Issa Rae and Talitha Watkins management company, ColorCreative, is partnering with the streaming service Tubi to help young filmmakers tell their stories. Rae, who broke out on Youtube, is bringing Stubios to life with Tubi. It’s a fan-fueled studio for artists and their audience.
The end-goal is for young filmmakers to get the chance to not only make their work with financial backing, but creative backing and guidance from the team at ColorCreative. Right now, the application window is open.
“Bye-bye suits & Gatekeepers,” per Stubios.
Rae wants artists to “make what they want to make,” and she’s confident in Tubi to help them do it. “They have done a great job of seeing their audience, cultivating that audience, and now investing in that audience tenfold,” Rae told ESSENCE. “Not only investing in the audience, but they’re investing in creators to make long-form work for that audience and putting it in some ways in their hands to determine whether or not the work that’s produced out of this program is worthy enough to continue. And I love that about it because it fosters a creator and audience relationship that can often be ignored. Democratize is the process, which is how I came up with my own digital background. But I really appreciate and I think it’s incredibly cool that they are actually and quite literally putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to black audiences and audiences of all diverse backgrounds, which the creators that are chosen will reflect.”
Rae’s producing partner, Talitha Watkins, calls Stubios a”really awesome way of letting us in the game with financial support, with mentorship, and community.” “We’re giving these creators a fast track,” she told Essence. “We’re giving them deep industry knowledge from all of the creators that we work with at ColorCreative, being able to crew up these productions. We’re going to tap into our client base to give them mentorship and guidance on script development and directing along with other things that they need to move into this new world of long-form content. In a way, it feels like guardrails on a superhighway. I think I know as Black creators, we’re ready for that.”
