In this episode of "A Conversation With," I sat down with Dorez Douglas. She is an author, poet, and film producer located in Los Angeles, California. She shared many nuggets about the film industry and here is just one of the nuggets she shared: How to tell if you have what it takes to be a filmmaker.
"I'll tell you a good first project for filmmakers and most of them don't want to do it because they say, well, I can't tell a story in five minutes.  But you should do a five or ten minutes short just to see how it goes and to see what it is that, you know, and what you don't know. 
 And if you can, if at all possible,  try to do it write the story in such a way that you need minimal locations should be 1- 2 at the most.  Or try to find one location that has different areas, you know, that you can use maybe a backyard or patio or front porch or whatever it is.  And you know, or rent an Airbnb, shoot, whatever you're gonna shoot all in that one location, five minutes. 
Usually, that equals about five pages depending on how much action you have in the story. And if you do that for this is just only for filmmakers to do that. You'll see whether or not you have what it takes. "
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Dorez Douglas BIO: 
Dorez Douglas is an author, poet and producer in Los Angeles, California.  She got her start as co-executive producer of a children's animated special for ABC-TV.  The program, “Jirimpimbira: An African Folktale” aired in 1995 and received a Parents Choice Award.  It featured the voices of Diahann Carroll, Paul Winfield, James Avery, Meshach Taylor, Dawnn Lewis and Jamil Smith. 
In the late 90's, Douglas created the Entertainment Industry Training Program (EITP) as part of Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles. The program trained youth (13-18 years old) for jobs behind the camera and was co-sponsored by DreamWorks and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
For the past two decades, Douglas and her partner, 2x Academy-Award winner Willie D. Burton, have produced various projects including a feature film, "Beverlyhood.". The outrageous comedy featured Kym Whitley, Lavell Crawford, Walter Powell, Yolanda
"Yo-Yo" Whittaker and Destiny's Child.
In September 2020, Douglas and Burton shot a short film called "Voices," starring Lamman Rucker. The film premiered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and in Los Angeles, California.  It has been submitted to several film festivals.
Currently in production is "Still We Rise: Life in 2020," a documentary profiling various people around the country dealing with The Pandemic, including four men living in a group home.
Their next project is a docu-drama about the African-American female founder of one of the top Charter Schools in Louisiana.  Filming will start in September 2021.
Feature projects in development include: "The Untold Secret," "Legal Hitman," and “Desire,” all based on true stories, and "Cabin 4,” a supernatural thriller.
Douglas was born in Detroit, Michigan, but moved to Los Angeles in 1980. She is a former gospel singer and is the daughter of a minister.  Douglas has written three eBooks about the entertainment industry.   
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