Issa Rae, on top of being talented as a writer, actress, and glow’d up queen has been paying it forward as a creative by helping to provide opportunities for up-and-coming writers to get their comedy or drama pilot funded.
Rae has created the ColorCreative initiative which “aims to increase opportunities for women and minority TV writers to showcase and sell their work, both inside and outside the existing studio system.” ColorCreative teamed up with BET and the American Black Film Festival to find emerging screenwriters with their Script to Screen Contest.
The scrips can be on any topic as long as they “explore an important and/or an untapped part of the Black experience.” You must submit a one-page pilot description, and then those who become semi-finalists will be invited to submit a full script. Three finalists will then be awarded a trip to the 2018 American Black Film Festival (ABFF) in Miami from June 13-17th, to submit a final script.
The grand prize winner will have their script purchased for $25,000 and be considered for production by ColorCreative for BET.
To sign up you have to be 21-years-old, a legal resident of the United States, and must not have previously received credit or been engaged as a writer for a television series or feature film. Nor have had your script sold before or turned into any other medium.
You read and sign the submission form here and send along a one-page pitch that includes “a title and a short logline, a synopsis of the pilot script, and a series description.”
The contest ends today, so if you have been holding on to an idea for the last few months, well now is the time to give it a shot. Not only do you have nothing to lose, but it’s one page. Sometimes that can make all the difference.
Good luck!
(via No Film School, image: HBO)
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