June 14, 2024 • 31 mins
Diana Mogollón, CEO of Rideback Rise, explains how the nonprofit venture launched by producer Dan Lin is designed to support mid-career creators from underrepresented backgrounds with the lofty goal of driving cultural change through inclusive storytelling. The organization offers annual fellowships, creative support and networking opportunities at its ranch-themed facility, built in what was an abandoned post office in Los Angeles’ vibrant Historic Filipinotown neighborhood.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
guest is Diana Mogoyon, CEO of ride Back Rise. Ride
Back Rise is a nonprofit venture launched by producer Dan
(00:29):
Lynn in July twenty twenty two. The organization offers year
long fellowships to mid career creatives from underrepresented backgrounds. The
goal is to help promising talent take their careers to
the next level by supporting them at a crossroads moment.
At ride Back Rise, the focus is on mainstream entertainment
big commercial hits, whether in film or TV or digital
(00:51):
live media. Mogo Yon explains that the lofty overarching goal
is nothing less than driving cultural change through inclusive storytelling.
To support that vision, Lynn and partners took over an
abandoned post office in Los Angeles' historic Filipino Town neighborhood.
They built it out with the ranch theme in an
(01:12):
effort to make it a fun and nurturing environment for
writers and others to pursue their creative passions. In February
Lynn joined Netflix as its head of Film, but ride
Back Rise is still a big priority for him. Mogoyon
joined the company earlier this year as CEO to steer
a growing list of programs. She's well suited to that role,
(01:32):
having worked as a programming executive for NBC Universal's Moundos
Spanish language cable network. She spent the past eight years
at Warner Bros. As General Manager of its Stage thirteen
digital content unit. After giving me a grand tour of
the ranch, Mogoyon and I sat down for a conversation
about what she hopes to build at ride Back Rise
(01:54):
and why its work is sorely needed. That's all coming
up after this break. This episode of Strictly Business is
brought to you by UCP presenting Mister Monk's Last Case
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is now streaming on Peacock. And we're back with the
conversation with ride Back Rise CEO Diana Moggoyon.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Thank you so so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Thank you, Cynthia, thank you, thank you for being here
with us, and welcome to Right Back Ranch and ride
Back Rise.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Not only do have you given me the welcome and
an incredible tour, but you brought incredible pastries. I'm about
halfway into an inch thick piece of banana bread from
Clerk's Bakery. Yeah, free Clark Street Bakery. Free plug for
Clark Street Bakery. I'm a very hard judge of bana
bread and this stuff with the almonds is really billy killing.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So thank you for a very warm welcome.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Of course, of course, let's start from the very top.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Tell me what is ride Back Rise and what is
your role with it?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Thank you, Cynthia. Yes, right Back Rise is a content
and creator accelerator that was founded in twenty twenty two
by Dan Lynn, former producer now executive over a Netflix
on the film site.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Very prominent person, a lot of a string of film hits,
so more more hits than you think.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Of off the top of your head.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Absolutely, Lego would be Sherlock Holms a lot and you
know Airband to the Last Avatar, So a lot of
good ones. A good plug there, just to give a
little bit of an IMDb on Dan Lynn and so
we are a content creator accelerator whose mission is to
really work with these creators. We have fellows, and we
(04:18):
have a circle, and we have residents. So we have
over two hundred folks in our cohort. We're in our
first inaugural cohort. We're about halfway through that and we're
about to open up the application profits process for the
new cohort for twenty four to twenty five.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And what do we.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Do with this amazing cohort of creators? These are all
mid level POC creators by design in terms of serving
Dan's vision of how do we help propel narrative change
in this industry, which is a conversation we've had for many,
many years, many years with the Ultimate goal, and I
think it's a very ambitious goal of really improving and
(04:58):
really solving racial equity when it comes to Hollywood and
narrative and storytelling. Quite ambitious, but doable if you bring
the right people together and you have the right plan together.
Now Dan has always been committed to this. DNA, Dan
and our board, and during COVID when we all had
a little bit of extra time, Dan thought about them
and said, what about if we try a more patient
(05:18):
runway and we try the philanthropic runway. Let's create a
nonprofit that is dedicated to this mission to help creators
again mid level creators. The mid level is very specific
because that is where creators, whether they're from film or television,
they've been staffed in rooms, they've already produced some shorts,
they've directed. You really at a crossroads, you either double
(05:40):
down and say this is it. I'm going to keep
doing this, I'm going to keep creating, I'm going to
keep getting better, or you leave the business because it
is that hard and challenging, and more so now than ever.
So the idea was to bring in mid level POC
creators and give them a one year intensive opportunity to
work with us and all of our brain trust of
creators and green writers and showrunners on three different levels.
(06:03):
One is creatively, they come into the program and very
much again in Dan's vision is to work on commercial,
mainstream projects in his mind, and I totally believe this.
To help really propel narrative change and to impact culture,
you really have to have people see and engage the product.
We have a great runway to be able to do
(06:23):
that with through commercial product in many genres. So our
program is open to all from animation to Howard a comedy,
it's TV and film. And they come in with those
ideas that we then like a studio, but think like
a nonprofit studio. We incubate and develop those ideas over
the course of the year, and they finish with finished products, scripts,
(06:44):
pitch deacks, and we do everything we can as a
nonprofit to pair them and match them with producers, studios, buyers, etc.
So they're literally the ten yard line by the time
they're leaving here. That is the conceit of the program.
We're halfway through our first year. I can share more
next year once we're done with our first year. And
how we do that is we create on the creative
end modules, so they come in with kind of like
(07:06):
the Pixar brain Trust. We have showrunners and screenwriters that
come in and work with these fellows and residents, the
core that gets the super serving of the program, and
we work on outlines, breaking story drafting notes, polish the
entire creative process with not only the creative showrunners and
artists coming in but with each other. So this community
(07:29):
of creators like a writer's who in a sense, that
are cross pollinating, helping each other optimize their creative and themselves.
On the business side of it, which is just as
important as a creative we are spending an entire year
on what I call minimizing blight spots and really working
on how do we make sure every aspect from marketing
to PR, to deal making to crafts to pitching, all
(07:52):
the business pieces of it that you need as a
creator to elevate your game, you know, to accelerate your career.
Part of building community for and for us is making
sure we have a big enough circle of POC creators
that can help one another, that can super serve one another,
that can be their form one another, especially during these
difficult times. And so we have a broader circle of
over two hundred this year. The idea is again in
(08:14):
this much bigger cohort when we have big master class events,
where we have community building events, they're there for each other.
And as we know, what is the stat over eighty
percent of your next gig is going to come from
somebody you know they're going to walk you in the room.
So the bigger your circle, the bigger your community, the
more that's going to facilitate your next gig, your next job.
The other hallmark I think of the program that I
(08:34):
found coming in is it is a safe split of
safe space for creators to try new things. So it
helps with the risk mitigation. Like you mentioned, Cynthia, that
you're able to say, you know what, I've been in
TV for years, I want to stretch my muscle and
I want to go into film or you know what
I've done comedy, but I know that I have a
dramatic story in me that can be commercial, that can
(08:55):
be IP based, because a lot of what we encourage
is IP based, you know, storytelling, And we in fact
have a development fund, Cynthia, I forget to mention that
where they can access these development funds to option IP.
We handle all of the negotiations and all of the
legal work we help facilitate that they can also work
on proof of concepts short short films. Again, we have
(09:16):
like a studio a development fund that can help facilitate
a lot of these projects to the next level. So
the other piece with that in terms of stretching muscles
and cross pollinating is that entrepreneurial concepts. So Dan and
I talk about at this moment in time, creators who
are writer, directors and multi hyphenates have to think of themselves.
They have to sort of reframe their mind as saying
(09:38):
like I'm an entrepreneur. I'm not waiting for the phone
call from my agent or manager. I'm generating my next gig.
I am the CEO of my own brand, and I'm
going to make sure that I'm managing every element of
my life. That also includes having a drawer full of
new ideas. And so I think that whole mind flip on,
like how do I see myself That's a big part
dance an entrepreneur. How do I make sure that these
(09:59):
crea not only are working on their craft, but are
sort of shifting the way they think about themselves and
their power in this industry. Which again starts and stops
with the stories and the storytellers so.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Interesting and when you're talking about the importance of creating
a network. We're just coming off the can Film Festival,
and it really stood out to me this year that
were honoring George Lucas and Francis Ford. Coppola was there
with the Big movie, and think about it, all the
stories are legend now. Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas, they all they
created a network, They hired each other, they all had
massive hits. Like that's that's the that's the organic way
(10:33):
of Hollywood. And what Dan is trying to foster here
is just I wish folks were going to put some
pictures on the website because this facility is just amazing.
There's outdoor space, there's indoor space, there's production space. It
is the kind of place you just want to sit
down and be creative.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
And be creative and commune like you know, and meet
other people and have great conversation.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And kitchens and kitchens and coffee. You know, creativity is coffee.
And I've just finished a very delicious cup here.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yay.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Oh yeah, that's what we love and we always we
invite the community back here. In fact, in getting to
know the cohort as I started a few months ago,
I really enjoyed our conversations because I wanted to see
what they were thinking. Where we you know, were we
doing the right things, how we can super serve them? Again,
they are the ultimate you know, ambassadors to the program.
And again we're a startup, so we want to make
sure we're on the right track and we can iterate.
(11:27):
And they were like, I got to tell you number
one on the lists. It's the it's the location. We
love the campus, we love creating. When when I graduate,
when I'm on a lump, can I come back here?
And we're like, okay, let's figure that out. We'll see
how we can maybe do some alum hours, you know,
for folks to come back here. And they also love
the community, they love their fellow cohort. In fact, several
of them have said I would never have met my fellow,
(11:47):
you know, my fellow fellow because if I'm a comedy writer,
I don't know I think I would have met a
horror film writer, you know. So I feel like this
notion of like meeting these lifelong friendships to your point
that are going to be connected for life. Hopefully they're
going to support each other in this. You know, ebbs
and flows of this industry is really important.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It's hard, as everybody knows, it's hard to meet people
in LA. It's hard to meet people in LA, including
in the creative. Let me ask the business questions. Sure,
how do once you have supported projects and things? I
realize it's all new, but you must have a plan.
Once you've supported a project and it goes and woo,
who you get the green light? It's going to be
(12:24):
a movie, it's going to be an eight episode limited series,
how does the business work out? Does ride Back retain
a stake in the project or so we have looked.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
At that in a way that again, having been insiders, right,
having been in the business as producers and executives, we
want to make sure that we are unencumbering the projects
and the creators as much as possible. So we don't
want something to have sort of a business affairs complaying like, oh,
who's going to want to do that? That being said,
we take our job and our investment of time and
resources seriously. You know their donor funds. We want to
(12:55):
make sure we see all these projects through and storytellers,
And what we say is that we definitely want to
make sure we're there for the long haul. I mean,
we're a phone call away. Even when the project leaves here.
We want to make sure it's curated all the way through.
So we say, look, if there's a possible way of
giving us credit, like a logo credit, that'd be fantastic. There.
You know, we have a passive royalty built in at
the discretion of the creator and obviously at the future
(13:17):
platform or streamer where it lives. That's that I think
is a conversation. But we definitely don't want to definitely
encumber the projects or their creators. I really do think
that it is sort of a pure nonprofit from that
perspective in terms of being how do we do this
at scale, How do we make sure that we are
leveraging donor dollars and donor partners that are committing that
believe wholeheartedly in narrative change and our mission aligned with us,
(13:40):
and that we can come in and do it in
a way that is multifaceted and multi dimensional. Because we
know the business and Dan myself, you know, many of
the folks that work here have been in the business
for many years, so we understand those pain points and
we can help solve them. That's going to be a
win win for you know, our stakeholders in the business,
but also for their creators. And then yes, we would
love to be attached to the creators and the projects,
(14:00):
but we want to do that in a way that
it feels organic and feel that. You know, it's more
of a nod to a thank you to what we've
done as a team altogether to see it all the
way through.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So does that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Answer your question, Cynthia, I want to make sure.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yes you have.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I mean, this is a really impressive level of philanthropy
that has just been initiated and funded. I know you
have outside funders, but I mean, this is just an
incredible space that I understand was a former abandoned post
off an abandoned post office, and it just I mean,
it just goes to show the potential this I can't listeners.
(14:34):
I cannot get over it, like the the just the
coolness of the space. There's wood, there's and there's just
so much space. It's one of those from the front
from Beverly Boulevard, you wouldn't think it was so big,
but it goes back deep and it just has that
inviting small groups people and so you know when you
you so you have two hundred, that seems like.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yes, a lot.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Well, I think so to give you a little bit
of history, So last year, in twenty twenty three, which
is a very very you know, frantic year for the
entertainment industry, the program launched. It was incubated during COVID
when Dan and the board went out there. They got
an amazing level of interest from you know, donors in
the philanthropy world, and so they're like, okay, we can
get this on the ground, off the ground. In twenty
twenty three, the selection process started, the cohort was selected,
(15:19):
we had to pause because of the strikes, and so
then it actually launched in the end of twenty twenty three,
in December.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Let me ask you, do the cohorts do they have
a stipend of any kind? Yes?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Okay, yes. So see there's so many things, Cynthia, So
I think again, you talk about creating a one year
intensive sort of program accelerator for creators and and their stories,
but also for them because we're leveling them up as well.
Part of that is how do we make sure that
on the living stipend we are giving them and compensating
(15:50):
them for their time and allowing them to have that
creative freedom. So yes, there's a stipend. It is fifty
thousand dollars for the fellows and ten thousand dollars for
the residence. Currently, we are rejiggering that a little bit
for our new cohort. So the goal is to go
into the twenty twenty four cohord with a forty thousand
dollars stipend. We are increasing the amount of fellows. They're
all going to be fellows now. And not only do
(16:12):
they have a living stipend, but they have access to
a development fund. And this development fund will give them
access like a studio, to any number of things that
are bespoke to their specific projects. So it may be pitchtick,
it may be a proof of concept, it may be
optioning ip So we want to make sure that we
have that flexibility and we can customize it based on
their creator and based on their stories that they're working on.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back to the ranch
with more from Ride Back Rise CEO Diana mogo Yon.
After this break, this episode of Strictly Business is brought
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Netflix and is for your Emmy consideration for Outstanding Comedy
Series and all other eligible categories. And we're back with
more from Ride Back Rise CEO Diana Mogoleon. And this
is for specifically for creators of color people, Yes, a represented.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Background, underrepresented backgrounds, POC, creators writers. It is a writing fellowship,
but we get many writer directors in multi hyphens or
writer directors producers.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Like everybody is a multi hyphen at these have to
be a multi hyphene.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You really do.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I mean, it's it's very indicative of the nature of
the work. I know you've been here, you've been here
for four months and it's clearly been a whirlwind. You've
got a lot going on, But what has you know,
and you have done development at studio side, at the
network side, what has impressed you about the energy or
the ideas that you see coming in the door.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Now, what I love the most about the cohort that
we have and the time that I've spent with many
of the writers and writer directors is that first of all,
they run the gamut, so the idea And this is
what I loved about my previous role at Warners at
Stage thirteen is that the ability that you can have
great storytelling and great commercial ideas, whether it's in comedy, horror, comedy, drama,
(18:36):
infusion of ideas. That impresses me that this cohort really
has amazing, authentic personal ideas that are very much personal
to them, but that have great potential to transcend and
to be commercial. Several of them are based on ip
amazing books world building. So what impressive me the most
is the caliber of the fellows and of the cohort,
(18:57):
and their ability and their capability and their willingness to
work on themselves.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
There.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I see it like they're thirsty in the desert, and
we are giving them so many angles and so many
different things that they're taking in and they have an
insatial appetite and they take it in. In one month's programming,
for example, we may have creative sessions with you know,
screenwriters that come in and spend intimate time with them.
We'll go to buyers and have intimate meetings with them.
We'll have the modules that are pretty intense. We do
four four to five hour sessions a week where we're
(19:25):
going through each other's projects and giving feedback, and they're
also you know, going out there. We're doing master classes.
So we have you know, Ava Duvarney coming up on
July ninth. We just had Jason Blum, So we're hitting
them with all angles on different ways of working on
themselves and their projects. So I am very impressed with
the fact that they show up and they're willing to
work on themselves. Their ideas are going from little concept
(19:48):
all the way to these amazing projects. So I'm impressed
with so many elements of it. I'm so excited about
where they're going to go in their career, and I'm
also excited about the next cohort and how we can
keep being there as a village as a backbone to
them as they grow.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What has been as you've been settling into this job,
what's been the reception from the big you know, the
big sort of gatekeepers in Hollywood. I imagine you're making
the rounds and talking to people, and you you know,
you have had a long run at NBC Universal, a
long time at Warner Brothers, so you know your rolodex
is good.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yes, you know. I'm mining the rolodex because I think
part is firstus introduction, like what is ride Back Rise?
And I and I jokingly say why should I care?
Like what does it mean for me? Right? And I
feel everybody's very focused on their job and their world.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Right, You're done for me?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
But exactly so, I feel for me, it's about making
sure that that value proposition is crystal clear. And I'm
getting myself clear every day in terms of working with
the team and as we are evolving ride back Rise
and doing our strategic plan, you know, two to three
five year plan and thinking about the needs of the
business and the needs of ride Back Rise. So I
would say definitely making the rounds, making the calls, but
(20:52):
also listening. I think it's a bit of a listening tour,
listening to the studio executives and the network executives and
to producers and saying what are your pain points right now?
You know, we know the macro ones have been around,
but how can we help or what are those things
that this month or this week are keeping up at night?
So kind of figuring out those pieces. Sometimes I realize
when we have some of these buyers, even as they
(21:14):
meet our fellows in residents and spend quality time because
usually we have two three hour sessions, whether it's visiting
folks at their studios or offices, or they come here
to the right back branch and they love it as well.
Is it's really off the record, great conversation. So it's
Vegas rules. You know, what stays says here stays here,
and you get this really frank, honest conversation. Many of
the folks that have come our POC executive So there's
(21:36):
a lot of bonding, there's a lot of great advice
and guidance, and there's also some hard truths like look,
this has to be commercial, or I'm going to read
the first thirty pages and if I don't like the script,
you know, you've got to make sure it pops. So
there's a lot of good sort of heart truths, but
real guidance that I think is very It's not lost
on me. As I send in these sessions, I learn
in every session, which is amazing. And then they're learning
(21:59):
and taking note as well well, and they're building their
rolodics too, and they're cultivating those new relations which is
very important. So I feel let the industry piece of it,
I'm still making my way through. I want to make
sure we talk to everybody understand it and come in
and saying how can we help, especially in a moment
in time when some of these companies their pipeline programs
are have contracted right and they're not there or they're
very skeletal, So how can we help compliment that? Being
(22:21):
that we're agnostic and we have obviously a pretty large
scale of you know, writers and writer directors from different genres.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And you're bringing you know, you're coming in with the
very best way to start a meeting, which is you're
adding value right there if you're working with and again.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Folks, just the idea.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I can absolutely see, you know, an established director coming
down and having a cup of coffee and people coming
in like, there are so many cool spaces for those
kinds of conversations. And I just I know in my
own experience anecdotally, people are so people of all backgrounds,
all fates, colors, creens. People want this to happen. It's time.
(23:01):
Everything going on in our culture is so hard, and
storytelling is going to be one of the paths to
figuring it out in a way that in a way
that we in a way that we haven't and that
disconnect right now between our political and cultural world and Hollywood,
where the storytelling is so good and is so strong,
(23:21):
and we know there is just a generation bursting with talent,
but that but that what we saw in the strike.
So you had people saying I was thrown in. I
wrote a great script and all of a sudden it
was six episodes and there wasn't that support system the architecture,
Like this is so needed on so many levels.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Totally because what happened and you heard this a lot
during the strikes last year, is it's very transactional, right,
So you feel that very cold, transactional element of the business,
and here's how do we take that? And myriated with
sort of the emotional human grounded elements and put it
together and hopefully create a better version of that still
rooted in truth and hard truths. And this is a sale.
You got to pitch your heart money make sure and
(24:00):
selling tickets, but how do we make sure we also
honor you know, voice and authenticity And like, I think
you can do both. They're not mutually exclusive, they can
actually coexist. And I think a point on the storytelling,
which I think is really important. As I've been making
the rounds and meeting with obviously a lot of our
donors and prospective donors and institutions, you know, I talk
to Darren Walker at the Ford Foundation and Sam gil
(24:21):
at Doris Duke, and I tell them, I say, thank
you so much for supporting us, because you are literally
you and the organization and your team are solving the
world's problems. We're talking, you know, from health to parverady
to climate change, and narrative change in storytelling is a
big problem. And I know it may not sound like
it's the same as those but it is. And we
(24:42):
need everybody at the table to help us solve these
big problems with big solutions. Because narrative change, imagine what
a show like modern family or you know, ugly Betty
has done to transcend into change public policy.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
You know what I'm saying, Will and Grace. We keep
going back to that, but it's still true. It is
abs absolutely still true. Did it solve everything? No, LGBT
people still face discrimination and even even violence in some cases,
but it touched a lot of hearts and it's certainly
better than the alternative.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Absolutely. I mean, then the list goes on. You know,
look at the last several years, everything everywhere, all at once.
You have beef, you have insecure, you have amazing stories
based and amazing characters that transcend. Look at Barbie So
what that did to little girls society in the Zeide Guy. So,
storytelling is massive from a cultural social impact life.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
It's a soft power, as they always said, it's one
of the most you know, hard power is ICBM missiles
and guns and ammunition. Hollywood is soft power, but it
is so influential. And don't get me started on how
rock and roll and movies won the Cold War.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
They just did.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Absolutely, we did. Absolutely, So I think that's a lot
of the sentiment and intent behind you know, what we're
doing and what dan is created, his vision along with
the board and the team of like, how do we
solve it again? Philanthropic runway that's hopefully a little more patient,
that can be done at scale, that can be really
rooted in mid level POC creators. That is really about
(26:14):
commercial you know, projects in film and TV, so you're
not silo and you can have cross pollination there. And look, we're,
like I said, we're startup. We're learning as we go.
We want to get stronger and better, and we want
to listen to all of our stakeholders and make sure
that we're super serving them. And at the end of
the day, it's about having great storytellers come to the
program and get work on their projects as we are
working with them on now and on themselves. And that's
(26:35):
the exciting part. I feel like that's the part I
love the most. You know, coming here, they live practically here,
they're here in the offices, so we see them, we
see how they work, we see how they think. And
then we also have I mean I haven't mentioned the
creative folks that have lent their time. I mean we
have just like our sharz Orho's an amazing screenwriter and
writer and professor at USC, we have mentors like Robert
Rodriguez who hit it off completely with his fellows. They've
(26:59):
like texting every day and so you can tell it's
a sort of a mutual admirage in society. You have
a Dell Limb, you have k Egan, Like, it's an
amazing the amount of people that have leng their time.
We have mark Off and that's going to come in
next month and work on a pitch module with the team.
So we want to get the best and the best
that are out there. Many of them are working, so
we're trying to figure out when they have time to
come and lend their time and figure out a way
(27:19):
that they can, you know, really elevate against the covert
that we have this year.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I excuse me, I have to believe that there is
an overwhelming amount of love and support for this effort.
It is really, really incredible. Let me ask you a
tough question. Sure, let me ask you from your experience
working in the you know, very high levels of some
of the biggest media companies. It's a hard it's hard
to a single answer, but some of clearly, some of
(27:45):
what you've designed here is designed to address what are
the hurdles for for executives of color. For creatives of color,
what in your experience like, what are the what are
the biggest hurdles to getting things through the traditional pipe? Fine,
I know that's a hard thing to answer, but is
there any one or two things that stands out in
(28:05):
your mind that like people, especially as we're the very outset.
I know the idea of development season is, I know,
but people are reading scripts and as people are, you know,
people across the industry are thinking about that and doing that. Like,
what if there were one or two things you could
ask Hollywood to not do or do better?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
What would it be?
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
My goodness, I would say take more risks. I think
to me when I was when we were at Warner
Brothers and we were id eating around what stage tritium
could be in the possibility what we were trying to
solve for it really was about thinking, you know, in
a risk mitigation, but in a way that allowed us
to have some risk.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I think when you played safe and when you do
risk completely, you're not going to take those chances. I
mean either.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Wacky domestic comedy, yeah, fat Husband, cute Wilight?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Have we seen that enough to totally? So you have
to take risks.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
And I think that when I say that, what that
actually means for executives and the people that are making
those decision is that you have to step outside of
your comfort zone. You have to go to frames or
reference and maybe you're not as familiar. So that means
not putting you know, Latinos in a box or Asian
Americans or API story. So it's saying like, yeah, actually
something that looks a little bit different, like a beef,
(29:17):
look at that amazing. So you have to take risks
on creators, on stories, on distribution, like everything, every element
of the funnel. You have to take a little bit
of risk, even in the marketing of it. So if
we take and I'm not saying it has to be
full on, go to Vegas, gamble everything, but it is
about calculated, informed risks. So that means you have to
know your audience. You have to really know who you're
(29:38):
super serving. And I think that Hollywood executives and Hollywood
folks think they know think they know the audiences, but
they truly don't. Having been at Mundoz many moons ago,
and I know you were there because you were at
our upfronts and you understood the audience when we and
our team was saying, regional Mexican is the bread and butter,
this is the you know what is it pulsing heart
(29:58):
of the audience. That was how many years ago, Cynthia,
who are the biggest artists in the world.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
A regional Mexican start?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Thank you, thank you, so thank you, Cynthia say, you
know the artists. So we were we were saying this
for fifteen years. So I think the other part I
would tell Hollywood is listen, Listen to the folks and
your team, look around the boardroom, look around the decisions
you're making, and make sure you have all voices at
the table. Because your next big hit, your next big idea,
maybe coming from an intern, maybe coming from an assistant,
(30:27):
maybe coming from a manager on the team. So if
you create a foster environment to have all voices at
the table and about ideas and audiences and trends and
all those things, which is how great things are created.
Think MTV in the day, then that's where you're going
to get the best of the best. And again be
in the trenches with the audience, not in a glass tower,
you know, in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts
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next week for another episode of Strictly Business. This episode
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Based on a True Story. Kaylee Quoco and Chris Messina
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Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
guest is Diana Mogoyon, CEO of ride Back Rise. Ride
Back Rise is a nonprofit venture launched by producer Dan
(00:29):
Lynn in July twenty twenty two. The organization offers year
long fellowships to mid career creatives from underrepresented backgrounds. The
goal is to help promising talent take their careers to
the next level by supporting them at a crossroads moment.
At ride Back Rise, the focus is on mainstream entertainment
big commercial hits, whether in film or TV or digital
(00:51):
live media. Mogo Yon explains that the lofty overarching goal
is nothing less than driving cultural change through inclusive storytelling.
To support that vision, Lynn and partners took over an
abandoned post office in Los Angeles' historic Filipino Town neighborhood.
They built it out with the ranch theme in an
(01:12):
effort to make it a fun and nurturing environment for
writers and others to pursue their creative passions. In February
Lynn joined Netflix as its head of Film, but ride
Back Rise is still a big priority for him. Mogoyon
joined the company earlier this year as CEO to steer
a growing list of programs. She's well suited to that role,
(01:32):
having worked as a programming executive for NBC Universal's Moundos
Spanish language cable network. She spent the past eight years
at Warner Bros. As General Manager of its Stage thirteen
digital content unit. After giving me a grand tour of
the ranch, Mogoyon and I sat down for a conversation
about what she hopes to build at ride Back Rise
(01:54):
and why its work is sorely needed. That's all coming
up after this break. This episode of Strictly Business is
brought to you by UCP presenting Mister Monk's Last Case
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(02:15):
sees the return of Detective Adrian Monk from the hit
USA Network series Monk. After thirteen years of retirement. Monk
sharpens his detective skills once again as his stepdaughter suffers
the sudden loss of her fiance in a bungee jumping accident.
With the help of old companions, Monk will attempt to
solve the case and in doing so take on one
(02:37):
of the world's most powerful men. The critically acclaimed movie
is for your Emmy consideration for Outstanding Television Movie and
all other categories. Mister Monk's Last Case A Monk Movie
is now streaming on Peacock. And we're back with the
conversation with ride Back Rise CEO Diana Moggoyon.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Thank you so so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Thank you, Cynthia, thank you, thank you for being here
with us, and welcome to Right Back Ranch and ride
Back Rise.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Not only do have you given me the welcome and
an incredible tour, but you brought incredible pastries. I'm about
halfway into an inch thick piece of banana bread from
Clerk's Bakery. Yeah, free Clark Street Bakery. Free plug for
Clark Street Bakery. I'm a very hard judge of bana
bread and this stuff with the almonds is really billy killing.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So thank you for a very warm welcome.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Of course, of course, let's start from the very top.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Tell me what is ride Back Rise and what is
your role with it?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Thank you, Cynthia. Yes, right Back Rise is a content
and creator accelerator that was founded in twenty twenty two
by Dan Lynn, former producer now executive over a Netflix
on the film site.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Very prominent person, a lot of a string of film hits,
so more more hits than you think.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Of off the top of your head.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Absolutely, Lego would be Sherlock Holms a lot and you
know Airband to the Last Avatar, So a lot of
good ones. A good plug there, just to give a
little bit of an IMDb on Dan Lynn and so
we are a content creator accelerator whose mission is to
really work with these creators. We have fellows, and we
(04:18):
have a circle, and we have residents. So we have
over two hundred folks in our cohort. We're in our
first inaugural cohort. We're about halfway through that and we're
about to open up the application profits process for the
new cohort for twenty four to twenty five.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And what do we.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Do with this amazing cohort of creators? These are all
mid level POC creators by design in terms of serving
Dan's vision of how do we help propel narrative change
in this industry, which is a conversation we've had for many,
many years, many years with the Ultimate goal, and I
think it's a very ambitious goal of really improving and
(04:58):
really solving racial equity when it comes to Hollywood and
narrative and storytelling. Quite ambitious, but doable if you bring
the right people together and you have the right plan together.
Now Dan has always been committed to this. DNA, Dan
and our board, and during COVID when we all had
a little bit of extra time, Dan thought about them
and said, what about if we try a more patient
(05:18):
runway and we try the philanthropic runway. Let's create a
nonprofit that is dedicated to this mission to help creators
again mid level creators. The mid level is very specific
because that is where creators, whether they're from film or television,
they've been staffed in rooms, they've already produced some shorts,
they've directed. You really at a crossroads, you either double
(05:40):
down and say this is it. I'm going to keep
doing this, I'm going to keep creating, I'm going to
keep getting better, or you leave the business because it
is that hard and challenging, and more so now than ever.
So the idea was to bring in mid level POC
creators and give them a one year intensive opportunity to
work with us and all of our brain trust of
creators and green writers and showrunners on three different levels.
(06:03):
One is creatively, they come into the program and very
much again in Dan's vision is to work on commercial,
mainstream projects in his mind, and I totally believe this.
To help really propel narrative change and to impact culture,
you really have to have people see and engage the product.
We have a great runway to be able to do
(06:23):
that with through commercial product in many genres. So our
program is open to all from animation to Howard a comedy,
it's TV and film. And they come in with those
ideas that we then like a studio, but think like
a nonprofit studio. We incubate and develop those ideas over
the course of the year, and they finish with finished products, scripts,
(06:44):
pitch deacks, and we do everything we can as a
nonprofit to pair them and match them with producers, studios, buyers, etc.
So they're literally the ten yard line by the time
they're leaving here. That is the conceit of the program.
We're halfway through our first year. I can share more
next year once we're done with our first year. And
how we do that is we create on the creative
end modules, so they come in with kind of like
(07:06):
the Pixar brain Trust. We have showrunners and screenwriters that
come in and work with these fellows and residents, the
core that gets the super serving of the program, and
we work on outlines, breaking story drafting notes, polish the
entire creative process with not only the creative showrunners and
artists coming in but with each other. So this community
(07:29):
of creators like a writer's who in a sense, that
are cross pollinating, helping each other optimize their creative and themselves.
On the business side of it, which is just as
important as a creative we are spending an entire year
on what I call minimizing blight spots and really working
on how do we make sure every aspect from marketing
to PR, to deal making to crafts to pitching, all
(07:52):
the business pieces of it that you need as a
creator to elevate your game, you know, to accelerate your career.
Part of building community for and for us is making
sure we have a big enough circle of POC creators
that can help one another, that can super serve one another,
that can be their form one another, especially during these
difficult times. And so we have a broader circle of
over two hundred this year. The idea is again in
(08:14):
this much bigger cohort when we have big master class events,
where we have community building events, they're there for each other.
And as we know, what is the stat over eighty
percent of your next gig is going to come from
somebody you know they're going to walk you in the room.
So the bigger your circle, the bigger your community, the
more that's going to facilitate your next gig, your next job.
The other hallmark I think of the program that I
(08:34):
found coming in is it is a safe split of
safe space for creators to try new things. So it
helps with the risk mitigation. Like you mentioned, Cynthia, that
you're able to say, you know what, I've been in
TV for years, I want to stretch my muscle and
I want to go into film or you know what
I've done comedy, but I know that I have a
dramatic story in me that can be commercial, that can
(08:55):
be IP based, because a lot of what we encourage
is IP based, you know, storytelling, And we in fact
have a development fund, Cynthia, I forget to mention that
where they can access these development funds to option IP.
We handle all of the negotiations and all of the
legal work we help facilitate that they can also work
on proof of concepts short short films. Again, we have
(09:16):
like a studio a development fund that can help facilitate
a lot of these projects to the next level. So
the other piece with that in terms of stretching muscles
and cross pollinating is that entrepreneurial concepts. So Dan and
I talk about at this moment in time, creators who
are writer, directors and multi hyphenates have to think of themselves.
They have to sort of reframe their mind as saying
(09:38):
like I'm an entrepreneur. I'm not waiting for the phone
call from my agent or manager. I'm generating my next gig.
I am the CEO of my own brand, and I'm
going to make sure that I'm managing every element of
my life. That also includes having a drawer full of
new ideas. And so I think that whole mind flip on,
like how do I see myself That's a big part
dance an entrepreneur. How do I make sure that these
(09:59):
crea not only are working on their craft, but are
sort of shifting the way they think about themselves and
their power in this industry. Which again starts and stops
with the stories and the storytellers so.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Interesting and when you're talking about the importance of creating
a network. We're just coming off the can Film Festival,
and it really stood out to me this year that
were honoring George Lucas and Francis Ford. Coppola was there
with the Big movie, and think about it, all the
stories are legend now. Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas, they all they
created a network, They hired each other, they all had
massive hits. Like that's that's the that's the organic way
(10:33):
of Hollywood. And what Dan is trying to foster here
is just I wish folks were going to put some
pictures on the website because this facility is just amazing.
There's outdoor space, there's indoor space, there's production space. It
is the kind of place you just want to sit
down and be creative.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
And be creative and commune like you know, and meet
other people and have great conversation.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And kitchens and kitchens and coffee. You know, creativity is coffee.
And I've just finished a very delicious cup here.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yay.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Oh yeah, that's what we love and we always we
invite the community back here. In fact, in getting to
know the cohort as I started a few months ago,
I really enjoyed our conversations because I wanted to see
what they were thinking. Where we you know, were we
doing the right things, how we can super serve them? Again,
they are the ultimate you know, ambassadors to the program.
And again we're a startup, so we want to make
sure we're on the right track and we can iterate.
(11:27):
And they were like, I got to tell you number
one on the lists. It's the it's the location. We
love the campus, we love creating. When when I graduate,
when I'm on a lump, can I come back here?
And we're like, okay, let's figure that out. We'll see
how we can maybe do some alum hours, you know,
for folks to come back here. And they also love
the community, they love their fellow cohort. In fact, several
of them have said I would never have met my fellow,
(11:47):
you know, my fellow fellow because if I'm a comedy writer,
I don't know I think I would have met a
horror film writer, you know. So I feel like this
notion of like meeting these lifelong friendships to your point
that are going to be connected for life. Hopefully they're
going to support each other in this. You know, ebbs
and flows of this industry is really important.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It's hard, as everybody knows, it's hard to meet people
in LA. It's hard to meet people in LA, including
in the creative. Let me ask the business questions. Sure,
how do once you have supported projects and things? I
realize it's all new, but you must have a plan.
Once you've supported a project and it goes and woo,
who you get the green light? It's going to be
(12:24):
a movie, it's going to be an eight episode limited series,
how does the business work out? Does ride Back retain
a stake in the project or so we have looked.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
At that in a way that again, having been insiders, right,
having been in the business as producers and executives, we
want to make sure that we are unencumbering the projects
and the creators as much as possible. So we don't
want something to have sort of a business affairs complaying like, oh,
who's going to want to do that? That being said,
we take our job and our investment of time and
resources seriously. You know their donor funds. We want to
(12:55):
make sure we see all these projects through and storytellers,
And what we say is that we definitely want to
make sure we're there for the long haul. I mean,
we're a phone call away. Even when the project leaves here.
We want to make sure it's curated all the way through.
So we say, look, if there's a possible way of
giving us credit, like a logo credit, that'd be fantastic. There.
You know, we have a passive royalty built in at
the discretion of the creator and obviously at the future
(13:17):
platform or streamer where it lives. That's that I think
is a conversation. But we definitely don't want to definitely
encumber the projects or their creators. I really do think
that it is sort of a pure nonprofit from that
perspective in terms of being how do we do this
at scale, How do we make sure that we are
leveraging donor dollars and donor partners that are committing that
believe wholeheartedly in narrative change and our mission aligned with us,
(13:40):
and that we can come in and do it in
a way that is multifaceted and multi dimensional. Because we
know the business and Dan myself, you know, many of
the folks that work here have been in the business
for many years, so we understand those pain points and
we can help solve them. That's going to be a
win win for you know, our stakeholders in the business,
but also for their creators. And then yes, we would
love to be attached to the creators and the projects,
(14:00):
but we want to do that in a way that
it feels organic and feel that. You know, it's more
of a nod to a thank you to what we've
done as a team altogether to see it all the
way through.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So does that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Answer your question, Cynthia, I want to make sure.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yes you have.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I mean, this is a really impressive level of philanthropy
that has just been initiated and funded. I know you
have outside funders, but I mean, this is just an
incredible space that I understand was a former abandoned post
off an abandoned post office, and it just I mean,
it just goes to show the potential this I can't listeners.
(14:34):
I cannot get over it, like the the just the
coolness of the space. There's wood, there's and there's just
so much space. It's one of those from the front
from Beverly Boulevard, you wouldn't think it was so big,
but it goes back deep and it just has that
inviting small groups people and so you know when you
you so you have two hundred, that seems like.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yes, a lot.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Well, I think so to give you a little bit
of history, So last year, in twenty twenty three, which
is a very very you know, frantic year for the
entertainment industry, the program launched. It was incubated during COVID
when Dan and the board went out there. They got
an amazing level of interest from you know, donors in
the philanthropy world, and so they're like, okay, we can
get this on the ground, off the ground. In twenty
twenty three, the selection process started, the cohort was selected,
(15:19):
we had to pause because of the strikes, and so
then it actually launched in the end of twenty twenty three,
in December.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Let me ask you, do the cohorts do they have
a stipend of any kind? Yes?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Okay, yes. So see there's so many things, Cynthia, So
I think again, you talk about creating a one year
intensive sort of program accelerator for creators and and their stories,
but also for them because we're leveling them up as well.
Part of that is how do we make sure that
on the living stipend we are giving them and compensating
(15:50):
them for their time and allowing them to have that
creative freedom. So yes, there's a stipend. It is fifty
thousand dollars for the fellows and ten thousand dollars for
the residence. Currently, we are rejiggering that a little bit
for our new cohort. So the goal is to go
into the twenty twenty four cohord with a forty thousand
dollars stipend. We are increasing the amount of fellows. They're
all going to be fellows now. And not only do
(16:12):
they have a living stipend, but they have access to
a development fund. And this development fund will give them
access like a studio, to any number of things that
are bespoke to their specific projects. So it may be pitchtick,
it may be a proof of concept, it may be
optioning ip So we want to make sure that we
have that flexibility and we can customize it based on
their creator and based on their stories that they're working on.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back to the ranch
with more from Ride Back Rise CEO Diana mogo Yon.
After this break, this episode of Strictly Business is brought
to you by Universal Television presenting Girls five Ev. One
of Vanity Fair's best shows of twenty twenty four. Girls
five Ever follows a one hit wonder nineties girl group
(16:57):
which attempts a comeback while hilariously navigating family and relationships,
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Busy Phillips. Don't miss the series, Vulture calls the funniest
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(17:17):
Netflix and is for your Emmy consideration for Outstanding Comedy
Series and all other eligible categories. And we're back with
more from Ride Back Rise CEO Diana Mogoleon. And this
is for specifically for creators of color people, Yes, a represented.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Background, underrepresented backgrounds, POC, creators writers. It is a writing fellowship,
but we get many writer directors in multi hyphens or
writer directors producers.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Like everybody is a multi hyphen at these have to
be a multi hyphene.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You really do.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I mean, it's it's very indicative of the nature of
the work. I know you've been here, you've been here
for four months and it's clearly been a whirlwind. You've
got a lot going on, But what has you know,
and you have done development at studio side, at the
network side, what has impressed you about the energy or
the ideas that you see coming in the door.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Now, what I love the most about the cohort that
we have and the time that I've spent with many
of the writers and writer directors is that first of all,
they run the gamut, so the idea And this is
what I loved about my previous role at Warners at
Stage thirteen is that the ability that you can have
great storytelling and great commercial ideas, whether it's in comedy, horror, comedy, drama,
(18:36):
infusion of ideas. That impresses me that this cohort really
has amazing, authentic personal ideas that are very much personal
to them, but that have great potential to transcend and
to be commercial. Several of them are based on ip
amazing books world building. So what impressive me the most
is the caliber of the fellows and of the cohort,
(18:57):
and their ability and their capability and their willingness to
work on themselves.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
There.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I see it like they're thirsty in the desert, and
we are giving them so many angles and so many
different things that they're taking in and they have an
insatial appetite and they take it in. In one month's programming,
for example, we may have creative sessions with you know,
screenwriters that come in and spend intimate time with them.
We'll go to buyers and have intimate meetings with them.
We'll have the modules that are pretty intense. We do
four four to five hour sessions a week where we're
(19:25):
going through each other's projects and giving feedback, and they're
also you know, going out there. We're doing master classes.
So we have you know, Ava Duvarney coming up on
July ninth. We just had Jason Blum, So we're hitting
them with all angles on different ways of working on
themselves and their projects. So I am very impressed with
the fact that they show up and they're willing to
work on themselves. Their ideas are going from little concept
(19:48):
all the way to these amazing projects. So I'm impressed
with so many elements of it. I'm so excited about
where they're going to go in their career, and I'm
also excited about the next cohort and how we can
keep being there as a village as a backbone to
them as they grow.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What has been as you've been settling into this job,
what's been the reception from the big you know, the
big sort of gatekeepers in Hollywood. I imagine you're making
the rounds and talking to people, and you you know,
you have had a long run at NBC Universal, a
long time at Warner Brothers, so you know your rolodex
is good.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yes, you know. I'm mining the rolodex because I think
part is firstus introduction, like what is ride Back Rise?
And I and I jokingly say why should I care?
Like what does it mean for me? Right? And I
feel everybody's very focused on their job and their world.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Right, You're done for me?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
But exactly so, I feel for me, it's about making
sure that that value proposition is crystal clear. And I'm
getting myself clear every day in terms of working with
the team and as we are evolving ride back Rise
and doing our strategic plan, you know, two to three
five year plan and thinking about the needs of the
business and the needs of ride Back Rise. So I
would say definitely making the rounds, making the calls, but
(20:52):
also listening. I think it's a bit of a listening tour,
listening to the studio executives and the network executives and
to producers and saying what are your pain points right now?
You know, we know the macro ones have been around,
but how can we help or what are those things
that this month or this week are keeping up at night?
So kind of figuring out those pieces. Sometimes I realize
when we have some of these buyers, even as they
(21:14):
meet our fellows in residents and spend quality time because
usually we have two three hour sessions, whether it's visiting
folks at their studios or offices, or they come here
to the right back branch and they love it as well.
Is it's really off the record, great conversation. So it's
Vegas rules. You know, what stays says here stays here,
and you get this really frank, honest conversation. Many of
the folks that have come our POC executive So there's
(21:36):
a lot of bonding, there's a lot of great advice
and guidance, and there's also some hard truths like look,
this has to be commercial, or I'm going to read
the first thirty pages and if I don't like the script,
you know, you've got to make sure it pops. So
there's a lot of good sort of heart truths, but
real guidance that I think is very It's not lost
on me. As I send in these sessions, I learn
in every session, which is amazing. And then they're learning
(21:59):
and taking note as well well, and they're building their
rolodics too, and they're cultivating those new relations which is
very important. So I feel let the industry piece of it,
I'm still making my way through. I want to make
sure we talk to everybody understand it and come in
and saying how can we help, especially in a moment
in time when some of these companies their pipeline programs
are have contracted right and they're not there or they're
very skeletal, So how can we help compliment that? Being
(22:21):
that we're agnostic and we have obviously a pretty large
scale of you know, writers and writer directors from different genres.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And you're bringing you know, you're coming in with the
very best way to start a meeting, which is you're
adding value right there if you're working with and again.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Folks, just the idea.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I can absolutely see, you know, an established director coming
down and having a cup of coffee and people coming
in like, there are so many cool spaces for those
kinds of conversations. And I just I know in my
own experience anecdotally, people are so people of all backgrounds,
all fates, colors, creens. People want this to happen. It's time.
(23:01):
Everything going on in our culture is so hard, and
storytelling is going to be one of the paths to
figuring it out in a way that in a way
that we in a way that we haven't and that
disconnect right now between our political and cultural world and Hollywood,
where the storytelling is so good and is so strong,
(23:21):
and we know there is just a generation bursting with talent,
but that but that what we saw in the strike.
So you had people saying I was thrown in. I
wrote a great script and all of a sudden it
was six episodes and there wasn't that support system the architecture,
Like this is so needed on so many levels.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Totally because what happened and you heard this a lot
during the strikes last year, is it's very transactional, right,
So you feel that very cold, transactional element of the business,
and here's how do we take that? And myriated with
sort of the emotional human grounded elements and put it
together and hopefully create a better version of that still
rooted in truth and hard truths. And this is a sale.
You got to pitch your heart money make sure and
(24:00):
selling tickets, but how do we make sure we also
honor you know, voice and authenticity And like, I think
you can do both. They're not mutually exclusive, they can
actually coexist. And I think a point on the storytelling,
which I think is really important. As I've been making
the rounds and meeting with obviously a lot of our
donors and prospective donors and institutions, you know, I talk
to Darren Walker at the Ford Foundation and Sam gil
(24:21):
at Doris Duke, and I tell them, I say, thank
you so much for supporting us, because you are literally
you and the organization and your team are solving the
world's problems. We're talking, you know, from health to parverady
to climate change, and narrative change in storytelling is a
big problem. And I know it may not sound like
it's the same as those but it is. And we
(24:42):
need everybody at the table to help us solve these
big problems with big solutions. Because narrative change, imagine what
a show like modern family or you know, ugly Betty
has done to transcend into change public policy.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
You know what I'm saying, Will and Grace. We keep
going back to that, but it's still true. It is
abs absolutely still true. Did it solve everything? No, LGBT
people still face discrimination and even even violence in some cases,
but it touched a lot of hearts and it's certainly
better than the alternative.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Absolutely. I mean, then the list goes on. You know,
look at the last several years, everything everywhere, all at once.
You have beef, you have insecure, you have amazing stories
based and amazing characters that transcend. Look at Barbie So
what that did to little girls society in the Zeide Guy. So,
storytelling is massive from a cultural social impact life.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
It's a soft power, as they always said, it's one
of the most you know, hard power is ICBM missiles
and guns and ammunition. Hollywood is soft power, but it
is so influential. And don't get me started on how
rock and roll and movies won the Cold War.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
They just did.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Absolutely, we did. Absolutely, So I think that's a lot
of the sentiment and intent behind you know, what we're
doing and what dan is created, his vision along with
the board and the team of like, how do we
solve it again? Philanthropic runway that's hopefully a little more patient,
that can be done at scale, that can be really
rooted in mid level POC creators. That is really about
(26:14):
commercial you know, projects in film and TV, so you're
not silo and you can have cross pollination there. And look, we're,
like I said, we're startup. We're learning as we go.
We want to get stronger and better, and we want
to listen to all of our stakeholders and make sure
that we're super serving them. And at the end of
the day, it's about having great storytellers come to the
program and get work on their projects as we are
working with them on now and on themselves. And that's
(26:35):
the exciting part. I feel like that's the part I
love the most. You know, coming here, they live practically here,
they're here in the offices, so we see them, we
see how they work, we see how they think. And
then we also have I mean I haven't mentioned the
creative folks that have lent their time. I mean we
have just like our sharz Orho's an amazing screenwriter and
writer and professor at USC, we have mentors like Robert
Rodriguez who hit it off completely with his fellows. They've
(26:59):
like texting every day and so you can tell it's
a sort of a mutual admirage in society. You have
a Dell Limb, you have k Egan, Like, it's an
amazing the amount of people that have leng their time.
We have mark Off and that's going to come in
next month and work on a pitch module with the team.
So we want to get the best and the best
that are out there. Many of them are working, so
we're trying to figure out when they have time to
come and lend their time and figure out a way
(27:19):
that they can, you know, really elevate against the covert
that we have this year.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
I excuse me, I have to believe that there is
an overwhelming amount of love and support for this effort.
It is really, really incredible. Let me ask you a
tough question. Sure, let me ask you from your experience
working in the you know, very high levels of some
of the biggest media companies. It's a hard it's hard
to a single answer, but some of clearly, some of
(27:45):
what you've designed here is designed to address what are
the hurdles for for executives of color. For creatives of color,
what in your experience like, what are the what are
the biggest hurdles to getting things through the traditional pipe? Fine,
I know that's a hard thing to answer, but is
there any one or two things that stands out in
(28:05):
your mind that like people, especially as we're the very outset.
I know the idea of development season is, I know,
but people are reading scripts and as people are, you know,
people across the industry are thinking about that and doing that. Like,
what if there were one or two things you could
ask Hollywood to not do or do better?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
What would it be?
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
My goodness, I would say take more risks. I think
to me when I was when we were at Warner
Brothers and we were id eating around what stage tritium
could be in the possibility what we were trying to
solve for it really was about thinking, you know, in
a risk mitigation, but in a way that allowed us
to have some risk.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I think when you played safe and when you do
risk completely, you're not going to take those chances. I
mean either.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Wacky domestic comedy, yeah, fat Husband, cute Wilight?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Have we seen that enough to totally? So you have
to take risks.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
And I think that when I say that, what that
actually means for executives and the people that are making
those decision is that you have to step outside of
your comfort zone. You have to go to frames or
reference and maybe you're not as familiar. So that means
not putting you know, Latinos in a box or Asian
Americans or API story. So it's saying like, yeah, actually
something that looks a little bit different, like a beef,
(29:17):
look at that amazing. So you have to take risks
on creators, on stories, on distribution, like everything, every element
of the funnel. You have to take a little bit
of risk, even in the marketing of it. So if
we take and I'm not saying it has to be
full on, go to Vegas, gamble everything, but it is
about calculated, informed risks. So that means you have to
know your audience. You have to really know who you're
(29:38):
super serving. And I think that Hollywood executives and Hollywood
folks think they know think they know the audiences, but
they truly don't. Having been at Mundoz many moons ago,
and I know you were there because you were at
our upfronts and you understood the audience when we and
our team was saying, regional Mexican is the bread and butter,
this is the you know what is it pulsing heart
(29:58):
of the audience. That was how many years ago, Cynthia,
who are the biggest artists in the world.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
A regional Mexican start?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Thank you, thank you, so thank you, Cynthia say, you
know the artists. So we were we were saying this
for fifteen years. So I think the other part I
would tell Hollywood is listen, Listen to the folks and
your team, look around the boardroom, look around the decisions
you're making, and make sure you have all voices at
the table. Because your next big hit, your next big idea,
maybe coming from an intern, maybe coming from an assistant,
(30:27):
maybe coming from a manager on the team. So if
you create a foster environment to have all voices at
the table and about ideas and audiences and trends and
all those things, which is how great things are created.
Think MTV in the day, then that's where you're going
to get the best of the best. And again be
in the trenches with the audience, not in a glass tower,
you know, in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
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next week for another episode of Strictly Business. This episode
(31:18):
of Strictly Business is brought to you by UCP Presenting
Based on a True Story. Kaylee Quoco and Chris Messina
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