065: TV Directing

The Working Director

Join our panel of working television directors to learn about their process. This week we have a guest host and three kick ass TV directors!

To join us live and get your questions answered be a part of our filmmaker group (it's free!) by clicking JOIN NOW at BlackmagicCollective.com or be a part of our private FaceBook group at AllFilmmakersWelcome.com.​GUESTS:

LIONEL COLEMAN cut his teeth at CBS news, learning the language of documentary storytelling before becoming a DGA commercial director and working with brands like Nike, Hyundai and Adidas. He is an alumni of the CBS Diversity Director program and is currently directing episodic network television with recent episodes on NCIS Hawai’i, NCIS (Mothership and New Orleans), All Rise and God Friended Me. In addition to his mainstream work, Lionel directs documentary and narrative films to explore his fascination with the human condition, in particular the challenges we face with race, bias, and prejudice. His 2022 film These Final Hours explores just such a topic, and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award as well as winning several film festivals.

MILENA GOVICH is a director, actor, and musician who has helmed many episodes of TV, including FBI: Most Wanted, The Equalizer, Leverage: Redemption, Chicago Fire, among others.She also served as Co-EP/Producing Director on Dick Wolf's CBS series FBI, and is attached to direct two pilots in development. Milena was one of eight filmmakers selected for AFI's prestigiousDirecting Workshop For Women, as well as the exclusive Sony Pictures TV Diverse Directors Program, the Universal Directors Initiative, and received the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant. Hershort film and TV series proof-of-concept Unspeakable, starring Laura Vandervoort and Jeff Kober, starring Laura Vandervoort and Jeff Kober, had its World Premiere at SXSW and won Best Episodic at Seattle Int’l Film Festival .

DAVID STASSEN most recently co-created, executive produced and directed RUNNING POINT starring Kate Hudson for Netflix alongside Mindy Kaling and Ike Barinholtz. He also co-wrote,executive produced and directed Mel Brooks’ HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART II for Hulu. Dave and Ike were also recently writers and Executive Producers on the animated Netflix comedy CHICAGO PARTY AUNT. Dave previously worked on THE MINDY PROJECT as a writer, director & EP.

GUEST HOST: LAUREN WHITE is an award-winning actor and producer from Baltimore, hon. Far more exciting than that sentence seems, Lauren is a force on and off screen: she graduated at 16, is acting like her Masters Degree in Physiology, Biomechanics and Kinesiology is going to good use, and possesses comedic timing sharper than a bespoke suit.Notable performances on NBC, Netflix, FOX, HBO, TBS, BET, Lifetime, 2 seasons on Amazon (which put her in the running for an Emmy nomination) and 4 seasons of the improv series, Little Bits.With a deep love for animals, she actively volunteers with multiple animal rescues, is a huge fan of black bean nachos and can bend single knuckles on her fingers.