Check Out Reginald A. Flemming’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Reginald A. Flemming.

Hi Reginald A., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
A month after graduating high school in 2002, I moved to Philadelphia. I’m originally from Spartanburg, South Carolina which sadly isn’t the best town to be in if you want to pursue a career in entertainment unless you want to be on the local news. So basically, the first opportunity I had to get out of S.C. I took it. Philadelphia was nothing like I’d ever seen back home. I was so out of my element there. Nobody dressed like me. Nobody talked like me. Nobody was anything like me or so I thought. I felt lost in this big city all by myself with only two friends who happened to be two older women. They loved me. They supported me but they didn’t really know me much less get me. So I couldn’t really express myself to them. Sometimes you need more than just a listening ear. You need a response. You need someone to tell you the truth even if you can’t handle it. I had NONE of that so I began to write. My writing didn’t necessarily start in Philadelphia. I started writing when I was nine years old. I was probably one of the only kids in school who really thought long-hard about the question every teacher asked in elementary school WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? I had no idea what I wanted to be but I know I thought about it a lot. One day in third grade my teacher Mrs. Swindler gave us an assignment to write our own fairy tale and whoever writes the best story. She’ll post the winning story on the school bulletin board for everyone in school to see when they come in. Why that lit a fire in me, I’ll never know but I just knew I had to win. I remember going home sitting down at my kitchen table and I began to write. I began to let my mind take me to a place of creativity for the first time. I knew my story. I knew my characters. I knew I was going to win, and I did. My mama was so proud of me and that meant everything to me. When a child knows in their heart that their parents are truly proud of them, that means more than any award they’d ever receive for their accomplishments. I became a writer that day and I haven’t stopped writing since.

Before moving to Philadelphia, I wrote short stories but I knew I wanted to write feature films. I loved movies. I’m indeed a movie buff. I really wanted to see my name in the opening credits. So I came back to SC for Christmas that year and I wrote my first screenplay. It was trash. There was no structure. No plot. No character development. I had a lot to learn about screenwriting. So I began to study I read every book I could get my hands on. I remember sitting in a Barnes&Noble one afternoon reading one of those HOW TO WRITE A SCREENPLAY books. I was desperate to learn anything I could on the art of screenwriting. It became an obsession. By 2006 The internet was just starting to take off and YOUTUBE wasn’t a thing yet. I had met this actor/director online in this writer’s group I think. He asked could he read one of my scripts. He was a local guy so I didn’t mind letting him read it. I can appreciate feedback from anyone if it’s honest and designed to help me evolve. So I was expecting a critique after he finished but it turns out he knew some people who knew some people who could really turn my script into a movie. So he introduced me to local actors he knew who wanted to play parts in the movie. He introduced me to a local cameraman who said he liked my script and wanted to shoot it. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. I was so naive. The guy who made me believe he wanted to help turned out to be a clown. I found out he was taking credit for my work as if he wrote it. That not only hurt me it shattered me but I knew I never wanted that feeling again. I ended up meeting Demond who I’m still friends with to this day and he introduced me to all of his friends who I’m still friends with today as well. He knew I was a writer so he started telling me stories about everyone in our so-called friend’s circle and all I kept thinking was this is a soap opera. I loved soap operas by the way so of course unbeknownst to Demond I began to write about them. One day while we were all hanging out, I gave Demond a script. By this time, I told him I had written about all of them so instead of him reading it on his own, he suggested we all get together and read it out loud like a table read and that’s what we did. I was terrified they’d feel some kind of way about me writing about their lives but imagine my surprise when they thoroughly embraced it and suggested I put it on MYSPACE which was huge at the time but that wasn’t enough for me. If they like reading about their lives as much as I enjoyed writing it, I wonder would they enjoy watching themselves as well. YOUTUBE was just starting to blow up and I just knew there was an opportunity there for me. So I bought a new laptop bought a brand new camcorder and editing software and that script I gave Demond three years before that he titled THE RAINBOW CONNECTION became a webseries on YouTube in 2010. It ran for three seasons and it’s still on the YouTube channel today just type in Derredge Entertainment.

After two successful webseries and four full-length feature films on the YouTube channel, I started to feel like I wasn’t evolving. Yes, I had grown as filmmaker since 2010 but now it’s 2019 and something internally was off. Something deep within was turning me into an emotional wreck. Everyday I was sad and I didn’t know why. I was miserable. I felt there was no hope for me. I thought I was burnt out but I wasn’t burnt out; I was just suffering from depression. I needed a change. I needed to meet new people. I needed to somehow really pursue my passion of being a filmmaker with nothing holding me back. I needed to get out of SC again for good this time. So I moved to Atlanta, Georgia and in 2020 I completed my first film here THE LYRIC that premiered in December which got me my first distribution deal with Maverick Entertainment and it’s now set to premiere worldwide on many streaming channels on 6/6/2022. To any aspiring filmmaker that reads this my advice to you is to listen to that inner voice no matter what. Had I ignored it, I’d still be depressed living in South Carolina and I wouldn’t have got a distribution deal. God talks to us all for a reason. I’m now living in Atlanta, Georgia for a reason.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Writing LGBTQIA themed projects seems to make people who aren’t part of that community a bit skeptical. Not to be funny but some act as if they watch it, they’ll automatically turned gay so that’s been a struggle.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a writer, producer, director, editor. I’m known for my writing. I mean without a script there’d be nothing to produce, direct, or edit once it’s filmed. I’m proud of everything I’ve put out so far because it’s made me the filmmaker I am today. Growth is what it’s all about. Without growth, you can’t evolve and if you can’t evolve, you can’t elevate. I’m thankful for the journey I was put on to get where I am today. I write from a place of honesty. I don’t write just to get a profit. Everything I put out, I stand by it.

What makes you happy?
Completion. There’s no better feeling than completing something you know you worked hard on. If that doesn’t bring you happiness, I don’t know what does.

Contact Info:

• Email: ReginaldAF093@gmail.com
• Instagram: derredge_entertainment
• Facebook: Reginald A. Flemming
• Twitter: Twitter.com/rnbowconnection
• Youtube: YouTube.com/love4angieb