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Our Purpose

The Hillman Grad Network was founded by Emmy-Award winning writer, producer, and actress Lena Waithe to provide free resources, opportunity, and access to emerging artists in the entertainment industry. Navigating your way through Hollywood can be a difficult and confusing process, but with mentoring and guidance, the path to success can be much smoother.

What do you need help with?

 

“The only way you really see change is by helping to create it.”

— LENA WAITHE

 
 

Our mentoring program is designed for screenwriters and producers in the Los Angeles area. Our netowrk provides classes, and career opportunities and training, and more. The amount of effort you put into the program will determine your outcome. We require a serious level of commitment from all participants and a sincere dedication to improving your craft.

Lack of participation or unresponsiveness may result in removal from the program. To ensure that we are truly serving those in need, we routinely re-evaluate mentees to determine if the program is a right fit.

 

Inclusion

The Hillman Grad Network strives to increase the amount of diverse representation in media for those in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes.

Opportunity

Members are given valuable resources to grow their skills through classes, writing groups, networking, and career opportuinites.

Success

By limiting the amount of mentees at any one time, we can focus on helping people achieve success.

 

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@hillmangradMENTORSHIP

 
After you’ve worked on your initial white boards, it’s time to get more detailed. Weave boards will describe a story, beat by beat, including scene headings. A good weave board should make writing an outline easy. Those who don’t like to plan much when writing, need to get into the habit of creating beat sheets/whiteboards/outlines, etc. because the writer’s room heavily relies on these techniques. You will also have to submit a detailed outline to the network/studio before writing the actual episode.
Any young filmmakers out there? @lenawaithe is partnering with @ghettofilmschool The AT&T Mentorship Content Lab to find 10 young creators (between 14-18 years old) with dynamic and developing voices local to Los Angeles to participate in its 3-month program. The program will run on weekends and will provide students with exposure to the pitch process as well as the opportunity to develop practical filmmaking skills. For more info, visit ghettofilm.org
White boards are EVERYTHING in the writers room! While each room may go about the process differently, writing story beats is essential. The process I like the most is starting with overall story beats for each character in an episode, then using those beats to create an additional, more detailed board later (sometimes called a weaving board) that describes the episode scene by scene.
Gotta put in the work to get the results 💯
The Black List and Women In Film, Los Angeles (WIF LA) revealed the participants in their 2019 Feature Residency program as well as their Annual Feature Lab. Congratulations to Hillman Grad mentee, Devi Gowni. Her project: THE LIMPING LADY chronicles the true story of Virginia Hall, the legendary female spy from World War II, and her escape across the Alps with a wooden leg, several injured POWs in tow, and the Nazi army closing in behind them.
Repost from @insecurehbo. The #InsecureOnSetContest is back! If you think you and your bff have what it takes to be PAs on Insecure, apply by 8/9 at 8PM ET to InsecureOnSet.com
Having an arch character isn’t necessarily bad. It might be ok to have a stereotypical “bad guy vs. hero” story that doesn’t dive deep into motivations for either party. However, making characters dynamic and well-rounded will create a more complex and nuanced story.