Next Steps
Los Angeles, California | Series
Comedy, Satire
The job title “management consultant” may conjure images of grey-haired white men in expensive suits... and you wouldn’t be wrong. By supporting Next Steps, you are supporting a relatable, comic take on the challenges confronted by young women who are trying to find their way in Corporate America.
Next Steps
Los Angeles, California | Series
Comedy, Satire
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $6,266 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
53 supporters | followers
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The job title “management consultant” may conjure images of grey-haired white men in expensive suits... and you wouldn’t be wrong. By supporting Next Steps, you are supporting a relatable, comic take on the challenges confronted by young women who are trying to find their way in Corporate America.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
What's it About?
Similar in tone to HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” this series follows people-pleaser Grace Peabody as she embarks on her first job after graduation. Grace had a perfect SAT score, graduated from Yale, and even plays the damn viola. As a black woman in management consulting, she’s desperate to not be seen as the ‘diversity hire.’ She is willing to jump through any hoop that comes her way -- but at what cost? The first season of Next Steps follows her misadventures on her first case in Butte, Oklahoma. The lessons she learns from her co-workers will make you laugh... and they will make you cry.
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Why Us?
While working long hours in corporate America, we asked ourselves… “what could we do to fill up the thirty minutes of free time we have a day?” So we decided to write a pilot. We both love to create and decided to pull our crafts together (screenwriting/directing/acting/producing). Drawing from our experiences working in management consulting, we created Next Steps. Together, we wrote the script, and now we’re ready to produce it. Rachel draws on joke-writing skills that she honed at UCB and will take the helm as the director of Next Steps. Erica used production skills to move Next Steps through development and will use her acting chops to bring Grace’s best frenemy, Lexi, to life.
Why Are We Doing This?
Lured by thoughts of fancy dinners, first-class flights, and company AMEX cards? Welcome to the world of long hours, crippling imposter syndrome, and shoes that hurt.
After conducting a survey of Harvard seniors, The Harvard Crimson reported that while 15.43 percent of the graduating class goes into consulting, only 0.55 percent want to be in that field 10 years later. No other industry is skewed to that degree.
Both Erica and Rachel were going through college, unsure what they wanted to do with their lives. However, when junior year hit, management consulting became the golden ticket to success, happiness, and fulfillment.
We spent late nights preparing for case interviews, hundreds of dollars we didn’t have on business formal clothes, and evenings in conference rooms being wowed by fancy information sessions hosted by consulting firms.
We both ended up taking jobs in consulting.
However, those information sessions don’t tell you about the difficulties - especially as a woman of color in the workforce. We created Next Steps to create an alternative to the narrative in Hollywood that glamorizes high-powered men in the financial services industry (looking at you, Jordan Belfort). We wanted to show the unsexy life of young associates trying to find their way in the world.
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What are the Next Steps?
With your support, we are planning on shooting Next Steps on a COVID-19 safe-set in early February 2021. After that, we are planning to submit it to festivals as a short. Contributors at the Principal level and above will be invited to the premiere and will get to see Next Steps before anyone else. After the festival run, Next Steps will be distributed online for viewing.
What about COVID-19?
If there were a case interview question about whether this is the optimal time to create Next Steps, the answer would be a resounding “no.”
We are in the middle of a global pandemic and financial recession; however, during weeks of self-isolation, comedy has been a source of comfort and escapism for millions of people around the world.
To move forward incrementally; however, we have taken drastic measures to protect the health of our team and the financial security of the production. We have postponed production and spent months researching COVID safety to prepare for every possible scenario. Now we are back and more excited than ever to create Next Steps with COVID-19 best practices in place.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew
Costs $2,100
We need a soundy, DP, gaffer, first AC, production designer, art director, and PA.
Share this update!
About This Team
Erica and Rachel met at the Claremont Colleges in 2017 while fulfilling what turned out to be a life-changing general education requirement. Erica, Pomona College class of 2019, worked as a performer at Disneyland before stumbling down the rabbit hole and landing a job at a Big 4 consulting firm. Her improv skills and nerves of steel served her well during interviews. She is now an ex-consultant working in media. Rachel, Claremont McKenna class of 2020, fit neatly into the box of people with a lot of different interests but no clearly defined path. Her longtime love for Seinfeld, 30 Rock, and television, in general, occupied a prominent place in her extracurricular pastimes, but it wasn’t until she interned in management consulting during the summer of 2019 that she seriously considered a career in media. In the spring of 2020, right after the world fell apart, Erica and Rachel embarked on a mission to write something together. Fueled by a creative spark and a desire to create, they burned through brainstorming sessions and drafts until they arrived at a topic that deeply resonated with them: starting your career with the safe and prestigious option, only to feel miserable doing it.
We hope our audience can relate to the frustration, fear, and excitement of starting a career based on vague notions of what lies ahead only to find yourself on the worst carnival ride ever. The whiplash of being a high achiever to battling imposter syndrome after graduation. The need for validation from a supervisor, as well as the realization that this need is unhealthy. The appeal inherent in becoming a “suit” when you have no idea what else to do. We believe our concept captures a wide audience of talented young adults who desperately want to succeed and project a mirage of confidence while taking their first step in the corporate world.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
What's it About?
Similar in tone to HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” this series follows people-pleaser Grace Peabody as she embarks on her first job after graduation. Grace had a perfect SAT score, graduated from Yale, and even plays the damn viola. As a black woman in management consulting, she’s desperate to not be seen as the ‘diversity hire.’ She is willing to jump through any hoop that comes her way -- but at what cost? The first season of Next Steps follows her misadventures on her first case in Butte, Oklahoma. The lessons she learns from her co-workers will make you laugh... and they will make you cry.
Why Us?
While working long hours in corporate America, we asked ourselves… “what could we do to fill up the thirty minutes of free time we have a day?” So we decided to write a pilot. We both love to create and decided to pull our crafts together (screenwriting/directing/acting/producing). Drawing from our experiences working in management consulting, we created Next Steps. Together, we wrote the script, and now we’re ready to produce it. Rachel draws on joke-writing skills that she honed at UCB and will take the helm as the director of Next Steps. Erica used production skills to move Next Steps through development and will use her acting chops to bring Grace’s best frenemy, Lexi, to life.
Why Are We Doing This?
Lured by thoughts of fancy dinners, first-class flights, and company AMEX cards? Welcome to the world of long hours, crippling imposter syndrome, and shoes that hurt.
After conducting a survey of Harvard seniors, The Harvard Crimson reported that while 15.43 percent of the graduating class goes into consulting, only 0.55 percent want to be in that field 10 years later. No other industry is skewed to that degree.
Both Erica and Rachel were going through college, unsure what they wanted to do with their lives. However, when junior year hit, management consulting became the golden ticket to success, happiness, and fulfillment.
We spent late nights preparing for case interviews, hundreds of dollars we didn’t have on business formal clothes, and evenings in conference rooms being wowed by fancy information sessions hosted by consulting firms.
We both ended up taking jobs in consulting.
However, those information sessions don’t tell you about the difficulties - especially as a woman of color in the workforce. We created Next Steps to create an alternative to the narrative in Hollywood that glamorizes high-powered men in the financial services industry (looking at you, Jordan Belfort). We wanted to show the unsexy life of young associates trying to find their way in the world.
What are the Next Steps?
With your support, we are planning on shooting Next Steps on a COVID-19 safe-set in early February 2021. After that, we are planning to submit it to festivals as a short. Contributors at the Principal level and above will be invited to the premiere and will get to see Next Steps before anyone else. After the festival run, Next Steps will be distributed online for viewing.
What about COVID-19?
If there were a case interview question about whether this is the optimal time to create Next Steps, the answer would be a resounding “no.”
We are in the middle of a global pandemic and financial recession; however, during weeks of self-isolation, comedy has been a source of comfort and escapism for millions of people around the world.
To move forward incrementally; however, we have taken drastic measures to protect the health of our team and the financial security of the production. We have postponed production and spent months researching COVID safety to prepare for every possible scenario. Now we are back and more excited than ever to create Next Steps with COVID-19 best practices in place.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew
Costs $2,100
We need a soundy, DP, gaffer, first AC, production designer, art director, and PA.
Share this update!
About This Team
Erica and Rachel met at the Claremont Colleges in 2017 while fulfilling what turned out to be a life-changing general education requirement. Erica, Pomona College class of 2019, worked as a performer at Disneyland before stumbling down the rabbit hole and landing a job at a Big 4 consulting firm. Her improv skills and nerves of steel served her well during interviews. She is now an ex-consultant working in media. Rachel, Claremont McKenna class of 2020, fit neatly into the box of people with a lot of different interests but no clearly defined path. Her longtime love for Seinfeld, 30 Rock, and television, in general, occupied a prominent place in her extracurricular pastimes, but it wasn’t until she interned in management consulting during the summer of 2019 that she seriously considered a career in media. In the spring of 2020, right after the world fell apart, Erica and Rachel embarked on a mission to write something together. Fueled by a creative spark and a desire to create, they burned through brainstorming sessions and drafts until they arrived at a topic that deeply resonated with them: starting your career with the safe and prestigious option, only to feel miserable doing it.
We hope our audience can relate to the frustration, fear, and excitement of starting a career based on vague notions of what lies ahead only to find yourself on the worst carnival ride ever. The whiplash of being a high achiever to battling imposter syndrome after graduation. The need for validation from a supervisor, as well as the realization that this need is unhealthy. The appeal inherent in becoming a “suit” when you have no idea what else to do. We believe our concept captures a wide audience of talented young adults who desperately want to succeed and project a mirage of confidence while taking their first step in the corporate world.