, Jay Ellis and Lisa Joyce, that looks at the friendship, experiences and tribulations of two black women.

Created and executive produced by Issa Rae, this eight-episode series is also executive produced by Prentice Penny, Melina Matsoukas, Michael Rotenberg, Dave Beck, Jonathan Berry, and Larry Wilmore as a consultant.

WATCH IT October 9th at 10:30PM on HBO and see the trailer below.



Related Post
Taking an Internet Show to TV 

The Film that Started a Career - 5 Deep Breaths

Found this film through the website Shadow & Act, 2011

Seith Mann’s impressive 20-minute short film called 5 Deep Breaths - his NYU MFA thesis project in 2002, which helped launch Mann’s career, directing several notable television shows – notably episodes of HBO’s hit, The Wire.

Some of the short film’s accolades: premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival; it was one of 4 American shorts selected to screen at the Cinefondation Competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival; It won the Best Narrative Short Film award at the 2003 Los Angeles IFP/West Film Festival. Filmmaker magazine named Mann one of their 25 new faces of independent film in 2003. And the IFP gave Mann the Gordon Parks Awards for Emerging African-American Filmmakers; and there’s a lot more.

Television producer Robert F. Colesberry saw Five Deep Breaths, and introduced the other producers of The Wire to it. The producers approached Mann and asked him to shadow their directors during production of the third season in 2004. And 2 years later, in 2006, Mann joined the directing crew of The Wire’s fourth season, and later went onto helm episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Cold Case, Entourage, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, and many more shows.

Mann has been working on a feature film script titled Come Sunday, which would be his debut. The script won two development awards (the Emerging Narrative Screenwriting Award and the Gordon Parks Award for Screenwriting) from the IFP in 2004.

Most recently, Seith was hired to adapt and direct the graphic novel MISS: Better Living Through Crime, which, as he told us, is still in the works, with a last draft of the script shipped off to the production company, which will be followed by the search for talent and financing. Spike Lee is executive producing that by the way.- Tambay, Shadow & Act

UPDATE APRIL 2015
The project written about in Shadow & Act above in 2011 MISS: Better Living Through Crime is still being listed a "in development" which as they call in Hollywood "development hell" meaning it will more than likely never get made.

Don't cry for Seith Mann though as he has to date 40 directing credits for numerous television shows including popular shows The Wire, Dexter, Homeland and The Walking Dead. You can check out his extensive credits on IMDb here