When We Did It Together

When a couple of entrepreneurs are married and work together.

Over the last five years, I have created two pieces of work that I am extremely proud of; One, my narrative piece, Black In Blue, a film on the plight of a black police officer who witnesses police brutality.  The other, an experimental piece, Dissolving Contention, a film that addresses the balance of positive and negative energy through dance. The influx of police brutality videos in 2016 were my inspiration for these two pieces, and have given birth to purposeful projects and themes of choice in my content creation.

Artists who have inspired my work are writer/director Malcolm D. Lee, writer/director Reggie Hudlin, writer/producer Myra Brock Akil & songwriter John Coltrane; the first two inspirations were chosen for their contributions to the black new wave of cinema and imagery of the neo negro via the silver screen. Because being black is not a monolith it is important for me to capture the genuineness in my characters and the culture they occupy.

Mrs. Akil’s writings were chosen for her show, The Game, which influenced my comedic style of writing and desire to write for television. In an interview she said, “You can’t write if your characters are not talking to you.” A notion that reigns true in storytelling for me. I always know when I’m invested in my stories when I’m privileged to hear their conversations with one another.

Music is extremely important in my writing process.  John Coltrane’s unique sound from his track Spiritual provoked the most compelling scenes I had written in my short film Black In Blue. During screenings, the scenes that were influenced by his music, were typically the scenes brought up during Q&A sessions. So, I often keep my ears available for music to gain inspiration for scenes for future works in progress.

Titus J. Burrell is a Baltimore native and filmmaker out of Towson University. He started out acting when he transferred to Towson in 2014, but after taking a few film writing courses, decided creating his own content was much more rewarding.  In the Fall of 2016, Titus’ short film “Black In Blue” was one of few highly anticipated student films and debuted December 16th, 2016 on the Towson University campus.  Inspired by the sounds and images of Spike Lee’s “Mo Betta Blues”, Titus used the illustrious sounds of jazz horns and percussion instruments for Black In Blue’s music composition.  With multiple officials selections and 1 Best Narrative Short Film award from Howard University in 2018, Titus was awarded a scholarship to continue his education in filmmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Arts (MICA) for his Masters.

Titus J. Burrell is a Baltimore native and filmmaker out of Towson University. He started out acting when he transferred to Towson in 2014, but after taking a few film writing courses, decided creating his own content was much more rewarding.  In the Fall of 2016, Titus’ short film “Black In Blue” was one of few highly anticipated student films and debuted December 16th, 2016 on the Towson University campus.  Inspired by the sounds and images of Spike Lee’s “Mo Betta Blues”, Titus used the illustrious sounds of jazz horns and percussion instruments for Black In Blue’s music composition.  With multiple officials selections and 1 Best Narrative Short Film award from Howard University in 2018, Titus was awarded a scholarship to continue his education in filmmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Arts (MICA) for his Masters.

(Update provided in May 2021)