Today we’d like to introduce you to Makayla Boyd.
Hi Makayla, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My first passion as a child was writing. I remember, one of the first awards I ever received was for writing a story about a runaway slave for an assignment in third grade. I would continue to write many short stories throughout grade school, especially stories about people of color. Too many of the books I would read would always have the same characters that didn’t look like me or have a similar culture as me and quite frankly, I was tired of it. When I went to high school, I took a video production class and that got me interested in film-making. I liked the idea of bringing the stories that I would write, to life through video. Especially since my stories were usually about people of color and once again on television we don’t always get to see people of color in stories that don’t specifically revolve around their race or without being the token POC character.
I eventually went to the University of Cincinnati for Electronic Media and learned more about film-making and writing for television and film. I was amazed at how much I fell in love with screenwriting and directing actors on how to bring certain characters alive through video production. I even won the best overall film two years in a row for our 48-hour film competition. By my senior year, I knew this was something I had to continue doing no matter what.
I’m now 24 and even though I’ve made plenty of short films over the years, this year was special because it was my first time making a web series and it couldn’t have turned out better.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The idea for my web series came to me during my senior year of college. I was in a group called Black Arts Collaborative. We focused on telling the stories of Black people through art and sharing our culture. Each year we had a Halloween show where all the departments (Drama, Dance, Music, Poetry, and Visual Arts) came together to tell a spooky story. I was the Drama director at the time and I wrote a play, (which is now my web series) Done in The Dark, which was originally a scary story. The audience loved the show, especially the relatable relationship aspect of it and I got a lot of requests to make a sequel.
Since I was graduating soon and wouldn’t be able to do a sequel with Black Arts Collaborative, I adapted it to a web series and took out the spooky elements to revamp it. I wanted to film it that year but COVID hit shutting down any production plans I had. I also was graduating during the pandemic and focusing on finding a job as well, so I put my web series on pause indefinitely.
Fast-forward two years and with covid cases down and me having adjusted to life post-college– I decided it was finally time to bring my script to life. A lot of the actors I knew had since graduated and moved so I was a little stressed about how I would find a cast of 11 people and a crew. Luckily I found a website that would connect me to actors and some of the actors would even recommend some of their friends to audition. By the end of July, I had a cast and a close friend of mine to be on the crew. Unfortunately, a couple of actors would drop out right before the week of filming so I did have to rush to find two replacement actors. They were both wonderful and they even memorized their lines super quickly. I’m glad they were able to step into their respective roles.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a woman that wears many different hats. My full-time job is as a producer for a marketing production agency but in my spare time, I do freelance photography and videography. I also am passionate about creating short films and now a web series too.
What makes my art different is that I like to focus on the black community when it comes to my different crafts. For example, my web series tells the story of relationships gone wrong with an all-black cast and all Black woman crew.
This is done on purpose because I wanted to tell stories of people who look like me and their stories not be specifically about their race or their struggle because of the color of their skin. I just wanted to tell normal everyday stories with Black characters because that isn’t something we see a whole lot of in the media.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I want to continue to inspire people of different minority races to pursue their dreams even if they’re the only ones of their race in the room. We need more diversity in different places but especially in the creative fields. There’s nothing like being able to see yourself or your culture represented in a book, tv series, or movie.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mcbcinema.blog
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kattt_16/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSlcKo6encaAUr7OMh1uGpw/featured
