#color creative

YOU'VE HEARD ABOUT COLORCREATIVE.TV, RIGHT? Writer, director, producer Issa Rae and creative partner, Deniese Davis are looking for 3 screenwriters and 3 one-hour drama pilots for the next cycle of ColorCreative.TV. If you hadn’t already heard writer, producer, director and creator of “Awkward Black Girl,” Issa Rae and her producing partner Deniese Davis launched ColorCreative.TV last month. The goal of CC.TV is “to increase opportunities for women and minority TV writers to showcase and sell their work, both inside and outside the existing studio system.” During the first round, the ColorCreative team chose three half-hour comedy pilots to shoot and shop. In addition to the opportunity to have their words come to life on screen and showcased for audiences, writers get to meet with potential agents and studio and network execs. For any indie writer this opportunity is a dream in itself. For writers of the marginalized persuasion it’s almost unreal. The entertainment industry is about access and the problem of institutional and systemic discrimination and disenfranchisement in this country doesn’t end at the gates of Hollywood. Art creators and playmakers like Justin Simien (Dear White People), Lena Waithe (Twenties, Dear White People) and the good folks over at Black & Sexy TV are giving new meaning to the phrase “breaking into Hollywood” by creating opportunities – in very crafty ways – for marginalized folks to thrive. I wouldn’t go so far as to say web series weren’t a thing before Rae and “Awkward Black Girl.” I would say Rae is responsible for making the web-series/digital content route a viable channel and real possibility for indie and minority writers and artists to showcase and create access for themselves and their work. This is why I stand by the claim that Issa Rae is a mogul in the digital content industry (or as others have said, “the Shonda Rhimes of the web,”) despite her surprise (and mild disbelief) when I shared that sentiment with her. It’s one thing to create access for yourself. It’s another entirely to take that success and access and use it to create more for others. With ColorCreative.TV Issa Rae is doing exactly that.

Comedy Crush: Talking To Issa Rae About Color Creative TV, Being Awkward

Issa Rae is a producer/writer/director/actress most known for the Shorty Award winning web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. Rae has made the Forbes “30 Under 30″ list, twice, and is currently developing a half-hour comedy for HBO. She’s also slated to release a book of essays next year. Additionally, Rae just launchedColor Creative TV which aims to increase opportunities for women and minority TV writers by producing and packaging low-cost TV pilots with an indie sensibility. The three pilots from the first round of this initiative: Bleach, Words With Girls, and So Jaded are online now.

I’ve never seen True Detective but people keep talking about the casting decision of Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn. If you were on that show, who would you want to play your fellow detective?

I really like True Detective. I’m sad that it’s just two white guys again, but I can live now that I know Rachel McAdams is in it. If I were on it, I’d want my partner to be Dave Chappelle. One of the detectives has to be cynical, bitter with life, and all-knowing to the secrets of the Illuminati, and Dave has all of that, coupled with vast, stoner intelligence. I need that.

WATCH: About ColorCreative.TV

What’s the fanciest food you eat on a regular basis?

It used to be smoked Fontina cheese with water crackers, but cheese has a vendetta against black people and old people, so I cut back. Now, the fanciest food I eat is from Blue Apron. I looooooooove Blue Apron. They introduce me to ingredients outside of my comfort zone of breakfast foods and they ration to give you the exact portions you need to make a meal, so my cabinet doesn’t look like an idiot with an entire bottle of coriander seeds that just sit there.

HOW ISSA RAE WENT FROM AWKWARD BLACK GIRL TO INDIE TV PRODUCER

HER COLORCREATIVE.TV IS USING THE INTERNET TO HELP DIVERSE WRITERS CIRCUMVENT THE TRADITIONAL PILOT PROCESS.

BY KENRYA RANKIN NAASEL (fastcompany.com)

Writer, producer, director and actress Issa Rae may identify with the titular character in her wildly successful webseries The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl, but she's not letting a little awkwardness stop her from using her considerable talents and massive following--her YouTube content has a combined 25 million+ views--to bring new voices to the public. Her latest venture, ColorCreative.tv, develops and produces video projects by writers who are historically underrepresented in this space, providing a built-in platform and audience to propel them to television success by circumventing the traditional pilot process.

“I started Color Creative to give opportunities to talented women and writers of color," says the 29-year-old Los Angeles native. "I get tired of hearing that we don't appeal to a ‘broad audience,’ whatever that means. We're providing opportunities and showcasing stories that aren't being told anywhere else.” Rae dreamed up the initiative in August 2013 while reading a script from a new writer that struck her as a better fit for television than the web. “We're an independent television network disrupting traditional models to make them more inclusive.” Though she started out on the web, producing her first digital series, Dorm Diaries in 2007, Rae eventually set her sights on network TV. In 2013, she developed a show with Shonda Rhimes (creator of Scandaland Grey’s Anatomy), which was ultimately not picked up.

WATCH: Issa Rae talks about how - and why - she started ColorCreative.TV

“Having gone through the pilot process with networks, I realize how formulaic and long it can be; and through that process, a new writer's voice can get buried in notes. Not only that, but the pilot process can be super inefficient, millions of dollars spent on concepts that may never see the light of day,” Rae says. “So, with some networks deciding to do away with the ancient process in general, I've created a content startupthat produces low-budget pilots written by writers who are either women or minorities, showcases them to an audience, and hand delivers them to broadcast, cable and Internet networks. The hope is to get audiences excited about the great content that they're not seeing on television.”

So far, so good. Rae has already brought four full series to her online network under the Color Creative banner: Roomieloverfriends, which examines the lives of roommates with benefits; How Men Become Dogs, about men who decide they don’t want to be nice guys anymore; First, which chronicles a new couple’s milestones; andHard Times, the story of a personal trainer who moonlights as a stripper. And fans are watching them--Rae racks up 3,000 new subscribers and more than 3 million minutes of viewing time each month. And she premiered three new well-received comedy pilots--Bleach, Words With Girls and So Jaded--at last week’s Urbanworld Film Festival.