05 · How I Work — The Prism Cycle
My process on every engagement: from insight to impact. And back again.
A cycle, not a pipeline.
Every story changes depending on how you look at it. The Prism is the instrument I developed to reveal what stories contain — to boost deeper productions, and to protect best practices throughout the creative process. All of it structured through six dimensions.
The Prism is the result of two decades of professional practice and my doctoral research on Latino screenwriters in Hollywood.
FIG. 1 — THE INSTRUMENT · THE PRISM™ v.2026
Hover over each dimension to see its path through the instrument.
Who creates media?
Workforce inclusion, leadership, and perspective — who is in the room when stories are made.
What stories are told?
The narrative agenda: which stories circulate, which are missing, and why.
Who is represented?
Who is seen, who is not, and how they are portrayed — identity, stereotype, authenticity.
How are stories told?
Techniques, formats, languages, and aesthetics — the how of the telling.
Who receives these stories?
Reach, reception, participation, and trust — who the story lands with, and who it leaves out.
Why does it matter?
Effects on culture, identity, institutions, and society — what the story produces.
The same Prism rotates to apply the six dimensions — to analyze, to generate, or to evaluate.
Understand what is.
Analyzes finished work: films, documentaries, speeches, campaigns.
→ Prism Audit™
Create what could be.
Generates ideas, scripts, pitch decks, corporate and live events.
→ Prism Studio™ · Narrative Strategy
Improve what exists.
A review system for work in progress: cuts, drafts, pilots.
→ Prism Studio™
The three modes combine into four packages of applications — each with its own specific services.
Analytical mode
Diagnostics of inclusion and representation — evidence, scorecard, report.
All three modes, taught
Keynotes, workshops and academic collaborations that build narrative capacity.
Generative + evaluative modes
Documentaries, podcasts and branded stories — plus supervision of works in progress.
Analytical + generative modes
Story architecture for campaigns, live events and institutional initiatives.
My process on every engagement: from insight to impact. And back again.
A cycle, not a pipeline.
Six dimensions, infinite questions.