Bridges were built at the DGA African American Steering Committee (AASC) meeting on April 7.  Following their regular monthly meeting in the Guild’s Los Angeles Boardroom, the Committee hosted the panel discussion, Branding the Way: The Future of Branded Entertainment, an in-depth exploration of out-of-the-box strategies and techniques filmmakers can use to create branding opportunities for their projects.

The conversation was kicked off by Director/AASC Co-Chair Jeff Byrd’s (A Beautiful Soul, King's Ransom) screening of the trailer for the Chipotle financed series Farmed and Dangerous currently airing on Hulu+. Then Byrd moderated a discussion about the new landscape of branded entertainment with Embedded Marketing, Inc’s CEO/Founder Walter Reynolds Jr.; Multicultural Content Marketing & Strategic Partnerships’ Director Marissa Nance; Brand-In Entertainment’s Co-Founder & CEO Rolfe Auerbach; and Branded Entertainment’s Diversity Attorney Robert Gilchrest. The conversation was a master class as the panelists brought their unique expertise and know-how to enlighten the DGA members. Following the discussion, the panelists answered questions from the audience.