P Miller, BBTV NEW TELEVISION NETWORK

LOS ANGELES, CA - (Marketwire - August 15, 2008) - Percy Miller (formerly Master P) announces the launch of Better Black Television (BBTV) a family friendly network that will provide positive content for a black and brown culture that will appeal to all races with a goal to bring people of color a choice when turning on their television. The content on the channel will contain a wide arrangement from health and fitness, animation, financial planning, reality TV, sitcoms, dramas, movies, responsible hip-hop music and videos, politics, sports and entertainment news, educational children's shows as well as teen and family programming. Production has begun and will be based out of California, New York, Louisiana and Florida. In addition, BBTV is in the process of purchasing local cable channel affiliates across the country.
Born in Hollywood, Better Black Television is the brainchild and passion of some of the most diverse, powerful, celebrated entertainers, influentials and trendsetters from the Television, Film, Professional Sports, Corporate America and Music industries. These visionaries all share the common goal of enhancing the current television landscape for this highly coveted demographic currently monopolized by only a few significant providers, with fresh, innovative, uplifting and above all family-friendly entertainment. Envisioned and headed by its Founder, P. Miller, a legendary music, film, and television entertainer as well as world-renowned African-American entrepreneur and social activist, Better Black Television is guided, staffed and supported by a highly skilled, talented, and above all dedicated team of professionals that have been working for more than 5 years to make this dream a reality.

"Better Black Television has been a vision of mine for some years," said Miller, BBTV's Chairman & CEO. "I've done a lot to promote and change the way messages are relayed to our children and our families over the last few years. Promoting positive content and positive messages is so important to educate and preserve the next generation. Being exposed to positive content is what changed my life. I believe that there is a market in our community for a new diverse network that provides a new brand of superior programming that caters to all aspects of television from reality to original programming. In addition, I'm excited to be able to expose the urban community to a vast array of jobs in the entertainment community that they might not otherwise be privy to. I have a great relationship with BET and MTV and my son and I will continue to do work with them and support their networks. With BBTV, we're spearheading the initiative to meet consumer demand for family friendly hip-hop content."

The BBTV Advisory Board members consist of some of the most significant entertainers in Hollywood, professional athletes as well as movers and shakers in the community such as Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Denzel Washington; businessman and Academy Award nominee Will Smith; Vault Load Films President, entrepreneur and senior level business executive, Jim Finkl; NAACP Executive Director Vicangelo Bullock; Professional basketball player and businessman Derek Anderson (Charlotte Bobcats); an award winning, 20-year veteran of the cable television and film industry, Professor Sal Martino; businessman, community activist and founding father of hip-hop, DJ Kool Herc; entrepreneur, businessman and animation specialist, Olatokunbo Betiku; and community activist, Board President of Nailah House Foster Family Agency, speaker and teacher at Trump University, real estate mogul Curtis Oakes.




Preliminary List of Better Black Television Programming:

-- Sunset and Vine -- Hosted by Vyshonn Miller and Brittany
Phillips -- This video show will showcase the top 8 at 8pm, the top
hip-hop and R&B acts as well as play classic videos and will feature
a section where you can vote on new indie unsigned artists who will
showcase their talent and the audience will have the option to place
them in the "You Pick It Video" section by voting for them online.

-- One Shot Comedy Show -- will consist of clean hilarious comedy and
will be hosted by Gary Johnson (a.k.a. G-Thing) and some of the
funniest comedians around. It will give upcoming comedians the
opportunity to hit the stage.

-- Gee Gee the Giraffe -- Children's educational show featuring Gee Gee
the Giraffe, a magical friend that takes kids on educational
adventures focused on reading and writing. (Will air on BBTV Kids
Saturday Morning Show).

-- Manage Your Money -- Featuring financially successful people lending
information to viewers to help promote financial literacy.

-- Close to the Starz -- A behind the scenes show that takes the viewers
up close and personal to their favorite celebrities.

-- Karma TV Show -- Bilingual soap opera with an African-American and
Latino cast.

-- What's Cooking TV Show -- Talk show that covers wide aspects of
entertainment and current events while cooking and enjoying a good
meal. The host and guests prepare healthy, budget-conscious meals.

-- The Black List Movies -- Family friendly content featuring or created
by top filmmakers and actors. From the classics of the past to the
biggest stars of today, from original BBTV productions to quality
independents, you'll find them on "The Black List."

-- Hip-Hop Garage Show -- Saturday show that will play nothing but the
hottest new and upcoming artists in their latest music videos and
interviews selected with content appropriate to BBTV's mission and
standards.




"We're extremely proud of our programming that will be airing on BBTV," said Miller. "It's extremely important to feed clean, quality, and positive subject matter to our families. We believe TV content can be positive and responsible and still have good ratings with great content. BBTV will offer all kinds of family friendly entertainment that everyone can enjoy. Our mission is to target the new generation of responsible African-American and multi-ethnic English speaking American and family oriented and responsible hip-hop consumers who are taking charge of their families and striving for a better tomorrow.

"I remember Bob Johnson, founder of BET, telling me back in the day that if you wanted to know real estate, you've got to hang out with real estate investors. If you wanted to know sports, you've got to hang out with athletes. I wanted to know TV, so I hung out with Bob and learned the TV game from one of the best in the business."

Better Black Television Mission Statement:

Better Black Television (BBTV) is committed to being a leading African-American multimedia entertainment company by establishing a distinct, valued, trusted, and socially responsible consumer brand within the African-American and multi-ethnic, English-speaking marketplace. We plan to accomplish this mission by delivering quality, family oriented entertainment and information to the quickly growing urban consumer base of our target audience through the use of television and Internet resources.

www.BETTERBLACKTV.com




Send resumes and videos:
BBTV
7095 Hollywood Blvd. #367
Hollywood, CA 90028

Malcolm Mays works with Pressline on next project

Based on a True Story
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By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Published: December 27, 2007
LOS ANGELES — At home, in gang territory near the 10 freeway, Malcolm Mays, 17, sleeps on the faded carpet of his grandmother’s living room.

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J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times
The actor-director Malcolm Mays, center, shooting his first feature, “Trouble,” at a friend’s house in Los Angeles.

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Malcolm Mays, Young Filmmaker
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J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times
The actor-director Malcolm Mays, right, prepares for a shot with Misty Alli, who plays his girlfriend in “Trouble,” his first feature.
For the last week or so, however, he’s been sleeping as often as not in an editing room on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, crashing there late at night after viewing rushes of the movie that he is shooting by day.

To a degree that would make any adult desperate to get into the film industry jealous, he has mustered the support of studio executives, a powerful producer and a top talent agent. It would be easy to tell this as the story of a bunch of Hollywood people doing a good deed in time for Christmas, except that it isn’t. They all say they hope to get as much out of Mr. Mays as he gets out of them.

When he was in the eighth grade, Mr. Mays says, he told his friends he would become rich and famous making movies one day — he hoped to use his money and fame to “make a difference” somehow — and that he’d have his first movie out before he turned 18. “They all laughed,” he said.

A year later he entered Fairfax High School, where the racial tension among students bused in from far and wide was a jarring contradiction to its upscale West Hollywood neighborhood. That fall he was caught up in a black-and-Hispanic melee. A friend was attacked with a knife; Mr. Mays says he saw the assailant lunging and headed him off with a punch. His mother abruptly transferred him to another school. The violence continued without him. Three of his best friends, he said, were killed that year.

But Mr. Mays had found his movie. He banged out a screenplay that year and gave it the name of his main character: Trouble, a boy who means well but always gets into jams, who does the wrong thing for the right reasons. An incorrigible Romeo, Mr. Mays gave his alter ego a Juliet: the sister of a Mexican-American gang member. And he imagined an ending in which the cycle of violence between black and Hispanic teenagers might be broken, after a shocking, sorrowful twist. He bounced from school to school, finishing 9th grade at a community magnet; 10th grade at Dorsey High in South-Central, where his father is a coach; then, at his mother’s insistence, another move, to University High in West Los Angeles, which was safer but a long bus ride from home.

He never stopped pursuing film. When the producer Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment spoke at his church, Mr. Mays, a leader of the youth ministry, wangled a meeting. That didn’t go anywhere. But when he injured his leg at Dorsey, the athletic trainer mentioned that his wife worked for Martin Campbell, the director of “Casino Royale,” and Mr. Mays soon had an internship in Mr. Campbell’s office on the Sony lot.

At 15, he co-directed the first of several dramatic shorts, “Open Door,” which was accepted to a Los Angeles short film festival. At 16 his script and plans for “Trouble” were recognized by Panavision’s highly selective New Filmmaker Program, which lets novice directors borrow a camera package.

He just needed a plan to put its camera to use.

Last year he signed up for a mentor program at University High that is run by the United Talent Agency. Howard Sanders, of the agency’s book department, commended Mr. Mays for his interest in a film career. Mr. Mays corrected him.

“He says: ‘It’s not what I want to do, it’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to make a movie,’” Mr. Sanders recalled. “He knew exactly what he wanted, and nothing was going to stop him.”

The mentor quickly found himself more inspired by the teenager than the other way around. “I learned so much about who I want to be from Malcolm,” said Mr. Sanders, who is 48. “This kid, obstacles are thrown in his way, and yet he remains utterly positive, passionate and confident in his abilities.”

Mr. Sanders introduced Malcolm to DeVon Franklin, a junior executive in Sony’s development department and one of the few African-American executives at any studio. In this “scrawny little kid,” Mr. Franklin said, he saw a glimmer of hope for a new generation of black filmmakers.

Mr. Sanders also pointed Mr. Mays to Todd Black, a producer of the feel-good, true-life movies “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “The Great Debaters,” who had discovered another eventual movie subject, Antwone Fisher, when he was a security guard. Mr. Black too was blown away.

“I never met a kid that age who was that in command of, and secure with, who he was and what he needed and wanted,” Mr. Black said. “He really made me listen to what he was saying, quickly and efficiently. He wanted to get his scripts made into movies, he wanted to go to U.S.C. film school, he wanted a career in the business. He wanted to lift himself out of the situation he was in. He’s almost entrepreneurial. He knew exactly how to work it, but not in an obnoxious way. In a very professional, proper way.”
Mr. Black steered Malcolm to Gary Martin, the president for studio operations at Sony, who said he was reminded of a 21-year-old John Singleton making “Boyz N the Hood.” “You just got the feeling this kid’s got the same kind of chutzpah,” Mr. Martin said. He laid down one condition for helping Malcolm: “Trouble” must have its premiere on the Sony lot.

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J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times
Mr. Mays shooting a scene from “Trouble” in the kitchen of a friend’s house in Los Angeles.

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Malcolm Mays, Young Filmmaker
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J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times
Cynthia Mays, Mr. Mays’s mother, is usually in charge of bringing food to the set of “Trouble.”
Mr. Martin got Kodak to donate 50,000 feet of film, about $25,000 worth. He also made a call to Panavision when, according to Mr. Mays, it threatened to cancel the New Filmmaker Program in response to the Hollywood work stoppage. The result? “I had Bob Beitcher, the C.E.O. of Panavision, calling me in my third-period class, assuring me I’d have a camera,” Mr. Mays said.

As Christmas vacation approached, Mr. Mays was a walking whirlwind at his school, lining up actors, hiring a tiny crew, obtaining permits and insurance, putting out one fire after another as problems arose, even while taking his exams. He planned to begin shooting on Monday, Dec. 17, with exteriors at Fairfax High.

But at 3:10 p.m. the Friday before, he learned that his permission had been revoked. An assistant principal at Fairfax, David Siedelman, had just found out that Mr. Mays hadn’t yet graduated.

“You were very professional, I agree,” Mr. Siedelman told Mr. Mays. “You convinced me that hey, you were a former student, an alumni here. You never said you were still a high school student.”

Mr. Mays politely said that Mr. Siedelman had never asked, and that he’d never lied. But Mr. Siedelman said his decision was final and wished him luck.

“As usual, things crash down, right?” Mr. Mays said as he hung up. “But we’ll pick ’em back up.”

True to his word, as night fell that Friday, Mr. Mays bought time by rearranging his production schedule to start with interiors. One of Mr. Black’s location managers began making calls on his behalf to other Los Angeles schools, hoping to find one to replace Fairfax. Mr. Mays raced across Hollywood with a $500 deposit to release the camera from Panavision. And a giant lighting truck with a generator in tow rumbled up to his grandmother’s tiny house, vainly searching for a safe place to park. (Mr. Black and Mr. Martin wrote personal checks for $850 apiece when Mr. Mays couldn’t come up with the truck insurance fast enough, the only cash his powerful supporters have laid out on his behalf.)

He also stopped at Sony to meet with a postproduction supervisor about the arduous editing and mixing process. The supervisor asked if Mr. Mays had a deadline in mind, say, for submission to a film festival.

“I’d like to get it done by Feb. 14,” Mr. Mays replied softly. That’s when he’ll turn 18.