In order to celebrate the 15th anniversary of her debut novel, Secret Society – Miasha Coleman has brought her popular book to life in the new film starring Reyna Love and Erica Pinkett. In our exclusive interview with Coleman, we discussed everything from the inspiration behind the film to working on this project during the ongoing pandemic.
Tell us about the film Secret Society.
Secret Society is a first of its kind, cautionary tale about two beautiful flashy girls – who feel like their only means of survival is through men with money. They have a jaw dropping secret and once it’s revealed, survival take on a whole different meaning for them.
Did you happen to work on Secret Society any during ongoing pandemic?
We actually shot the whole movie during the pandemic. It wasn’t something that we anticipated, of course, but it just happened to be the best time to do it. I actually reached out to the director, Jamal Hill in 2019 about bringing him on board for this project. Once I got his green light [so to speak], I had began the scriptwriting along with his help. In 2020, we had the script complete and we were all planning on going ahead with shooting the movie. COVID came and sat everyone down. For the first two months, I didn’t even think about the script. I didn’t reach out to Jamal, nothing. I was stunned, like most of the world was, just seeing what was happening and what was going to happen. After about the first two months, I began thinking maybe this is the time to shoot the movie, while no one is working. We figured we would have access to people who may not be available if this wasn’t a pandemic. I called Jamal and asked what he thought about shooting while it was happening. He thought it could be a good idea, was open and available, and we just did it! Everyone had to take COVID tests, thankfully everyone was negative. We had safety precautions on set; we had people on set each day with temperature readings, sanitation, and more. We couldn’t have as many extras as we would’ve loved to have in certain scenes. We really had to improvise to make it all work and come together. It worked out. We did more than we could imagine we could do.
As a writer and costume designer in the world of entertainment, what do you believe is the greatest lesson you’ve learned?
You know what, I have to say with being in the entertainment industry in general, the greatest lesson that I’ve learned is to not rely on other people to make your dreams come true. I think a lot of us, especially creatives are believing that we need someone to represent us, someone to back us, or someone to hold out hand through certain processes. I learned [especially in this movie] that we’re more than capable of making our own dreams come true. We just need to make it up in our minds that it’s what we want to do, take the first step, and everything else will fall into place.
What are you currently working on and what can we expect to see from you in the future?
After the movie was released on Amazon Prime. I got so many responses. Everyone is begging for a part two to Secret Society. I firmly believe that it will be the next project that comes from me. Overall, film and television is definitely in my future. I think once you see the movie, you’ll understand why I feel like I need to be in this industry for the long haul.
Secret Society is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
For more on Miasha Coleman, follow her on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.
Featured Image by The Icing Agency
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