Spring 2020 Youth Artist Projects
with Paloma Valenzuela

Dates: January 29, 2020 - April 15, 2020
*No classes February 19-21 and April 10*
Times: Wednesdays and Fridays 3:30pm - 6:30pm
Applications are opened until January 17th, 2020, 11:59pm.

The Spring 2020 Urbano Youth Artist Project will be taught by Artist-in-Residence Paloma Valenzuela, who creates, writes and produces “The Pineapple Diaries,” an independent web series based in Jamaica Plain.

Students will learn the basics of script writing format and scene writing, and learn how to write a solid script on several accessible writing programs. Students will learn skills in pre-production: script breakdown, scheduling and storyboarding, hands-on production and filming, and the basics of reviewing dailies and editing. As a final project the entire group will work as a team in the “writers room” to create either a pilot episode for their desired web series or a short film, including draft and review. After writing is complete, we will shift into roles as crew members, preparing for production. Students will pre-produce as a group in their individual roles, film, and work together to edit a pilot episode.

Paloma Valenzuela is a Dominican-American writer, director and actress originally from the city of Boston. She is the creative director of the production operation La Gringa Loca Productions based in Boston and the Dominican Republic. She is the writer/producer/creator of the comedic web series "The Pineapple Diaries” which is now in its Third Season. In 2017 the show was featured in the Latina Magazine's "5 Web Series Every Latinx Needs to Watch Right Now". In 2019 Paloma was featured in Boston Magazine's "Boston's New Creative Guard" and selected as one of the WBUR The Artery 25, a series highlighting millennials of color making an impact in the Boston arts scene. Paloma has collaborated  with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as a 2018-2019 Neighborhood Salon Luminary and co-hosted a Neighborhood Night in July 2019 entitled “Viewfinder”. She works as a teaching artist at GrubStreet in Boston teaching classes in Dramatic Writing and Screenwriting.