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MEME · MAKESHIFT ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA EDUCATION

The most formal role I hold in this world.

The MEME logo — a filmstrip-lettered M, on a deep blue textured ground.
MEME's own animated mark, in motion

MEME — Makeshift Entertainment Media Education — is a Colorado nonprofit, and it holds the most formal title I carry anywhere: Member At-Large.

The work is to be a Strategic Liaison and Scout — often the first point of contact for new talent. I look for storytellers worth backing, and help them find a way in.

MEME was founded on March 15, 2020 — the Ides of March, as the organization's own site puts it — just as COVID-19 was becoming a major societal problem. What it teaches is deliberately narrow: not directing, not cinematography — film schools already do that — but the business side of filmmaking that founders rarely get taught anywhere. The goal is to keep Colorado's filmmaking talent, and the projects it makes, from having to leave the state to get made.

Founded on the Ides of March, 2020 — built so Colorado's filmmaking talent doesn't have to leave the state.

Nick C. Goins Jr founded MEME and runs it as Executive Director; Amber MacPherson chairs the board. Alongside me there are two other Members At-Large, Eric Abramson and Shaun Michael Ellis. The workshops themselves are taught by working professionals brought in for them — which is the point, since the whole idea is to put people in front of the ones already doing the job.

It runs on the same instinct as everything else this studio makes: a StorySmith's read on what an audience will feel, and a market strategist's read on who that audience actually is.

The programs

The workshops, not the flyer.

MEME runs the same handful of workshops most years — sometimes remote, sometimes at the Boulder library. What follows is the shape of the catalog rather than any single term's schedule: what each program actually covers, and who's usually teaching it.

Pitch & Market

An evergreen MEME program card reading Pitch Quorum, Pitch & Market track, instructor credit to Nick C. Goins Jr., on a deep navy ground with a stage-spotlight motif.
An introduction to pitching a feature film to investors, plus deeper Beginner and Advanced sessions on querying and the documents behind a pitch — mostly remote, with an in-person practice session.
An evergreen MEME program card reading Market Fresh, Pitch & Market track, instructor credit to Nick C. Goins Jr., over a navy-duotone photo of the American Film Market in Los Angeles — the pink AFM banner at the venue entrance.
An introduction, then a multi-session remote program on preparing for a film market — what to expect, how to work it, and the follow-through after.
An evergreen MEME program card reading The Business of Show Business, Pitch & Market track, instructor credit to Nick C. Goins Jr., over a navy-duotone photo from the Catalina Film Festival — a man in a suit walking under the Via Casino arch.
A workshop on the state of the film industry from a business perspective — the practical side of filmmaking that founders don't usually get taught anywhere.

On-Set Craft

An evergreen MEME program card reading PA Workshop, On-Set Craft track, instructor credit to Adam Smestad, over a navy-duotone photo from an actual PA Workshop — a room of attendees around tables, the instructor talking at the head of them.
An in-person workshop for new and experienced production assistants alike, covering the basics of the job and hard-won tips from time actually spent on set.
An evergreen MEME program card reading Script Supervisor Workshop, On-Set Craft track, instructor credit to Adam Smestad, over a navy-duotone photo from an actual Script Supervisor Workshop — Adam pointing at a screen explaining the 180-degree rule.
An in-person workshop on the basics of script supervising — continuity, script-supervising notes, and how to build a career doing it.
An evergreen MEME program card reading The Carpenter Not the Tools, On-Set Craft track, instructor credit to Eric Abramson, over a stylized navy-duotone photo actually from that December 2025 workshop.
An in-person workshop on getting started as a filmmaker with what you already have, rather than being intimidated by expensive gear.
Eric Abramson teaching The Carpenter Not the Tools, gesturing at the head of a long table as attendees listen; white text composited over the room's left wall carries his quote: "People get hung up — should I buy this expensive camera? No. Use the cheaper camera, but get a good mic."
Inside The Carpenter Not the Tools, December 2025 session

Sound

An evergreen MEME program card reading Sound Workshop, Sound track, instructor credit to Steve Borne.
A two-part series on production sound — setting a shoot up for success on location, then what happens to that audio in post.

Programs run on a rotating schedule, and they're priced to be affordable — MEME is a nonprofit, and the workshops are how it funds the next ones. This page is the catalog, not the calendar.

See what's running now at meme.ngo →

Beyond the classroom

The work doesn't stop at the workshop door.

The reason to learn how a film market works is to go to one. These are from MEME's own archive — the markets, festivals, and retreats its people actually turn up to.

The approach to the American Film Market in Los Angeles: a curved hotel facade sweeping down to its entrance, glass towers and cloud behind it, pink AFM banners along the arrival lane, one attendee walking in away from camera.
The American Film Market, Los Angeles.The kind of market Market Fresh is built to prepare you for.
A full-height Catalina Film Festival roll-up banner on a brick porch: mermaid artwork in a kelp forest under the festival's title, the thirty-fifth-year mark and CatalinaFilm.org at its foot.
The Catalina Film Festival.Festivals are where the packaging work gets tested.
Three people at a table under a white pop-up canopy at a writers' retreat, a laptop and drinks in front of them, pines and open lawn behind.
A writers' retreat.No room at all, and the same purpose — pages that go somewhere.

MEME's social arm

NOCOVA — the room outside the workshop.

Northern Colorado Visual Arts (NOCOVA) is a community-driven organization that operates as MEME's own social arm — a platform for film and TV professionals to network, collaborate, and share ideas, run as community networking rather than another workshop.

Meme.ngo describes NOCOVA's mission as fostering "creativity, knowledge-sharing, and expertise utilization in the Colorado Film and Television industry." In practice that means recurring meetups — usually a couple of times a month — at Boulder venues that have included Rosetta Hall and the St. Julien Hotel lobby.

Schedule and location for the next one are posted on the NOCOVA Facebook Group and Page.

More at meme.ngo/nocova →
Five NOCOVA members gathered around the group's own branded sign — Northern Colorado Visual Arts — in a hotel lounge, mid-conversation.
A NOCOVA meetup — the sign, and the room it draws.

The people

Who's actually behind it.

Founders

Close portrait of Nick C. Goins Jr wearing a navy flat cap, white shirt, looking directly at camera.
Nick C. Goins JrExecutive Director & Founder.Has worked in the film industry in various capacities since making his first feature at 16 — critic, writer, director, producer, graphic artist. Teaches MEME's flagship Pitch Quorum and Market Fresh programs himself.
Portrait of Amber MacPherson, long wavy brown hair, smiling, black top, dark blue background.
Amber MacPhersonBoard Chair & Administrator.Co-founded the company behind MEME alongside Nick, and serves as the organization's Board Chair and Administrator.Photo: April O'Hare Photography

Instructors

Eric Abramson on a shoot — ballcap, glasses and headphones, a camera rig and two monitors beside him, and the interview subject lit and seated behind.
Eric AbramsonTeaches The Carpenter Not the Tools. A filmmaker and firefighter — documentary, music video, and live-event work aired on outlets including MTV, ESPN, and PBS, alongside years fighting wildland fires across the American West.
Studio portrait of Adam Smestad, bald, short beard, smiling, black blazer, gray backdrop.
Adam SmestadTeaches the PA and Script Supervisor workshops. A writer, director, and producer who's worked more than 50 film, TV, and commercial sets — as a PA, and in the art department, camera department, sound, G&E, and craft services — after leaving a career in law in 2018.
Portrait of Steve Borne, bald, glasses, gray beard, dark sweater, softly lit interior background.
Steve BorneTeaches the two-part Sound Workshop. A film and TV sound designer for more than 35 years, with two Emmy awards for TV sound mixing, credits alongside directors from Harmony Korine to Robert Altman, and recording work with musicians including Jerry Garcia and Tom Petty.

Founders and instructors shown here; the wider Member At-Large board (including my own role) isn't repeated in this roster — see the article above.

Go to the source

MEME runs all of this. Go and find them.

Everything above is my read on an organization I sit on the board of — not a substitute for it. The programs, the current schedule, and the people are all theirs.

Start here

Get involved

Follow MEME

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