What’s your story?

The heart of my work with directors, producers, writers, and studios is Creative Inclusion.

What exactly do I mean by “inclusion?”

Inclusion, in the story setting, is made up of two parts:

Externally, it is the on-screen representation of particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, and/or topics - how we, as storytellers, are portraying the vast diversity of humanity accurately, authentically, and thoughtfully.

Internally, it’s also about bringing different people with different story thoughts and perspectives to the table and creating a space for complexity and consideration - to use the diversity of humanity to open up avenues to new ideas.

How many times have you said, “I don’t want to make a message movie!”?

Creative Inclusion will help you achieve a meaningful story, not a “message” story. Nobody likes to be beaten over the head with a moral. However, Creative Inclusion can help you develop a deeply entertaining story that connects to the widest audience possible all around the world.  I’ll help you tell the kind of story that gives people something to talk about in the car on the way home from the theater, or sparks conversations around the dinner table, or gives friends something to argue about over drinks after work.

Let me help you tell a meaningful story.

If you’re checking boxes, you’re doing it wrong!

Too often, “diversity in media” is reduced to a clipboard mentality: Someone shows up halfway through production with a clipboard and says, “Put two brown people there and add a woman here and it’s fine!”

That is the exact opposite of a Creative Inclusion approach. Make no mistake: inclusion requires intentionality. It doesn’t necessarily just happen. Creative Inclusion provides support to help production teams to have these kinds of conversations in an integrated, productive way. Checking boxes happens after the fact. Creative Inclusion is about having the conversations along the way. Creative Inclusion is like fluoride in the water: it should feel seamless and fully integrated in a way that you barely notice.

It’s not just about putting people on the screen in the background crowds. It’s about creating compelling characters within the story that make sense for the worlds in which they inhabit, and understanding the story value of inclusion.

The Inclusion Trust Model

One of the key features of the Creative Inclusion approach is The Inclusion Trust. Let me show you how to leverage the power of your people - the people all around you in your studio - to kindle your creative fire. Oftentimes, we don’t recognize the value of perspectives outside of our story rooms. It’s an untapped treasure trove of possibilities. With The Inclusion Trust, I will show you how to organize, implement, and facilitate the kind of notes sessions that will really move the needle and give you first hand information as to how audiences are really receiving your story.

Let me inspire you!

With a proven track record of helping creative talent think of things they might have never thought about before, I am here to help inspire you. I am here to help spark the conversations that lead to new ideas from new perspectives to help you tell the story the best that it can be told to connect with the broadest audience possible.