As a reclusive person who could go days without talking, I try my best not to be the pretty brown wallflower whose name no one ever learns. I externalize my thoughts as much as possible. I have all the makings of excessive introspection and delusion.
Growing up with a sister 14 years older and a brother 11 years younger gave me a solid dose of only/middle-child weirdness. To fill the void, my mother and I would rent and watch movies from our local library every chance we got. That little entertainment ritual of ours inevitably sparked my infatuation with filmmaking.
Even though my social battery depletes at record speed, my dream is to write and direct a dozen epic blockbuster movies and remain behind the scenes enough so that the general public would never recognize me in Target.
Having Fun With It
Now, I’m aware that writing all those epic screenplays will be no easy feat. It took me three years to finish the first draft of my first screenplay. It was a heavy drama about sexual assault and teen pregnancy. Those stories need to be told, but they’re not the easiest or most entertaining to create or watch.
I completed my second screenplay in two months. It was a comedy called Talk Black, and I had so much fun writing it that I worked on it every day. It never once felt like a chore. While exporting the PDF of that first draft, I decided that comedy was my thing.
Finding My Voice
Strangely enough, prior to writing that screenplay it had never dawned on me to write something funny. I had never thought of myself as a funny person. Even though I appreciate the quick witted comments of others, my brain usually requires a little too much processing time to pop out a funny comment on cue.
You can imagine how wild it is that this naturally dry-humored writer won ScreenCraft’s Comedy Competition. It has been a weird and windy road, but I will tell you where it all started!
Destiny Macon on the set of ‘Talk Black’
Where Comedy Came In
Once upon a time, in the white and rural state of South Carolina, I went to an engineering training course for my job. There, I met a fellow engineer who also moonlighted as a screenwriter. He shared his zombie comedy with me, and I laughed out loud way more than I expected I would. Having a natural inclination to pursue challenges, I thought, “I can write something funny.”
The screenplay idea popped into my head, “What if a black woman who worked in corporate had to conceal so much of herself to assimilate that all her suppressed feelings emerged as an embodiment of an alter ego only she could see.” That idea became Talk Black.
It is loosely inspired by Key & Peele’s Obama’s Anger Translator sketch, Eddie Murphy’s The Nutty Professor, and David Fincher‘s Fight Club. I cranked out that first draft of Talk Black, and the story has been growing, evolving, and becoming more personal with each iteration that followed.
I’ve realized that the more I write characters based on real people I’ve met and tell stories based on my own experiences and embarrassments, the funnier they become! There is something universal about specificity. Audiences connect with your stranger-than-fiction story because it reminds them of their mundane moments.
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The Winner’s Effect
The amazing thing about ScreenCraft’s competitions is that they are genre-specific. When submitting your writing to various programs, it feels like certain genres are considered more vital than others. Maybe your script is written as well as a deep, emotionally resonant drama. The readers feel the dramatic screenplay is more deserving of a win. This is how it felt.
I submitted my (slightly) broad, Black lady, body-switching, buddy comedy to ScreenCraft’s Comedy Competition. A few years back, I submitted an older version of Talk Black to the ScreenCraft Fellowship Competition and was selected as a semi-finalist. After doing several deep dives to strengthen my story, I figured I’d try again.
Flash forward to 2023: Once my screenplay reached the finalist level, I was already excited to have leveled up. Learning that Talk Black was one of the winners gave me that much-deserved feeling of, “Finally! … Dang!”
After discovering ScreenCraft in 2017 and reading blog after blog on their website about screenwriting and the film industry, my self-inspired screenplay finally won one of their competitions! My specificity resonated with several readers, especially Michael Davis (Citizen Skull Management), who was the final determinant of my win.
Destiny Macon on the set of ‘Talk Black’
Proof of Concept
In my first meeting with Donnita Shaw, I told her about my background and career goals. With ~$30,000 from the South Carolina Film Commission’s Indie Grants program, I had written, produced, and directed a proof of concept version of Talk Black. The American Black Film Festival accepted my film into their HBO short film award showcase, leading to a distribution deal. It’s now streaming on Max and will occasionally show up on live TV!
Being the amazing coordinator that she is, Donnita helped to pass on the news of my short film to Michael. He watched it and was able to envision what the feature would look like on the big screen: cinematic aesthetics and comedic tone.
The day after my win, I went to a general meeting with Michael to discuss his thoughts on turning my screenplay into a feature.
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Getting Raw and Real
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, earning my Engineer in Training certification immediately after, and struggling for TWO YEARS to find a job in the field, I wound up getting a job where my skills and abilities were overlooked.
As luck would have it, I was simultaneously realizing I had more interest in being a filmmaker anyway. While working a full-time job and caring for my son (with the help of my incredibly supportive husband), I got a screenwriting certificate from UCLA. I also completed a producing program through the SC Film Commission’s Wide Angle program.
Directing the short film Talk Black validated years of uncertainty and hard work. Writing the feature and garnering recognition from an international screenwriting competition fueled my drive to keep conjuring beauty (and hilarity) from the ashes of my pitfalls, the microaggressions I’ve faced, and the timidity that once held me back from greatness.
‘Talk Black’
Representation Matters
Mahogany’s strength, resilience, and brilliance have transcended my experiences to connect with people on a real level. As a quirky black woman with an atypical storytelling sensibility, I’d like to do my part to tell intuitive stories that comment on social and emotional issues from the POV of People Of Color.
In addition to winning the ScreenCraft Comedy competition, I recently won the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship by participating in the Athena Film Festival’s screenwriter’s lab.
The Sloan Film Fellowship champions stories that feature STEM elements at their core, while AFF champions stories about women in leadership. Both are the hallmarks of Talk Black. As a part of my fellowship, I’ve had the opportunity to receive script feedback and consultation from writer/producer Dawn Kamoche (Sharp Objects, The Gifted, Cloak & Dagger). After working diligently with me to perfect the screenplay, she has decided to come on board as a producer.
Goals for the Future
Speaking of advancing equity and empowering the Black community, the Urban League of the Upstate has recently welcomed me as an ambassador for their Young Professionals division. I plan to partner with them and their film workforce development efforts (Studio 9.22) to FINALLY bring the feature-length version of Talk Black to life! Fingers crossed that we can produce this film in Upstate South Carolina and put this area on the map.
I’m speaking it into existence, attracting abundance, embracing positivity, walking in faith, aligning with God & the universe. Sometime this year, I will be in the back of a theater, listening to the test audience laugh at my specificity, hilarity, and vulnerability, just like you will when you tap into your own hilariously authentic experiences to tell stories the world has never quite seen before!
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Destiny Macon is a screenwriter, director, and civil engineer who graduated from the University of South Carolina, the SreenCraft Film Commission’s Wide Angle Program, and UCLA’s screenwriting graduate program.
In 2020, she launched Hush Girl Productions, LLC, and won a ~$30,000 grant from the Indie Grants program to fund her short film, Talk Black, which is now streaming on HBO & Max. Talk Black’s screenplay was selected as a winner in ScreenCraft’s 2023 Comedy Competition and awarded the Sloan Writing Fellowship Award through the Athena Film Festival.
The post How ScreenCraft Comedy Competition Winner Destiny Macon is Navigating Hollywood appeared first on ScreenCraft.
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Author: Destiny Macon
