New Look. Same BRIC.

We got a fancy new website a few months back. Please visit our new site by clicking here but keep in mind that you're always welcome to visit us at our home in Brooklyn.  Thank you for your continued love and support!

New Look. Same BRIC.

BRIC Community Media TV & Film Pitch Series /

Practice Your Pitch: Communicating Your TV & Film Ideas (Part I)

Great connections will get you in the door. A great pitch will keep you there. Perfect your pitch + make invaluable connections at BRIC.

Date

Tue, Sep 17, 2019  |  7-9PM

Cost

FREE w/ RSVP

Location

BRIC House Stoop
647 Fulton Street
(Enter on Rockwell Place)
Brooklyn, NY 11217
United States
Get Directions

Pictured are our dynamic panelists (counterclockwise top l to r): Kecia Élan Cole, Lisa Michelle Payton, Tony Gerber, Michael Pinckney, and Caralene Robinson.

BRIC Community Media's TV & Film Pitch Series

BRIC's two Community Media TV Networks—Brooklyn Free Speech and BRIC TV—come together to bring you a unique opportunity; the BRIC Community Media TV & Film Pitch Series. Now in its third year, the series was created with one goal in mind— to turn media dreamers into media makers.

You've got this really great idea for a show but just aren't sure if your pitch game is up to par. If you read that last sentence thinking "that totally describes me," you should be at this event. You will have three minutes to practice your pitch in front of close to 200 people (no pressure!), and then get immediate feedback on how you might improve.

Have a question? Please feel free to email us at bfreebk@BRICartsmedia.org.
 

Meet the Panelists 
TONY GERBER is an Emmy award-winning writer, producer and filmmaker.  He has written and directed over a dozen documentaries for National Geographic, shot in some of the most remote and dangerous regions of the world.  Most recently he directed and executive produced Kingdom of the White Wolf, a 3-part natural history series for National Geographic, filmed on location in the Canadian High Arctic.   He is a producer of the critically acclaimed, PGA award-winning film Jane about the life and work of Dr. Jane Goodall.  His documentary Explorer: Battle for Virunga, about the fight to protect mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (National Geographic Channel), was a 2017 recipient of a Genesis Award, the Humane Society’s top honor for bringing critical animal protection issues to the public.  For CNN Films he directed, and co-wrote with Meryl Streep, We Will Rise chronicling former First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to Africa to raise awareness of the importance of girl’s education, featuring Meryl Streep, Isha Sesay and Freida Pinto.  The film was a  recipient of an American Television Academy Honor and a Cine Golden Eagle.  His independent films include Full Battle Rattle (Berlinale premiere and SXSW Special Jury Prize) and The Notorious Mr. Bout (Sundance, 2014). In 2005, Gerber co-founded NY-based production company, Market Road Films, with two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.  Nottage and Gerber are currently developing a feature film, Everlasting Yea! for Amazon Studios.  In addition, Gerber is producing Emma Francis Snyder’s debut feature documentary Takeover! about the Young Lords 1970 take-over of the failing Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, which made affordable healthcare a topic of national debate. The film is a recipient of support from Ford Just Films, HBO/IFP First Look and will be represented at IFP Independent Film Week, 2019. Gerber and Nottage are also Executive Producing Deep South, a 10-part podcast for Stitcher investigating an unsolved 1950s lynching and the conspiracy of silence in a small southern town.  Gerber is an adjunct professor at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Steiner Studios.

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, works as a Writer/Producer for Viacom and is a Visiting Assistant Professor at SUNY College at Old Westbury.

MICHAEL PINCKNEY has over 15 years’ experience as an assistant director on films and television series such as Inside Man, Top Five, Broad City, The 25th Hour, 7th Heaven, The Best Man, Law & Order, and the academy award-nominated film Precious. Michael made his feature film directorial debut with You’re Nobody til somebody kills you, a gritty crime thriller executive produced by Spike Lee and distributed by Lionsgate. He won an award for Excellence in Media from The Black Men’s Film Conference for his HIV film, The Candy Store and toured the film festival circuit with films from his short film collection. He’s directed a variety of digital series from SoleKings, Black Actress to The Colors of Love in addition to producing the award-winning digital series For Colored Boys - Redemption starring Tim Reid. Michael also wrote and directed episodic dramas"The Trade" a drama that takes place in the world of sex trafficking and "Blue Flame" a drama about an all-female undercover police unit in New Jersey.

CARALENE ROBINSON built a career as a marketing expert at companies such as Coca-Cola and Sprint. Most recently, she was executive vice president and chief marketing officer at VH1 and Logo, responsible for all marketing, creative and digital functions. In 2011 Robinson co-founded Coffee Bluff Pictures with filmmaker and advertising executive Deborah Riley Draper. Versailles ’73: American Runway Revolution (Executive Producer, 2012) is currently being adapted into a feature. Olympic Pride, American Prejudice (Producing Executive, 2016) was nominated for a 2017 NAACP Image Award. In 2017, Robinson stepped out on faith in an effort to bring her creative voice to the forefront as writer/director of the scripted short The Bill. Robinson’s upcoming projects include King Ester (Executive Producer, 2018) and her next scripted short Untitled in White (and Black) (Writer/Director, 2018). Robinson has a BBA in Marketing from Howard University and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
 

Meet the Moderator 

KECIA ÉLAN COLE is an Emmy-nominated, and New York Press Club Award winning TV Producer and Editor. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from Kent State University, where she founded and edited an on-campus magazine. Kecia’s editing work has been featured in music videos by Talib Kweli and Fat Man Scoop, and a short film by noted filmmakers Malik Sayeed and Arthur Jafa. She has also freelanced with ABC's Good Morning America Now and BET. She is currently a Supervising Producer and Editor for BRIC TV where she is a Series Producer on: B-Side, Brooklyn Made, and Brooklyn Is Masquerading As The World with Terence Nance. She is Executive Producer on several scripted series that have premiered at noteworthy film festivals including TriBeca  including: They Charge for The Sun (Terence Nance), Sole Kings (Michael Pinckney, All Hail Beth (Misha Calvert), The Future Is Then (Sarah Salovaara), Sauce (Dui Jarrod), and the forthcoming Inspector Ike (Matt Grady) and Eighty-Sixed (Alex Spieth).



PREPARING YOU FOR SUCCESS! 
We're here to help you learn, create, and elevate your film and TV game. We want you to succeed and we know that you want to succeed but great success comes with great preparation. Here are some great resources to ensure that you walk into your next pitch prepared and ready for success.

PRACTICE WITH OUR STUDY GUIDE!

 

 

ABOUT THE BRIC COMMUNITY MEDIA TV & FILM PITCH SERIES 
So you have an idea for a TV show or film— now what? The ability to express an idea is almost as important as the idea itself and we are eager to help you with that. The BRIC Community Media TV & Film Pitch Series gives you the opportunity to practice and perfect your pitch skills over the course of six months in front of industry heavy hitters, and a live audience.

The four part series will culminate in November with you having a shot to pitch your TV show or film to BRIC TV, an Emmy, Ippy, and Telly-award winning TV channel and digital network, whose work has been screened at prominent festivals such as the Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance.

 

Venue Information:

The Stoop at BRIC House is a public cultural gathering space featuring free, drop-in programming, and offering a place to sit, observe, and participate in multi-disciplinary work. 

Beginning Nov. 1, 2022, attendees of any BRIC House programming will no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the building. Masks are encouraged but not required in all BRIC operated spaces. If you have questions regarding this protocol, please email Safety@bricartsmedia.org. For our full BRIC House COVID-19 policy, visit: https://www.bricartsmedia.org/safety.

Contact Information:

BFreeBK@BRICartsmedia.org / 718.683.9338

Brought to you by BRIC Community Media's two TV Networks: