DENIESE DAVIS on Producing ONE OF THEM DAYS
By Rebecca Green
After making waves with the breakout hit ONE OF THEM DAYS, a film that went from production to theatrical release in just six months, producer Deniese Davis sat down with Dear Producer to discuss her journey through Hollywood's television and film landscape. From her early days producing digital content with Issa Rae on AWKWARD BLACK GIRL to launching both ColorCreative and Reform, Deniese shares insights on navigating the entertainment business while staying true to her creative vision. She also reveals the launch of The Producing Playbook, a workshop designed to demystify the industry for the next generation of producers.
I’d love to start by hearing about both ColorCreative, which you co-founded with Issa Rae, and your company Reform. How did they get started and are they connected or separate entities?
Issa and I started ColorCreative together in 2014, two years after AWKWARD BLACK GIRL, when we were producing a lot of digital content. We launched it as a mission-driven company designed to create opportunities and pipelines for emerging creators and diverse people with great voices. We helped usher their careers, whether that meant representation, getting them jobs, or just helping them get paid to do what they did best. This came from what we saw as a lot of gatekeeping and limited opportunities outside of labs and programs.
The company was successful with various partnerships and continued to grow over the years. In 2020, we relaunched the ColorCreative brand with the same mission, but positioned it in the representation space. Now, ColorCreative exists as a management and production company. It's run by Talitha Watkins, who came over from CAA in late 2020 and has built it into a formidable business in this town.
When Talitha took over, I stepped away from my time with Issa and that company to launch Reform. The companies exist completely separately. I'm more passively involved with ColorCreative from an executive leadership standpoint, while Reform is my shingle and producing brand as I build a slate of stories I want to tell.
I listened to you on a podcast where you mentioned reading Lawrence Turman's book "So You Want to Be a Producer" as a very young person on a flight. How did you even know that book existed? What did he say that made you believe you wanted to produce?
The real origin story starts in high school. I got into video production when I was 16 and learned how to edit and produce videos for school announcements and commercials. By senior year, I realized I could go to school to learn more about film. I'm from Las Vegas and I didn't know anyone who worked in Hollywood or had thought about a career in this business. My first instinct was to apply to film school. I wanted to move to New York, and it seemed like a great launching pad to learn more, but I felt a bit of imposter syndrome. I decided to go to film school at Brooklyn College, but didn't know this world at all. That led me to Google, "What are all the positions on a film set?" By process of elimination, I started considering producing. This was 2005 and when I Googled "What does a producer do?" Larry's book popped up. I immediately bought and read it on the plane while moving to New York for college.
The book broke down the role of a producer as it relates to all parts of the filmmaking process. It blew my mind because producing wasn't just one thing. It was creative while still being business-oriented and you could be part of something from inception through completion. Many positions in filmmaking come in at only one part of the process, but producing allows you to be involved in the entire thing. The book changed my life because it validated my interest. It allowed me to go to college knowing I wanted to be a producer. No one in film school wants to be a producer – everyone wants to be a director, writer, or cinematographer. I was that anomaly, this young Vegas person saying I wanted to produce even though I hadn't done it yet.
I went into film school thinking I would be a cinematographer. I was a photographer for my high school yearbook and it felt like the right fit, but when I got to film school, I realized how technical cinematography is and that’s not one of my strengths. And It's even more technical now, gaffers walk around with iPads controlling the lights.
What's funny is that in your first year of film school, they make you take classes in everything. I remember taking editing and screenwriting classes. I joke with my DPs now that I had a C-minus in cinematography. I knew that wasn't my jam. I couldn't wrap my head around it. I give cinematographers so much credit. They're the smartest people I know, it’s all math and science. It's a real skill set to be good at and love.
What was your entry point into the web series THE MISADVENTURES OF AN AWKWARD BLACK GIRL?
That was a ‘right place, right time’ situation. I graduated from AFI's producing program in 2012 and digital was exploding at that time. I consciously chose to be a freelance producer for a few years because I figured they wouldn't be calling big Hollywood producers for a $50,000 web series. They needed young, hungry people who wanted to work and gain experience.
That decision led me to apply for many freelance producing jobs, one of which was for a web series that needed a line producer. That turned out to be for AWKWARD BLACK GIRL. It was kismet. Issa and I met, hit it off, and I jumped into season two with her the following week. For the next three years, I freelanced with her on different projects while working with other creatives on music videos, shorts, and other web projects.
I'm grateful I took a non-traditional path that still led me to the television and film projects I ultimately wanted to do instead of answering calls for years and waiting for someone to give me permission. At the time, I knew I didn't want to put away everything I'd been learning in a closet somewhere to take out one day. I wanted to keep going.
I went the answering calls route. I was an assistant at Lionsgate to the Head of Acquisitions. I didn't even know that was a job or what acquisitions executives did, but it prepared me as a producer in learning about selling films at festivals and knowing how to read distribution agreements.
I figured out my monthly budget and hustled. If I didn't have producing jobs, friends would ask if I wanted to be a production coordinator for three days or take PA jobs. Every check counted to keep the lights on. Looking back, it provided me with a wonderful foundation in production. Many people I worked with then are doing incredible things now, and we're still working together in different capacities.
Let's talk about your new movie ONE OF THEM DAYS. You’ve produced so much TV, but from IMDB this looks like it was your first feature?
I actually did an indie feature before this film. I shot it in Atlanta last February, but it hasn't come out yet. That's what I would technically claim as my first feature. I did the indie movie first and then ONE OF THEM DAYS came right after. What's unique is that within six months, I was able to produce my first tiny independent feature with a first-time writer-director and then my first big studio theatrical movie back-to-back. Two completely different experiences.
ONE OF THEM DAYS was made with TriStar, I'd love to know how much of a package it was before they got involved. Was it just a script or was the cast already attached with a director?
To tie it back to ColorCreative, ONE OF THEM DAYS was initially set up through a lab that Sony and Columbia did with ColorCreative that launched in 2018. This was back in ColorCreative's origin days when we did various partnerships and pipeline opportunities. We approached them and created a program that gave emerging writers, who had never written in the studio space, a chance to be paid and write their first studio feature. We brought in four writers with unique, original ideas. Syreeta Singleton's script was one of those four. It started from the pitch and went through the whole development process at the studio. Syreeta's career continued to rise throughout that time – I think she was still a staff writer on INSECURE and continued to move up, eventually show-running RAP SH!T. Around the pandemic, Keke Palmer read the script, loved it, and attached herself to star and executive produce. After we worked with Lawrence Lamont on RAP SH!T in 2021, he became attached as the director.
Before the strikes, we met and discussed who would star in the film with Keke. Then the strikes happened, and I honestly thought this would be one of those projects that would disappear afterward. Development was cut everywhere and projects that had been hanging on disappeared. Looking at how long it had taken to get that far, and in the climate we've been in, I wondered about the odds of them making a predominantly Black female original comedy film. But the conversations continued into casting and that's when SZA came into play. By last spring, it became apparent, based on how busy they both were, that it was "now or never." Sony shifted the project to TriStar under Nicole Brown and her team, who were great and dug in with us immediately. Once it was moving, Macro got involved, and six weeks later, we were shooting.
It's not just a predominantly Black comedy, but one about women where it's not about sex, marriage, or having babies – it's about friendship, which we rarely see.
Ironically, it dropped in January, amid the inauguration and other events and we realized what a great time it was to make this movie. We all need joy, especially at the box office, to escape the realities of our lives. I think that's part of why it's been a successful film.
Can you give me some basic stats on production like your budget and how many shooting days?
We shot for 20 days on a $15 million budget in Los Angeles. We didn't have a tax incentive because we weren't planning to shoot in the window we found ourselves in. After production, we had about three and a half months of post before delivering the film theatrically. I'd love to see if this is the fastest movie made for theatrical release because it felt that way. Every day, I thought, "Just keep going," because it was shocking that a film like this was getting made. This was an original comedy, a first-time feature director in Lawrence Lamont, Keke in her first big studio release as the lead, and SZA had never acted before. All these elements where people would say, "That movie will never get made," but we were making ours. Coming out of the strikes, it felt like a miracle.
I worked at Lionsgate when they released AKEELAH AND THE BEE and launched Keke’s career, which has come so far since then. But with SZA, how did you know creatively that she could go toe-to-toe with Keke like she does?
Honestly, the chemistry you see in the film was evident in the early screen tests. Being fans of SZA, we thought it could make sense, but we needed to see their dynamic. She just naturally fit this part and had organic chemistry with Keke that lit up the screen. I wish we could take full credit and say we were geniuses, but like anything in producing, you try different things until it locks in. I'm grateful to the studio and our partners throughout the process. Sometimes, studios might force certain casting or tie your hands, but this wasn't the case here.
I've shot two movies in Los Angeles – one for half a million about 10 years ago and a $3 million movie more recently. One was 18 days, and one was 20 days, neither were as big in production scope as your film. You had stunts, amazing production design, camera movement, and many locations. How did you accomplish so much in such a small window?
We had some shortcuts. We hired cinematographer Ava Berkofsky, who had shot INSECURE with us for many seasons. She was familiar with the look, color palette, and many of the neighborhoods and locations we were shooting in. Though this movie establishes its own look, it helped to have someone with that knowledge who could connect quickly with Lawrence.
Our production designer was Monique Dias, someone I went to AFI with and worked with during my indie freelance years. Although she had done TV shows like GRAND CREW, this was her first studio feature. I trusted her because I'd worked with her on projects where we had $100,000, and magic happened. Out of all the designers we met, she blew us away, and I knew we could count on her to make things happen with limited time and budget. For example, we built Drew's interior apartment set and shot all those scenes over a couple of days, but we couldn't afford or have time for a separate set for Bethany's renovated apartment. Monique designed Drew's apartment to be modular, and overnight in 12 hours, when we showed up to set the next morning, it was Bethany's completely renovated apartment, though using the skeleton of the same set.
So much of how you get things done on a fast timeline with a smaller budget is making sure you hire the best department heads who are there because they love the story and are talented at what they do. They bring ideas that help you figure out how to accomplish things no matter the limitations. This applied to electrical and stunts. We hired some of the best crew in town who were great at problem-solving.
For locations, we brought in our location manager from INSECURE because she was familiar with these neighborhoods and the permitting process. Knowing we were working with people in key positions who already had knowledge about the world of this film allowed us to hit the ground running. That's important for a show that's so location-based and specific to this LA neighborhood.
I give a lot of credit to everyone who came in and worked with us – it allowed us to do it together. We had a proper pre-production schedule of only four or five weeks before we started shooting. We were lucky to have so many of our favorite people available because things were slow coming out of the strikes.
ONE OF THEM DAYS is such a high-energy movie – it ramps up and never lets go. Obviously, some of that is editing, but how did you keep that energy on set?
Honestly, it was in the script and Lawrence was great at working with all the department heads, including our editor Tia, to build that in. The countdown clock of "10 hours till rent" wasn't in the script; it was an addition in post that Lawrence added to help move the momentum forward. Once you establish that ticking clock, which continues to be reinforced throughout the film, it makes you feel that anxiety with the characters.
When did you finish post-production?
We were mixing the film the week before Christmas last year. We delivered in December, and the film came out on January 14. Think of it this way: our first day of production was July 1 2024, and our film was in theaters on January 14, 2025.
What's remarkable about that is doing it with a studio. Getting notes from studio executives and getting them to sign off on cuts is hard. It must have been a well-oiled machine, not just in production but the whole team.
I give so much credit to Tristar and the entire Sony distribution and marketing team. They fully leaned in and were ready to go. It was their idea to release it so quickly and they were game to do what needed to be done. When you have a studio partner showing up with that much support, saying it's not all on us to meet our deadlines, that helps tremendously. Especially for my first studio film, I probably learned more than I would have in another setting because of the fast and furious process.
I think it came out at the perfect time of year. Industry-wise, we all the Academy Award contenders, which I watch and love, but they're so heavy. And none of my friends are coming with me to see THE BRUTALIST. I think it was timed perfectly to provide counter-programming.
People have asked if this film has opened up conversations for other filmmakers and studios to look at comedies again. Absolutely. For a while, comedies got very expensive, and they continued to recycle the same cast and stars for those vehicles instead of opening up or trying something different. I think it’s a good thing some time has passed since then and there was an opportunity to reinvigorate the genre.
Switching gears to your career… You have been so successful in TV, but always wanted to produce features. I feel like feature producers want to be in TV, and TV producers want to go back to features. How is the producer role the same or different in the two mediums?
What doesn't change is that production is production. As a producer, you go in daily with new problems to solve while executing a singular vision. The camaraderie and collaboration with the crew never change.
The biggest difference? TV is more taxing because it's a bigger job overseeing usually many more millions being spent and TV has that dual mentality that eats you up and spits you out. There are times you're on set prepping an episode and scouting locations without a script because the writers are still writing. It has that demanding pressure and many more challenges because of how intense it is and how much you're shooting. You're prepping and shooting 8-9 hours of storytelling in 6-9 months. In film, you have one script and director and try to prep everything before starting production. Then, you can focus just on production. In features, production should be a breeze if you prep well and nail down pre-production. You're only there to address problems as they arise, not still trying to solve fundamental issues. It's incredibly hard to do that in TV.
I want to ask about your thoughts on the creator economy. MISADVENTURES OF AN AWKWARD BLACK GIRL started as a YouTube series, then grew into INSECURE at HBO. However, that was over 10 years ago when we didn’t have the creator economy we have. As a producer, are you looking at the latest YouTube stars for talent?
It's definitely on my mind. I've been studying and observing it because it's fascinating. The business is cyclical and coming back around in a different capacity. For the first time, more funding options are available to the creator economy – whether building their own brands and charging subscription models, getting money from advertising and brands to fund content, or selling products like Mr. Beast.
The creator economy has grown fascinatingly and is here to stay. Through social media, technology, and video, many people have always wanted to be creators. Before all this, it sounded like a pipe dream, but now it feels accessible. Anyone who dreams of creating content, having something to say, or launching a brand, even a real estate agent who wants to create content about building a real estate business, can enter the creator economy.
This opens up revenue streams and raises their profile as influencers. I look at how storytelling is evolving and who's creating stories. Will traditional media and the creator economy coexist? Yes. Will everyone suddenly be on Netflix? No. What works for the creator economy is that creators build brands based on the platforms that work best for them. YouTube is the most massive, but someone on TikTok might only use TikTok. That creates fragmentation, making it hard to say the creator economy is all in one space.
Within film and TV, traditional Hollywood always looks at where the eyeballs are, where you have a built-in audience, and what it means to have IP. What's changing is looking at the creator economy, what they're building as IP and brands, and how to use that as an entry point for telling stories.
With YouTube now surpassing hours watched on all platforms recently, I wish filmmakers took it more seriously. There seems to be a "I don't want to be on TikTok" or "I don't want to be on YouTube" attitude. It's a prestige thing, but that's where people are watching stories.
I do agree it's about prestige, but there's also the workload. It's easier to sell an idea to a studio that will help develop, market, distribute, and release it. However, you’re also giving up ownership. The minute you decide to be an indie creator, you own your own IP but then must figure out editing, funding, paying people, and marketing. You need the wherewithal to invest in yourself. The creator economy isn't for everyone. The most successful artists in this space will be people like Morgan Cooper, Issa Rae, and others who aren't afraid to create what they want because they don't want to wait for permission or go through gatekeeping hoops. Our business will always have that gatekeeping aspect. I want to see more people taking control over creating the stories they want to see. There are no excuses now. I've seen people make incredible content for absolutely $0.
I saw on your Instagram that you are launching a new workshop, tell me about that.
I'm launching The Producing Playbook this summer. It's my way to take all my skills and everything I've learned and share with those aspiring to do what we do. I didn't grow up with a producing mentor, but I like to help people, so I asked myself, "Why am I waiting for someone to come to me to host or teach this? What if I created it myself?"
I'm excited to cover what producers need to know from the standpoint of Hollywood business and just the basics that aren't readily available. The average person doesn't know if they need a manager, an agent, or both or what these people do. I'll cover producing from creative development through production – soup to nuts.
I decided to do this now because I've checked my boxes and made my movies, but I'm also inspired by how many people create lanes for themselves. I have so much information to give. I've shared it on podcasts, panels, and speaking events and now here. It dawned on me that I could create something myself and write a book about it someday.
I have the creator bug, though it scares me because I'm putting myself out there. I'm terrible at shameless self-promotion. I recognize that if I'm going to do this, I need to step out front a bit and be smart about launching, marketing, and what I want to give back. I'm a die-hard producer, and what's always struck me is that it's the one position that never gets enough resources and support, whether in labs, training programs, or general. I want to create this because people don't talk about producing. I've read almost every producing book, and sometimes, they still get it wrong or regurgitate the same old information. Who will be transparent and give people the real insider baseball version of this town?
The first session of The Producers Playbook starts (virtually) on June 28. To learn more and sign up, visit: https://www.theproducingplaybook.com/
Great read. Thanks!