Reel Sisters & BRIC present:
Master Class on Writing Strong Female Characters for TV & Streaming
MONDAYS, APRIL 8, 2019-APRIL 29, 2019, 6:30 pm-8:30 pm
Location: BRIC, Media Lab, 647 Fulton Street
Sessions: Mondays, 4/8/19, 4/15/19, 4/22/19, 4/29/19
Registration Fee: $150. THIS WORKSHOP SELLS OUT QUICKLY, REGISTER ASAP!
Lisa Michelle Payton, a former staff writer for the hit comedies Girlfriends and Living Single, starring Queen Latifah, will instruct a master workshop covering the essentials of scriptwriting for TV and streaming platforms. Living Single, the iconic 1990s television sitcom that set the stage for shows like Friends and Girlfriends, will serve as a key model for writing successful story and character development. You will learn how to create strong and richly layered women characters as well as the nuts and bolts of writing scripts. The workshop will offer tips on pitching your script to such major content platforms as HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. Enjoy a nurturing and open creative environment where you will have a chance to write your first script or develop a work-in-progress. You are encouraged to submit a short writing sample outlining your goals for the workshop. The instructor will guide you in achieving your personal scriptwriting goals.
The workshop is being presented by Reel Sisters, the first Oscar Qualifying Festival for short narratives devoted to women filmmakers, and BRIC, the leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn, and one of the largest in New York City. BRIC presents and incubates new work by artists and media-makers who reflect the diversity that surrounds us.
Reel Sisters will be held on October 19-20, 2019. For more information visit www.reelsisters.org.
Instructor’s Bio
Lisa Michelle Payton worked for WNET-13, the PBS station in New York City; it was there she discovered her passion for writing. She later moved to Los Angeles and won acceptance into the prestigious Warner Bros. Sitcom Writing Program. She went on to write for two Warner Bros. hit comedies, The Parent’Hood and Living Single, starring Queen Latifah. Payton then worked on the writing staffs of Girlfriends, executive produced by Kelsey Grammar, the ABC medical drama MDs, and then relocated to New York to help pen the Peabody winning series, ED. Payton also wrote the first of the two-part series finale for the hit UPN show Half & Half and was Head Writer on the series Born to Shine. Driven by a passion to tell stories that matter, Payton earned a Master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism in 2005. Later that year, she went to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, where she worked as a Field Producer for the Frontline documentary, The Old Man and the Storm. She worked as an Associate Producer on Rise and Fall, a film on U.S. financial crisis of 2008, a Story Consultant on PBS’ Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock and a Story Producer on Public Health, Private Pain, on the HIV/AIDS crisis in the rural South.
Payton was Supervising Producer for Your Voice, Your Story, a PBS World series of celebrity mini-documentaries. She has penned articles for Essence Magazine, freelances as a Writer/Producer for Viacom and is a Visiting Assistant Professor at SUNY College at Old Westbury in the Media and Communications major.
Guest Artist Bio – Radha Blank
Radha Blank is a proud Native New Yorker, Performer and Writer for TV, Stage and Film. Her plays include HappyFlowerNail, Casket Sharp, nannyland and the critically acclaimed SEED which The Huffington Post called “fresh, lively…and poetic.” She’s a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award recipient, a NEA New Play Development Award recipient (for SEED) and a NYFA Fellow. Radha’s TV writing credits include The Get Down (Netflix), Empire (FOX) and She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix), where she’s worked as Producer/Writer for two seasons. She co-wrote the screen adaptation of Walter Dean Myers best-selling novel Monster. Radha was a fellow for both the 2017 Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs with her original screenplay The 40-Year-Old Version (FYOV), which won The 2017 Adrienne Shelly Women’s Filmmaker Award and The 2018 Maryland Film Festival Producers Club Award. When not writing for the stage or screen, Radha performs as emcee RadhaMUSprime, whose brand of Hip Hop Comedy, has sold out shows from NY to Norway. She is currently writing the feature film script for Malcolm Lee’s latest Universal Pictures comedy “Real Talk”. This year, Radha will write, direct and star in her first feature film, The 40-Year-Old Version (F.Y.O.V.)