Latest Blogs

A very happy Sunday to you all.  Hope you're having a fantastic and creative weekend and are gearing up to make next week a positive one.  Let's see if I can assist with a jumping off point by presenting you with some quality content. First up, a true gift from one of the most revered, respected and outspoken screenwriters in film history, William Goldman.  When it comes to writing, as Bill famously said, no one knows anything.  But when it comes to the craft and navigating the business, Bill...

Last week we brought in the Emmy-award winning producer Kip Konwiser for an incredible 90 minute Q&A that left all of the creatives listening motivated and inspired. Kip has had a storied career having worked with Netflix, HBO, Sony Pictures, 20th Century FOX, Paramount, Lionsgate and more. For nearly three decades he's worked with some incredible talent including Darren Aronofsky, Laurence Fishburne, Clint Eastwood and much more. In this inspiring webinar we talked about whether or not you n...

We’ve all heard the stories. Paranormal Activity, a film with a budget slightly less than a used Honda, made $193 million worldwide and launched a profitable franchise. That film’s progenitor, The Blair Witch Project, had a $60K budget and turned out a $250 million box office haul. The most profitable films from 2010 to 2015 were all horror films. 10. The Last Exorcism ($68M gross vs. $1.8M production budget) 9. Annabelle ($257M vs. $6.5M) 8. Chernobyl Diaries ($37M vs. $1M) 7. In...

Getting some things done up here at the Santa Barbara Film Festival this weekend, so I'm grabbing my coffee to go and leaving you to enjoy (and share) the content! First up, I have a truly enjoyable and insightful tutorial on how to best film at night. Next, it's an in depth interview Rian Johnson, writer/director of The Last Jedi, discussing his screenwriting techniques. As always, I ask that you pay it forward and share this content wherever possible.  And, of course, I welcome your thou...

As part of the writing services team at Stage 32 handling a lot of the pitch sessions, I get a lot of questions about pitching, as well as some pretty keen insight into what executives like and dislike about pitches. Before me, Allen did the same thing and therefore experienced the same growth in KNOWLEDGE (said with an echo). So together he and I came up with a list of the ten most common mistakes we see in the pitches here. We then had a brutal fist fight to see who would have to go on cam...

The moment has arrived and we couldn't be more excited. It's time to announce the winners of the 2017 Stage 32 Feature Contest! We had a record number of submissions and the remarkable writing this year did not make the job of our judges easy. In short, the competition was fierce and many scripts were in competition until the very end. Ultimately, 3 fantastic scripts have made it to the top....     Congratulations to our 2017 Feature Screenwriting Contest Winners!   Grand Prize Winn...

Happy Sunday, everyone. Between the Sundance Film Festival and our incredible Women Creating Change event with Hollyshorts in Hollywood, it been an exciting, productive and inspiring last week and a half. I'm rewarding myself with some Death Wish Coffee and some screenplay reading.  Care to join me? It's my pleasure to present the 10 screenplays nominated for an Oscar this year.  Download em, save em or print em out.  They'll likely only be available for so long. As you've heard me say a...

We have been working around the clock here and I am honored to share some of the incredible talent we are bringing into Stage 32. From a Sundance-winning creative executive, an Emmy-Award winning producer a financier and much, much more, we have some exciting things coming up at Stage 32.     Follow the links for more info!  Writer Development Lab: From Concept to Ironclad Outline FREE WEBINAR - 60 Minutes With Emmy Award Winning Producer Kip Konwiser What They Don’t Teach You In Film...

  The nominations for the 90th Annual Academy Awards were announced yesterday and we're proud to recognize some of the amazing execs and companies we work with whose films received much deserved nominations. This year as we all watch the Oscars we have 7 films we can root for that have been worked on by our execs & their companies! Please join us in congratulating the amazing group of talent in the Stage 32 family. And, we'll be launching our Oscars contest on Stage 32 soon - stay tuned!...

Just when you feel like parking your pitching for the moment, along comes a breakthrough to give you new hope – this is my takeaway sentiment this Christmas just gone, and I would like to share with you all what I am talking about, as hopefully it will encourage you to keep pressing forward and to keep striving for your goals/dreams in 2018. I was reluctant to write this article, as I felt it was a little premature, but encouragement from Rosalind Winton, the wonderful official editor of Stage...