Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

2021 Sundance Episodic Fellows

14/05/2021

Los Angeles - Sundance Institute announced today the 21 Fellows across 18 projects completing its first-ever multi-track Episodic Lab, designed as an immersive two-part experience hosted on Sundance Collab. This year, Fellows were divided into either the Idea to Pilot Track, in which they developed an original pilot from a nascent early idea to a completed original polished draft, or the Series Track, in which they workshop an existing original pilot and develop a professional series pitch to sell. This structural evolution of the Lab emerged in dialogue with the rapidly shifting ecosystem of the industry, including scaling demand for fresh content across networks, streamers, and platforms.

Over the course of the restructured Lab experience, Fellows received customized, ongoing support from Creative Advisors, Industry Mentors, and Sundance Institute Feature Film Program staff, led by Founding Director, Michelle Satter with support from outgoing Episodic Program Director, Jennifer Goyne-Blake and Jandiz Estrada Cardoso who has now joined as the Director. Working with accomplished showrunners, the Fellows participated in one-on-one story meetings, craft workshops, and Writers' Rooms, which together provided creative and strategic tools for successful work ahead. Creative Advisors who participated in the Lab included Jenny Bicks, Jacob Chase, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Danny Chun, Cheo Hodari Coker, Charles Eglee, Lee Eisenberg, Kevin Etten, Shalisha Francis, Katori Hall, Teresa Hsiao, Roch e Jeffrey, Kristi Korzec, LaToya Morgan, Erica Rivinoja, Peter Saji, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, Vera Santamaria, Sanjay Shah, Malcolm Spellman, Tatiana Suarez-Pico, Halsted Sullivan, and Graham Yost.

After an initial fall gathering, Fellows reconvened with polished drafts of their Lab projects to participate in pitch sessions, panel conversations about the episodic landscape, and met with producers and creative executives to discuss next steps and career goals. Industry mentors included: Kesila Childers, Deniese Davis, Dante di Loreto, Marta Fernandez, Carrie Gillogly, Tiffany Hawthorne, Quan Phung, Candace Rodney, Justin Rosenblatt, Jeff Stern, Sarah Timberman, Kathryn Tyus-Adair, Yvette Urbina.

Career advancement for past cohorts have expanded every year. Artists who have gone through the program include writers Katori Hall, Barry Jenkins, Desiree Akhavan, and Heather Rae. Other Fellows have gone on to staff shows including This is Us, Little America, Dave, Snowpiercer, You're the Worst, Better Call Saul, Silicon Valley, Fresh off the Boat, American Gods, The Baby-Sitters Club, and The Americans. Many alumni have sold their Lab projects to networks including HBO, Amazon, Hulu, FX, ABC, CW, and AMC. 64% of Fellows from the 2018 and 2019 Episodic Labs were staffed and close to 75% of the selected projects have sold or been set up with producers. The COVID-19 pandemic dictated the shift to this years first fully digital artist incubator allowing for longer lead development with more pathways for individualized support and touch points throughout the program.

Sundance Institute champions independent creators, says Satter, and we need to stay nimble and responsive across formats, media and narrative structures. By convening emerging talent together with established advisors, we aim to create sustainable careers in an ever-evolving industry. With the ongoing generosity and support of our Episodic team and Advisors, many of our writers have been staffed on shows, and a growing number are now developing their pilots at a variety of networks.

This Lab is a destination for bold writers hungry to bring their independent perspectives and their rigor to develop stories for audiences who crave independent voices. Im thrilled to lead the next evolution of Sundance's mission to embrace these integral creators and support them in navigating the industry landscape of multi-episode storytelling. adds program Director Jandiz Estrada Cardoso.

The projects and fellows selected for the Episodic Lab are:

The Cavi

Desperate to leave their previous lives behind, a trio of street hustlers look to solve the clues behind an underworld myth called The Cavi, a West Coast tall tale that is said to lead to a hidden treasure for the ages.

Justin Calen-Chenn was a homeless teenager when a fly-ass Black man took him under his wing. Growing up in a motel, he got involved in a life of street hustle and organized crime, but left that world behind many years later after witnessing a horrific incident in 2016. Justin is writing and/or producing projects with notables such as eOne, Miramax, Netflix, and more. He is recently teaming with Netflix on a spec feature and also staffing on a crime series, both which he must keep on the sly for now. Justin is repped by Grandview/CAA and is about his paper.

A Dignified Death

A by-the-book former ICU nurse starts working at a hospice agency where she clashes with her rule-bending veteran supervisor, and learns what it really means to provide patients with a dignified death.

Lauren Glover is a drama writer born and raised in Columbia, Maryland. She's a registered nurse and worked for several years in the psychiatric, intensive care, and hospice fields. Lauren was a 2017 and 2018 Sundance Lab Finalist, spots she earned by submitting her historical drama pilot Kingdom and southern gothic pilot The Dirty Spoon. Lauren was chosen as fellow in the 2020 Sundance Episodic Lab with the submission of her half hour dramedy pilot A Dignified Death, which is based on her experiences working with hospice patients. Lauren is currently a writer on the upcoming HBO Max series Duster.

Emotional

In 2003, a 14 year old Asian American freshman living in suburban midwest, discovers emo music and social media and begins a path of self discovery that blurs the lines between the cliques of his hig
LINK: http://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/2021-sundance-episodic-fellows...
See more stories from sundance

Most recent headlines

04/08/2024

Dalet Appoints Santiago Solanas as CEO to Lead Next Era of Growth and Innovation

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....

03/06/2024

Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...

28/04/2024

Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with URSA Broadcast G2

Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...

16/04/2024

Quickplay: 2024 OTT Solutions 'Market Is On Fire'

Following a difficult 2023 market for OTT solutions and technologies that saw considerable economic uncertainty, Quickplay chief business officer Paul Pastor sa...

16/04/2024

March Madness Lifts Cable's Share of TV Viewing

NEW YORK TV usage dropped by 3% in March compared to February and March Madness helped cable to gain a larger share of TV viewing but overall changes in TV usag...

16/04/2024

Brompton Technology unveils world's most powerful 8K LED video processor, Tessera SQ200, at NAB2024

Brompton Technology unveils world's most powerful 8K LED video processor, Te...

16/04/2024

Motion Picture Connectivity Company Bit Part Debuts bitbox Remote Camera Control Radio at Annual NAB Show

Motion Picture Connectivity Company Bit Part Debuts bitbox Remote Camera Control...

16/04/2024

Passion, Community Engagement: How CBC's Jheri Hardaway Found a Path to Serve Through the United Way

Capitol Broadcasting Company holds supporting the community as a high priority a...

16/04/2024

Adobe previews generative AI tools to streamline professional video workflows

New generative AI tools will enable users of Adobe Premiere Pro to streamline editing all videos, including adding or removing objects in a scene or extending a...

16/04/2024

Atomos appoints Daniel Moore as new chief technical officer

Moore has led the development effort for over 20 products in the AV space By Matthew Corrigan Published: April 16, 2024 Moore has led the development effo...

16/04/2024

Magnifi onboards Norway based channel TV2 to create highl...

TV 2, a television broadcaster in Norway, has chosen Magnifi, an AI-powered highlight generation platform, to enhance its coverage of football for fans across t...

16/04/2024

FilmLight chooses Jigsaw24 Media as exclusive UK partner...

FilmLight, best known for its grading system Baselight, has chosen Jigsaw24 Media as the first global and exclusive UK partner for their new product, Nara. The ...

16/04/2024

DPA Microphones Unveils AIR1 Universal Miniature Fur Wind...

DPA Microphones introduces its new AIR1 Universal Miniature Fur Windscreen at NAB 2024 (Booth C7307). Intended for quick mounting on round, omnidirectional head...

16/04/2024

AWS Expands NAB Show Presence

If there remains any doubt that the cloud and artificial intelligence are transforming the workflows that drive the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry, Amazon...

16/04/2024

IMAX and the Marvelous Magic of Disney Come to NAB Show

Evan Jacobs, VP Finishing & Stereo at Marvel Studios, cautioned not to downplay the home entertainment environment too much, noting that it's now hard to bu...

16/04/2024

FAST Talk: A Step Toward Increasing Revenue and Viewer Engagement

The age of streaming the opportunity for different viewing habits for many. Entire seasons could be binged whenever you had the time to spare and didn't m...

16/04/2024

ARRI Launches ALEXA 35 Live Multicam System for Live Production

LAS VEGAS During a press conference at the NAB Show, ARRI unveiled its ALEXA 35 Live - Multicam System, which is designed to bring the cinematic image quality o...

16/04/2024

NextGen TV: ROXi Announces Interactive TV Deals

ROXi announced that it has partnered with Pearl TV and major U.S. broadcasters to deploy ROXi's FastStream-powered interactive TV channels on the broadcaste...

16/04/2024

Video Viewing Rises Significantly in U.S. Internet Households

U.S. Internet households now consume an average 43.5 hours of video per week across all viewing devices. That's an increase of more than six hours in 2020, ...

16/04/2024

NAB Show: Lawo and Waves Integrate SuperRack LiveBox with mc Mixing Consoles

Lawo and Waves Audio have announced that the Waves SuperRack LiveBox hardware server being displayed at the 2024 NAB Show is fully compatible with Lawo's mc...

16/04/2024

Riedel Expands RiCapture Ingest Solutions Portfolio

At the 2024 NAB Show, Riedel Communications has unveiled its expanded RiCapture ingest solutions line with the addition of RiCapture i8, i44, and i84. Complemen...

16/04/2024

UNIT deliver picture post and colour grade for new BBC1 drama series

Coles enhanced colour separation, adding shape and depth to the characters through the use of a soft highlight and shadow roll off, and embracing the natural te...

16/04/2024

The Prismatic Company Debuts Strategy for New LightWeave Platform for the Creator Community at NAB 2024

The Prismatic Company Debuts Strategy for New LightWeave Platform for the Creato...

16/04/2024

Avid to Demonstrate Latest Stream of Innovation at NAB Show 2024 to Drive the Open and Collaborative Future of Media Production

Avid to Demonstrate Latest Stream of Innovation at NAB Show 2024 to Drive the Op...

16/04/2024

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Gets Season 4 on Paramount Plus

Paramount Plus has ordered a fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and said the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will be the final one. Season f...

16/04/2024

Sinclair Launches Broadspan Datacasting Platform

Sinclair said that it launched Broadspan, a datacasting platform based on the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology....

16/04/2024

Byron Allen Says What He'd Do With Paramount Global (NAB Show)

LAS VEGAS Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, spoke about his bid to acquire Paramount Global at NAB Show April 14. Allen called Para...

16/04/2024

NextGen Broadcasting Takes on TikTok With Interactive Fast Stream Technology

Major station owners are bringing interactivity to broadcast, hoping that will convince consumers particularly younger ones obsessed with TikTok to buy new ...

16/04/2024

Smoke and Mirrors: Monday's episode, 15 April 2024 [VIDEO]

Smoke and Mirrors: Monday's episode, 15 April 2024 [VIDEO]Stay up to date with the latest episodes of your favourite South African soapie on The South Afric...

16/04/2024

Skeem Saam: Monday's episode, 15 April 2024 [video]

Skeem Saam: Monday's episode, 15 April 2024 [video]Missed an episode of Skeem Saam? No problem! Watch the latest episode of your favourite South African soa...

16/04/2024

Historic: House of Zwide' is the most-watched TV show on e.tv

Historic: House of Zwide' is the most-watched TV show on e.tvE.tv's fashion telenovela House of Zwide' beat Scandal!' for the first time sinc...

16/04/2024

Tonight on Scandal: Jojo's doing his best to make amends, but Phakamile worries about their future

Tonight on Scandal: Jojo's doing his best to make amends, but Phakamile worr...

16/04/2024

To Cut a Long Story Short: Video Editors Benefit From DaVinci Resolve's New AI Features Powered by RTX

Editor's note: This post is part of our In the NVIDIA Studio series, which c...

16/04/2024

Bots Now Make Up Nearly Half of All Internet Traffic Globally

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Automated and malicious traffic rises for a fifth consecutive year Bad bots account for 32% of all internet traffic 44% of all...

15/04/2024

The Rise and Fall of The Synanon Fix: Like Frogs Boiling Slowly in Water

(Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...

15/04/2024

U.S. Army Awards L3Harris ENVG-B Production Order

LONDONDERRY, N.H., April 15, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) received a $256 million order from the U.S. Army for continued production of the Enhanced N...

15/04/2024

Grass Valley Demonstrates Enhanced Functionality for Framelight X Asset Management at NAB Show 2024

Montreal, Canada - April 15, 2024 - Grass Valley, a pioneer in live production s...

15/04/2024

NBCUniversal Launches Personalized, Hyperlocal Services via ATSC 3.0

NEW YORK In a major step forward in the broadcast industry's move to ATSC 3.0, NBCUniversal announced that it is launching personalized broadcast experience...

15/04/2024

Ross Video Acquires Bannister Lake to Expand Graphics Portfolio

LAS VEGAS Ross Video has announced an agreement to acquire Bannister Lake Software (BL Soft), a 31-year old Cambridge, Ontario-based provider of data-driven bro...

15/04/2024

Panasonic to Provide 150 Cameras, 31 Switchers for Paris 2024

Panasonic has revealed some of its technology that will be used for the broadcast of this summer's Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris....

15/04/2024

Adobe Previews Breakthrough AI Innovations to Advance Professional Video Workflows within Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Previews Breakthrough AI Innovations to Advance Professional Video Workflo...

15/04/2024

Zaxcom NAB Preview - Zaxcom's ZaxConvert Software is Now More Versatile & 10x Faster

Zaxcom NAB Preview - Zaxcom's ZaxConvert Software is Now More Versatile & 10...

15/04/2024

Blackmagic Design Announces New Blackmagic PYXIS 6K

Blackmagic Design Announces New Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Brie Clayton April 15, 2024 0 Comments Advanced digital film camera in an incredibly versatile des...

15/04/2024

SmallHD's Free PageOS 6 Update Adds Powerful New Capabilities to All Current Monitors

SmallHD's Free PageOS 6 Update Adds Powerful New Capabilities to All Current...

15/04/2024

SiliconCore adds to XR range with new 1.2mm XR LED Display

SiliconCores patented Common Cathode driver chip delivers frame rates of 240 Hz and a refresh rate of 7680Hz, enabling slow motion, multi-camera view and multip...

15/04/2024

Naphtali Cave joins MOOV

The UK-based virtual studio, sports and events graphics company has appointed Naphtali Cave into a newly created role to drive technical innovation and creativi...

15/04/2024

The Talk' Will Return to CBS for Shortened 15th Season

CBS's daytime panel talk show The Talk will end its run with a shortened 15th season, concluding the show in December, CBS confirmed Friday....

15/04/2024

Dog Whisperer Plays Matchmaker' in New Season of Better Human Better Dog'

Season four of Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog starts on Nat Geo Friday, A...

15/04/2024

Sinclair Launches 'Broadspan' NextGen TV Datacasting Platform

In a notable leap forward for broadcasters planning to monetize their NextGen TV broadcasts, Sinclair has announced the launch of its Broadspan datacasting pl...