alumnus’ film 'black belts' premieres on disney+ today
disney+ launchpad series includes the latest work by spencer glover, one of lipscomb’s first mfa graduates
janel shoun-smith |
from left to right: glover's brother, maurice; kariss forte (mfa '17); melissa forte, lipscomb chair of cinematic arts; spencer glover; glover's mother, mercy; and stephanie rakers (mfa '17) on the red carpet at the black belts premiere.
for spencer glover (mfa ’17), one stray conversation at a nashville hibachi grill has led him to “the happiest place on earth.”
the filipino and african-american filmmaker who operates his own filmmaking company, rm108, in los angeles, is one of six directors whose work in the disney launchpad: shorts incubator program will premiere on the disney+ platform on sept. 29.
his film black belts, tells the story of kj, an offbeat middle schooler and martial arts movie nerd from compton, and one can draw a straight line from his disney film premiere this week back to that night in nashville when he was a master’s of fine arts student in lipscomb’s nascent cinematography program.
black belts tells the story of kj, an offbeat middle schooler and martial arts movie nerd from compton.
“we convinced our directing professor steve feldman to have class at the hibachi place over by lipscomb and he obliged,” said glover in a 2018 interview. feldman, an emmy award-winning director with more than 20 years experience in children’s programming and an adjunct professor of film in lipscomb’s george shinn college of entertainment & the arts at that time, was intrigued by a story glover told the group about an african american hibachi chef he came across in atlanta. feldman encouraged glover to turn the experience into a short film.
what started as a slapstick comedy short film, morphed into the konichiwa kid, a much more grounded, six-minute proof of concept trailer for a martial arts spectacle featuring an african american hibachi chef training in japan. glover shot the film as his thesis project before graduating in lipscomb’s second cohort of mfa students. he screened his completed trailer for enthusiastic nashville audiences at the 2017 international black film festival in nashville.
“that project really set me up for disney launchpad,” glover said of konichiwa kid. “i believe that once they saw that film, they said, “this guy is perfect for black belts.”
glover shot the film, the konichiwa kid, as his thesis project before graduating in lipscomb’s second cohort of mfa students.
in its second season, the disney incubator program pairs experienced writers and directors from underrepresented backgrounds to produce a short for the launchpad series. the second season focused on “connection” and nurtured writers to explore this theme in surprising and unexpected ways. once scripts were written, directors were selected and paired with disney creative executives as mentors. with the full support of the disney studio behind them, directors learn how to creatively collaborate and work effectively with their studio partners.
filipino and african-american filmmaker spencer glover
glover’s narrative film work pulls from his life experiences growing up in virginia and tennessee, and focuses on the maturation of underrepresented voices from action to drama. he was selected for the half initiative directing program, a shadowing program coordinated by ryan murphy tv. his films have been screened at the fox soul screening room and the bentonville film festival, and his short film data was a finalist in stage32’s short film program and has been screened worldwide.
while he has created a short, narrative film, message read, that was crowdfunded and won best short film at the capital city black film festival, the 20-minute-long black belts is by far his most ambitious film project to date, glover said. with a cast of seven and the largest crew glover has ever worked with (around 100 people) the sight of 10 grip trucks lined down the street on the first of five days of filming took him aback.
“working on black belts reminded me that anything is possible if you keep determined and resilient,” said glover. “the budgets were definitely bigger; the crew was bigger, but the small pieces and the core components of filmmaking are the same at any level. it was cool to know that i do know what i’m doing, because i’ve done it before.”
a big part of that feeling had to do with his degree from lipscomb, he said. in addition to learning how to tell a story on paper first, then storyboard it and then execute it, he also developed his approach to nurturing one creative vision for the whole team, he said.
black belts has a cast of seven and the largest crew glover has ever worked with, around 100 people.
“when i think about lipscomb, there were so many relationships formed, and so much of the experience of creating is bonding with your team members,” said glover. “i was proud that when we created a project, we bonded with our team. we created memories, and i try to do that with my teams now. i want every person to walk away with memories and a great experience.”
the disney incubator program pairs experienced writers and directors from underrepresented backgrounds.
“spencer is an easy guy to root for,” josh link (’04, mfa ’16), a former lipscomb assistant professor of film and a classmate of glover’s in the mfa program, said in 2018. “he’s a creative director with a propensity for preparation and vision. a gifted cinematographer. but more than those tangible filmmaking skills, he’s got an infectious personality. an innate leader filled with compassion and patience.
“his preparation and dedication to this project was evident in the storyboards. he was able to perfectly pair his vision and passion together and present it to people in a way that it became almost impossible to not want to jump aboard,” said link.
the vision for black belts involved a lot of martial arts, a guilty pleasure of glover’s, having grown up watching many of the kung fu classics, he said.
“i did a lot of research around the fighting styles i wanted to use, developing visualizations, and you have to create storyboards,” glover said of the konichiwa kid. then for black belts, glover had to sit down with the choreographer and develop a new style of martial arts to shoot a pre-visualization for the fight scene, he said.
the team experience was also evident in the launchpad program, where participants first worked through a robust american film institute curriculum in the first few months, gave each other notes on scripts and watched each others’ films to provide feedback. directors met with their mentors twice a month to get notes on their project. glover’s mentors were katherine sarafian, senior vice president of talent, and emily mollenkopf, senior development executive at pixar. the writer of black belts is xavier stiles, a writer, producer and performer born in los angeles.
"i want every person to walk away with memories and a great experience.”
“disney’s top people came in to sit with us and go through every piece of script,” said glover. “you have to pitch your ideas and defend other ideas. the people at pixar are so great at being supportive and telling great stories.”
even after finishing his project, the awe of disney is still evident in glover’s voice.
“it’s reaffirming that they chose me to work on this type of project and trust me on this scale,” said glover. “you grow up watching that little shooting star shoot over the disney castle and hearing the music. the first time i watched the cut of black belts with that disney logo, i was nearly in tears. that was such a cool moment!”