Dominick Adunagow '24 is a filmmaker from Orange County, CA. Specializing in screenwriting and video editing, Adunagow is a USC graduate with experience creating narrative stories and social media marketing content for independent films, including the award-winning Three-Colors: Pan-African, and for brands such as USC Athletics and Fremantle. Under the banner A Good Story Company, LLC, he served as showrunner and editor of an anthology web series, The Outtakes. At the core of his diverse storytelling experiences, he is passionate about telling stories that explore our values and challenge the way we think.

What compelled you to pursue a career in filmmaking?

I realized I wanted to pursue filmmaking during my senior year of high school. At the time, I was picking classes and was leaning toward taking another AP, but my friend convinced me to take a video production class with him . We made a music video together for our U.S. History class that year , and it was a ton of fun. We are both huge MCU fans, so we felt like the Russo brothers while bouncing ideas off each other and sprinkling in the most random Endgame references in the video. Taking the class only built my passion even more. I had always loved watching films growing up, but being behind the scenes and seeing how everything worked really changed things for me. Even when it got difficult or frustrating, I still enjoyed the process. That’s when I knew this was something I was genuinely passionate about and wanted to pursue long-term. My film teacher was also very reaffirming of my potential, and his passion for film was definitely infectious. That experience as a whole played a big role in why I chose USC.

Was USC and SCA always the goal? What was the process of applying to the BCA program like?

USC was always the goal, but not necessarily SCA. During my senior year of high school, I applied to colleges as a business major. I’ve always been a huge sports fan, so my initial goal was to become a general manager for a professional sports team. With USC having a top-ranked business school and being located in a major sports market that was also close to home, it was easily one of my top choices. But by the time I got accepted, I got bit by the film bug pretty badly, so I was hoping I could somehow keep pursuing it. SCA ended up being one of the biggest reasons I chose USC because the program was operating on a whole other level. Their alumni, curriculum, and even online student films were all so impressive, so I knew that was a perfect place to pursue both interests. At the time, the Business and Cinematic Arts program required a two-step process: you had to be admitted into the business school first and then apply separately for the cinematic arts program. In hindsight, committing to the business school with the hopes of joining an exclusive fifty-person cohort was a massive gamble, but I’m so glad I took it and got in.

Were there any classes, professors, or experiences at SCA that were particularly impactful?

One of the most impactful parts of my time at USC was being part of the African American Cinema Society. That organization gave me a strong creative community that I still rely on today, and it also provided so many useful learning opportunities across all of our events. During one event with writer Juel Taylor, he recommended a motion picture analysis class that he claimed was the best class he had taken at SC . I ended up completely reworking my schedule just to take the class , and it was hands down one of the best decisions I’ve made. That class completely changed how I understood story structure and gave me what I believe is the best blueprint for writing compelling feature scripts. It elevated my writing significantly. Outside of class, I interned with USC Athletics as a video production intern. That job was not only vital for me to get consistent creative reps, but it was also just an incredible experience. Being able to walk the ground level of the Coliseum and Galen Center, and covering football and women’s basketball during the rise of athletes like Caleb Williams and JuJu Watkins was really exciting. My bosses and coworkers were also insanely talented and pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of. I really loved working with them.

Do you use your passion for sports and filmmaking together?

I definitely want to combine those two passions more in the long run. I’ve written a few sports scripts and have continued freelance editing/shooting sports content, but sports media has been more useful for building my portfolio as a launchpad into the narrative work I’m more focused on now. Ideally, I’d love to fully merge both worlds in a meaningful way. At some point in my career, I hope to get a boxing feature off the ground.

Tell us about Three Colors Pan-African and your role on the project.

Three Colors: Pan-African is the brainchild of Elijah Davis. While we were at SC together, he pitched what was originally meant to be a trilogy of short films exploring the experiences of and created by members of the African diaspora . The project is now a feature film and over the past three years has exploded beyond what we, or any of the hundreds of black creatives who would become involved, could have imagined. My role evolved over time, but I was blessed to have joined this rocket ship from the beginning. I was part of the founding producing team. Early on, I helped with development, bringing in our directors and writers to help shape the story. As the project gained momentum, I shifted more into post-production, helping coordinate the process, bring on our post team, keep everything on schedule, and track the web of moving pieces. We figured it out as we went along. It was a really rewarding experience, especially seeing how far the project came.

What inspired The Outtakes , and was it always meant to be an anthology?

After graduating college, I fully expected that I would write a spec script, get it made, and everything would just take off. Yes, I was that naive. It didn’t take long for me to hit a serious writer’s block , so I went back to the basics. I spent that summer studying writing. Every day, I would watch a pilot, read a script for an hour, and free-write a scene for an hour. Those free-writes eventually became the foundation for the stories in The Outtakes . I felt like those stories were too good to just sit in Final Draft, not necessarily in a prideful way, but because they came from a real place. Post-graduation is a really emotionally challenging period that no one really warns you about, so writing those stories was a cathartic form of wrestling with various things in my life. I was also inspired by the growing YouTube-to-big-screen pipeline, at the time being spearheaded by filmmakers like Wesley Wang and the Philippou brothers. That was a beacon of hope amidst a rough job marketand industry doomsday speeches. I felt really strongly that this could be a calling card for my generation of storytellers. I knew we had the skills; we just needed the eyeballs.

The anthology format came naturally because each piece came from a different writing exercise. When I brought on my producers, Mark Lowe and Laura Colbert, we also leaned into what was practical to produce, keeping things contained to simpler, single room retups. We decided to rely on things like score and sound design to make the worlds feel bigger than they actually were. And the idea of it being “the drama version of SNL” made it easier to explain to people how things tie together and gave us the perfect excuse to leverage a recurring cast, who are all so exceptionally talented.

Do you have a favorite role as a storyteller?

My ultimate goal is to write and direct feature films. Writing, in particular, is the most fulfilling part for me. It’s where I feel like I can express myself most clearly and work through different ideas and emotions. I also just enjoy the challenge of it and the process of shaping a story. I feel similarly when it comes to directing, especially with films being a director’s medium. But I’m such a writer that I don’t know if I could direct something without rewriting the words, just yet. I’ve taken on other roles: producing, editing, and more, because that’s often what it takes to get projects made. Ideally, I wouldn’t be doing everything, but in today’s landscape, you have to be willing to step into different roles to bring your work to life. No one is going to care about your project more than you do.

Do you pull narratives or themes from your own life or the people around you?

In some ways, yes, but not always directly. I usually start with a concept or idea, what I think of as a story engine, and I keep a running list of those ideas. I don’t really move forward with them until I find the emotional core. That emotional piece can come from my own experiences, something a friend has gone through, or even a film that affected me. For me, the idea alone isn’t enough; it has to have a deeper emotional meaning before I commit to developing it.

Who inspires you as a filmmaker?

Like any Black filmmaker you talk to these days, Ryan Coogler is a huge inspiration for me. I learned of him early on in high school, and I couldn’t believe the same guy who directed Creed also directed Black Panther. For the longest time, I wanted to be like him. Around that time, I also fell in love with Ava DuVernay’s work. I haven’t quite cracked how she does it, but she never fails to capture and elicit emotion so beautifully through her pieces. I also really admire Aaron Sorkin. He is a master of dialogue, and I am a huge advocate of his intention and obstacle approach to drama. And of course, I love Christopher Nolan’s films. Those filmmakers have all influenced how I think about storytelling and filmmaking.

What advice would you give to students entering the film industry post-grad?

My biggest advice is to build strong relationships with your peers. The people around you, your classmates, collaborators, are incredibly important. In my experience, the projects I’ve been able to work on have come from those peer relationships. It’s not just about networking upward; it’s about building with people who are on the same journey as you. Those relationships make it easier to create, to support each other, and to stay motivated. This industry is really hard to navigate alone, so having a strong community, both inside and outside the industry, makes a huge difference.

What’s next for you?

Right now, I’m focused on developing a feature film. It’s centered on a fictional Christian rock singer, and it explores faith more authentically than traditionally seen on screen. I’ve designed it to be more contained, so if it came to it, we could potentially make it on our own. But I’m really hoping that with the momentum from my recent projects, we might be able to bring in more support. I’m also finalizing opportunities to get The Outtakes on streaming platforms and just enjoying the fruit of our labor with Three Color’s festival run. We’ve been making some noise at Slamdance and ABFF.

 

Additional Links: 
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@domadunagow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theouttakesseries/

 

Story by Emily Tutnick