Advice

The entertainment industry might be the final one disrupted by Machine Learning, but if done right it can be as revolutionary as the camera. Act 1 — The Machine Learning Revolution You don’t need to follow tech news to know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is finally arriving, after so many “AI winters”. It’s going to impact every aspect of humanity in the coming years, and how could it not? The first Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will be the only example in the history of the known...

Happy Wednesday! Our fearless leader and CEO, Richard "RB" Botto recently had the pleasure of being a guest on The Jake Dunlap Show.  In this exclusive podcast interview RB discusses How to Connect, Train, and Coach 1 Million+ Entertainment Industry Professionals. Specifically, RB talks about the origins of Stage 32, how our partnership with Netflix came about, how to make yourself and your content stand out amongst the sea of competition, and much more.   Click here to listen to the f...

In my years of experience as a writer of novels and scripts, I have encountered many challenges, as have my colleagues. One of the biggest: finishing my stories! Starting to write a novel or a script is not very complicated. Almost anyone can do it. But it takes time, patience, focus and energy. It can be easy to get discouraged during the process and the real challenge is getting to the end. Here’s a few tips that can help you make yours happen. Stay Disciplined This is probably one of the...

Having won awards for my artwork and writing in high school, I knew my career path was to be a storyteller in some capacity. However, that road was not linear and took many incarnations. This included being a journalism major in college, a professional opera singer (you read that right), owning a graphic design studio, teaching ancient history & religion seminars and finally working as a personal trainer. This last vocation was the turning point. While training myself during a lunch brea...

Happy Sunday Creative Army! First of all, congratulations to all of you who have already participated in our monthly Introduce Yourself Weekend! Thousands of connections have been made between entertainment creatives and professionals from every corner of the globe. Whether you are a long-time member, or brand new to Stage 32, take a moment to pop over to the Introduce Yourself Lounge and say hello before the end of the weekend. Now, grab some fresh coffee and let's dive into this week's conte...

Happy Black History Month! Or, for anyone outside the United States, happy February! One of the great accomplishments of Stage 32 is providing a safe and welcoming space for creatives all around the world, regardless of age, sex, race, or creed, to gather, network, and build relationships. Naturally, as we began celebrating Black History Month in the Stage 32 Lounges, this poignant question arose - why do we celebrate? In a word… history. In the United States, since celluloid was first used to...

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” ~ Arthur Ashe “What happens when we go over time?” The room went quiet. The new sound operator repeated himself, “What happens when we go into overtime?” My crew smiled at me as I turned and replied, “We don’t.” I then continued answering and discussing other questions in the pre-pro meeting. Let me preface this by saying this was not a studio film. This was an indie feature, titled Caralique, that I was the director/producer of. C...

The entirety of my film experience is with indie filmmaking. To be perfectly honest, most of that experience is making 48 Hour Films. There’s just something about throwing a project together from scratch that thrills me. For years, I’ve wanted to do more. In the last year, I finally got the chance. About a year ago, I read an article about how a person rerouted money in their budget into a savings account for a quarter of a year. They then used that money to make a short film. They real...

I wanted to share my journey as a black filmmaker for Black History Month. Part 1 I started developing my Black Salt franchise over 10 years ago because I was tired of seeing how they depicted black men in TV and film. I create a black hero who was strong, disciplined and people could look up to. I loved martial arts, so I wanted my hero to have mastered Shaolin Kung Fu and be an Interpol agent, where he traveled around the world with great adventures, defeating the bad guys and standing...

I’m an Actor Care Specialist I am not a therapist. My job is not to heal but to provide a safe and containing space to guide actors in creating solid boundaries between themselves and the characters they portray. I do this by expanding their self-awareness. The vehicle is the actor’s artistic expression. Without question their personal development is wrapped up inside that. If there is personal work to be done outside the work of character creation, I set the boundary and always sign post t...