Course Offerings
For private booking inquiries, please email zandashebrown@gmail.com.
Artist Development Workshop
Thursday, October 5, 2023 | 6-8 PM Central | 35 seats | $35
Discover what makes you unique as an artist. This is an intimate, interactive virtual workshop built for emerging film- and media-makers in the first steps of building their careers. The two-hour session will feature a lecture, a series of guided writing exercises rooted in self-exploration, and group discussions intended to help attendees pave their own creative lane by identifying the experiences, obsessions, and values that make them artists. Leave with a deeper sense of your creative voice and knowledge of how to pitch yourself for opportunities.
Intended Audience: Pre-career and emerging film- and media-makers who are looking to clarify their artistic values and practices as they take the first steps in their career. No previous experience necessary.
Overview:
The Societal Role of the Storyteller + The Current Landscape
Self Excavation: Identifying Your Niche as an Artist
How to Craft the Artist’s Statement
Future Visioning: Mapping Your First Steps
Habits for a Sustainable Life as an Artist
Story Development Workshop
Thursday, October 12, 2023 | 6-8 PM Central | 25 Seats | $40
Most films fail at the screenplay. How can we give our stories the attention, time, and specificity they deserve to ensure they don’t? This virtual workshop demystifies the creative development process for feature-length screenplays and aids writers in clarifying their ideas for both themselves and their audiences. Throughout the two-hour session, attendees will be guided by lecture and group discussion through the process of turning their feature-length fiction ideas into detailed outlines that set them up for a strong, cohesive narrative.
Intended Audience: Pre-career and emerging film- and media-makers who hoping to develop their first long-form narrative screenplay. While no previous experience is necessary, it’s recommended that attendees come with a specific project in mind.
Overview:
Why We Tell (and Need) Stories
The Universal is in the Specific: Finding the Story Only You Can Tell
The Basic Steps of Story Development
From Basic Steps to Outline
How to Build and Sustain a Writing Practice
Artist Consultations
Tuesdays and Thursdays | 3-6 PM Central | ($35-$55 sliding scale)
I host 45-minute virtual consultations on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with priority given to those who have taken the Artist Development or Story Development workshops. These open-ended consultations can be project-specific or artist-specific and are intended for new or emerging filmmakers seeking guidance.
For project-based consultations that require reviewing written materials (ie, rough cuts, screenplays, applications, proposals, etc), must be provided 3 days prior to the consultation.
About Your Facilitator
Zandashé Brown is a New Orleans-based writer/director and film programmer born-and-bred in and inspired by southern Louisiana. Her work raises a Black femme lens to the tradition of southern gothic horror by exploring the axis of catharsis, spirituality, and Black southern experience.
As a filmmaker, she is an alumnus of the 2020 Tribeca Chanel Women's Filmmaker Program, the 2022 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and the 2022 Directors Lab with her feature-in-development, THE MATRIARCH. She was named as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2022, and a recipient of the Sundance Women to Watch Adobe Fellowship.
Zandashé’s work has also been supported by Kickstarter, Create Louisiana, the New Orleans Video Access Center, and the New Orleans Film Society where she has programmed narrative films for the Academy-Award Qualifying New Orleans Film Festival since 2019 and served as Artist Engagement and Programming Manager.
As a former arts administrator, Zandashé designed the New Orleans Film Society’s virtual South Summit from 2020-2022, a convening that seeds conversations and actions around amplifying film and media content in the American South; and the NOFF Filmmaker Summit, a series of panels, talks, and workshops that take place yearly during the festival. She also designed and led the 2023 Emerging Voices Director’s Lab.
Finally, Zandashé has read applications for grant panels, pitch competitions, and creative development labs on a local and national level.