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Every story about leadership I'd ever read started with someone who wanted the job. Mine starts with someone who applied for a completely different one. To paint the picture: it was the beginning of COVID, the contract on my day job ended early, I was the live-in carer for my grandmother, and my dreams of producing films were firmly on the back burner. By nature, I am inherently a busy person, busy in mind, body, and soul, and I was terrified of slowing down and convinced that if I did, I woul...

Hi everyone, Laura here. At a midnight screening in Toronto this month, a room full of buyers watched a first-time director's slasher and started making phone calls. By Monday morning, Sony was at $8 million and still lost. Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster closed it for more than $10 million. The film is RIVER. It's about three people stranded on a boat. And the reason it went for that price tells you a lot about what's worth writing right now. What Actually Happened Josh Giulian...

Every script that comes through Stage 32 gets evaluated by a professional Industry Reader, someone who reads hundreds of screenplays per year, who knows story structure inside and out, and who can spot the same problems over and over again. When you get script coverage or submit to a contest, your script goes to an Industry Reader in our reader pool. All readers in our pool have at minimum 5 years professional experience working on a desk at an agency, in a Writers Room, in a production office...

Happy Monday, Creative Army! Here's something I've learned in my years as Head of Community: the members who get the most out of Stage 32 are almost never the ones who understood everything on day one. They're the ones who found one thing that worked, did it consistently, and then found the next thing. This is the guide I wish every member had in their first week. I originally wrote a version of it in 2024, and enough has changed since then that it needed a proper rebuild. Whether you join...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Let’s kick things off with a huge shoutout to everyone who has already jumped into this month’s Introduce Yourself Weekend. Thousands of creatives from around the world are connecting, sharing their stories, and building relationships that can lead to collaborations, opportunities, and lifelong friendships. If you haven’t made your introduction yet, you still have time. Be bold. Introduce yourself. Your next great opportunity could be just one connection away. Now,...

In 2020, I wrote a Stage 32 blog about how to use struggles as creative fuel: When Life Gives You Lemons, Open a Lemonade Company - How to Use Struggles as Creative Fuel. In the last paragraph of that blog, I wrote: "Although I did not find a new well-paid job, I would not change it for the world. And I have confidence in the universe." Shortly after posting my blog on Stage 32, a published author contacted me, mentioning that she had read my wonderful blog and would like to connect. Thi...

One of the questions I keep running into on productions is also one of the most basic: where does the truck go? The building address is on the call sheet. That does not necessarily tell the grip department where to park, which entrance to use, or whether the loading dock is actually available to production. Downtown, those are very different questions. The correct place might be the front parking area, not the dock that looks like the obvious choice. Lighting preparation has a similar gap. W...

Learning to assess yourself in an industry built partly on taste.There are two ways to ruin a flotation device.The loud way is ego. You mistake inflation for value, so you keep pumping: more air, more certainty, more expansion. Eventually, the thing built to keep you afloat swells past what it was made to hold and bursts.The quiet way barely makes a sound. A small hiss. You put a hole in your own float and let the air out a little at a time, congratulating yourself for being humble while you do...

Hi everyone, I'm Sam Rivera, Dev Services Coordinator here at Stage 32. I spend my days on the development team, working with writers on script consultations, pitch prep, and the kind of notes that get a project from "promising" to "ready." I read a lot of scripts, and I watch a lot of festivals to see what's actually landing with audiences and the industry before the trade headlines catch up. That's the job of this series. Not the noise, the signal. What actually moved this week, what it...

Happy Tuesday, Creative Community! I want to start with where we actually are in the calendar, because I don't think enough creatives are paying attention to it. Venice has wrapped. Toronto is in its final stretch, closing on Sunday. The New York Film Festival opens on the 25th. Austin Film Festival runs October 29 through November 5, and the American Film Market follows immediately after, November 10 through 15. And behind all of that, the part nobody photographs: studios and streamers ar...